Tone generating apparatus for a cellular telephone to simulate tones normally sensed by a user of a land-line telephone

• US 5,960,363 A
• Filed: 07/31/1996
• Issued: 09/28/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Mizikovsky, Semyon, Anderson, Geoffrey, Wahl, Gerard, Akahane, Masaaki, Douma, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Urban, Edward F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jama, Isaak R.
• Application Number:
  US08/690,489
• Time in Patent Office: 1,154 Days
• Field of Search: 455/35.1, 455/36.1, 455/564, 455/38.5, 455/550, 455/552, 455/575, 379/444, 379/59, 379/40, 370/397
• US Class Current: 455/550.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones

Abstract

Tone generating apparatus for a cellular telephone simulates those tones normally sensed by a user of a conventional land-line telephone. The cellular telephone is adapted to communicate with a base station via a service provider which provides different types of service, such as HOME service, ROAM service, or alternate HOME service. A progress tone generator is actuable to generate for the user selected dial tone indications as a function of the detected type of service provided by the service provider. In addition, when the keypad of the cellular telephone is operated, digit tones identifying the actuation of the respective keys are generated as is digit data which represents those keys; the digit data being transmitted to the base station to dial a respective telephone number. A warning indication, such as a distinctive tone, is generated in the event that the digit data does not represent a valid telephone number.

Claims

1. Tone generating apparatus included in a cellular telephone which simulates tones normally sensed by a user of a land-line telephone, the cellular telephone being of the type adapted to communicate with a base station via a service provider and having a keypad comprised of plural keys for user-entry of telephone number dialing digits and scanning means for scanning service provider indications of user accessible communication channels provided by said base station to detect an available communication channel and type of service provided by the service provider on that channel for communication between said cellular telephone and said base station, in which the type of service provided by the service provider is one of a HOME service, a ROAM service, and an alternate HOME service, said apparatus comprising:

progress tone generating means actuable to generate for the user selected dial tone indications as a function of the detected type of service provided by the service provider for communication between said cellular telephone and said base station, in which said progress tone generating means is actuable to generate a distinctive tone for each of the HOME service, the ROAM service, and the alternate HOME service;

means responsive to actuation of said keypad to produce digit data representing the respective keys which are actuated and to generate digit tones identifying said respective keys; and

digit data transmit means for transmitting said digit data to said base station to dial a respective telephone number.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said HOME service is a type of service wherein the user subscribes to the service provider and said ROAM service is a type of service wherein the user does not subscribe to the service provider.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said scanning means is operative to detect when a communication channel is not available;

and said progress tone generating means is actuable to generate a NO SERVICE dial tone when said scanning means detects that a communication channel is not available.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said means responsive to the actuation of said keypad includes means for generating a time-out indication if a predetermined time period expires between successive actuations of said keypad before digit data comprising a complete telephone number has been produced;

and said progress tone generating means generates a time-out tone in response to said time-out indication.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said means responsive to the actuation of said keypad further includes means for indicating when said digit data comprises a complete telephone number.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said means responsive to the actuation of said keypad additionally includes means for sensing if the digit data which is indicated as comprising a complete telephone number represents a valid telephone number, and means for supplying said digit data to said digit data transmit means for transmission to said base station when a valid telephone number is sensed.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said means for sensing includes means for actuating said progress tone generating means when a valid telephone number is not sensed, thereby to generate a distinctive NO SUCH NUMBER tone indication.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said progress tone generating means includes preset means responsive to the detected type of service provided by the service provider for presetting a particular dial tone indication, and switch means responsive to an OFF-HOOK condition of said cellular telephone to actuate said progress tone generating means to generate the preset dial tone indication to be sensed by the user.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising means for deactuating said progress tone generating means when said keypad is actuated to generate said digit data.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said digit data corresponds to telephone number digits and wherein said means responsive to actuation of said keypad includes validity detection means for detecting when the telephone number digits corresponding to said digit data represent a valid telephone number.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said validity detection means includes time-out means triggered by each telephone number digit to time out a predetermined time thereafter, and sense means responsive to the timing out of said time-out means to sense if the quantity of telephone number digits that had been produced is equal to the quantity of telephone number digits which comprise a valid telephone number.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said validity detection means further includes prefix sensing means for sensing if the quantity of telephone number digits includes a predetermined prefix digit and, if so, whether said quantity of telephone number digits is at least a predetermined amount.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein said predetermined amount is ten digits.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said predetermined prefix digit is 1 or 0.

15. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein said validity detection means additionally includes area code sensing means for sensing if a pre-established group of telephone number digits which follows said prefix digit identifies an area code and, if not, whether more than a fixed quantity of telephone number digits had been produced, thereby generating a distinctive NO SUCH NUMBER tone indication.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said validity detection means further includes means responsive to the timing out of said time-out means to generate a distinctive tone indication if the quantity of telephone number digits that had been produced differs from the quantity of telephone number digits which comprise a valid telephone number.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 further comprising transducer means responsive to said distinctive tone indication generated in response to said time-out means to generate an audible signal.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising transducer means for generating corresponding audible signals in response to said selected dial tone indications and in response to said digit tones.

19. An apparatus included in a cellular telephone, the cellular telephone being of the type adapted to communicate with a base station via a service provider and having a keypad comprised of plural keys for user-entry of telephone number dialing digits and means for detecting an available communication channel and type of service provided by the service provider on that channel for communication between said cellular telephone and said base station, in which the type of service provided by the service provider is one of a HOME service, a ROAM service, and an alternate HOME service, said apparatus comprising:

generating means actuable to generate for a user one of selected dial tone indications and voice messages as a function of the detected type of service provided by the service provider for communication between said cellular telephone and said base station, in which said generating means is actuable to generate one of a distinctive tone and a respective voice message for each of the HOME service, the ROAM service, and the alternate HOME service;

means responsive to actuation of said keypad to produce digit data representing the respective keys which are actuated and to generate digit tones identifying said respective keys; and

digit data transmit means for transmitting said digit data to said base station to dial a respective telephone number.