Intelligent dialing scheme for telephony application

• US 7,551,899 B1
• Filed: 12/04/2000
• Issued: 06/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Access Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Palmsource Incorporated (Access Company Limited)
• Inventors: Bonansea, Michel, Buchaud, Katell, Tessier, Ronald, Nicolas, Regis
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Simon D
• Application Number:
  US09/728,976
• Time in Patent Office: 3,123 Days
• Field of Search: 455/556.2, 455/566, 455/564, 455/412.1, 455/66.1, 379/354, 37935501-35601, 379/255.1
• US Class Current: 455/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2746 Sorting, e.g. according to history or frequency of use
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27463 Predictive input, predictive dialling by comparing the dialled sequence with the content of a telephone directory
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2748 by matching character strings
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/60 logging of communication history, e.g. outgoing or incoming calls, missed calls, messages or URLs

Abstract

Digits entered by a user are compared against phone numbers maintained in a lists such as address book, phone book, most recent calls, and most often called lists, etc. A number in the lists having matching digits corresponding the digits entered by the user is selected. The user entered digits are displayed in a normal font, and remaining digits from the selected number are displayed in a reverse or highlighted font. In one embodiment, if multiple matches occur, a scroll button allows the user to scroll through the each of the matched numbers. Alternatively, a drop down menu displays the matched numbers in a user selectable format.

Claims

1. A method of intelligently selecting a telephone number for a dialing operation to initiate a communication with another device, by a user on a combined telephonic and personal computing device, comprising the steps of:

accepting digits entered by a user via the combined telephonic and personal computing device that performs computing and telephonic operations;

displaying the accepted digits in a first style on the combined telephonic and personal computing device;

determining likely numbers, any part of which match the accepted digits by searching stored data relating to the telephone numbers, the telephone numbers residing in contact information, call history or lists maintained on the combined telephonic and personal computing device;

ranking of likely numbers in some priority, based on recorded information about usage of such likely numbers;

displaying any remainder of the likely numbers in a second style on the combined telephonic and personal computing device;

canceling said steps of determining and displaying any remainder when a cancel signal is initiated by said user; and

then

dialing a phone number with the accepted digits upon receipt of a call initiation signal to establish communication with the other device associated with the phone number.

2. A method of intelligently selecting a telephone number for a dialing operation by a user on a combined telephonic and personal computing device, comprising the steps of:

accepting digits entered by a user via the combined telephonic and personal computing device;

displaying the accepted digits in a first style on the combined telephonic and personal computing device;

determining a likely numbers, any part of which match the accepted digits by searching stored data relating to telephone numbers, the telephone numbers residing in contact information, call history or lists maintained on the combined telephonic and personal computing device;

ranking of likely numbers in some priority, based on recorded information about usage of such likely numbers;

displaying any remainder of the likely numbers in a second style on the combined telephonic and personal computing device;

recognizing a long press entry used to enter one of said digits; and

after recognition of the long press;

displaying the matching numbers in a user selectable list and executing a dialing operation to establish communication with another telephone based on a specific number selected by the user;

or

changing the search mode and updating the list accordingly.

3. An intelligent selection device in a combined telephonic and personal computing device for implementing an operation to establish a communication with another telephonic device, comprising:

an item database with stored items and lists of the items for different categorizations or multiple databases for different categorizations;

an item entry mechanism configured to accept at least certain parts of an input item input by a user to display the input item in one style;

a selection mechanism configured to search the item database based on the accepted parts of the input item and select an item with a part matching the accepted parts of the input item, said selection mechanism further configured to select multiple items;

an output mechanism configured to output the accepted parts of the input item and a portion of a selected item, said selection mechanism is further configured to select multiple items; and

the output mechanism is further configured to display the multiple items in another style in a user selectable format only after receipt of the specific command wherein the specific command is a press of a digit by the user;

wherein the portion of the selected item is not displayed unless a specific command comprising an alternate entry of a part of the input item is performed by the user; and

executing the operation to establish communication with another telephone associated with the selected item.

4. The intelligent selection mechanism according to claim 3 further comprising an initiate button configured to initiate an action based on said output.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the accepted parts comprise digits of a telephone number and the output mechanism comprises a display driver of a PDA cell phone combination device.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the alternate entry comprises a long press of a keypad on the PDA cell phone device of one of the digits.

7. A computer readable media, having instructions stored thereon, that, when loaded into a computer coupled to a phone mechanism and executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform the steps of:

accepting digits entered by a user via the phone mechanism;

displaying the accepted digits in a first style on the phone mechanism;

determining a set of most likely numbers which in some part match the accepted digits by comparing the accepted digits with stored data on the computer readable media, the stored data comprising lists of numbers maintained in contact lists and call history lists;

ordering the list into likeliness based on some determining algorithm dependent on properties or usage of the stored numbers;

displaying a remainder of the most likely number in a second style on the phone mechanism;

recognizing a long press of a digit entered by a user via the phone mechanism; and

displaying the set of numbers, each matching, in part, the accepted digits only upon negotiation of the long press, wherein the user selects one number to complete a dialing operation to establish connection with another telephonic device associated with the number selected.

8. The computer readable media according to claim 7, wherein:

said step of determining comprises the steps of,

determining a set of numbers matching each having a portion matching the accepted digits;

prioritizing the set of numbers based on predetermined criteria; and

said step of displaying the set of numbers comprises the steps of,

displaying a highest priority of said set of numbers in a display configured to allow a user to scroll from a highest priority number to other numbers of lesser priority in said set.

9. A telephonic and computing device that performs both telephonic and computing operations, comprising:

a telephone module configured to place and receive telephone calls;

a dialing mechanism configured to accept user dialed digits to be used to place a telephone call to establish connection with another telephonic device using the telephone module wherein the dialing mechanism comprises a number keypad for entry of the dialed digits;

an intelligent phone number selection module configured to display a set of phone numbers with at least some part matching the user dialed digits during dialing operation and after receipt of a user initiated sequence that requests the matching phone numbers from stored data on the telephonic and computing device wherein the stored data comprises phone numbers maintained either in contact information or in lists, including call history lists; and

wherein the user initiated sequence which is a long press of a digit on the number keypad is a specific request to change the search mode.

10. The device according to claim 9, wherein the device further comprises a rocker switch that rocks up and rocks down to respectively move up and move down a selection pointer in the displayed menu.

11. A method for selecting a sequence of digits for initiating a call on a telephonic device that also performs computing operations, comprising the steps of:

receiving at least one digit combined with an optional user request from a user via the telephonic device;

comparing the digits entered by the user with stored data comprising phone numbers maintained in one or more lists in a data storage of the telephonic device, the lists including but not limited to a phone list, a history of phone numbers dialed previously via the telephonic device and phone numbers from lists of received and missed calls;

receiving a next digit where the already returned entries are further searched for matching the entered numbers where the search occurs as an automatic process;

displaying a set of phone numbers that match the received digits from the user in a style that is distinct from the style in which a digit is displayed when entered by the user;

receiving a dial command from the user indicating a selected phone number; and

dialing the selected phone number to establish communication with another telephonic device identified by the selected phone number;

or

receiving a cancel command that ends the matching process while preserving the already dialed digits and then receiving a dial command to dial the entered digits.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the user request comprises a long press of the next digit on a keypad used to enter the digits to change the mode of search to expand the list of returned numbers.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the step of displaying comprises displaying the matching phone numbers in a list in a drop down menu over a dialpad used to enter the digits.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

receiving at least one of an up and down command from a hardwired rocker switch;

moving a selection pointer up or down the list of phone numbers in correspondence with any received up and down commands from the rocker switch; and

wherein the dialing step comprises the step of dialing another telephonic device with the phone number identified by the pointer at the time of receipt of the user'"'"'s dial command.

15. A method selecting phone numbers to initiate a dialing operation in a combined telephone and computing device, comprising the steps of:

maintaining in a memory associated with the computing device a pool of phone numbers as stored data in various lists including contact information lists and call history lists;

receiving at least one digit combined with an optional user request from a user via the telephonic device;

comparing the digits entered by the user with stored data comprising phone numbers maintained in one or more lists in a data storage of the telephonic device, the lists including but not limited to a phone list, a history of phone numbers dialed previously via the telephonic device and phone numbers from lists of received and missed calls;

receiving a next digit where the already returned entries are further searched for matching the entered numbers where the search occurs as an automatic process;

displaying a set of phone numbers that match the received digits from the user in a style that is distinct from the style in which a digit is displayed when entered by the user;

receiving a dial command from the user indicating a selected phone number; and

dialing the selected phone number to establish communication with another telephonic device identified by the selected phone number;

or

receiving a cancel command that ends the matching process while preserving the already dialed digits and then receiving a dial command to dial the entered digits.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the step of displaying the set of phone numbers further comprises the step of displaying the set of phone numbers in a drop down menu over a keypad used to cause receipt of the digits;

and

the method further comprises the steps of;

receiving at least one of an up and down command from a hardwired rocker switch;

moving a selection pointer in the displayed list of phone numbers up or down the list of phone numbers in correspondence with any received up and down commands from the rocker switch;

receiving a dial command from a user; and

dialing a telephone device when executing the dialing operation with the phone number identified by the pointer at the time of receipt of the user'"'"'s dial command.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the method is embodied in a set of computer instructions stored on a computer readable media that, when loaded into a processor on a PDA telephone combination device and executed, cause the device to perform the steps of the method.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein the user request comprises a long press of the next digit to change the mode of search or to expand the list of returned numbers.