Currently, when a land-base telephone user wishes to call someone, the user picks up the telephone handset and listens for a dial tone. At this point, the user is usually connected to a central office. A typical residential telephone typically communicates with a central office using two twisted wires. The central office is a facility where the telephone user's lines are joined to switching equipment for connecting with other telephone users. When a user lifts the handset (goes off hook) the electric current now flowing through the circuit is sensed by a line relay. This signals a switch in the central office to place the proper equipment on the line to send a dial tone, alerting the user that the switch is ready to receive the digits to be dialed.
After the user picks up the receiver and gets a dial tone, he or she may begin to push buttons on the keypad, identifying the destination of the call A combination of tones called DTMF (dual tone multi-frequency) is provided by the push buttons on a telephone. The DTMF tones are detected by a DTMF receiver which is connected to a computer-based switch in the central office. Based on the received DTMF signals, the computer-based switch can then determine the best route for the telephone call. It then sends a command to a switching matrix to establish the connection between the requesting line and the desired trunk to be used for transporting the call.
DTMF tones are useful not only to dial telephone numbers, but also to establish preferences and control other telephone services, such as call waiting, and call forwarding. However, many users forget which codes are used to control the various services. Users also forget phone numbers and must locate the correct number to dial. What is needed is a device and method which allows communication with the telephone user using voice recognition techniques, thereby allowing a user to dial a number simply by saying the person's name and city. Additionally, what is needed is a system or method that allows a user to set preferences for telephone services using voice commands, rather than DTMF codes.