Open-source idea, since I don’t have a consumer electronics company. (Though I hear the patent office grants patents with almost no review lately.)
Voice-activated telephone answering system. When the phone receives an incoming call, the voice activation circuit comes on, and processes spoken commands.
“Hello?” – answers call, puts caller on speakerphone, sends “Hello?” to caller.
“Who is it?” – reads caller ID; or answers call, asks caller “May I say who’s calling?”, plays response over speaker, waits for response.
“Message.” – direct call to voicemail
“Wait” – puts caller on hold
“Hangup” – hangs up.
Software-upgradable to allow for future enhancements.