IP telephone apparatus

• US 20050002500A1
• Filed: 05/19/2004
• Published: 01/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kumai, Hisao
• Granted Patent: US 7,729,340 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.170
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/006 Call diverting means
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2535 adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network equipment and services H04M7/006; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6505 storing speech in digital form
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location

Abstract

In conventional telephone services, methods of response to a call in cases where the destination caller cannot answer the call are limited, such as by playing back an answering machine message or transferring the call to another telephone system in a rigid manner. In such systems, there is no flexibility in choosing the manner of response depending on the situation of the destination caller. The invention enables the response method to be automatically selected depending on user'"'"'s current position information in an Internet telephone system in which voice data is transmitted and received via the Internet. The user registers response methods associated with network addresses in a database, and the user'"'"'s current position is determined from the IP address.

Claims

1. An IP telephone apparatus comprising:

an input portion via which a user sets a response method and controls the originating call or destination call;

a display portion for displaying the response method which is set by the user and a received message;

a VoIP portion for controlling voice call according to VoIP; and

an automatic response switching portion for switching a response method upon reception of a call, wherein said automatic response switching portion is adapted to switch a response method by referring to a response method table indicating the relationship between a network address and a response method.

2. The IP telephone apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said automatic response switching portion is adapted to transmit a response message to the originating caller based on a schedule of a destination caller, referring to a schedule table indicating the corresponding relationship between a time information table and the schedule of the destination caller.

3. The IP telephone apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said automatic response switching portion is adapted to transmit a list of transfer destinations to the originating caller based on the schedule of the destination caller, referring to a schedule table indicating the corresponding relationship among a time information table, the schedule of the originating caller and transfer destinations, and said automatic response switching portion transfers the destination call to a transfer destination selected by the originating caller.

4. The IP telephone apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the current position of the IP telephone apparatus is detected based on the network address of the IP address, wherein the detected current position is registered in said schedule table as current position data.

5. The IP telephone apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said automatic response switching portion switches the response method depending on a flag transmitted from the call originating side, said flag indicating importance/urgency.

6. The IP telephone apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said automatic response switching portion switches the response method by referring to said response table based on the network address of the call originating side.

7. An IP telephone service system comprising VoIP terminals connected via an IP packet network, and a call control server for managing communications between said VoIP terminals, wherein said VoIP terminal is adapted to perform a call reception process by referring to a response method table indicating the relationship between a network address and a response method.