Apparatus and method for a web programmable telephone

• US 20060117086A1
• Filed: 11/30/2004
• Published: 06/01/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Knapp Investment Company Limited
• Original Assignee: TP Lab, Inc.
• Inventors: Ho, Chi Fai
• Granted Patent: US 7,613,477 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4053 without floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2471 Configurable and interactive telephone terminals with subscriber controlled features modifications, e.g. with ADSI capability [Analog Display Services Interface] systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers H04M3/42; administration or customization of services H04M3/42136; by downloading data to substation equipment H04M3/42178
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2478 Telephone terminals specially adapted for non-voice services, e.g. email, internet access centralized arrangements where telephones services are combined H04M7/0024; for recording text messages H04M3/5322; for accessing Internet H04M3/4938
• 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 7/0015 First party call control architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold

Abstract

A web programmable telephone and a method for operating a web programmable telephone are disclosed. In one embodiment of the present invention, a voice module of a wireless household telephone is controlled by an internal web module that can retrieve and execute data operations from a remote portal or server thus adding data functionality to the conventional functions of a telephone. The programmable web module controls all functionality of the web programmable telephone so that every function of the telephone can be programmed and customized by a user.

Claims

1. A web programmable telephone comprising;

a voice module;

a web module; and

,

a controlling interface,

wherein said web module can programmably control said voice module through said controlling interface to perform one or more functions.

2. The web programmable telephone of claim 1 wherein said controlling interface is Telephony Application Programming Interface (TAPI), a call controlling interface Q.391, or a CTI or CTI equivalent interface.

34. The web programmable telephone of claim 1 wherein said voice module comprises;

a signal interface;

a telephony processor;

a speaker; and

,

a microphone,

wherein said telephony processor receives signals from said microphone and then processes and transmits signals to said signal interface, and also receives signals from said signal interface and then processes and outputs signals to said speaker.

35. The web programmable telephone of claim 34 wherein said signal interface is digital signal interface DS0, a wireless interface, or a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) interface.

36. The web programmable telephone of claim 1 wherein said web module comprises;

a browser;

an input subsystem;

memory; and

,

a network interface,

wherein said network interface is capable of accessing one or more networks using one or more network access methods and said browser is capable of executing one or more programmable functions as defined in one or more pages.

37. The web programmable telephone of claim 36 wherein said network interface is capable of accessing at least one CDMA 1x wireless network, at least one 3GPP wireless network, at least one GPRS wireless network, at least one Bluetooth wireless network, at least one infrared wireless network, or at least one Wi-Fi wireless network.

38. The web programmable telephone of claim 36 wherein said browser is a Web browser capable of communicating with a Web server using HTTP, FTP or other web protocols, a Java run time engine capable of communicating with other Java run time engines through Java specific protocols, or a .Net environment.

39. The web programmable telephone of claim 1 wherein at least one of said functions is multimedia gaming wherein audio content of a game is transmitted over the signal interface of said voice module, remote play of music files from a central memory, room monitoring, an interface to a security system, browsing the Internet, teleconferencing, accessing data in a contact list stored on remote memory, modifying data in a contact list stored on remote memory, or accessing a voice mail.

40. The web programmable telephone of claim 2 wherein said voice module comprises;

a signal interface;

a telephony processor;

a speaker; and

,

a microphone,

wherein said telephony processor receives signals from said microphone and then processes and transmits signals to said signal interface, and also receives signals from said signal interface and then processes and outputs signals to said speaker.

41. The web programmable telephone of claim 40 wherein said signal interface is digital signal interface DS0, a wireless interface, or a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) interface.

42. The web programmable telephone of claim 2 wherein said web module comprises;

a browser;

an input subsystem;

memory; and

,

a network interface,

wherein said network interface is capable of accessing on or more networks using one or more network access methods and said browser is capable of executing one or more programmable functions as defined in one or more pages.

43. The web programmable telephone of claim 42 wherein said network interface is capable of accessing at least one CDMA 1x wireless network, at least one 3GPP wireless network, at least one GPRS wireless network, at least one Bluetooth wireless network, at least one infrared wireless network, or at least one Wi-Fi wireless network.

44. The web programmable telephone of claim 42 wherein said browser is a Web browser capable of communicating with a Web server using HTTP, FTP or other web protocols, a Java run time engine capable of communicating with other Java run time engines through Java specific protocols, or a .Net environment.

45. The web programmable telephone of claim 2 wherein at least one of said functions is multimedia gaming wherein audio content of a game is transmitted over the signal interface of said voice module, remote play of music files from a central memory, room monitoring, an interface to a security system, browsing the Internet, teleconferencing, accessing data in a contact list stored on remote memory, modifying data in a contact list stored on remote memory, or accessing a voice mail.

3-31. -31. (canceled)

32. A method for operating a web programmable telephone comprising the steps of;

providing for a voice module;

providing for a controlling interface; and

,

providing for a web module;

wherein said web module controls said voice module via said controlling interface.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein said voice module comprises;

a telephony processor;

a signal interface;

a microphone; and

,

a speaker;

and said web module comprises;

a browser;

a network interface;

a input subsystem; and

,

memory;

wherein said browser retrieves or executes programs to control said voice module from pages through said network interface that can respond to user instructions through said input subsystem.