User selectable response to an incoming call at a mobile station
First Claim
1. Apparatus for selectively answering an incoming call transmitted from a cellular telephone base station to a mobile station, the incoming call including the telephone number of a calling party, said apparatus comprising, as integral parts of said mobile station:
- processor means operable by a user of said mobile station to select telephone numbers representing particular calling parties and to assign predetermined response categories to said particular calling parties;
memory means for storing the selected telephone numbers along with data representing the response categories to which the respective calling parties have been assigned;
means for comparing the telephone number of the calling party which placed the incoming call with the telephone numbers stored in said memory means so as to identify the particular calling party from which the incoming call is being received;
means responsive to said data representing the response category to which the identified calling party has been assigned for initiating a respective one of plural predetermined types of responses to incoming calls as determined by said response categories, said predetermined types of responses including a distinctive ringing indicator to identify a high priority incoming call, a distinctive ringing indicator to identify a long distance incoming call, a muted ringing alert, whereby said user is not informed of the receipt at said mobile station of an incoming call, and a transmitted audio message from a speaker, without user intervention, to identify an incoming call, which speaker is an integral part of the mobile station;
a voice recorder operable to receive said incoming call and selectively actuable to record voice messages received by said mobile station from the calling party;
scrambling means selectively actuable to enable scrambled communication between said mobile station and the calling party;
a facsimile device selectively actuable to receive and display facsimile information received from the calling party, print indicia derived from said facsimile information, and transmit facsimile information to the calling party; and
a data modem selectively actuable to communicate data between said mobile station and the calling party,wherein said predetermined types of responses include the activation of said voice recorder, said scrambling means, said facsimile device or said data modem to receive the incoming call from the calling party to which a predetermined response category has been assigned.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus for selectively answering an incoming call transmitted from a cellular base station to a mobile station based upon the telephone number of a calling party. An ID processor is programmed by a user of the mobile station to store selected telephone numbers corresponding to calling party telephone numbers, which serve to uniquely identify the calling parties. The processor is also programmed by the user to select predetermined response categories and to assign desired ones of those response categories to each of the stored calling parties'"'"' telephone numbers. When an incoming call is received at the mobile station, the calling party'"'"'s telephone number is compared with the stored telephone numbers, previously programmed by the user, to detect an incoming call from a particular calling party. Depending upon the response category assigned to incoming calls from that particular calling party, the selected response is initiated. Responses to the incoming calls include distinctive ringing (to indicate high or low priority or long distance calls), the activation of a voice message recorder, communication scrambling device, facsimile device, data modem, or a cartographic display.
372 Citations
7 Claims
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1. Apparatus for selectively answering an incoming call transmitted from a cellular telephone base station to a mobile station, the incoming call including the telephone number of a calling party, said apparatus comprising, as integral parts of said mobile station:
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processor means operable by a user of said mobile station to select telephone numbers representing particular calling parties and to assign predetermined response categories to said particular calling parties; memory means for storing the selected telephone numbers along with data representing the response categories to which the respective calling parties have been assigned; means for comparing the telephone number of the calling party which placed the incoming call with the telephone numbers stored in said memory means so as to identify the particular calling party from which the incoming call is being received; means responsive to said data representing the response category to which the identified calling party has been assigned for initiating a respective one of plural predetermined types of responses to incoming calls as determined by said response categories, said predetermined types of responses including a distinctive ringing indicator to identify a high priority incoming call, a distinctive ringing indicator to identify a long distance incoming call, a muted ringing alert, whereby said user is not informed of the receipt at said mobile station of an incoming call, and a transmitted audio message from a speaker, without user intervention, to identify an incoming call, which speaker is an integral part of the mobile station; a voice recorder operable to receive said incoming call and selectively actuable to record voice messages received by said mobile station from the calling party; scrambling means selectively actuable to enable scrambled communication between said mobile station and the calling party; a facsimile device selectively actuable to receive and display facsimile information received from the calling party, print indicia derived from said facsimile information, and transmit facsimile information to the calling party; and a data modem selectively actuable to communicate data between said mobile station and the calling party, wherein said predetermined types of responses include the activation of said voice recorder, said scrambling means, said facsimile device or said data modem to receive the incoming call from the calling party to which a predetermined response category has been assigned. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method of selectively answering an incoming call transmitted from a base station to a mobile station in a cellular telephone system, the incoming call including the telephone number of a calling party to identify said calling party, comprising the steps of:
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entering at said mobile station selected telephone numbers representing particular calling parties; assigning respective types of response categories to the selected telephone numbers; storing the selected telephone numbers along with data representing the response categories to which the respective calling parties have been assigned in a memory which is an integral part of said mobile station; comparing the telephone number of the calling party which placed the incoming call with the telephone numbers stored in said memory so as to identify the particular calling party from which the incoming call is being received, said step of comparing being an integral function of said mobile station; responding to said data representing the response category to which the identified calling party has been assigned by initiating a respective one of plural predetermined types of responses to incoming calls as determined by said response categories, said predetermined types of responses including actuating a distinctive ringing sound representing an incoming call of high priority, actuating a muted ringing sound representing an incoming call of low priority, whereby a user at said mobile station is not apprised of an incoming call received from the calling party to which said muted ringing sound has been allocated, actuating a distinctive ringing sound representing a long distance call, actuating a voice recorder to record voice information spoken by the calling party, actuating a scrambler to enable scrambled communication between said mobile station and the calling party, actuating a data modem to receive data from the calling party, actuating a facsimile device to receive facsimile data from the calling party, actuating the facsimile device to transmit data from the mobile station to the calling party, and transmitting an audio message from a speaker to identify an incoming call; and initiating a default warning indication if the telephone number of the incoming call does not correspond with one of the telephone numbers stored in said memory such that the particular calling party cannot be identified. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
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Specification