Portable electronic device having integrated telephony and calendar functions

• US 20030063732A1
• Filed: 09/28/2001
• Published: 04/03/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gateway Incorporated (Acer, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Gateway Incorporated (Acer, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mcknight, Russell F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,362,854 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/210.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2749 Automatic dialling or redialling systems, e.g. on off-hook or redial on busy
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/575 Means for retrieving and displaying personal data about calling party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72451 according to schedules, e.g. using calendar applications

Abstract

The phone number or other identifying information of an incoming phone call or other network communication is optionally stored, and a call-back is optionally scheduled. The user is prompted whether to schedule a call back, and if so, a call-back sequence is initiated at an appropriate time. When a call-back sequence is initiated, the scheduled call-back number or address may be automatically dialed, or alternatively the user selects whether to go forward with the call-back routine, at which time the call-back continues if the user selects an affirmative response. As an option, the user can delay the call-back to a predetermined time in the future, or the call-back can be rescheduled or canceled. Associated notes or other text can be saved in a calendar along with the scheduled call-back event to remind the user the reason and subject matter of the call back. The invention provides integrated communications and calendaring features. The invention may be directed to telephony system such as cellular telephones or telephony enabled computers systems, or may be expanded to network communication such as e-mail or network addressing in lieu of telephony communications.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

means, disposed within a first device, for receiving an incoming telephone call with a

first device;

means, disposed within the first device, for identifying caller information associated with

the incoming telephone call; and

means, disposed within the first device, for scheduling a call-back based on the

identifying caller information identified by said identifying means.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, said receiving means including a telephony circuit structure.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, said identifying means including a caller ID circuit structure.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, said scheduling means including an electronic calendar.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, said scheduling means including a scheduler module.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising means for managing calls, said means for managing calls being disposed within the first device and being coupled with said receiving means, said identifying means, and said scheduling means.

7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, the first device being selected from the group comprising a cellular telephone, a home telephone, a work telephone, and a telephony enabled computer system.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising means for storing the identified caller information associated with the incoming telephone call.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8, said storing means including a contacts database.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving an incoming telephone call;

obtaining caller information associated with the incoming telephone call; and

scheduling a call-back for the incoming telephone call using the obtained caller information.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising the step of determining whether obtained caller information associated with the incoming telephone call is stored in a database, and if not, then saving the obtained caller information in the database.

12. A method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising the step of, at a time scheduled in said scheduling step, initiating a call-back based using the obtained caller information.

13. A method as claimed in claim 10, said scheduling step further comprising the step of optionally entering text associated with the scheduled call-back.

14. A method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising the step of, at a scheduled call-back time, prompting the user to select an option to be executed, the option being at least one of the following from the group comprising proceeding with a scheduled call-back, canceling a scheduled call-back, delaying a scheduled call-back, and rescheduling a scheduled call-back.

15. An apparatus, comprising:

means for receiving an incoming communication;

means for identifying information associated with the incoming communication; and

means for scheduling a communication in response to the incoming communication based on information identified by said identifying means.

16. An apparatus as claimed in claim 15, the incoming communication received by said receiving means being selected from the group comprising telephony, e-mail, network protocol, file transfer protocol, Internet protocol, wireless network protocol, RF network protocol.

17. An apparatus as claimed in claim 15, said receiving means being selected from the group comprising cellular telephone, home telephone, work telephone, computer system, network adapter, and server.

18. An apparatus as claimed in claim 15, said identifying means including a structure selected from the group comprising caller ID, network adapter, firewall software, firewall hardware, network hardware, and network software.

19. An apparatus as claimed in claim 18, said scheduling means including an electronic calendar.

20. An apparatus as claimed in claim 18, said scheduling means initiating a response communication at a scheduled time.