Method and apparatus for automatically handling faxes

• US 6,721,059 B1
• Filed: 07/30/1999
• Issued: 04/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Barker, John, Sturgeon, Derrill, Brusky, Kevin J.
• Primary Examiner(s): WALLERSON, MARK E
• Application Number:
  US09/365,092
• Time in Patent Office: 1,719 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.15, 358/1.16, 358/440, 358/434, 358/442, 358/444, 358/468, 379/100.01
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32005 Automation of particular receiver jobs, e.g. rejecting unwanted calls requesting a communication from a transmitter H04N1/32771; with picture signal storage for forwarding messages H04N1/32358
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3201 Rejecting unwanted calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32016 according to the caller's identification, e.g. fax number H04N1/3201 takes precedence

Abstract

A fax device having a memory for storing a list of blocked callers and the capability to receive caller identification information. As calls are received the fax device compares the caller identification information of the incoming call to the list of blocked callers. If the telephone number of the incoming call is contained in the list of blocked callers, a connection is denied. If the number is not contained in the list, the call is connected. The list of blocked callers may be automatically maintained by monitoring incoming calls for frequency, date, time and number of pages. The factors may be combined to determine a usage value. If the usage value exceeds a predetermined threshold, the incoming telephone number may be added to the list of blocked callers. A list of trusted callers prevents trusted phone numbers from accidentally being added to the blocked list. A list of urgent callers includes actions such as forwarding and messaging to determine how to handle a received fax from a certain number.

Claims

1. A fax device, comprising:

a memory for storing caller identification information including a list of trusted caller identification information and a list of frequent caller identification information; and

a controller coupled to the memory, the controller operable to respond to caller identification information associated with an incoming call received from a network and based on a comparison with caller identification information stored in said memory, to determine to accept or to reject the incoming call, said controller further operable to add incoming caller information automatically to a list of frequent caller identification information if not present in the list of trusted caller identification information, and automatically to add incoming caller identification information to a list of blocked caller identification if that incoming caller information is not present in the list of trusted caller identification information and if a usage value associated with that incoming caller identification information derived from said list of frequent caller identification information exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

2. The fax device of claim 1,

wherein the controller is operable to terminate the incoming call if the incoming caller identification information from the network matches blocked caller information stored in the memory.

3. The fax device of claim 1,

wherein the controller is operable to answer and then promptly disconnect the call if the incoming caller identification from the network matches blocked caller information stored in the memory.

4. The fax device of claim 1,

wherein the controller is operable to answer the call and process an incoming fax transmission if the incoming caller identification information from the network does not match blocked caller information stored in the memory.

5. The fax device of claim 1,

wherein the list of frequent caller identification information includes information about each incoming call, including telephone number, date of call, time of call and number of pages of fax transmission received, and

wherein the usage value is determined at least on the number of incoming calls during a predetermined period associated with that incoming caller identification information.

6. The fax device of claim 1,

wherein the stored caller identification information further includes a list of urgent caller identification information and at least one action to be taken in response to an incoming call including caller identification information corresponding to stored urgent caller identification information, and

wherein the controller is operable to initiate said at least one action in response to an incoming call including caller identification information corresponding to stored urgent caller identification information.

7. The fax device of claim 6,

wherein said at least one action includes forwarding the call, calling a pager, calling a voice mailbox, calling :

a mobile phone and sending an email.

8. A method of handling faxes, comprising:

developing and storing caller identification information including a list of trusted caller identification information and a list of frequent caller identification information;

receiving caller identification information associated with an incoming call from a network; and

determining to accept or to reject the incoming call based on comparison of said received caller identification information with the stored list of caller identification information;

adding the received caller identification information of the incoming call to the stored list of frequent caller identification information If the, incoming caller identification information received from the network is not present in the stored list of trusted caller identification information; and

adding the caller identification information of the incoming call to the list of blocked caller identification information if the incoming caller identification information received from the network is not present in the stored list of trusted caller identification information and a usage value associated with that incoming caller Identification exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

9. The method of claim 8,

wherein the determining step comprises:

refusing to answer the call if the received caller identification information from the network matches information in the stored list of blocked caller identification information.

10. The method of claim 8,

wherein the determining step comprises:

answering and promptly disconnecting the call if the received caller identification from the network matches information in the stored list of blocked caller identification information.

11. The method of claim 8,

wherein the determining step comprises:

answering and processing the call if the received caller identification from the network does not match information in the stored list of blocked caller Identification information.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the usage value is determined based on the caller identification contained in the stored list of frequent caller identification information, including caller telephone number, date of call, time of call and number of pages of fax transmission received.

13. The method of claim 8,

wherein the stored list of caller identification information further includes a list of urgent caller identification information and at least one action to be taken in response to an incoming call including caller identification information corresponding to stored urgent caller Identification information, and

wherein the determining step comprises:

processing an incoming call including caller identification information that matches information in the stored list of urgent caller identification information callers, according to the at least one action associated with the matched urgent caller Identification information.

14. A computer system for connecting to a network to receive calls, comprising:

a processor;

a memory for storing caller identification information including a list of trusted caller identification information and a list of frequent caller identification information and

a fax device operable to receive caller identification information from the network corresponding to an incoming call and coupled to the memory and the processor to enable a determination to accept or to reject the incoming call based on a comparison with caller identification information stored in the memory, said fax device further operable to add incoming caller identification information to the list of frequent caller identification information if not present in the list of trusted caller identification information; and

said fax device is also operable to add incoming caller identification information to the list of blocked caller identification information if not present in the list of trusted caller identification information and a usage value associated with that incoming caller identification information exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

15. The computer system of claim 14,

wherein the fax device is operable to terminate the incoming call if the incoming caller identification information from the network matches blocked caller information stored in the memory.

16. The computer system of claim 14,

wherein the fax device is operable to answer and then promptly disconnect the call if the incoming caller identification from the network matches blocked caller information stored in the memory.

17. The computer system of claim 14,

wherein the fax device is operable to answer the call and process an incoming fax transmission if the incoming caller identification information from the network does not match blocked caller information stored in the memory.

18. The computer system of claim 14,

wherein the list of frequent caller identification information includes information about each incoming call, including telephone number, date of call, time of call and number of pages of fax transmission received, and

wherein the usage value is determined at least on the number of incoming calls during a predetermined period associated with that incoming caller identification information.

19. The computer system of claim 14,

wherein the stored caller identification information also includes a list of urgent caller identification information and at least one action to be taken in response to an incoming call including caller identification information corresponding to stored urgent caller identification information, and

wherein the fax device is operable to initiate said at least one action in response to an incoming call including caller identification information corresponding to stored urgent caller identification information.

20. The computer system of claim 19,

wherein said at least one action includes forwarding the call, calling a pager, calling a mailbox, calling a mobile phone and sending an email.

21. A computer system according to claim 14, wherein the fax device includes a soft fax/modem.

22. A fax device, comprising:

a memory for storing caller identification information including a list of blocked caller identification information, and further lists including a list of trusted caller identification information, a list of frequent caller identification information, and a list of urgent caller identification information; and

a controller coupled to the memory, the controller operable to respond to caller identification information associated with an incoming fax transmission received from a network and based on a comparison with caller identification information stored in said memory, to process said incoming fax transmission if the incoming caller information from the network does not match stored blocked caller information, said processing including determining to accept or to reject the incoming fax transmission, said controller further operable to initiate automatically a transmission to a predetermined destination in response to an accepted incoming fax transmission including caller identification information corresponding to stored urgent caller information; and

wherein the controller is operable to add incoming caller identification information to the list of blocked caller identification information if not present in the list of trusted caller identification information and a usage value associated with that incoming caller identification information is exceeded.

23. The computer system of claim 22,

wherein the controller is operable to terminate the incoming call if the incoming caller identification information from the network matches blocked caller information stored in the memory.

24. The computer system of claim 22,

wherein the controller is operable to answer and then promptly disconnect the call if the incoming caller identification from the network matches blocked caller information stored in the memory.

25. The computer system of claim 22,

wherein the controller is operable to add incoming caller identification information to the list of frequent caller identification information if not present in the list of trusted caller identification information.

26. The computer system of claim 22,

wherein the list of frequent caller identification information includes information about each incoming call, including telephone number, date of call, time of call and number of pages of fax transmission received, and

wherein the usage value is determined at least on the number of incoming calls received during a predetermined period associated with that incoming caller identification information.

27. A fax device, comprising:

means for storing caller identification information including a list of trusted caller identification information and a list of frequent caller identification information;

means for receiving caller identification information from a telecommunications network associated with an incoming call; and

means for determining to accept or to reject the incoming call based comparison of the received caller identification information with the stored caller identification information;

means for adding incoming caller information automatically to a list of frequent caller identification information if not present in the list of trusted caller identification information, and

means for automatically adding incoming caller identification Information to a list of blocked caller identification if that incoming caller information is not present in the list of trusted caller identification information and if a usage value associated with that incoming caller identification information derived from said list of frequent caller identification information exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

28. The fax device of claim 27,

wherein the means for determining is operable to terminate the incoming call if the incoming caller identification information from the telecommunications network matches blocked caller information stored in the memory.

29. The fax device of claim 27,

wherein the means for determining is operable to answer and then promptly disconnect the call if the incoming caller identification from the telecommunications network matches blocked caller information stored in the memory.

30. The fax device of claim 27,

wherein the means for determining is operable to answer the call and process an incoming fax transmission if the incoming caller identification information from the telecommunications network does not match blocked caller information stored in the memory.

31. The fax device of claim 27,

wherein the stored caller identification information further includes a list of urgent caller identification information and at least one action to be taken in response to an incoming call. including caller identification information corresponding to stored urgent caller identification information, and

wherein the means for determining is operable to initiate said at least one action in response to an incoming call including caller identification information corresponding to stored urgent caller identification information.