Phone line supervisory controls
View Patent ↗Controlling use of a telephone line includes receiving a specification from a first entity that defines one or more supervisory controls on use of a controlled telephone line by a second entity. The supervisory controls specify people with whom the second entity may or may not communicate over the controlled telephone line, and times at which the second entity may or may not communicate over the controlled telephone line. An indication of desired communications between the second entity and a third entity at a particular time over the controlled telephone line is received. A determination is made as to whether the desired communications are consistent with the specified supervisory controls. The desired communications are controlled when the desired communications are not consistent with the specified supervisory controls. In addition, the supervisory controls enable the first entity to interrupt existing calls over the controlled telephone line.
1. A method of interrupting telephone calls, the method comprising:
receiving specification from a first user that defines telephone line controllers whose calls are enabled to interrupt other calls on a controlled telephone line;
operating a telephone call on the controlled telephone line that does not involve one of the telephone line controllers;
receiving a telephone call to the controlled telephone line while the controlled telephone line is busy with the operated call;
determining whether the received call was placed by one of the telephone line controllers; and
enabling the received call to interrupt the operated call when the received call is from one of the telephone line controllers.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the specification from the first user that defines the telephone line controllers whose calls are enabled to interrupt other calls on a controlled telephone line comprises presenting for use by the first user a graphical user interface capable of receiving the specification of the telephone line controllers whose calls are enabled to interrupt other calls on a controlled telephone line.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the specification from the first user defines phone numbers from which the telephone line controllers may place telephone calls to the controlled telephone line.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein determining whether the received call was placed by one of the telephone line controllers comprises determining whether the received call is from one of the phone numbers from which the telephone line controllers may place telephone calls to the controlled telephone line.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the specification that defines the telephone line controllers comprises receiving the specification from an online service provider system used by one of the telephone line controllers.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the received call was placed by one of the telephone line controllers comprises querying for the presence of a caller that placed the received call in a database of telephone line controllers.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein enabling the received call to interrupt the operated call comprises:
notifying entities involved in the operated call that the operated call is going to be interrupted; and
interrupting the operated call with the received call.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein notifying the entities involved in the operated call comprises playing a message for the entities involved in the operated call announcing that the operated call is going to be interrupted.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein:
the method further comprises:
prompting a caller that placed the received call for a code; and
receiving the code from the caller;
determining whether the received call was placed by one of the telephone line controllers comprises determining whether the received code matches an authorization code that indicates that the caller is one of the telephone line controllers; and
enabling the received call to interrupt the operated call comprises enabling the received call to interrupt the operated call when the received code matches the authorization code.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein:
prompting the caller for the code comprises prompting the caller to dial the code on a telephone used by the caller to place the received call; and
receiving the code from the caller comprises receiving the code as a series of dialed numbers from the telephone used by the caller.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein:
the method further comprises determining if an entity involved in the telephone call that is operating on the controlled telephone line is an entity that has been specified by the first user as an entity whose calls over the controlled telephone line may be interrupted;
enabling the received call to interrupt the operated call comprises enabling the received call to interrupt the operated call when the received call is from one of the telephone line controllers and when the entity involved in the telephone call operating on the controlled telephone line is an entity whose calls may be interrupted.
12. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising determining if an entity involved in the telephone call that is operating on the controlled telephone line is an entity that has been specified by the first user as an entity whose calls over the controlled telephone line may not be interrupted, wherein:
enabling the received call to interrupt the operated call when the received call is from one of the telephone line controllers comprises enabling the received call to interrupt the operated call when the received call is from one of the telephone line controllers and when the entity involved in the telephone call operating on the controlled telephone line is not an entity whose calls may not be interrupted.
13. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising determining if time information specified by the first user indicates that the operated call may be interrupted, wherein:
enabling the received call to interrupt the operated call when the received call is from one of the telephone line controllers comprises enabling the received call to interrupt the operated call when the received call is from one of the telephone line controllers and when the time information indicates that the operated call may be interrupted.
14. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising determining if time information specified by the first user indicates that the operated call may not be interrupted, wherein:
enabling the received call to interrupt the operated call when the received call is from one of the telephone line controllers comprises enabling the received call to interrupt the operated call when the received call is from one of the telephone line controllers and when the time information does not indicate that the operated call may be interrupted.
15. The method of claim 1 wherein the telephone line controllers are users of the telephone line.