Telephone with data acquisition means

• US 6,016,341 A
• Filed: 08/19/1998
• Issued: 01/18/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Cybiotronics Limited
• Original Assignee: Cybiotronics Limited
• Inventors: Lim, Boon-Chen
• Primary Examiner(s): Kuntz, Curtis A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Barnie, Rexford N
• Application Number:
  US09/136,205
• Time in Patent Office: 517 Days
• Field of Search: 379/142, 379/354, 379/67.1, 379/243, 379/246, 379/245, 379/247, 379/257, 379/196, 379/251, 379/202, 379/203, 379/204, 379/156, 379/157, 455/415
• US Class Current: 379/142.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/275 implemented by means of portable electronic directories
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2757 by data transmission, e.g. downloading
• 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 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set

Abstract

A telephone, or a telephone add-on device, is disclosed comprising data receiving means, and control means responsive to data received by the data receiving means. The control means is adapted to recognize any instruction code embedded in the data which is then processed in accordance with the nature of the code, the processing including storing in a memory. This allows a telephone to be downloaded with information, such as, for example, special service codes, identification or priority callers, and the information downloaded can be tailor-made for an individual rather than being standardized and pre-stored.

Claims

1. A telephone device comprising:

an incoming-call interface, coupled to a telephone line, for receiving and decoding a plurality of input data signals included in an incoming-call signal from said telephone line;

a classifier unit, responsive to said plurality of input data signals, for determining when said plurality of input data signals includes an instruction code and a plurality of information signals, and distinguishing among different instruction codes;

a data storage unit having a plurality of memory areas, for storing a plurality of information signals received from said incoming-call interface;

a controller, coupled to said classifier unit and said data storage unit, for processing said plurality of information signals according to said different instruction codes received from the telephone line, and for storing each one of said plurality of information signals into each one of said plurality of memory locations according to said different instruction codes.

2. The telephone device of claim 1, wherein said instruction code is received at the incoming-call interface together said information signals and identifies said plurality of information signals as being a particular one of a plurality of types of information signals.

3. The telephone device of claim 2, wherein said plurality of memory areas in said data storage unit are predefined, and wherein each of said predefined memory areas is adapted for storing an information signal belonging to a predefined type of said plurality of types of information signals.

4. The telephone device of claim 3, wherein said plurality of pre-defined memory areas includes:

a name-and-number memory area for storing a plurality of information signals of a name-and-number type;

a priority-call memory area for storing a plurality of information signals of a priority-call type;

a reject-call memory area for storing a plurality of information signals of a reject-call type;

a special-services-codes memory area for storing a plurality of information signals of a special-service-code type; and

a mailbox memory area for storing a plurality of information signals of a mailbox type.

5. The telephone device of claim 4 further comprising an outgoing-call interface, coupled to said controller and said telephone line, for generating an outgoing-call signal responsive to a plurality of output data signals provided by said controller.

6. The telephone device of claim 5 further comprising a display unit coupled to said controller;

a user interface, coupled to said controller, including a plurality of control switches, each for generating one of a plurality of switch signals when activated; and

a sound transducer coupled to said controller.

7. The telephone device of claim 6, wherein said controller comprises:

a main control unit, coupled to said classifier unit and said user interface, for generating a plurality of control signals responsive to said instruction code and said plurality of switch signals;

a storage processor, coupled to said data storage unit, for causing said plurality of information signals to be stored in said data storage unit responsive to a first subset of said plurality of control signals, and for retrieving said plurality of information signals from said data storage unit responsive to a second subset of said plurality of control signals;

a comparison processor, responsive to a third subset of said plurality of control signals, for comparing a plurality of information signals received from said line interface unit with said plurality of information signals stored in said data storage unit, and for indicating a match;

a line-out processor, coupled to said outgoing-call interface, for controlling an operation of said outgoing-call interface responsive to a fourth subset of said plurality of control signals;

a display processor, coupled to said display unit, for displaying said plurality of information signals retrieved from said data storage unit on said display unit responsive to a fifth subset of said plurality of control signals; and

a sound processor, coupled to said sound transducer, for generating a normal-ring sound with said sound transducer responsive to a sixth subset of said plurality of control signals, and for generating a priority-ring sound with said sound transducer responsive to a seventh subset of said plurality of control signals.

8. The telephone device of claim 7, wherein said controller further comprises:

a caller port for receiving said plurality of input data signals from said incoming-call interface; and

an input port for receiving a plurality of input data signals from an input device within line-of-sight of the said telephone device, wherein said input device can be a conventional keyboard, an infra-red keyboard, or an infra-red data transmitter.

9. The telephone device of claim 8, wherein said classifier unit, said main control unit, said storage processor, said comparison processor, said line-out processor, said display processor, and said sound processor are implemented by a circuit comprising a central processing unit (CPU) and a memory containing a program.

10. The telephone device of claim 9, wherein said telephone device is integrated with a conventional telephone.

21. The telephone device of claim 8, wherein said controller further comprises:

an instruction code generator, coupled to said outgoing-call generator, for generating said instruction code and embedding said instruction code in said plurality of output data signals responsive to an eighth subset of said plurality of control signals.

11. In a telephone device having an incoming-call interface for generating input data responsive to an incoming call signal;

a classifier for determining when the input data includes an instruction code and information signals;

a controller for processing the information signals according to the instruction code;

a data storage unit having a plurality of memory areas for storing a plurality of information signals received from said incoming-call interface;

a display unit;

a user interface; and

a sound transducer, a method for automatically acquiring, processing, and storing telephone service information retrievable from conventional telephone lines or another specified input port, said method comprising the steps of;

(a) receiving a plurality of input data signal from said incoming-call interface;

(b) determining whether each one of said input data signals includes an instruction code with a plurality of information signals; and

(c) processing said plurality of information signals according to said instruction code when said plurality of input signals includes said instruction code, and storing said plurality of information signals into one of said plurality memory areas of said data storage unit according to said instruction code.

12. The method of claims 11, wherein said step of processing said plurality of information signals comprises the steps of:

(a) determining a type of said instruction code, there being a plurality of pre-defined types of instruction codes;

(b) storing said plurality of information signals in a pre-defined memory area of said data storage unit, there being a plurality of pre-defined memory areas, wherein said pre-defined memory area stores information signals associated with said type of said instruction code.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein said step of processing said plurality of information signals comprises steps of:

(a) determining a type of said instruction code, there being a plurality of pre-defined types of instruction codes; and

(b) storing said plurality of information signals in said data storage unit, such that said plurality of information signals are stored in a group according to said type of said instruction code.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein said step of storing said plurality of information signals in a pre-defined memory area comprises the steps of:

(a) determining whether said plurality of information signals includes a sub-address code; and

(b) storing said remaining plurality of information signals in a sub-division of said pre-defined memory area, said sub-division being specified by said sub-address code.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said step of determining a type of said instruction code comprises the steps of:

i) determining whether said instruction code corresponds to a name-and-number type;

ii) determining whether said instruction code corresponds to a priority-call type;

iii) determining whether said instruction code corresponds to a reject-call type;

iv) determining whether said instruction code corresponds to a special-service-code type; and

v) determining whether said instruction code corresponds to a mailbox type.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the steps of:

(d) processing said plurality of input data signals as incoming-call data when no instruction code is included in said plurality of input data signals, said processing including the steps of;

1) determining whether said plurality of input data signals includes a caller phone number;

2) determining whether said plurality of input data signals includes a caller name;

3) scanning a name-and-number memory area of said data storage device to determine whether there is a matching directory phone number stored therein when said plurality of input data signals does not include a caller name;

4) appending a name corresponding to said matching directory phone number to said caller phone number when said matching directory phone number is found;

5) scanning a priority-call memory area of said data storage unit to determine whether there is a matching priority-call phone number stored therein;

6) indicating to the user that a priority-call has been received when a matching priority phone number is found;

7) scanning a reject-call memory area of said data storage unit to determine whether there is a matching reject-call phone number stored therein;

8) indicating to the user that a reject-call has been received when a matching reject-call phone number is found; and

9) generating a normal-ring tone at said sound transducer when no matching priority-call phone number is found and no matching reject-call phone number is found in said data storage unit.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

(e) retrieving said plurality of information signal corresponding to said type of said instruction code from said data storage unit;

(f) displaying said plurality of information signals on said display unit; and

(g) specifying a selected subset of said plurality of information signals; and

(h) generating an outgoing-call signal corresponding to said selected subset of said plurality of information signals.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said plurality of information signals includes a phone number.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein said plurality of information signals includes a special service code for activating a service provided by a telephone company.

20. A telephone or telephone add-on device comprising:

data receiving means for receiving data transmitted by a telephone company on a telephone line, and for receiving data transmitted by other programmable data transmitting apparatus on the telephone line;

control means responsive to data received by said data receiving means and being adapted to recognize any instruction code embedded in said data from the telephone line;

processing means for processing said data in accordance with said instruction code; and

also store said plurality of information signals into different areas of said data storage unit according to said different instruction codes;

data storage means, wherein said data storage means is organized into a plurality of pre-defined memory areas and said data received by said data receiving means is stored in a specific memory area in accordance with the nature of said instruction code; and

means for retrieving data from said data storage means;

wherein said retrieved data may be transmitted as an out-going call signal.

22. A telephone device comprising:

an incoming-call interface, coupled to a telephone line, for receiving and decoding a plurality of input data signals, said input data signals having information signals and being included in an incoming-call signal from said telephone line;

a first classifier unit, responsive to said input data signals, for determining whether said input data signals includes an instruction code, there being a plurality of instruction codes;

a data storage unit, for storing said information signals and said instruction codes received from said incoming-call interface;

a second classifier unit, responsive to said information signals and instruction codes stored in said data storage unit, for determining if said information signals stored in said data storage unit include said instruction codes, there being a plurality of instruction codes; and

a controller, coupled to said classifier units and to said data storage unit, for storing said information signals and instruction codes received from said first classifier unit into said data storage unit, and for processing said plurality of information signals from the second classifier unit according to said different instruction codes.

23. The telephone device of claim 22, wherein said instruction code identifies said plurality of information signals as being a particular one of a plurality of types of information signals.

24. The telephone device of claim 23, wherein said plurality of instruction codes includes:

a name-and-number instruction code for indicating the name and number information included in the information signals;

a priority-call instruction code for indicating the priority number information included in the information signals;

a reject-call instruction code for indicating the reject number information included in the information signals;

a special-service-code instruction code for indicating the service code information included in the information signals; and

a mailbox instruction code for indicating the mail box information included in the information signals.

25. In a telephone device having an incoming-call interface for generating input data responsive to an incoming call signal;

a first classifier for determining when the input data includes an instruction code and information signals;

a data storage unit for storage of a plurality of information signals and instruction codes received from said incoming-call interface;

a second classifier for determining when an information signal stored in the data storage unit includes a particular instruction code;

a controller for processing the information signals according to the instruction code;

a display unit;

a user interface; and

a sound transducer, a method for automatically acquiring, processing, and storing telephone service information received from conventional telephone lines, said method comprising the steps of;

receiving a plurality of input data signals from the incoming-call interface;

determining whether said plurality of input data signals includes an instruction code and a plurality of information signals;

storing said plurality of information signals and said included instruction codes together in said data storage unit;

retrieving said plurality of information signals and included instruction codes from said data storage unit;

determining if the information signals retrieved from the data storage unit include one of a plurality of instruction codes; and

processing said plurality of information signals retrieved from said data storage unit according to said different instruction codes determined.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said step of determining if the information signals includes one of a plurality of instruction codes comprises the steps of:

determining whether said information signals include an instruction code that corresponds to a name-and-number type;

determining whether said information signals include an instruction code that corresponds to a priority-call type;

determining whether said information signals include an instruction code that corresponds to a reject-call type;

determining whether said information signals includes an instruction code that corresponds to a special-service-code type; and

determining whether said information signals includes an instruction code that corresponds to a mailbox type.

27. The method of claim 26 further comprising the steps of:

processing said plurality of input data signals as incoming-call data when no instruction code is included in said plurality of input data signals, said processing step further comprising the steps of;

determining whether said plurality of input data signals includes a caller phone number;

determining whether said plurality of input data signals includes a caller name;

scanning said data storage unit to determine whether there is a information signal including a name-and-number instruction code and determining if said information signal include a directory phone number matching the incoming-call data;

appending a name which is included in said matching information signal to the input data signal when said matching directory phone number is found;

scanning the data storage unit to determine whether there is an information signal which includes a priority-call type instruction code, and upon finding a priority-call type instruction code, determining if said information signal includes a phone number matching the incoming-call data;

indicating to the user that a priority-call has been received when said matching priority-call phone number is found;

scanning the data storage unit to determine whether there is an information signal including a reject-call type instruction code, and upon finding a reject-call type instruction code, determining if said information signal includes a phone number matching the incoming-call data;

indicating to the user that a reject-call has been received when said matching reject-call phone number is found; and

generating a normal-ring tone at said sound transducer when no matching priority-call phone number is found and no matching reject-call phone number is found in said data storage unit.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising the steps of:

retrieving from said data storage unit a subset of said plurality of information signals, said subset of information signals having a particular type of instruction code;

displaying said subset of information signals on said display unit;

specifying select ones of said subset of information signals; and

generating an outgoing-call signal corresponding to said selected information signals.