GB2299239A

GB2299239A - A telephone with data acquisition means

Info

Publication number: GB2299239A
Application number: GB9505770A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Boon-Chen Lim; Yeung-How Lim
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1995-03-22
Filing date: 1995-03-22
Publication date: 1996-09-25
Anticipated expiration: 2015-03-22
Also published as: GB9505770D0; GB2299239B; CN1132397C; CN1139855A

Abstract

A telephone, or a telephone add-on device, is disclosed comprising data receiving means, and control means responsive to data received by the data receiving means. The control means is adapted to recognise any instruction code embedded in the data which is then processed in accordance with the nature of the code, the processing including storing in a memory. This allows a telephone to be downloaded with information, such as, for example, special service codes, identification of priority callers, and the information downloaded can be tailor-made for an individual rather than being standardised and pre-stored.

Description

A TELEPHONE WITCH DATA ACOUISITION MEANS The invention relates to a telephone, particularly a type of telephone which has display means and allows push-button actuation of telephone facilities. In particular, this invention relates to a telephone apparatus which is capable of automatic data or information conversion, acquisition, analysis, storage, retrieval, automatic data processing and/or transmission. For example, it relates to a telephone which is capable of automatic name and number directory down-loading, conversion of number to name display, caller identification, special network service code down-loading and storage and dialing, and other user oriented facilities and automatic processing of the down-loaded data, without the need for manual input from a telephone keypad.The invention also relates to an add-on device for a telephone providing such facilities, and can also be combined with an integral data bank.

Telephone companies nowadays provide many extra and useful subscriber facilities in addition to the provision of conventional pure voice communication between users. One such facility is the so-called "Caller Identification" service which sends the number and/or name of the calling party together with an incoming call.

Information processing circuitry of the telephone set, usually comprising a microprocessor unit (MPU) and a memory, so that the caller's number or name and number will be shown on a suitable display means. Some telephone terminals are further provided with the capability to compare calling numbers with stored information to classify a call as wanted or rejected and a special ringing tone will be provided to alert the user of its importance if it is wanted. If the call is classified as "Reject", it is unwanted, the number will be displayed and a less alert indicating means may or may not be provided to indicate the presence of an unwanted incoming call.

Another type of user facility is usually initiated by the user who sends specific codes, more commonly known as "Special Service Codes" (SSC), to the telephone switching network from a subscriber terminal to request the switching network to perform some special service functions. "Call-Forward", "Clamp-On Busy", "Call Trace", "Conference", etc are some of the better known examples of such facilities.

To make use of such facilities, state-of-the-art telephone terminals or add-on devices are available, and one example of these devices is disclosed in co-pending UK Patent application no. 9325154.4. This invention much simplifies the pre-storing, retrieving and dialing of large numbers of special service codes. However, in some countries and some areas, there are too many special services provided by different telephone companies.

Further, even in a single country, different telephone companies have their own set of SSC's. To pre-store all the service codes in a unit needs a large memory capacity, and it is not convenient for a user to access a preferred service code from so many service codes. It would be very convenient if only user preferred service codes required for activating a telephone network service could be sent and downloaded to a receiving telephone terminal via ordinary telephone lines as a service provided by a phone company, or any other service center by specific transmitter devices.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome at least some disadvantages of the prior art by providing an intelligent telephone or add-on device which is capable of automatic data acquisition, processing and storage for possible future use, so that useful data can be automatically down-loaded to the user telephone terminal. Such useful data can be received either through normal telephone lines or from specific input ports. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method of pre-storing data in a telephone or a telephone add-on device.

According to the present invention, there is provided a telephone or a telephone add-on device comprising, data receiving means, control means responsive to data received by said data receiving means and being adapted to recognise any instruction code embedded in said data, and processing means for processing said data in accordance with said instruction code, said processing means including data storage means.

In one embodiment the data storage means may be organised into a plurality of pre-defined memory areas and the data received by the data receiving means is stored in a specific memory area in accordance with the nature of the instruction code. Alternatively, the data storage means need not be divided into pre-defined areas but instead the data received may be grouped in accordance with the nature of the instruction code. Preferably means will be provided to retrieve data from the storage means. and this retrieved data may then be transmitted as an outgoing call signal.

A visual display means may also be provided to display data as it is received, to display the contents of the data storage means, and to display data retrieved from the data storage means.

According to the present invention there is also provided a method of prestoring data in a telephone or a telephone add-on device together with an instruction code to the telephone or telephone add-on device, and storing the data in a data storage means in accordance with the instruction code.

The data may be stored in pre-defined memory areas in accordance with the instruction code or alternatively the data may be grouped in accordance with the instruction code. The data may also be retrieved from the data storage means and transmitted as an outgoing call signal.

By means of this arrangement data may be downloaded into a telephone. This data may consist of, for example, special service codes, or it may consist of telephone numbers with or without associated names of callers. This data is appended to an instruction code which tells the telephone how to process this data, for example where the data should be stored in the data storage means, and what actions or operations should be performed when it is activated.

Some embodiments of the present invention will now be explained by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic diagram showing the data-processing (in contrast to voice processing) circuitry of a telephone device according to a first aspect of the present invention:: Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing a data transmitter according to a second aspect of the present invention; Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of an integrated telephone device and datatransmitter according to the third aspect of the present invention, and Figure 4 is a flowchart showing a preferred data handling process when incoming data is detected at the input of the control means of the telephone apparatus of figure 1; Referring firstly to figure 1, there is shown a block diagram of a telephone device embodying the present invention and comprising a line interface unit, a convertor, a controller, data-storage means, a visual display means, an audible transducer and a user interface.

The present device is provided with an interface unit which converts a modulated signal at the interface input to a demodulated pulse signal at the interface output and comprises usually a polarity guard 101, line interface 102 and convertor 103 circuit. The interface input is usually provided with connecting means for connection to the "Tip and Liying" (T and R) lines of the public switching telephone network (PSTN) and the output is connected to the controller 107. When there is an incoming call, modulated signals, usually in Frequency-Shift Keying (FSK) or Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) modulation, present at the T and R lines will be demodulated by the interface unit and converted into serial bit stream, data-carrying pulses recognizable by the controller 107.Such data conversions are nowadays easily handled by standard line interface circuits which are readily available from many conventional integrated circuit manufacturers and therefore require no detailed explanation.

The controller 107 can be, for example, a simple commercially available microprocessor (MPC), connected to other parts of the circuitry. The MPC is programmed, apart from providing conventional telephone features, to classify and process incoming data according to an instruction code appended to the data, to store received data into pre-defined memory areas, to compare received data with stored information and instructions to determine appropriate actions, to send information to the display means for user interface, to send service codes to the telephone switching network and to perform other related functions.

The data-storage means 109 is connected to the MPC 107 and comprises preferably a Random Access Memory (RAM), either integrated on the MPC 107 or as a discrete integrated circuit, into which data can be stored, retrieved and repeatedly over-written. The data-storage means 109 in the present device is further divided into a plurality of specific memory sectors such as i) Name-and-Number Directory Memory Area (NNDMA) 111, ii) Priority Calls Memory Area (PCMA) 112, iii) Reject Calls Memory Area (RCMA) 113,iv) Network Special Service Code Memory Area (NSSCMA) 114 and v) Mail-Box Memory Area (MBMA) 115 for storage of data according to their specific nature which is defined by the embeded instruction code.

However, it is not essential that the data storage means be divided into predefined memory areas. Instead, data may simply be grouped within the data storage means in accordance with the appended instruction code. Pre-defining selected memory area is simpler, but grouping is a better approach for optimising the use of the data storage means.

The display means 108 is connected to the MPC 107 and is preferably a liquid crystal display (LCD) or any other suitable devices commonly used in electronic devices for information display.

An audible transducer, for example a ringer or a buzzer, is connected to the MPC via a standard ring control circuit available from many telecommunication integrated circuit manufacturers which control circuit generates different audible signals when an instruction is received from the MPC 107 to alert an user of, for example, an incoming call. A user interface 110, usually comprising a numeric keypad with push-buttons, is provided for making telephone calls and to enable user MPC interaction.

Referring now to figure 2, there is shown a data-transmitter 200 comprising a conventional alpha-numeric keypad and a transmitter circuitry. The transmitter circuitry mainly comprises a MPC and a conventional modulating integrated circuit, for example, a XR2206. The MCU converts the entries of the keyboard into serial data bit stream, data carrying pulses, and the XR2206 modulates the serial data bit stream into FSK signal. The modulated signals can then be coupled onto a telephone trunk line. On the other hand, the transmitter is also capable of generating pulsed data formats recognizable by the MPC so that data with embedded instruction codes can be directly fed to an input port of the MPC. A display means, for example a LCD, is also provided to allow data monitoring by user.

The integrated transmitter and receiver (TRX) 300 shown in figure 3 combines the functions, features, devices and circuitries of figures 1 and 2 to allow operation of the features described in the present invention through a single integrated device.

Ideally, the device is supplied to a user with some standard and basic telephone features and the MPC 107 is pre-programmed so that it is able to process and handle incoming data and information according to their nature.

When an incoming call is present at the subscriber end of the telephone lines, usually designated as "T and R" lines, the convertor converts the modulated signal into digital pulses readable by the MPC 107 at a designated caller port" 104.

Alternatively, un-modulated signal, for example, codes generated by an aforementioned transmitter 200, in a correct format can also be fed directly into the MPC 107 via a second data entry port, the "input port" 105. The MPC 107 constantly scans the input ports 104, 105 for presence of data and will identify the source port, i.e. "caller-" or "input-port", of data entry and then processes the data received according to various pre-embedded instruction codes corresponding to different modes of operation by the MPC 107.

The following are some further examples of applications of the present invention. The role of the embedded instruction code will be seen more clearly.

A) CALLER-IDENTITY DATABASE INSTALLATION i) Name-and-Number Director Construction One of the main purposes of providing the name-and-number directory is for displaying a name when only the number of an incoming call is received. To build up a personalized name-and-number directory, the subscriber must prepare a list of relevant names and numbers and provide them to the service center of the telephone company or any other service companies who will then implement the database installation through the telephone line. To implement such database installation, the data will firstly be packaged to include a "Name-and-Number Conversion Instruction Code (NNCIC). In the present example, as shown in the memory area 111 of Fig.

1, the embedded instruction code is simply a "*" which is added before the name of a phone number. The embedded NNCIC, together with the name and number, is modulated and then sent to the subscriber terminal where the NNCC embedded in the data will be identified by the MPC 107, the telephone numbers and their corresponding names will be linked and stored in the designated NNDMA 111.

Alternatively, this information, like other information, can also be packaged and sent directly to the receiver in un-modulated format by the aforementioned transmitter via the "input port" 105 by a user.

The names and numbers stored in the NNDMA 111 will be displayed when the Common Directory Key (CDK) is pressed, contents of the NNDMA can be searched and scrolled with the UP- 125 and DOWN- 126 Keys. The number which appears on the display can be sent by pressing the Common Dial Key (CDK) 123 which sends the number being shown on the display to the telephone switching network.

ii) "Priority-" and "Reject-Call" Directory Construction In a similar manner, a subscriber may prepare a list of "Priority" or "Reject" (call) names and numbers which can then be packaged with "Priority Call Instruction Codes" (PCIC) or "Reject Call Instruction Codes" (RCIC) and sent to the service centre which will transmit it/them back to subscriber terminals. The MPC 107 will then store the list of "Priority" and "Reject" (call) names and numbers into "Priority Calls Memory Area" (PCMA) 112 and "Reject Calls Memory Area" LRCMA) 113 respectively. As illustrated, the PCIC and RCIC are ** and ## respectively.Stored "Priority" or "Reject" names and numbers can be sequentially shown on the visual display means 108 by firstly pressing the "Common Priority Key" 117 or the "Common Reject Key" 118 and then the "UP-" 125 or "DOWN-" 126 keys to show the next or the previous names and numbers respectively. The shown number can also be dialed by pressing CDK 123.

B) CALLER IDENTIFICATION If there is an incoming call at the "caller port" 104, and no embedded instruction code is identified by the MPC 107 in the incoming data, this is an ordinary incoming call and the MPC 107 classifies the data as ordinary "Caller Identification". If only the number is present and no name is included in the incoming call, the MPC 107 will compare the received number with numbers already stored in the NNDMA of the memory 111. If an identical number is found, the name associated with the pre-stored number will be shown on the display means 108 together with the caller's number.

The incoming number will next be compared against a list of pre-stored names and numbers which have been classified as "priority", i.e. wanted, or "reject", i.e.

un-wanted calls, as mentioned in the paragraph ii) of section A). If an identical number is found in the PCMA 112, a special ringing signal will be generated to alert the user. If it is found in the RCMA 113, then no ringing signal is generated. Or other ringing signals or alert indicating means may be used.

C) NETWORK SPECIAL SERVICES CODES Similarly, as mentioned, there are so many special services provided by the phone company(s), and a particular subscriber may only be interested in a few of them only. Hence, to tailor make or furnish a list of those preferred service codes for a subscriber, and make the said service(s) easy to access is of great significance.

When the preferred Special Service Codes (SSC) with the relevant descriptions and their embedded instruction codes are sent by the service center and received by the MCU of the subscriber's receiver, in response to the embedded instruction codes, the MPC 107 will automatically store all the SSC's into NSSCMA 114 for subscriber facilities.

When the Common Service Key (CSK) 119 is pressed, SSC's stored in NSSCMA 114 will be sequentially retrieved and one SSC together with the assignment/description of service each time will be displayed on the display means 108. A user can sequentially display the content of NSSCMA by scrolling and displaying the stored SSC's by depressing, for example, the UP 125 or DOWN 126 key. If the desired SSC is located and shown on the display 108, user can then activate the service code being shown by pressing simply the Common Dial Key (CDK) 123.

To de-activate or terminate an already activated facility, the user can simply press the Common Cancelling Key (CCK) 121 while the indicator/description of an activated service is shown on display.

D) ONE-TOUCH DIALLING OF SPECIAL SERVICE CODE To further simplify the procedures involved in selecting and sending out SSC's, each embedded instruction code can further include a sub-address code, eg 1 or 2 or 3, ... or 11, which corresponds to the location numbers of one touch memory dialling key 131 to 1311, then when a SSC with its description/assignment and embedded instruction code is received, the MCU 107 will store the SSC with its description into one of the one-touch-memory dialling keys 131 to 1311 of Fig. 1 in accordance to the sub-address code of the instruction code. A user can then use onetouch-dialling for the service code(s).

E) MAIL BOX FACILITIES A designated area may be reserved and allocated for mail box utilities. When data received is embedded with mail box instruction code, the MPC 107 will store the message into a designated memory area 115 according to the embedded mail box instruction code. This designated memory area 115 may be further sub-divided into a number of specific memory sectors which will be allocated to mail-boxes with specific identifications or numbers. Received message will then be stored into the specific mail boxes if mail-box address codes are also provided with the incoming mail box embedded instruction code. The data stored in the mail-boxes may either be retrieved by simply pressing a Mail Box Key (MBK) 122 on the telephone terminal or be remotely retrieved by using the integrated transmitter-receiver set 300 which is programmed to access the memory area and retrieve data.

F) STORED DATA MAINTENANCE There is further provided a simplified data maintenance scheme which allows the user to remove data, for example, a stored name, telephone number, special service code or message, which is no longer necessary. The redundant data can be caused to be displayed on the visual display means 108, for example, by firstly pressing the Common Directory Key (CDK) 116, Common Priority Key 117, Common Reject Key 118 (CRK) or the Common Service Key (CSK) 119 and then pressing the "UP-" 125 and "DOWN-" 126 keys. The stored data corresponding to that being displayed can be caused to be deleted by simply pressing the "Common Delete Key" 121 which sends an instruction to instruct the MPC to delete the stored data corresponding to the one being shown.

The flowchart shown in figure 4 describes a preferred MPC data handling process. When incoming data is detected at the MPC ports, the MPC will firstly determine at steps 501-2 whether the data is present at the "input port" 105 or "caller port" 104. If at "input port" 105, the data contains data and embedded instruction codes originating from an aforementioned transmitter 200. The MPC will identify at steps 503-8 the embedded instruction code and then classify them as i) "Name-and Number", which contains information linking telephone numbers to particular names, ii) "Priority", iii) " Reject", iv) SSC's provided with sub-address codes for one-touch dialling, v) SSC's with no sub-address code for common key actuation or vi) "mailbox" codes and store them in the designated memory area accordingly.

If data is present at "caller port" 104, it originates from the T & R lines and may contain caller identification data accompanying incoming calls, data messages with instruction codes sent by the PSTN intended to be stored in the device for future use. The MPC then determines at step 509 whether the data contains embedded instruction codes. If no instruction code is identified, this is an incoming call which contains a caller number or number and name for caller identification. At steps 515-8, if only a number is identified, the MPC will compare the received number with telephone numbers already stored in the NNDMA, if an identical number is found, the name linked to that number in NNDMA will be appended to the incoming number for display purpose.After that, at steps 519-24, the number will be compared with those already stored in the "Priority" (PCMA) 113 and "Reject" (RCMA) 114 memory area. If an identical number is found in the "Priority" or "Reject" area, distinctive signals are generated at steps 521 and 524, signalling a "Priority" or "Reject" call. Otherwise, at step 525, this is an ordinary incoming call and ordinary ringing signals will be produced.

If embedded instruction codes are found at step 509, this signifies that the incoming data will be processed by the MPC by the steps 403-8, in the same way as previously mentioned where the data is input at "input port" 105.

For ease of understanding, in all the above examples the data storage means is organised into a plurality of pre-defined memory areas and the data received by the data receiving means is stored in a specific memory area in accordance with the nature of the embedded instruction code. As mentioned previously, the data storage means need not be divided into pre-defined areas but instead the data received can be grouped in accordance with the nature of the embedded instruction code.

Claims

1. A telephone or a telephone add-on device comprising, data receiving means, control means responsive to data received by said data receiving means and being adapted to recognise any instruction code embedded in said data, and processing means for processing said data in accordance with said instruction code, said processing means including data storage means.

2. A telephone or a telephone add-on device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said data storage means is organised into a plurality of pre-defined memory areas and said data received by said data receiving means is stored in a specific memory area in accordance with the nature of said instruction code.

3. A telephone or a telephone add-on device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said data recieved by said data receiving means is grouped within said data storage means in accordance with the nature of said instruction code.

4. A telephone or a telephone add-on device as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3 further comprising means for retrieving data from said data storage means.

5. A telephone or a telephone add-on device as claimed in claim 4 wherein said retrieved data may be transmitted as an out-going call signal.

6. A telephone or a telephone add-on device as claimed in claim 5 further comprising a visual display device.

7. A telephone or a telephone add-on device as claimed in claim 6 wherein said visual display device is adapted to display information relating to data received by said data receiving means.

8. A telephone or a telephone add-on device as claimed in claim 6 wherein said visual display device is adapted to display the contents of said data storage means.

9. A telephone or a telephone add-on device as claimed in claim 6 wherein said visual display device is adapted to display data retrieved from said data storage means.

10. A telephone or a telephone add-on device as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said data receiving means comprises means for receiving data transmitted by a telephone company on the telephone line.

11. A telephone or a telephone add-on device as claimed in any of claims 1 to 9 wherein said data receiving means comprises means for receiving data transmitted by a programmable data transmitting apparatus.

12. A method of pre-storing data in a telephone or a telephone add-on device comprising, transmitting said data together with an instruction code to said telephone or telephone add-on device, and storing said data in a data storage means in accordance with said instruction code.

13. A method as claimed in claim 12 wherein said data is stored in pre-defined memory areas in accordance with said instruction code.

14. A method as claimed in claim 12 wherein said data is grouped in said data storage means in accordance with said instruction code.

15. A method as claimed in any of claims 12 to 14 wherein said data may be retrieved from said data storage means.

16. A method as claimed in claim 15 wherein said retrieved data may be transmitted as an out-going call signal.

17. A method as claimed in any of claims 12 to 16 wherein said data is transmitted to said telephone or telephone add-on device by a telephone company on the telephone line.

18. A method as claimed in any of claims 12 to 16 wherein said data is transmitted to said telephone or telephone add-on device from a programmable data transmitting apparatus.

19. A method as claimed in any of claims 12 to 18 wherein said data comprises a special service code for activating a service offered by a telephone company.

20. A method as claimed in any of claims 12 to 18 wherein said data comprises a telephone number.

21. A telephone or a telephone add-on device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

22. A method of storing data in a telephone or a telephone add-on device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.