Method of controlling a personal communication system

• US 5,577,041 A
• Filed: 06/07/1995
• Issued: 11/19/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Multi-Tech Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Multi-Tech Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Davis, Jeffrey P., Li, Ping, Young, Steve, Sharma, Raghu, Gunn, Timothy D., Maitra, Sidhartha, Thanawala, Ashish
• Primary Examiner(s): Safourek, Benedict V.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chau T.
• Application Number:
  US08/488,183
• Time in Patent Office: 531 Days
• Field of Search: 370/60, 370/79, 370/60.1, 370/80, 370/94.1, 370/94.2, 370/32.1, 370/118, 379/88, 379/89, 379/93, 379/96, 379/97, 379/100, 379/201, 395/155, 395/156, 395/2.3, 395/2.31
• US Class Current: 370/271
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/04 using predictive techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6424 Access arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6427 Subscriber Access Module; Concentrator; Group equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6459 Multiplexing, e.g. TDMA, CDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6475 N-ISDN, Public Switched Telephone Network [PSTN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6481 Speech, voice
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6491 Echo cancellation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6494 Silence suppression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/3416 in which the information is carried by both the individual signal points and the subset to which the individual points belong, e.g. using coset coding, lattice coding, or related schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/247 Telephone sets including user guidance or feature selection means facilitating their use user interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones H04M1/724
• 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 1/2477 for selecting a function from a menu display H04M1/2474 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/253 Telephone sets using digital voice transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/57 : Arrangements for indicating or recording the number of the calling subscriber at the called subscriber's set at the operator set in a manual exchange H04M5/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6033 : for providing handsfree use or a loudspeaker mode in telephone sets arrangements for preventing acoustic echo H04M9/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6505 : storing speech in digital form
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 : Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/06 : Simultaneous speech and data transmission, e.g. telegraphic transmission over the same conductors
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/064 : Data transmission during pauses in telephone conversation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/068 : using time division multiplex techniques; integrated services digital networks H04Q11/0428
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4509 : Unified messaging with single point of access to voicemail and other mail or messaging systems unified messaging in packet switching networks H04L51/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/002 : Applications of echo suppressors or cancellers in telephonic connections in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/08, echo suppressors or cancellers per se H04B3/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42 : Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers specially adapted for wireless communication networks H04W4/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/436 : Arrangements for screening incoming calls , i.e. evaluating the characteristics of a call before deciding whether to answer it based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; diversion H04M3/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5307 : for recording messages comprising any combination of audio and non-audio components
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 : Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 : Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0027 : Collaboration services where a computer is used for data transfer and the telephone is used for telephonic communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0057 : Services where the data services network provides a telephone service in addition or as an alternative, e.g. for backup purposes, to the telephone service provided by the telephone services network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 : Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1295 : Details of dual tone multiple frequency signalling
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00204 : with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server programmed control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32561
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00206 : Transmitting or receiving computer data via an image communication device, e.g. a facsimile transceiver H04N1/00236 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 379/908 : Multimedia

Abstract

A personal communications system is described which includes components of software and hardware operating in conjunction with a personal computer. The user interface control software operates on a personal computer, preferably within the Microsoft Windows® environment. The software control system communicates with hardware components linked to the software through the personal computer serial communications port. The hardware components include telephone communication equipment, digital signal processors, and hardware to enable voice, fax and data communication with a remote site connected through a standard telephone line. The functions of the hardware components are controlled by control software operating within the hardware component and from the software components operating within the personal computer. The major functions of the system are a telephone function, a voice mail function, a fax manager function, a multi-media mail function, a show and tell function, a terminal function and an address book function. The telephone function allows the present system to operate, from the users perspective, as a conventional telephone using either hands-free, headset or handset operation. The telephone function is more sophisticated than a standard telephone in that the present system converts the voice into a digital signal which can be processed with echo cancellation, compressed, stored as digital data for later retrieval and transmitted as digital voice data concurrent with the transfer of digital information data.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a personal communication system comprising the steps of:

(a) initializing a communication port to send or receive a telephone call, fax, or computer data over a communications line;

(b) configuring a personal computer to send and receive telephone calls over the communication line to communicate voice, computer data, compressed voice or fax data;

(c) editing, sending, and receiving voice mail messages in the form of compressed speech signals;

(d) configuring a fax function for sending and receiving fax transmissions;

(e) providing a terminal emulation when connecting the personal computer to a remote computing device over the communication line.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of configuring the personal computer to send or receive a telephone call further comprises the steps of:

(a) selecting an equipment type of speaker phone, handset, or headset;

(b) adjusting speaker volume and microphone gain;

(c) selecting a call function selected from the group consisting of save, redial, record, flash, mute, hold, and help.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of editing, sending and receiving voice mail messages further comprises the steps of:

(a) selecting a voice edit function of play, record, or pause;

(b) adding, listening to, or deleting, voice mail messages in a voice mail send queue; and

(c) listening to, storing, or deleting voice mail messages in a voice mail receive queue.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of configuring a fax function for sending and receiving fax transmissions further comprises the steps of:

(a) initializing fax parameters and print functions;

(b) previewing, printing, deleting, refreshing, or forwarding fax transmissions in a fax send queue; and

(c) viewing, printing, deleting, or forwarding fax transmissions in a fax receive queue.

5. The method of claim 1, further including the step of configuring multi-media mail functions and sending and receiving multi-media mail messages, said step of configuring multi-media mail functions further comprises the steps of:

(a) selecting from file, line edit, block edit, font, paragraph, voice, other, or help functions in a multi-media mail message composer;

(b) adding, previewing, deleting, or changing attributes of multi-media mail messages in a multi-media mail send queue; and

(c) viewing, storing, deleting, forwarding, or refreshing multi-media mail messages in a multi-media mail receive queue.

6. A personal communication systems operable in conjunction with a personal computer to serve as a voice answering machine, comprising:

a communication device operable to answer a ringing telephone line and further operable to send and receive voice signals;

a personal computer having a memory, the personal computer connected to the communication device and programmed for;

a) receiving and storing a prerecording voice message;

b) answering the ringing telephone line and connecting a voice connection to the telephone line;

c) sending the prerecording voice message to the communication device for playing on the telephone line;

d) receiving remote voice messages from the communications device from the telephone line;

e) compressing the remote voice messages to produce compressed remote voice messages;

f) storing the compressed voice messages;

g) decompressing the compressed voice messages at a later time to produce decompressed voice messages; and

h) playing back the decompressed voice messages.

7. A method of implementing a voice answering machine, comprising the steps of:

(a) initializing a communication device to send or receive a telephone call over a communications line;

(b) configuring a personal computer to send and receive telephone voice information over the communication line through the communications device;

(c) compressing and storing a prerecorded voice message;

(d) answering an incoming telephone call;

(e) decompressing and playing the prerecorded message onto the communication line;

(f) receiving voice mail messages over the communication line and digitizing, compressing and storing the voice mail messages in the form of compressed voice mail messages on the personal computer; and

(e) decompressing the compressed voice mail messages and playing back the voice mail messages.