There are numerous problems presently associated with receiving visitors at a home or office. When the resident of the home or occupant of the office (hereinafter generally referred to as either resident or occupant) is absent, there is often no message for the visitors, no means to leave an interactive message for the resident, and no means to ensure that unwanted access is not obtained. Moreover, answering the call of someone at a door of a dwelling can present certain security risks to an occupant therein. This situation can be especially inconvenient when, for example, a delivery or repair person arrives and the resident is not present. When the resident is present, on the other hand, there are also problems associated with receiving visitors. Some visitors may be unwelcome, for example, and it is often not evident that a visitor is a threat or an annoyance until after the door is open.
There are many types of systems for receiving a person by an occupant or resident and/or on the behalf of the occupant or resident. Such systems include those disclosed in each of: U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,468 titled “Door Answering System”, which issued Sep. 15, 1992 to Marrick et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,300 titled “Security Door Phone Device,” which issued Apr. 12, 1994 to Eckstein; U.S. Pat. No. 5,406,618 titled “Voice Activated, Hands Free Telephone Answering Device,” which issued Apr. 11, 1995 to Knuth, et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,380 titled “Interactive Door Answering and Messaging Device with Speech Synthesis,” which issued to Mozer on Aug. 12, 1997. Nevertheless, a need remains for further improvement in such a system.
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USPTO Backgrounds