GB2198613A

GB2198613A - Auto dial service system

Info

Publication number: GB2198613A
Application number: GB08727306A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Jun Hasegawa; Naoko Nogami
Original assignee: Toshiba Corp
Current assignee: Toshiba Corp
Priority date: 1986-11-21
Filing date: 1987-11-20
Publication date: 1988-06-15
Also published as: GB8727306D0

Abstract

In an auto dial service system a telephone number corresponding to an auto dial key 14 of a telephone and telephone service information are registered in advance in an exchange. Upon depression of the auto dial key, its key code is sent to the exchange which in turn auto-dials the registered telephone number of a destination telephone and performs a telephone service in response to the key code. <IMAGE>

Description

"AUTO DIAL SERVICE SYSTEM" The present invention relates to an auto dial service system for executing auto calling of telephone numbers of destination telephones and various telephone services.

Recently, there have been developed telephones with various functions and exchangers which execute autodialing of telephone numbers and various telephone services accordingly.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an auto dial service system. In Fig. 1 a telephone 10 has a telephone assembly 11 and a handset 12, and telephone assembly 11 has on its top surface a dial pad 13 comprising numeral keys 0 to 9, an auto dial key 14, function selection keys 15 and a display section 16 for displaying a telephone number or a message. This telephone 10 is coupled through a telephone line to a main unit 20.

Upon depression of auto dial key 14, a key code of this auto dial key is sent to main unit 20 in which a telephone number associated with this key 14 is registered in advance. Main unit 20 then auto-dials the registered telephone number to a destination telephone. Further, upon selective depression of a plurality of function selection keys 15, the key code of that particular selection is sent to main unit 20. Since telephone service information corresponding to the received key code is also registered in advance in main unit 20, the main unit performs a telephone service based on the registered telephone service information. Telephone services here may include a telephone conference, a speaker communication, a telephone transfer, a telephone conference with a telephone transfer, a voice mail, etc.

When a telephone user wants to perform auto-dialing and a telephone services, the user first depresses auto dial key 14 and then depresses a desired function selection key 15 associated with the desired telephone service.

When depression of auto dial key 14 and function selection key 15 needs to be repeated, however, the key operation becomes complicated and an erroneous key operation is likely to occur.

With the above in mind, therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an auto dial service system which is capable of executing auto dial of a telephone number and a telephone service by a single depression of an auto dial key.

To achieve the above object, an auto dial service system according to this invention comprises: a telephone having at least an auto dial key; a telephone line coupled to the telephone; and a main unit, coupled through the telephone line to the telephone and having service information indicating a type of a specific telephone service and a specific telephone number registered therein in advance, for auto-dialing the registered telephone number to a destination telephone and performing a telephone service indicated by the service information in response to operation of the auto dial key of the telephone.

This invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional auto dial service system; Fig. 2 is a block diagram of an auto dial service system according to one embodiment of this invention; Fig. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the internal structure of a telephone used in the embodiment of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the internal structure of a main unit according to the embodiment of Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is a detailed block diagram illustrating a control section shown in Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating a format of a telephone number and a telephone service parameter to be registered;; Fig. 7 is a diagram illustrating a process for registering, in the format in Fig. 6, a telephone number and a telephone service parameter using the auto dial service system shown in Fig. 2; Fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating a table of telephone numbers and telephone service parameters for a case where a plurality of auto dial keys are provided; and Fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a CPU of the main unit.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an auto dial service system according to one embodiment of this invention. In Fig. 2 a telephone 10 has a telephone assembly 11 and a handset 12, and telephone assembly 11 has on its top surface a dial pad 13 comprising numeral keys 0 to 9, an auto dial key 14, function selection keys 15 and a display section 16 for displaying a telephone number or a message. The telephone 10 is coupled through a telephone line to a main unit 20, which may be constituted by a button telephone or a private branch exchange (hereinafter called PBX).

Fig. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the internal structure of a control section of telephone 10, which comprises a central processing unit (CPU) 31 for overall control, a random access memory (RAM) 33 for storing data, a read only memory (ROM) 35 for storing a control program to be run by CPU 31 and a terminal interface 37 for ensuring communication between the telephone and main unit 20.

Intel 16-bit microprocessor 8086 can serve as CPU 31.

Fig. 4 is a detailed block diagram illustrating the internal structure of main unit 20, which comprises a terminal interface 39 for communication with telephone 10, a time switch 41 serving as an exchanger, a local interface 43 for communication with another local telephone system and a control section 45 for controlling these terminal interface 39, time switch 41 and local interface 43.

As illustrated in Fig. 5, control section 45 comprises a CPU 47 for overall control, a RAM 49 for storing data such as telephone numbers and telephone service information, a ROM 51 for storing a control program to be run by CPU 47, a disk drive unit 53 such as a floppy disk drive or a hard disk drive and a maintenance console 57 coupled through an I/O port 55 to CPU 47. This maintenance console 57 can generate control commands for writing data in RAM 49 as well as for CPU 47. A telephone number and telephone service information may be registered in RAM 49 through maintenance console 57. Fig. 6 illustrates a format of information registered in RAM 49.As should be clear from Fig. 6, this registered information is constituted by a service parameter field for indicating the type of a telephone service, a telephone number field for a destination telephone to be auto-dialed and a delimiter field.

Referring now to Fig. 7, there will be described below how to register a telephone number to be autodialed and telephone service information.

First, in step 61 a telephone user depresses auto dial key 14 with handset 12 remaining on telephone assembly 11. Accordingly, CPU 31 of telephone 10 and CPU 47 of main unit 20 judge that the operation is in a registering mode. In step 63 the user then depresses a particular one of function selection keys 15 which indicates the desired telephone service. In the next step 65 the user enters a destination telephone number that should be auto-dialed, through dial pad 13.

Finally, the user depresses auto dial key 14 again, thus completing the registering operation. CPU 31 of telephone 10 sends key codes of the depressed auto dial key 14, function selection key 15, keys on dial pad 13 and auto dial key 14 in the named order to main unit 20 through terminal interface 37 and the telephone line.

In other words, CPU 31 sends "A5" as a parameter for the desired telephone service, "2636" as the destination telephone number and "F" as a delimiter as shown in Fig. 6.

Upon reception of the information through terminal interface 39, CPU 47 of main unit 20 stores it in RAM 49 in the formation as shown in Fig. 6. Of course, this registered information can be rewritten as desired by re-execution of the registering operation.

The above explanation has been given with reference to registering of a telephone number to be auto-dialed and telephone service information. To register only the telephone number to be auto-dialed, however, the necessary key operation would be depression of auto dial key 14 first, entering the desired telephone number through dial pad 13 and then depression of auto dial key 14 again.

The above embodiment has been explained for the case in which only a single auto dial key 14 is involved; however, a plurality of auto dial keys may be provided as desired. In that case, RAM 49 of main unit 20 stores a table having plural sets of service parameters, telephone numbers and delimiters, as illustrated in Fig. 8. Each line in the table is constituted by a predetermined number of bytes. Therefore, the intended service parameter and telephone number can be read out by detecting which auto dial key has been depressed and then subjecting the predetermined number of bytes to address increment by the number of times equivalent to the order of the depressed auto dial key.

The above explanation has been given for the case where the service parameter and telephone number are registered in the RAM of main unit 20. However, the same registering procedure can be taken to register these data in the RAM of telephone 10.

Referring now to the flowchart of Fig. 9, the operation for executing auto-dial of a destination telephone number and a telephone service by depressing auto dial key 14 will now be described. The flowchart of Fig. 9 illustrates the operation of CPU 47 of main unit 20. Upon depression of auto dial key 14, telephone 10 sends the key code for the auto dial key to main unit 20, whose CPU 47 in turn determines whether or not the data sent from telephone 10 is the code for auto dial key 14. If the decision is affirmative, CPU 47 reads 1 byte data from RAM 49 in step 73. In the next step 75 CPU 47 then determines whether the read data is one of "A" to "E" that indicates a service parameter, or one of "O" to "9" that indicates a telephone number or "F" that indicates a delimiter.If the read data is one of "A" to "E," CPU 47 reads the next 1 byte data from RAM 49 in step 77, which means that all the service parameter indicting the type of the telephone service has been read. Therefore, CPU 47 carries out the telephone service indicated by the service parameter in step 79, and then returns to step 73.

If the read data is numerical data ("0" to "9") in step 75, CPU 47 determines the received data is a telephone number to be auto-dialed and thus performs auto dial to the destination telephone in step 81, then returning to step 73. The sequential steps 73, 75 and 81 are performed until the delimiter code "F" is detected.

If the delimiter code "F" is detected in step 75, it is determined that the operation is ended, thus completing the overall operation.

The second embodiment will now be explained.

In the first embodiment, a telephone number to be auto-dialed and the type of a telephone service are stored in RAM 49 of main unit 20.

In the second embodiment, however, a telephone number to be auto-dialed and telephone service information are registered in RAM 33 of telephone 10. That is, when the user performs an operation similar to the registering operation shown in Fig. 7, CPU 31 of telephone 10 stores register information with a format as shown in Fig. 6 (or the table shown in Fig. 8) in RAM 33. This registering operation is the same as the aforementioned case involving the RAM 49 of main unit 20, so that its explanation will be omitted.

In the second embodiment, registering information of a service parameter and a telephone number are registered in advance in the RAM of the telephone, and upon depression of the auto dial key, it is determined if the function assigned to the auto dial key is only an auto dial, or only a telephone service, or both of the auto dial and the telephone service and each request is sent to main unit 20.

When auto dial key 14 is depressed after registering the telephone number and telephone service, like in the case involving the main unit, CPU 31 detects depression of auto dial key 14 in step 71 and reads 1 byte data from RAM 33 in step 73. If the read data is one of "A" to "E, " CPU 31 also reads the next 1 byte data in step 77. Consequently, CPU 31 determines that the read information is concerned with a telephone service and sends this service parameter to main unit 20 in step 79. This parameter may be sent in a single process or byte by byte. The service parameter, when sent to main unit 20, is affixed with a transfer end command, such as "END OF DATA." As a result, main unit 20 carries out the telephone service corresponding to the sent service parameter. Then, CPU 31 returns to step 73 to read the next 1 byte data from RAM 33.If numerical data such as one of "O" to "9" is detected in step 75, CPU 31 determines that the received data is a telephone number, sends the data to main unit 20 in step 81 and then returns to step 73. The steps 73, 75 and 81 are repeated until the delimiter cod "F" is detected.

In this case, the entire telephone number may be sent to main unit 20 in a single process or byte by byte. The telephone number, when sent to the main unit, is affixed at its end with a transfer end command. Main unit 20 auto-dials the received telephone number of the destination telephone.

The third embodiment will now be explained.

In the second embodiment, a service parameter and a telephone number to be auto-dialed are registered in RAM 33 of telephone 10, and in response to depression of auto dial key 14, CPU 31 of telephone 10 determines if the function assigned to this auto dial key is auto dial, or a telephone service, or both of the auto dial and the telephone service and sends the key code to main unit 20. In the third embodiment, however, CPU 31 of telephone 10 stores registering information with a format as shown in Fig. 6 (or the table shown in Fig. 8) in RAM 33. In response to depression of auto dial key 14, CPU 31 then sends the entire registering information to main unit 20 in a single process without determining what function is assigned to the auto dial key. Main unit 20 determines whether the received registering information is a telephone service, or auto dial or both of the telephone service and auto dial to the destination telephone. and carries out the determined telephone service operation.

In the second and third embodiments, a plurality of auto dial keys 14 may be provided instead of one.

Further, in each embodiment, function selection keys 15 may be designed to have an auto dial function.

Claims

Claims:

1. An auto dial service system comprising a telephone with at least an auto dial key and a main unit coupled through a telephone line to said telephone, for auto-dialing a telephone number of a destination telephone and performing a telephone service, characterized in that said system further comprises: register means (10, 20) for registering an autoreceived telephone number and telephone service information to be performed in accordance with said auto dial key (14); and means (10, 20) for performing a telephone service based on said telephone service information registered in said register means (10, 20) and auto-dialing said registered telephone number.

2. The auto dial service system according to claim 1, wherein said main unit (20) comprises main unit memory means (49) for storing a telephone number and telephone service information to be registered and a central processing unit (main unit CPU) (47) for executing a data read/write operation to said main unit memory means (49); upon detection of depression of said auto dial key (14), said telephone (10) sends a key code of said auto dial key (14) to said main unit (20); and said main unit CPU (47) reads out said telephone service information and said telephone number from said main unit memory means (49) and performs auto-dialing of said telephone number to said destination telephone, and a specific telephone service in response to said key code of said auto dial key (14).

3. The auto dial service system according to claim 1, wherein said telephone (10) comprises memory means (33) for storing a telephone number and telephone service information to be registered and a central processing unit (telephone CPU) (31) for executing a data read/write operation to said telephone memory means (33); and upon detection of depression of said auto dial key (14), said telephone CPU (31) reads out said telephone service information and said telephone number from said telephone memory means (33) and performs a specific telephone service and auto-dialing of said telephone number through said main unit (20).

4. The auto dial service system according to claim 1, wherein said telephone (10) comprises memory means (33) for storing a telephone number and telephone service information to be registered and a central processing unit (telephone CPU) (31) for executing a data read/write operation to said telephone memory means (33); upon detection of depression of said auto dial key (14), said telephone CPU (31) reads out said telephone service information and said telephone number from said telephone memory means (33) and sends said telephone service information and said telephone number to said main unit (20); and said main unit (20) performs a specific telephone service and auto-dialing of said telephone number based on said sent telephone service information.

5. The auto dial service system according to claim 1, wherein said main unit is a button telephone.

6. The auto dial service system according to claim 1, wherein said main unit is a private branch exchange.

7. The auto dial service system according to claim 1, wherein said service information is telephone conference service information.

8. The auto dial service system according to claim 1, wherein said service information is telephone transfer service information.

9. The auto dial service system according to claim 1, wherein said service information is speaker communication service information.

10. The auto dial service system according to claim 1, wherein said service information is telephone conference service information and telephone transfer service information.

11. An auto dial service system, substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in Figs. 2 through 9.