Terminal

• US 5,923,737 A
• Filed: 08/30/1996
• Issued: 07/13/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: US Philips Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: US Philips Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Van Oosterhout, Mascha M. C. C., Slegers, Walter J., Weishut, Gideon M. R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kuntz, Curtis A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Eng, George
• Application Number:
  US08/706,049
• Time in Patent Office: 1,047 Days
• Field of Search: 379/93.01, 379/93.17, 379/93.21, 379/93.23, 379/157, 379/201-204, 345/329-331, 345/326, 345/339, 345/348, 345/351, 345/349, 345/961
• US Class Current: 379/93.17
• 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 1/576 associated with a pictorial or graphical representation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041

Abstract

A communication terminal for use in a communication system comprises a display unit having a display screen onto which call states of different terminals in the system are represented by means of icons of different sizes and shapes, depending on the current call state of the terminal itself and the call states of other terminals in the system, in a quasi three-dimensional communication scene so as to graphically represent and distinguish terminal users involved in a communication scenario, displaying of the icons being such that a terminal user of the terminal perceives a substantial change of the communication scene upon call state changes of the terminal and other terminals in the system.

Claims

1. A communication terminal for use in a communication system, which terminal comprises a display unit having a display screen, which is arranged for at least representing graphical data, and which terminal comprises control means for changing terminal call states on the basis of control signals received from other terminals in the system and of control signals generated by the terminal itself, call states of the terminal including an incoming call state and a connected call state, the control means further generating call state dependent icons of different sizes or shapes on different predetermined locations of the screen in combination with a different appearance of the icons at the different locations, which different appearance of the icons represents terminal users in different call states, in dependence on internal call states of the terminal, and displaying the icons on the display screen in a quasi three-dimensional communication scene including a depth dimension represented by perspective so as to graphically represent terminal users involved in a communication scenario, the icons being generated to produce a substantial change of the communication scene upon a call state change of the terminal.

2. A terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the different appearance of the icons is represented in the form of figurines.

3. A terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein an incoming call state is represented by a waving figurine.

4. A terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein a connected call state is represented by a figurine standing in front of a desk.

5. A terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein the call states further include an on-hold call state being represented by a figurine sitting on a couch.

6. A communication terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the different appearance of the icons is represented in the form of a change of the quasi three-dimensional communication scene.

7. A terminal as claimed in claim 6, wherein the communication scenario represents a call between a terminal user of the terminal and a terminal user of another terminal in the system, the terminal comprises icon selection means, and the control means is arranged to generate and display a conference call icon on the screen as the change of the quasi three-dimensional communication scene and to set up a conference call between terminal users of different terminals in the system, upon selection of the conference call icon by actuation means actuated by the terminal user of the terminal and upon selection of an on-hold icon representing a still further terminal terminal user in on-hold state.

8. A terminal as claimed in claim 6, wherein the control means is arranged to display a call blocking icon on the screen as the change of the quasi three-dimensional communication scene, and to block incoming calls to the terminal upon selection of the call blocking icon by the terminal user.

9. A terminal as claimed in claim 8, wherein the control means generates and displays the call blocking icon as a door icon, an open door representing a blocked incoming call state of the terminal and a closed door representing a non-blocked incoming call state of the terminal.

10. A terminal as claimed in claim 6, wherein the control means is arranged to generate and display a light switch icon on the screen as the change of the quasi three-dimensional communication scene, and to generate a strong contrast changing part on the screen representing presence or absence of the terminal user.

11. A terminal as claimed in claim 6, wherein the control means is arranged to generate and display a group member area on the screen, which area is partitioned so as to separately represent terminal users of different terminals in the system as group members in the group member area, the control means further being arranged to modify the appearance of the partitions in dependence of the call states of the different terminal users, the chance of the quasi three-dimensional communication scene being a selection from icons in a group of icons represented in the form of figurines and of icons represented in a form other than figurines.

12. A terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication scenario represents a call between at least two terminal users of different terminals in the system, and the control means is arranged for transferring a call between terminal users upon selection of a terminal user represented by an on-hold call state icon an of a terminal user represented by a connected call state icon.

13. A communication system comprising a terminal comprising a display unit having a display screen, which is arranged for at least representing graphical data, and which terminal comprises control means for changing terminal call states on the basis of control signals received from other terminals in the system and of control signals generated by the terminal itself, call states of the terminal including an incoming call state and a connected call state, the control means further generating call state dependent icons of different sizes or shapes on different predetermined locations of the screen in combination with a different appearance of the icons at the different locations, which different appearance of the icons represents terminal users in different call states, in dependence on internal call states of the terminal, and displaying the icons on the display screen a quasi three-dimensional communication scene including a depth dimension represented by perspective so as to graphically represent terminal users involved in a communication scenario, the icons being generated to produce a substantial change of the communication scene upon a call state change of the terminal.