Telephone communication system having a locator and a scheduling facility

• US 6,009,333 A
• Filed: 08/14/1997
• Issued: 12/28/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hill-Rom Services Incorporated (Baxter International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Executone Information Systems, Inc. (eLOT, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chaco, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Bost, Dwayne D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEGREE, TRACY MICHELLE
• Application Number:
  US08/909,318
• Time in Patent Office: 866 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456, 455/414, 455/419, 455/426, 455/457, 455/458, 455/519, 455/518, 455/556, 455/558, 455/575, 455/550, 379/201, 379/198, 379/211, 379/38, 379/88.12, 340/825.49, 340/825.44, 340/311.1, 340/825.54, 340/825.47, 340/825.36, 340/573, 340/572, 340/506
• US Class Current: 455/456.5
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/02 with bell or annunciator systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/027 Annunciator systems for hospitals
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42229 Personal communication services, i.e. services related to one subscriber independent of his terminal and/or location diverting calls from one subscriber to another subscriber, i.e. two different subscriptions H04M3/54; selecting arrangements in intelligent networks H04Q3/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42314 in private branch exchanges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/436 Arrangements for screening incoming calls , i.e. evaluating the characteristics of a call before deciding whether to answer it based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; diversion H04M3/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/625 Arrangements in the private branch exchange

Abstract

A telephone communication system having a locator and a scheduling facility includes: a PBX connected to telephones for facilitating communication between users; a scheduling unit for storing user schedule information for the users; and a locator system for providing location information. The locator system includes portable units associated with respective users which transmits an identification signal for identifying the user. The portable units include portable computing devices for interactively processing scheduling information with the scheduling unit. Transceivers receive the unit information from the portable units for forwarding the unit information to the PBX to determine location information of the users. The PBX activates telephone functions for use in conjunction with the location information for communicating with a called user, and the PBX accesses the user schedule information of a first user, for retrieving a specific location associated with the first user for generating a schedule notification message for communication to the first user at the specific location thereof.

Claims

1. A scheduling and communication system, comprising:

(a) at least one communication device for communication between said system and a user;

(b) a scheduling unit for storing user schedule information;

(c) a locator system connected to the scheduling unit, the locator system including;

a portable badge associated with the user for transmitting user information including an identification of the user; and

a plurality of transceivers, each adapted for receiving the user information transmitted from the portable badge and for electrically forwarding at least a portion of the user information to a processing unit to determine location information of the user;

(d) schedule notification means for accessing the user schedule information of the user, for retrieving location information including a specific location associated with the user, and for generating a schedule notification signal for communication to the user at the specific location thereof; and

(e) means for selectively activating the at least one communication device for use in conjunction with the location information for communicating with the user.

2. The scheduling and communication system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of paging devices each being associated with a specific user; and

transmitting means connected to said at least one communication device for wirelessly transmitting a paging signal to at least one of said plurality of paging devices, said paging signal providing the user with said schedule notification signal and facilitating said locating system in locating the user.

3. The scheduling and communication system according to claim 1, wherein the portable badge further comprises:

an input device;

a display; and

a processor for generating a graphic user interface (GUI) on the display and for processing user inputs from the input device, including user inputs corresponding to the scheduling information of each telephone user.

4. The scheduling and communication system according to claim 3, wherein each portable badge includes:

a memory for storing a GUI-based scheduling program; and

the processor, operating with the input device and the display, executes the GUI-based scheduling program for interactively processing the scheduling information with the scheduling unit.

5. The scheduling and communication system according to claim 4, wherein the scheduling unit processes the user schedule information for each of the plurality of users to perform group scheduling between a portion of the plurality of users.

6. The scheduling and communication system according to claim 1, wherein a communication link between a calling telephone and a telephone determined by the locator system as closest to the location of the called person is established upon entry of a connection command from the calling telephone after communication of location information to the calling telephone.

7. The scheduling and communication system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one communication device further comprises a plurality of telephones having a plurality of telephone functions, one of said telephone functions including a code representing a do-not-disturb function selectable by the user at one of the plurality of telephones assigned to first user by entering the code for instructing the at least one communication device to not establish a communication link with another telephone to prevent communication of the schedule notification signal upon determination of the location of the user by the locator system at the user assigned telephone.

8. The scheduling and communication system according to claim 7, wherein a second of said telephone functions includes a code representing a ring-when-alone function for activation from one of the telephones for ringing the selected telephone only when, during communication of the schedule notification signal, the locator system determines that there is no more than one person at the location thereof.

9. The telephone communication system according to claim 1, further including a paging system having a plurality of speakers for broadcasting the schedule notification message over at least one of the speakers, wherein the paging system is connected to the at least one communication device and is activated by a selection of a preassigned code from one of a plurality of telephones connected to the at least one communication device.

10. The scheduling and communication system according to claim 1, wherein the locator system includes means for grouping each of the users into one of a plurality of groups and means for locating all users belonging in a selected one of the groups for communicating the schedule notification message to the selected one of the groups, and display means for displaying the locations of all users in the selected group.

11. The scheduling and communication system according to claim 1, wherein each of the portable badge includes means for housing a card having stored information including scheduling information associated the respective user of the respective portable badge, and means for retrieving the stored information from the card and transferring the scheduling information to the scheduling unit.

12. A scheduling system for coordinating scheduling between a plurality of users, comprising:

(a) communication means for facilitating communication between a plurality of users;

(b) a scheduling unit for storing user schedule information for each of the plurality of users;

(c) locator means connected to the communication means for providing location information, the locator means including;

a set of portable units each associated with a respective one of a plurality of users and transmits unit information including an identification signal for identifying the user associated with the respective unit, the set of portable units including a set of portable computing devices operating a scheduling program and a graphic user interface (GUI) for interactively processing scheduling information with the scheduling unit; and

a plurality of transceivers, each operatively connected to the communication means and each adapted for receiving the unit information transmitted from the set of portable units and for electrically forwarding at least a portion of the unit information to the communication means to determine location information of the users;

and

(d) schedule notification means for accessing the user schedule information of a first user, for retrieving location information including a specific location associated with the first user using the locator means, and for generating a schedule notification message for communication to the first user at the specific location thereof.

13. The scheduling system according to claim 12, further comprising:

a plurality of paging devices each being associated with a specific user; and

transmitting means connected to said at least one communication device for wirelessly transmitting a paging signal to one of said plurality of paging devices, said paging signal providing the user with said schedule notification signal and facilitating said locating system in locating the user.

14. The scheduling system according to claim 12, wherein each of the set of portable computing devices includes:

a memory for storing the scheduling program, wherein the scheduling program is GUI-based; and

a processor, operating with an input device and a display, for executing the GUI-based scheduling program for interactively processing the scheduling information with the scheduling unit.

15. The scheduling system according to claim 12, wherein each of the set of portable units includes means for housing a card having stored information including scheduling information associated the respective user of the respective portable unit, and means for retrieving the stored information from the card and transferring the scheduling information to the scheduling unit.

16. The scheduling system according to claim 12 wherein the scheduling program is "SCHEDULE+", a GUI-based scheduling application program for providing individual and group scheduling functions.

17. The scheduling system according to claim 12 wherein each of the set of portable units includes "WINDOW CE", an operating system adapted for handheld computing devices.

18. A method for facilitating scheduling among a plurality of users comprising the steps of:

receiving unit information at locating means;

processing the unit information to determine location information associated with respective users;

receiving user schedule information at a scheduling unit from a set of portable computing devices associated with respective users;

storing the user schedule information for each of the users;

accessing the user schedule information of a first user;

selectively accessing the locator means for retrieving the location information including a specific location associated with the first user;

communicating the user schedule information of the first user to a first telephone of a plurality of telephones at a specific location determined by the corresponding location information of the first user; and

generating a schedule notification message; and

communicating the schedule notification message to the first user at the specific location thereof.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the step of receiving user schedule information at the scheduling unit includes the steps of:

receiving unit information from the set of portable units, wherein the unit information includes an identification signal for identifying the user associated with the respective unit;

receiving the user scheduling information from the set of portable computing devices.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising the step of:

processing the user schedule information for each of the plurality of users to perform group scheduling between a portion of the plurality of users.

21. The method of claim 18 further comprising the steps of:

receiving a selected preassigned code; and

broadcasting, in response to the selected preassigned code, the schedule notification message over at least one of a plurality of speakers in a paging system.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein the step of receiving the scheduling information includes the step of:

retrieving stored user scheduling information from a card housing in one of the set of portable units; and

transferring the retrieved user scheduling information to the scheduling unit.