Charging unit and wireless telephone having multi-number call forwarding capability

• US 6,188,888 B1
• Filed: 03/30/1998
• Issued: 02/13/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: OKI Telecom, Inc. (OKI Electric Industry Company Limited)
• Inventors: Wise, Michael A., Barber, Clifton J., Bartle, Alden S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisenzopf, Reinhard J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kincaid, Lester G
• Application Number:
  US09/050,435
• Time in Patent Office: 1,051 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414, 455/417, 455/403, 455/550, 455/551, 455/557, 455/564, 455/573, 455/575, 455/90, 379/201, 379/210, 379/211, 379/212, 379/419, 379/358
• US Class Current: 455/417
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00 Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3883 Arrangements for mounting batteries or battery chargers

Abstract

A Charging unit for a cellular telephone is provided with having means for connection to an electrical power source and a charging circuit for delivering a charging current to a battery pack or the cellular telephone itself, if the cellular telephone includes an internal energy retaining mechanism (e.g., charge storage device such as a battery). The charging unit further includes a plurality of electrical contacts in electrical communication with the charging circuit. Finally, the invention includes at least one user-selectable switch and at least one electrical contact in electrical communication with the at least one user-selectable switch. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a cellular telephone is provided, wherein the telephone includes a sensing circuit configured to detect the presence of a charging unit. It further includes a circuit configured to identify from the charging unit a designated number to which to forward incoming calls to. Specifically, once the telephone senses that it has been placed on a charging unit, it then looks to the circuit configured to identify a designated number to forward calls to. Preferably, this is accomplished by one or more inputs provided from a user-selectable switch on the charging unit. Finally, the telephone includes a number identifying circuit electrically connected to the at least one input and configured to identify a designated number to transmit to a cell site as a call-forward number. This may be accomplished, for example, by a CPU accessing a number storage memory.

Claims

1. A charging unit for a cellular telephone comprising:

means for connection to an electrical power source;

a charging circuit;

a plurality of electrical contacts in electrical communication with the charging circuit;

at least one user-selectable switch for defining at least one call forwarding number;

at least one electrical contact in electrical communication with the at least one user-selectable switch; and

an encoding circuit interposed between the at least one user-selectable switch and the at least one electrical contact in electrical communication with the at least one user-selectable switch, wherein the encoding circuit is configured to encode the number of switch positions into a fewer number of data lines, the data lines being electrically connected to the at least one electrical contact in electrical communication with the at least one user-selectable switch.

2. The charging unit as defined in claim 1, wherein the user selectable switch is a rotary switch.

3. The charging unit as defined in claim 1, wherein the user-selectable switch is a four-position rotary switch.

4. The charging unit as defined in claim 3, wherein there are two electrical contacts in electrical communication with the at least one user-selectable switch.

5. The charging unit as defined in claim 1, wherein the user selectable switch is at least one toggle switch.