Telephone set for continuously displaying caller telephone number by simple operation

• US 6,526,133 B1
• Filed: 09/29/1999
• Issued: 02/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
• Original Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Okubo, Takashi, Izaki, Masahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Kuntz, Curtis
• Assistant Examiner(s): Taylor, Barry W.
• Application Number:
  US09/381,958
• Time in Patent Office: 1,245 Days
• Field of Search: 379/123, 379/127, 379/140, 379/142, 379/88.11, 379/93.17, 455/90, 455/412, 455/415, 455/566
• US Class Current: 379/142.17
• 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

Abstract

A telephone stores a plurality of pairs of data in a memory 7, each pair consisting of a caller telephone number received from a telephone number forwarding service, and the time at which the telephone number was received. In response to a first operation, a control unit 1 controls a sequential display of a first display image and a second display image by the display unit using a content of the memory 7. The first display image includes caller telephone numbers and the second display image includes other display content. In response to a second operation, the control unit 1 continuously controls the display of a first display image on the display unit using the content of memory 7 to update caller telephone numbers displayed in the first display image.

Claims

1. A telephone that receives caller information from a telephone number forwarding service and displays the caller information on a display unit, wherein the telephone comprises:

a storage means for storing a plurality of pieces of caller information transmitted by the telephone number forwarding service;

an input means for receiving a user input via a key press;

a detecting means for detecting a first operation and a second operation made to a predetermined key of the input means;

first display control means for controlling an alternating display of a first display image and a second display image on the display unit in response to the first operation, the first display image being one of the plurality of pieces of caller information stored in the storage means and the second display image being a display content corresponding to the piece of caller information displayed as the first display image; and

a second display control means for controlling a continuous display of the first display image on the display unit by consecutively updating caller information displayed in the first display image at fixed time intervals using a content of the storage means and in response to the second operation.

2. A telephone that receives caller telephone numbers from a telephone number forwarding service and displays the caller telephone numbers on a display unit, wherein the telephone comprises:

a storage means for storing a plurality of caller telephone numbers transmitted by the telephone number forwarding service;

an input means for receiving a user input via a key press;

a detecting means for detecting a first operation and a second operation made to a predetermined key of the input means;

a first control means for controlling an alternating display of a first display image and a second display image on the display unit in response to the first operation, the first display image being one of the plurality of caller telephone numbers stored in the storage means and the second display image being a display content corresponding to the caller telephone number displayed as the first display image; and

a second display control means for controlling a continuous display of the first display image on the display unit by consecutively updating caller telephone numbers displayed in the first display image at fixed time intervals using a content of the storage means and in response to the second operation.

3. The telephone of claim 2, wherein the storage means further stores flags indicating whether a display of each caller telephone number has already been controlled by one of the first display control means and the second display control means;

and wherein the second display control means controls a consecutive display by the display unit of a sequence of first display images including as-yet undisplayed caller telephone numbers, and a sequence of caller telephone numbers including already displayed caller telephone numbers.

4. The telephone of claim 3, wherein the second display control means further controls a display of a first guide display image between the display of first display images including as-yet-undisplayed caller telephone numbers and first display images including already displayed caller telephone numbers, the first guide display image indicating a boundary between the as-yet-undisplayed and already displayed first display images.

5. The telephone of claim 4, wherein, when all caller telephone numbers in the storage means have been displayed, the second display control means further controls a display of a second guide display image indicating that all caller telephone numbers have been displayed.

6. The telephone of claim 2, wherein the detecting means includes:

a short press detecting unit that, as the first operation, detects in the input means a press of a specified key shorter than a specified time; and

a long press detecting unit, that detects whether the pressing of the specified key has exceeded the specified time and, after the specified time has been exceeded, detects at fixed intervals whether the specified key continues to be pressed.

7. The telephone of claim 6, wherein the second display control means further includes:

a display processing unit that, when the pressing of the specified key has been detected as exceeding the specified time, has a first display image including one of the caller telephone numbers stored in the storage means displayed on the display unit; and

a display updating unit that, when the pressing of the specified key has been detected as continuing, updates the caller telephone number of the first display image with another telephone number stored in the storage means.

8. The telephone of claim 7, wherein, every time a first operation is detected, the first display control means changes one of a first display image and a second display image currently being displayed to another display image.

9. The telephone of claim 7, wherein the storage means further stores names corresponding to the caller telephone numbers, and the display processing unit and display updating unit have a first display image displayed on the display unit, the first display image including a caller telephone number and a name corresponding to the caller telephone number.

10. The telephone of claim 7, wherein the storage means further stores flags indicating whether a display of each caller telephone number has already been controlled by one of the first display control means and the second display control means;

and

the second display control means controls a consecutive display of a sequence of as-yet-undisplayed caller telephone numbers and a sequence of already displayed caller telephone numbers on the display unit with reference to the flags.

11. The telephone of claim 10, wherein the second display control means further controls a display of a guide display image between the as-yet-undisplayed and the already displayed caller telephone numbers, the guide display image indicating a boundary between the as-yet-undisplayed caller telephone numbers and the already displayed caller telephone numbers,

and controls a display of a second guide display image when all caller telephone numbers in the storage means have been displayed, the second guide display image indicating that all caller telephone numbers have been displayed.

12. The telephone of claim 7, wherein the display updating unit includes:

a retrieving unit that, when the pressing of the specified key has been detected as continuing, retrieves from the storage means a caller telephone number stored in a storage area following a storage area of the caller telephone number currently being displayed and;

a display updating unit, that updates the caller telephone number of the first display image with the caller telephone number retrieved by the retrieving unit.

13. A telephone that receives caller telephone numbers from a telephone number forwarding service and displays the caller telephone numbers on a display unit, wherein the telephone comprises:

a storage means, for storing a plurality of sets of data, each set including a caller telephone number received from the telephone number forwarding service and a time at which the telephone number was received;

an input means, for receiving a user input made via a key press;

a detecting means, for detecting a first operation and a second operation made to a predetermined key of the input means;

a first display control means for controlling an alternating display of a first display image and a second display image on the display unit in response to a first operation, wherein the first display image being one of the plurality of caller telephone numbers stored in the storage means and the second display image being a reception time corresponding to the caller telephone number displayed as the first display image; and

a second display control means for controlling a continuous display of the first display image on the display unit by consecutively updating caller telephone numbers displayed in the first display image at fixed time intervals using a content of the storage means and in response to the second operation.

14. The telephone of claim 13, wherein the storage means further stores flags indicating whether a display of each caller telephone number has already been controlled by one of the first display control means and the second display control means,

and the second display control means controls a continuous display by the display unit of a sequence of first display images including as-yet-undisplayed caller telephone numbers and a sequence of caller telephone numbers including already displayed caller telephone numbers with reference to the flags.

15. The telephone of claim 14, wherein the second display control means further controls a display of a first guide display image between first display images including as-yet-undisplayed caller telephone numbers and first display images including already displayed caller telephone numbers, the first guide display image indicating a boundary between as-yet-undisplayed and already displayed first display images.

16. The telephone of claim 15, wherein, when all caller telephone numbers in the storage means have been displayed, the second display control means further controls a display of a second guide display image, the second guide display image indicating that all caller telephone numbers have been displayed.

17. The telephone of claim 16, wherein the display updating unit includes:

a retrieving unit that, when the pressing of the specified key has been detected as continuing, retrieves from the storage means a caller telephone number stored in a storage area following a storage area of the caller telephone number currently being displayed; and

a display updating unit, that updates a caller telephone number of the first display image with the caller telephone number retrieved by the retrieving unit.

18. The telephone of claim 13, wherein the detecting means includes:

a short press detecting unit that, as the first operation, detects in the input means a press of a specified key shorter than a specified time and;

a long press detecting unit that detects whether the pressing of the specified key has exceeded the specified time and, after the specified time has been exceeded, detects at fixed intervals whether the specified key continues to be pressed.

19. The telephone of claim 18, wherein the storage means further stores names corresponding to the caller telephone numbers, and the display processing unit and display updating unit have first display images, each including a caller telephone number and a name corresponding to the caller telephone number, displayed on the display unit.

20. The telephone of claim 18, wherein the second display control means includes:

a display processing unit that, when the pressing of the specified key has been detected as exceeding the specified time, has a first display image including one of the caller telephone numbers stored in the storage means displayed on the display unit;

a display updating unit that, when the pressing of the specified key has been detected as continuing, updates the caller telephone number of the first display image with another telephone number stored in the storage means.

21. The telephone of claim 20, wherein, each time the first operation is detected, one of a first display image and a second display image currently being displayed is changed to another display image.

22. The telephone of claim 20, wherein the storage means further stores flags that indicate whether a display of each caller telephone number by the display unit has already been controlled by one of the first display control means and the second display control means;

and the second display control means controls a consecutive display of a sequence of as-yet-undisplayed caller telephone numbers and a sequence of already displayed caller telephone numbers on the display unit with reference to the flags.

23. The telephone of claim 20, wherein the second display control means further controls a display of a guide display image between the as-yet-undisplayed and the already displayed caller telephone numbers, the guide display image indicating a boundary between the as-yet-undisplayed and the already displayed caller telephone numbers,

and controls a display of a second guide image when all caller telephone numbers in the storage means have been displayed, the second guide image indicating that all caller telephone numbers have been displayed.