Pay station telephone interface
First Claim
1. A method for administering coin collection in a pay station telephone, comprising the steps of:
- intercepting signals from a telephone switching system before said signals reach the pay station telephone;
processing said signals without regard to the frequency components thereof to identify whether the signals comprise a ringing signal characteristic of the ringing of the destination telephone set, and whether ringing has terminated and is then followed by an audio signal having an active period less than an active period of said ringing signal; and
collecting the coin in response to the identification of an answered call.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An interface (10) is disclosed for coupling a conventional pay station telephone (12) to a telephone switching system (16). The interface (10) provides supervision signal detection functions normally provided by a switching system, and thus can be connected thereto by a less costly business line (28). The interface includes processor controlled tone generators (72, 76) and detectors (73, 74, 81, 106, 108) for detecting tones and voltages transmitted by either the telephone (12) or the switching system (16). The interface (10) further includes a detector (106) and a procedure (FIG. 8) for providing an answer call indication. Coin collection or return is controlled by the interface (10) depending on the status of the call which is also determined by the interface (10).
54 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method for administering coin collection in a pay station telephone, comprising the steps of:
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intercepting signals from a telephone switching system before said signals reach the pay station telephone; processing said signals without regard to the frequency components thereof to identify whether the signals comprise a ringing signal characteristic of the ringing of the destination telephone set, and whether ringing has terminated and is then followed by an audio signal having an active period less than an active period of said ringing signal; and collecting the coin in response to the identification of an answered call. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for determining when a telephone call has been answered, comprising the steps of:
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measuring a length of time of each audio signal transmitted to the telephone; detecting whether the length of time corresponds to that of an active period of a ring back tone; detecting the termination of the ring back tone and a subsequent audio voice signal; and providing an indication of an answered call on detecting the ring back tone and the subsequent audio voice signal. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification