APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MANAGING A TELEPHONE NUMBER IN A TERMINAL

• US 20140179289A1
• Filed: 12/19/2013
• Published: 06/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: MOON, Kyung-Chun, KIM, Dae-Hyun
• Granted Patent: US 10,064,022 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/415
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

An apparatus and a method manage a telephone number in a terminal, which can separately manage telephone numbers, a call to each of which an attempt to originate has been made and to each of which the call has failed to be connected, and then enable a convenient attempt to re-originate a call to the telephone number. The apparatus includes: a memory including a temporary list which stores a non-connecting telephone number, to which a call has been originated and has failed to be connected; and a controller for performing a control operation so as to store a particular telephone number in the temporary list as the non-connecting telephone number, when an attempt to originate a call to the particular telephone number is made and the call fails to be connected to the particular telephone number.

Claims

1. An apparatus for managing a telephone number in a terminal, the apparatus comprising:

a memory including a temporary list which stores a non-connecting telephone number, a call to which an attempt to originate has been made and to which the call has failed to be connected; and

a controller for performing a control operation so as to store the non-connecting telephone number in the temporary list, when an attempt to originate a call to a particular telephone number is made and the call fails to be connected to the particular telephone number, thereby identifying the particular telephone number as the non-connecting telephone number.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller performs a control operation so as to display the non-connecting telephone number, the call to which the attempt to originate has been made and to which the call has failed to be connected, with the non-connecting telephone number displayed in a latest record list in such a manner as to distinguish the non-connecting telephone number from other telephone numbers.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein, when performing an editing procedure for editing the particular telephone number in the temporary list is selected, the controller performs a control operation so as to perform at least one of:

adding a memo into which information on the particular telephone number is entered;

setting an alarm for reporting origination of a call to the particular telephone number at a particular time point; and

setting a schedule for reporting origination of a call to the particular telephone number at a particular time point on a particular date.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller performs a control operation so as to display non-connecting call origination details of the non-connecting telephone number in a standby mode of the terminal, performs a control operation so as to display the particular telephone number matched to the non-connecting call origination details in the temporary list when the non-connecting call origination details are selected, and performs a control operation so as to display the number of times of failure in a call connection to the particular telephone number in the temporary list in such a manner as to update the number of times of the failure in the call connection to the particular telephone number, when an attempt to originate the call to the particular telephone number is made and the call fails to be connected to the particular telephone number.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the non-connecting call origination details may be displayed in a notification bar or on a lock screen in the standby mode.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein, when the call fails to be connected to the particular telephone number, if the number of times of the failure in the call connection to the particular telephone number is greater than a predetermined reference number of times, the terminal automatically switches to a message mode.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein, when the call fails to be connected to the particular telephone number, if the number of times of the failure in the call connection to the particular telephone number is greater than a predetermined reference number of times, a message including previously-set contents is automatically transmitted to the particular telephone number.

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein, when the attempt to originate the call to the particular telephone number is made and the call is successfully connected to the particular telephone number, if the particular telephone number is a telephone number registered in a telephone directory, the controller performs a control operation so as to delete the particular telephone number from the temporary list.

9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the controller performs a control operation so as to display a selection menu if the particular telephone number is not a telephone number registered in the telephone directory when the attempt to originate the call to the particular telephone number is made and the call is successfully connected to the particular telephone number, performs a control operation so as to store the particular telephone number in the telephone directory when storage of the telephone directory is selected from the selection menu, and performs a control operation so as to delete the particular telephone number from the temporary list when a deletion is selected from the selection menu.

10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller performs a control operation so as to display a particular telephone number, for which a schedule is set on a particular date among telephone numbers of the temporary list, in a schedule mode, and performs a control operation so as to display information on the particular telephone number when the particular date is selected.

11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller performs a control operation so as to store the particular telephone number in the temporary list as a temporary telephone number, when temporary storage of the particular telephone number is selected.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the controller performs a control operation so as to store the non-connecting telephone number and the temporary telephone number in such a manner as to distinguish the non-connecting telephone number from the temporary telephone number, when the temporary telephone number and the non-connecting telephone number are stored in the temporary list.

13. A method for managing a telephone number in a terminal, the method comprising:

attempting to originate a call to a particular telephone number; and

storing the particular telephone number, to which the call fails to be connected, in a temporary list as a non-connecting telephone number, when the attempt to originate the call to the particular telephone number has been made and the call fails to be connected to the particular telephone number.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13, further comprising displaying the non-connecting telephone number, to which the call has been originated and has failed to be connected, in a latest record list in such a manner as to distinguish the non-connecting telephone number from other telephone numbers, when viewing of latest records is selected.

15. The method as claimed in claim 13, further comprising:

displaying types of editing, when the editing of the particular telephone number in the temporary list is selected;

adding a memo, into which information on the particular telephone number is entered, when a memo is selected from among the types of the editing;

setting an alarm for reporting origination of a call to the particular telephone number at a particular time point, when an alarm is selected from among the types of the editing; and

setting a schedule for reporting origination of a call to the particular telephone number at a particular time point on a particular date, when a schedule is selected from among the types of the editing.

16. The method as claimed in claim 13, further comprising:

displaying non-connecting call origination details of the non-connecting telephone number in a standby mode of the terminal;

displaying the particular telephone number matched to the non-connecting call origination details in the temporary list, when the non-connecting call origination details are selected; and

displaying the number of times of failure in a call connection to the particular telephone number in the temporary list in such a manner as to update the number of times of the failure in the call connection to the particular telephone number, when an attempt to originate the call to the particular telephone number is made and the call fails to be connected to the particular telephone number.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the non-connecting call origination details may be displayed in a notification bar or on a lock screen in the standby mode.

18. The method as claimed in claim 16, further comprising:

identifying the number of times of the failure in the call connection to the particular telephone number, when the call fails to be connected to the particular telephone number; and

automatically switching to a message mode when the number of times of the failure in the call connection to the particular telephone number is greater than a predetermined reference number of times.

19. The method as claimed in claim 16, further comprising:

identifying the number of times of the failure in the call connection to the particular telephone number, when the call fails to be connected to the particular telephone number; and

automatically transmitting a message including previously-set contents to the particular telephone number, when the number of times of the failure in the call connection to the particular telephone number is greater than a predetermined reference number of times.

20. The method as claimed in claim 16, further comprising:

identifying whether the particular telephone number is a telephone number registered in a telephone directory, when the attempt to originate the call to the particular telephone number is made and the call is successfully connected to the particular telephone number; and

deleting the particular telephone number from the temporary list, when the particular telephone number is the telephone number registered in the telephone directory.

21. The method as claimed in claim 20, further comprising:

displaying a selection menu when the particular telephone number is not the telephone number registered in the telephone directory;

storing the particular telephone number in the telephone directory when storage of the telephone directory is selected from the selection menu; and

deleting the particular telephone number from the temporary list when a deletion is selected from the selection menu.

22. The method as claimed in claim 13, further comprising:

displaying a particular telephone number, for which a schedule is set among telephone numbers of the temporary list, on the particular date in a schedule mode, when there exists the particular telephone number for which the schedule is set on the particular date among the telephone numbers of the temporary list; and

displaying information on the particular telephone number when the particular date is selected.

23. The method as claimed in claim 13, further comprising storing the particular telephone number in the temporary list as a temporary telephone number, when the temporary storage of the particular telephone number is selected.

24. The method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the non-connecting telephone number and the temporary telephone number are stored in such a manner as to distinguish the non-connecting telephone number from the temporary telephone number, when the temporary telephone number and the non-connecting telephone number are stored in the temporary list.