CN1528097A - Communication device and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

Briefly, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a portable communication device may contain identification data associated with the origin or nature of an incoming communication. If the portable device recognizes the origin of the communication, a processor may adjust the receiving mode of the portable communication device.

Description

Communication device and method thereof

Background technique

The design of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) assumes that communications from originators to end stations (eg, receivers) are intended to be voice communications. Therefore, for other types of communications, additional steps may be necessary. For example, to send a facsimile message or a digital file, the receiver's operating mode may be changed to a facsimile transmission mode or a data-only mode.

However, the standards governing traditional telephone networks generally do not provide techniques for changing the mode of a communication device (eg, a wired or wireless telephone). Therefore, there is no general technique. One solution is to assign individual phone numbers to each device. However, the increase in the number of wired and wireless devices has nearly exhausted the ten-digit numbering scheme. Another technique involves two-level dialing, where the originator of a call dials one number to contact a group of devices (eg, a network), and then dials a second number to select a device on the network. A similar technique involves audio conversion. However, it is generally only available for fax communications.

Yet another technique involves pre-programmed calls. Here, a first call is made to verbally inform the called party that a non-speech-only call is coming. Thereafter, a second call is made, before which the originator has set up their system to switch services for the next incoming call. However, this technique is inconvenient for the originator and may fail if another caller sends a voice-only call to the receiver.

Therefore, there remains a need for a better way to change the receiving mode of a communication device according to the nature or type of the call being placed.

Brief description of the drawings

The inventive subject matter is particularly set forth and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. However, a better understanding of the construction and operation of the invention, together with its objects, features and advantages, may be better understood by reference to the detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a block diagram representing an embodiment of a system of the present invention; and

Figure 2 is a flowchart illustrating the method of one embodiment of the present invention.

It should be understood that, for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements are exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.

Detailed description

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In addition, well-known methods, procedures, components and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the present invention.

Portions of the following detailed description are presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits or binary digital signals within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the techniques used by those skilled in the data processing arts to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art.

An algorithm is here, and generally, considered to be a self-contained sequence of acts or operations leading to a desired result. They include physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like. It should be understood, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be related to the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, as will be apparent from the following discussion, it should be understood that throughout the discussion of this specification, terms such as "processing," "computing," "calculating," "determining," and the like are used to refer to a computer or The action and/or processing of a computing system, or similar electronic computing equipment, which processes and/or converts data expressed in physical quantities, such as electricity, in registers and/or memories of the computing system into A system's memory, registers, or other such information stores, transmits, or displays other data in a device that is also expressed in physical quantities.

Embodiments of the invention may include means for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the desired purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computing device that is selectively activated or reconfigured by a program stored in the device. Such programs may be stored on a storage medium such as, but not limited to, any type of disk, including floppy disks, compact disks, CD-ROMs, magneto-optical disks, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), electrically programmable Read memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic or optical card, or any other type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions and capable of being coupled to a system bus for a computing device.

The processing and display presented herein is not inherently tied to any particular computing device or other apparatus. Various general purpose systems may be used in conjunction with programs in light of the teachings herein, or it may be convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the desired methods. The desired structure for a variety of such systems will appear from the description below. Additionally, embodiments of the present invention are not described with respect to any particular programming language. It should be understood that various programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the invention described herein.

In the following description and claims, the terms "couple" and "connection," along with their derivatives, may be used. It should be understood that these terms are not intended as synonyms for each other. Also, in certain embodiments, "connected" may be used to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other. "Coupled" may also mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact. However, "coupled" may also mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.

The types of cellular radiotelephone communication systems contemplated to be within the scope of the present invention include Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA) cellular radiotelephone communication systems, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) cellular radiotelephone systems, North American Digital Cellular ( NADC) cellular radiotelephone system, time division multiple access (TDMA) system, extended TDMA (E-TDMA) cellular radiotelephone system, etc., but not limited to these types.

Referring to Figure 1, an embodiment 100 of the present invention is illustrated. Embodiment 100 may include devices such as mobile communication devices (e.g., cellular telephones), duplex wireless communication systems, simplex pagers, duplex pagers, personal communication systems (PCS), portable computers, other types of data terminal equipment (DTE), etc. communication device 10 . It should be understood, however, that the scope and application of the present invention is in no way limited to these examples or to wireless applications in general. In other embodiments, device 10 may be a wired communication device, such as a telephone, fax machine, printer, data storage device, and the like. Additionally, embodiments of the present invention may be used with terminal stations. In these embodiments, communication device 10 may include one or more peripheral devices (eg, fax machines, printers, etc.) that provide different types of originating and/or terminating services.

The communication device 10 here may include a processor 15 , a memory 20 and a transceiver 25 . Processor 15 may include, for example, a microprocessor, digital signal processor, microcontroller, etc., although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect. As explained in more detail below, processor 15 may, among other functions, adjust the communication reception mode of communication device 10 based on characteristic or identification data associated with the incoming communication. For example, processor 15 may change communication device 10 from a voice-only communication mode to a data-only communication mode, although the scope of the invention is not limited in this respect. In a specific embodiment, a communication mode or a reception mode may refer to how a communication device is configured according to the type of service of an incoming call. It should be understood that the scope of the present invention is not limited by "receiving" to mean only the flow of data from the originating party (eg, calling party) to the terminating station (eg, receiver). Data may also flow from the receiver to the sender, even if the receiver is not making a call.

Memory 20 may comprise a variety of different memory types including, but not limited to, volatile memory (such as, for example, Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), etc.) or non-volatile memory (such as, for example, Flash memory, EEPROM , EPROM, etc.). Among other functions, the memory 20 may be used to store identification data indicating the reception mode or communication mode to be used by the communication device 10 depending on the origin of the incoming communication. Although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect, memory 20 may include a table storing at least a portion of identification data relating to an origin or originator of an incoming communication.

Calling Party Number Receive Mode

800-555-1111 Data only

800-555-1112 Route to fax machine

800-555-1113 Route to printer

800-555-1114 Routing to Voicemail

800-555-1115 Dual Voice/Data Mode

800-555-1116 Data Only

800-555-1117 Data only

Table 1

Table 1 is provided to illustrate one example of data that may be stored in memory 20 . As shown in the table, the reception mode of the communication device 10 can be changed according to the type or origin of the incoming call. Although the scope of the present invention is not limited to these examples, the receive mode of communication device 10 may be a data-only mode, a video-only mode, a voice-only mode, an Internet connection-only mode, or any combination of these modes. Alternatively, communication device 10 may reroute incoming calls to other devices. For example, communication device 10 may route calls to fax machines, printers, storage media, etc., although the scope of the invention is not limited thereto. In the embodiment shown in Table 1, the identification data stored in the calling party's number (CPN, calling party's number) is available in most wired or wireless communication systems.

On the other hand, it should be understood that the table or data stored in the memory 20 may only include a portion of the identification data relating to the origin or type of the incoming call. For example, memory 20 may only store the area number, prefix, or some other sub-item of the calling party's identification number. Alternatively, memory 20 may store other identifying data (eg, name, network identification number, IP address, etc.) that may hint at the origin, service type, or nature of the incoming communication.

In a wireless embodiment, transceiver 25 may be used to receive and transmit messages in communications using radio frequency technology (RF), such as CDMA, TDMA, GSM, etc., although the scope of the invention is not limited in this respect. Transceiver 25 may also decode or otherwise determine identification data relating to the origin or type of call. For example, transceiver 25 may determine a calling party number (CPN). In this particular embodiment, the communication device 10 can send and receive messages from a base station 40 which in turn receives and sends messages from a mobile switching center (MSC) 60 .

MSC 60 may be used to control which base station is used to communicate with communication device 10. MSC 60 may also allow communication device 10 to interface with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). This may enable communication device 10 to communicate with originating devices 100-101. Devices 100 - 101 may represent wired or wireless devices that initiate communications with communication device 10 . For example, originating devices 100-101 may be wired or wireless telephones, networks, fax machines, data storage devices, Internet service providers, etc., although the scope of the present invention is not limited to these examples. The MSC 60 may also be coupled with an interworking function (IWF) 80 and data communication equipment (DCE) 81 (eg, a modem), which the MSC 60 uses to communicate according to the communication type.

Although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect, communication device 10 may also include a memory 50 operable to store instructions for execution by processor 15 . Memory 50 may be any type of memory, including any type of volatile or non-volatile memory. In addition, it should be understood that memory 50 may be either external or internal to processor 15 and communication device 10 .

Referring to FIG. 2 , a method for adjusting the communication mode of the communication device 10 according to a specific embodiment of the present invention is provided. First, a user of the communication device 10 may program the device by indicating what reception mode to use if an incoming communication with a particular CPN is detected, block 200 . For example, the user may enter a telephone number or other identifying data associated with the sender and then indicate which receiving mode is to be used. In another embodiment, the communication device 10 may be programmed at the manufacturer, or may be programmed by loading data from a service provider. It should be understood, however, that the scope of the present invention is not limited to a particular technique for programming communication device 10 .

Thereafter, the communication device 10 may receive an indication that there is an incoming call, block 201 . For example, MSC 60 may use base station 40 to notify communication device 10 that there will be a call from the PSTN. As part of this notification, communication device 10 may receive information that may be used to indicate the origin or nature of the incoming communication. The communication device 10 may then determine whether the identification data matches any of the stored data, block 203 . If the identification data (e.g., CPN) matches any of the data stored in memory 20, processor 15 may adjust the receive mode of communication device 10, or reroute the call to another device coupled to communication device 10 (e.g. , fax machine, printer, data storage device, etc.), block 204.

However, if the identification data associated with the incoming call does not match, the communication device 10 may be programmed to receive in a default mode, eg a voice-only mode, block 205 . Alternatively, if the incoming communication does not contain any calling party identification data, the communication device 10 may assume there is no match and initiate a voice-only communication. Once the communication receiving mode of the communication device 10 has been set, communication with the sender can be performed.

In other embodiments, the communication device 10 may also be programmed to change the receive mode regardless of the identification associated with the incoming call. For example, the user may wish to program the communication device 10 so that even if all or a portion of the CPN matches data stored in the communication device 10, it does not change its communication mode based on the calling party's number. It is also possible to program the communication device 10 into a "one-shot" mode in which the device's mode Set to a specific mode for the next call. Additionally, the communications device 10 may set a decremented counter value if a particular CPN is matched. This can be used to program the communication device 10 to use a particular receive mode for a predetermined number of calls.

An advantage of particular embodiments of the present invention is that the reception mode of a communication device can be changed without requiring any changes to the communication network (eg, PSTN). Because calling party identification data is available in many existing systems, embodiments of the present invention can be implemented independent of existing infrastructure. Additionally, particular embodiments may reduce the burden on the originator of a call to inform the communication device of the nature of the incoming communication.

While certain features of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes and equivalents will occur to those skilled in the art. For example, the transmission mode of the communication device may be changed according to the destination of the outgoing call from the communication device. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention.

Claims (27)

1. portable communication device comprises:

The non-volatility memorizer that the identification data of the origin of having indicated at least one communication sources is stored; With

With the processor of non-volatility memorizer coupling, wherein, processor can change the communication pattern of portable communication device at least in part according to the part of identification data.

2. portable communication device as claimed in claim 1, wherein, processor can change to data private communication pattern from voice private communication pattern with portable communication device.

3. portable communication device as claimed in claim 1, wherein, non-volatility memorizer comprises flash memory.

4. portable communication device as claimed in claim 1, wherein, described identification data comprises at least a portion of caller number.

5. portable communication device as claimed in claim 4, wherein, portable communication device can also be determined the identification number of calling party.

6. portable communication device as claimed in claim 5, wherein, processor can determine that whether the identification number of calling party is corresponding to the data that are stored in the non-volatility memorizer.

7. portable communication device as claimed in claim 1, wherein, described identification data has been indicated the communication from PSTN.

8. device comprises:

The memory of at least a portion of the identification number of at least two calling party of storage; With

Whether the part that can determine the caller identification number is corresponding at least one the processor in two caller identification numbers.

9. device as claimed in claim 8, wherein, processor can also come the receiving mode of modifier to small part according to the number of the calling party of communication.

10. device as claimed in claim 8, wherein, memory can be stored the user data of the receiving mode of this device of having indicated the identification number that is used at least two calling party.

11. a device that comprises processor, wherein, processor can be according to the communications reception pattern of the source data modifier relevant with entering communication.

12. device as claimed in claim 11 also comprises being used at least one user data that plays the communications reception pattern of source data and carrying out memory storing having indicated.

13. device as claimed in claim 12, wherein, described source data packet drawn together at least a portion of caller number.

14. a method comprises:

Store data in communication equipment, wherein, this data indication will be used for the receiving mode that at least one enters communication.

15. method as claimed in claim 14 also comprises:

Reception enters communication, and this enters the data that communication comprises the characteristic of having indicated this communication; And

Adjust the receiving mode of communication equipment.

16. method as claimed in claim 15 also comprises and will indicate the data of the characteristic of communication to compare with the data that are stored in the communication equipment.

17. method as claimed in claim 15 wherein, receives and to enter communication and comprise and receiving and the communicating by letter of Wireless Telecom Equipment.

18. method as claimed in claim 15 wherein, receives and to enter communication and comprise and receiving and the communicating by letter of wire communication facility.

19. method as claimed in claim 15 wherein, receives and enters the caller number that communication comprises that reception is relevant with communication.

20. method as claimed in claim 15, wherein, the receiving mode of adjusting communication equipment comprises changes into the data dedicated mode with receiving mode.

21. method as claimed in claim 15, wherein, the receiving mode of adjusting communication equipment comprises and is routed to another communication equipment with entering communication.

22. method as claimed in claim 21, wherein, route enters communication and comprises that handle enters communication equipment and is routed to facsimile machine.

23. method as claimed in claim 21, wherein, route enters communication and comprises that handle enters communication equipment and is routed to printer.

24. method as claimed in claim 21, wherein, route enters communication and comprises that handle enters communication equipment and is routed to voice-mail system.

25. goods comprise the storage medium that stores instruction thereon, when being carried out by computing platform, instruction will cause:

According to the receiving mode that source data is adjusted communication equipment that rises that offers communication equipment.

26. goods as claimed in claim 25, wherein, instruction also causes communication equipment is changed to the data dedicated mode from the voice dedicated mode.

27. goods as claimed in claim 25, wherein, instruction also causes:

The receiving mode of communication equipment is changed to second pattern from first pattern; And

After entering sign off, the receiving mode of communication equipment is changed to first pattern from second pattern.

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