ENHANCED TELEPHONY COMPUTER USER INTERFACE ALLOWING USER INTERACTION AND CONTROL OF A TELEPHONE USING A PERSONAL COMPUTER

• US 20090214014A1
• Filed: 02/12/2009
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gupta, Anoop, Boyle, Michael, Narin, Attila, Jancke, Gavin, Cadiz, Jonathan Jay
• Application Number:
  US12/370,588
• Publication Number:
  US 20090214014A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/142.150
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2473 Telephone terminals interfacing a personal computer, e.g. using an API (Application Programming Interface) details of API H04M7/0021
• 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 1/27475 using interactive graphical means or pictorial representations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2757 by data transmission, e.g. downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/575 Means for retrieving and displaying personal data about calling party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/576 associated with a pictorial or graphical representation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/00 Telephonic communication systems specially adapted for combination with other electrical systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 19/042 with variable loudness of the ringing tone, e.g. variable envelope or amplitude of ring signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/558 Databases
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/60 logging of communication history, e.g. outgoing or incoming calls, missed calls, messages or URLs logging of telephone numbers H04M1/56, H04M1/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42042 Notifying the called party of information on the calling party details within substation equipment H04M1/57, signalling details H04Q3/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile

Abstract

An enhanced telephony (ET) computer user interface that seamlessly integrates features of a personal computer (PC) and a telephone into a coherent user interface. The user is provided with a rich variety of functionality that leverages the fact that the PC has considerably more processing power and greater access to variety of data than the ordinary telephone. This processing power and data access is used to the user'"'"'s advantage as the telephone'"'"'s capabilities and functionality are greatly expanded. In general, the ET user interface includes a plurality of environments for the user to choose. These environments include a My Contacts environment, a communication preferences environment, and a Call History environment. Each of these environments contains certain available processes and features for controlling and managing telephones.

Claims

1-85. -85. (canceled)

86. A method in a computing device for providing a notification of a missed incoming telephone call, the method comprising:

receiving an indication that a telephone of a callee received an incoming call from a caller;

receiving an indication that the incoming call was not answered by a person and that the caller did not leave a voice mail message;

collecting missed call information for the incoming call; and

sending an electronic mail message to the callee indicating that the incoming call was missed and including the collected missed call information for the incoming call

so that the callee can determine that an incoming call was missed via the electronic mail message.

87. The method of claim 86 wherein the missed call information includes an identity of the caller and time of the call.

88. The method of claim 87 wherein the identity is a telephone number.

89. The method of claim 87 wherein the electronic mail message includes information obtained from a personal contact database of the user using the identity.

90. The method of claim 87 wherein the electronic mail message includes information obtained from a corporate contact database of the user using the identity.

91. The method of claim 86 wherein the electronic mail message includes buttons through which the callee can contact the caller.

92. The method of claim 91 wherein the buttons include a button selected from the group consisting of a call-back button, a send electronic mail message button, and a send instant message button.

93. The method of claim 86 wherein the missed call information includes calendar information of the caller so that the callee can determine when to contact the caller.

94. The method of claim 86 wherein the collecting of missed call information includes when an identity of the caller cannot be determined from a contact database of the callee, accessing a public Internet site to determine the identity of the caller based on a telephone number associated with the incoming call and including the determined identity in the electronic mail message.

95. The method of claim 86 wherein the collecting of missed call information includes when an identity of the caller cannot be determined from a contact database of the callee, determining a location associated with an area code of a telephone number associated with the incoming call and including the determined locations in the electronic mail message.

96. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions for controlling a computing device for providing a notification of a missed incoming telephone call, by a method comprising:

receiving an indication that a telephone of a callee is receiving an incoming call from a caller;

receiving an indication that the incoming call has not been answered by a person and that the caller did not leave a voice mail message;

collecting missed call information for the incoming call, the missed call information including telephone number of the incoming call, identity of the caller, date and time of call, and calendar information of the caller; and

sending an electronic mail message to the callee indicating that the incoming call was missed, including the collected missed call information, and including a button to facilitate the callee contacting the caller

so that the callee can determine that an incoming call was missed via the electronic mail message and determine when and how to contact the caller.

97. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 96 wherein the button is a button selected from the group consisting of a call-back button, a send electronic mail message button, and a send instant message button.

98. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 96 wherein the collecting of missed call information includes when an identity of the caller cannot be determined from a contact database of the callee, accessing a public Internet site to determine the identity of the caller based on a telephone number associated with the incoming call and including the determined identity in the electronic mail message.

99. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 96 wherein the collecting of missed call information includes when an identity of the caller cannot be determined from a contact database of the callee, determining a location associated with an area code of a telephone number associated with the incoming call and including the determined locations in the electronic mail message.

100. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 96 wherein the electronic mail message includes instructions for disabling electronic mail messages for missed calls.

101. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 96 wherein the missed call information further includes position in an organization of the caller.

102. A computing device with a processor and a memory for providing a notification to a callee of a missed incoming telephone call from a caller, comprising:

a component that receives an indication that an incoming call has not been answered by a person and that the caller did not leave a voice mail message;

a component that collects missed call information for the incoming call; and

a component that generates and sends an electronic mail message to the callee indicating that the incoming call was missed and including the collected missed call information for the incoming call

wherein the components are implemented as instructions stored in the memory for execution by the processor.

103. The computing device of claim 102 wherein the electronic mail message includes buttons through which the callee can contact the caller.

104. The computing device of claim 103 wherein the buttons include a button selected from the group consisting of a call-back button, a send electronic mail message button, and a send instant message button.

105. The computing device of claim 102 wherein the missed call information includes calendar information of the caller so that the callee can determine when to contact the caller.