Personal communication using intelligent terminals
First Claim
1. A method for completing telephone calls placed to a selected one of a plurality of subscribers, each of the subscribers having a personal telephone number, said method including the steps ofstoring information indicating when each of a plurality of intelligent terminals associated with a selected subscriber was last visited,storing in a central processor, for each respective subscriber, a corresponding list of associated intelligent terminals that have been pre-designated for use by that subscriber,responsive to a call placed to a selected subscriber by dialing said selected subscriber'"'"'s unique personal number, querying specific pre-designated intelligent terminals on said selected subscriber'"'"'s list to determine when said selected subscriber was last present at each terminal, said stored information being retrieved from each terminal remotely, without completing a conventional call to the terminal, andcompleting the call to the particular terminal that was most recently visited by the subscriber.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An intelligent terminal (which can be a telephone, a facsimile machine, or similar device) is arranged so that (a) it can store information indicating when (e.g., date and time) a particular subscriber last was present at the terminal, and (b) the stored information can be retrieved from the terminal remotely, preferably without completing a conventional call to the terminal. A central processor contains, for each subscriber, a list of the intelligent terminals that have been pre-designated for use by that subscriber, and has the ability to query terminals on the list. In response to a call placed to the subscriber by dialing the subscriber'"'"'s unique personal number, specific intelligent terminals on that subscriber'"'"'s list are queried by the central processor to determine when the subscriber was last present at each terminal. The central processor then generates a control signal such that the call is then completed to the particular terminal that was most recently visited by the subscriber.
180 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for completing telephone calls placed to a selected one of a plurality of subscribers, each of the subscribers having a personal telephone number, said method including the steps of
storing information indicating when each of a plurality of intelligent terminals associated with a selected subscriber was last visited, storing in a central processor, for each respective subscriber, a corresponding list of associated intelligent terminals that have been pre-designated for use by that subscriber, responsive to a call placed to a selected subscriber by dialing said selected subscriber'"'"'s unique personal number, querying specific pre-designated intelligent terminals on said selected subscriber'"'"'s list to determine when said selected subscriber was last present at each terminal, said stored information being retrieved from each terminal remotely, without completing a conventional call to the terminal, and completing the call to the particular terminal that was most recently visited by the subscriber.
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13. A system for completing telephone calls placed to a selected one of a plurality of subscribers, each of the subscribers having a personal telephone number, said system including
a plurality of intelligent terminals, each of said intelligent terminals being associated with one of said plurality of subscribers and being arranged (a) to store information indicating when it was last visited by its associated subscriber and (b) to permit remote retrieval of said stored information, without completing a conventional call to the terminal, a central processor containing, for each respective subscriber, a corresponding list of associated intelligent terminals that have been pre-designated for use by that subscriber, said central processor arranged to query said pre-designated intelligent terminals on a selected subscriber'"'"'s list in order to determine when the selected subscriber was last present at each associated terminal, and calling means responsive to a call placed to the selected subscriber by dialing the selected subscriber'"'"'s unique personal number for causing said central processor to query said pre-designated intelligent terminals and for completing the call to the particular terminal that was determined to be the terminal most recently visited by the subscriber.
Specification