Portable telephone with musical tones playback and class response to incoming call(s)

• US 7,203,523 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2000
• Issued: 04/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Inventors: Ito, Shuhei
• Primary Examiner(s): Trinh; Sonny
• Application Number:
  US10/168,862
• Publication Number:
  US 20030109289A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,294 Days
• Field of Search: 455/567, 455/556.1, 455/412.1, 455/412.2, 455/344, 455/48, 455/419, 455/3.06, 455/414.4, 455/418, 455/401, 455/177.1, 379/373.01, 379/373.02, 379/373.03, 379/373.04
• US Class Current: 455/567
• 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 19/041 Encoding the ringing signal, i.e. providing distinctive or selective ringing capability

Abstract

A portable telephone is designed to control generation of musical tones and/or incoming call sound in response to classes of telephone numbers by which incoming calls are to be received. That is, the portable telephone stops generating musical tones while generating incoming call sound in response to telephone numbers of the first class; or it gradually decreases musical tones in tone volume in response to telephone numbers of the second class. In response to telephone numbers of the third class, the portable telephone continues generating musical tones without interruption while automatically disconnecting the line without generating incoming call sound.

Claims

1. A portable telephone having an incoming call sound generator for generating incoming call sound, a line connection establisher for establishing a line connection with a telephone terminal, a communicator for performing communication by the established line connection, and a musical tone generator for generating musical tones of a prescribed musical tune, said portable telephone comprising:

a storage for storing in advance prescribed telephone numbers in association with a plurality of classes respectively;

a telephone number checker for upon receipt of an incoming call from a calling party, checking a telephone number of the calling party with the prescribed telephone numbers stored in the storage to determine one of the classes to which the telephone number of the calling party belongs; and

a musical tone controller for, upon receipt of the incoming call during generation of the musical tones of the musical tune by the musical tone generator, controlling the musical tone generator in a selected manner, in response to the class determined by the telephone number checker, out of a plurality of predetermined manners respectively associated with the classes.

2. The portable telephone according to claim 1, wherein the musical tone controller controls the musical tone generator to gradually decrease musical tones in tone volume when the telephone number checker determines that the telephone number belongs to a prescribed one of the classes.

3. A portable telephone having an incoming call sound generator for generating incoming call sound, a line connection establisher for establishing a line connection with a telephone terminal, a communicator for performing communication by the established line connection, and a musical tone generator for generating musical tones of a prescribed musical tune, said portable telephone comprising:

a storage for storing in advance prescribed telephone numbers;

a telephone number checker for upon receipt of an incoming call from a calling party, checking a telephone number of the calling party with the prescribed telephone numbers stored in the storage; and

a line disconnecting section for inhibiting the incoming call sound generator from generating the incoming call sound while disconnecting a line connected with a telephone terminal of the calling party in response to a check result of the telephone number checker.

4. A portable telephone comprising:

a storage for storing in advance a plurality of prescribed telephone numbers in association with a plurality of classes respectively;

an incoming call sound generator for generating incoming call sound upon receipt of an incoming call from a telephone terminal of a calling party;

a musical tone generator for generating musical tones of a prescribed musical tune;

a telephone number checker for checking a telephone number of the calling party with the prescribed telephone numbers stored in the storage and for determining one of the classes to which the telephone number of the calling party belongs; and

a controller for controlling the incoming call sound generator and the musical tone generator in accordance with an incoming call sound control pattern and a musical tone control pattern which are predetermined in association with each of the classes, the controller controlling the incoming call sound generator and the musical tone generator in accordance with the incoming call sound control pattern and the musical tone control pattern prescribed by the class determined by the telephone number checker when the incoming call is received during generation of the musical tones of the prescribed musical tune.

5. The portable telephone according to claim 4, wherein when the telephone number of the calling party is determined to belong to a prescribed first one of the classes by the telephone number checker, the controller controls in accordance with the musical tone control pattern and the incoming call control to cause the musical tone generator to stop generating the musical tones and to cause the incoming call sound generator to activate to generate the incoming call sound.

6. The portable telephone according to claim 4, wherein when the telephone number of the calling party is determined to a prescribed second one of the classes by the telephone number checker, the controller controls, in accordance with the musical tone control pattern and the incoming call control pattern, to cause the musical tone generator to gradually decrease the musical tones in tone volume and to cause the incoming call sound generator to generate the incoming call sound.

7. A portable telephone comprising:

a storage for storing in advance a plurality of prescribed telephone numbers in association with a plurality of classes respectively;

an incoming call sound generator for generating incoming call sound upon receipt of an incoming call from a telephone terminal of a calling party;

a musical tone generator for generating musical tones of a prescribed musical tune;

a telephone number checker for checking a telephone number of the calling party with the prescribed telephone numbers stored in the storage; and

a controller for controlling the incoming call sound generator or the musical tone generator or both in response to a check result of the telephone number checker,

wherein when the telephone number of the calling party matches a prescribed telephone number belonging to a defined class within the plurality of classes, the controller controls the musical tone generator to continue generating the musical tones while inhibiting the incoming call sound generator from generating the incoming call sound.

8. The portable telephone according to claim 7 further including:

a voice messenger for automatically sending a prescribed voice message to the calling party whose telephone number belongs to the defined class; and

a line disconnecting section for after sending the voice message, automatically disconnecting a line used for communication with the calling party.

9. A portable telephone comprising:

a storage for storing in advance a plurality of prescribed telephone numbers in association with a plurality of classes respectively;

an incoming call sound generator for generating incoming call sound upon receipt of an incoming call from a telephone terminal of a calling party;

a musical tone generator for generating musical tones of a prescribed musical tune;

a telephone number checker for checking a telephone number of the calling party with the prescribed telephone numbers stored in the storage; and

a controller for controlling the incoming call sound generator or the musical tone generator or both in response to a check result of the telephone number checker, wherein when the telephone number of the calling party matches a prescribed telephone number belonging to a first class within the plurality of classes, the controller stops the musical tone generator generating the musical tones while activating the incoming call sound generator to generate the incoming call sound and when the telephone number of the calling party matches a prescribed telephone number belonging to a second class within the plurality of classes, the controller controls the musical tone generator to gradually decrease the musical tones in tone volume while activating the incoming call sound generator to generate the incoming call sound.

10. A portable telephone having an incoming call sound generator for generating incoming call sound, a line connection establisher for establishing a line connection with a telephone terminal, a communicator for performing communication by the established line connection, and a musical tone generator for generating music tones of a prescribed musical tune, said portable telephone comprising:

a storage for storing in advance prescribed telephone numbers;

a telephone number checker for upon receipt of an incoming call from a calling party, checking telephone number of the calling party with the prescribed telephone numbers in storage; and

a musical tone controller for controlling tone volume of the musical tone generator in response to a check result of the telephone number checker.

11. A portable telephone comprising:

a storage for storing in advance a plurality of prescribed telephone numbers in connection with a plurality of classes, respectively;

an incoming call sound generator for generating incoming call sound upon receipt of an incoming call from a telephone terminal of a calling party;

a musical tone generator for generating musical tones of a prescribed musical tune;

a telephone number checker for checking a telephone number of the calling party with the prescribed telephone numbers stored in the storage; and

a controller for controlling the incoming call sound generator and tone volume of the musical tone generator in response to a check result of the telephone number checker.