Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M1/00—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers
  • H04M1/26—Devices for calling a subscriber
  • H04M1/27—Devices whereby a plurality of signals may be stored simultaneously
  • H04M1/274—Devices whereby a plurality of signals may be stored simultaneously with provision for storing more than one subscriber number at a time, e.g. using toothed disc
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M1/00—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers
  • H04M1/26—Devices for calling a subscriber
  • H04M1/27—Devices whereby a plurality of signals may be stored simultaneously
  • H04M1/274—Devices whereby a plurality of signals may be stored simultaneously with provision for storing more than one subscriber number at a time, e.g. using toothed disc
  • H04M1/2745—Devices whereby a plurality of signals may be stored simultaneously with provision for storing more than one subscriber number at a time, e.g. using toothed disc using static electronic memories, e.g. chips
  • H04M1/27467—Methods of retrieving data
  • H04M1/2748—Methods of retrieving data by matching character strings

Definitions

• the invention concerns a method for locating stored entries in an electronic directory and a communication apparatus.
• the method may be performed by any type of communication 0 apparatus, which comprises telephones, facsimile machines, computers, electronic organizers and other devices.
• the method is especially suited to be incorporated in telephones of all kinds, such as mobile telephones, office desk phones, private branch exchange operator consoles and so on. 5
• the devices mentioned above typically comprise an electronic directory in which a plurality of entries is stored. Each entry contains the name of a person or institution, associated telephone and/or telefax numbers and possibly further 0 information.
• 30 entered may be quite long, such that a considerable amount of typing may be involved.
• name as used herein is to be interpreted as comprising all kinds of information which may serve to identify a person, institution or any other entity to be called.
• a name may comprise several parts, e.g. a first name, a last name, a title, and so on.
• the name field may be divided into subfields for storing these parts.
• the entered information may be matched to all subfields of the name fields or only to a selected subset thereof.
• the inventive method and apparatus allow the user to search and find a desired entry in the database even if only information concerning a part of the name to be called is entered. This is very convenient. The user may search for names which he does not remember completely. Only very few keypresses are required.
• the information entered initially by the user corresponds to one, two, three or four characters of the name to be searched. As soon as this predetermined amount of information is entered, it is preferably determined whether an entry in the directory is uniquely specified.
• each of these keys may correspond to one digit and a predefined set of characters. For example, one key may be labelled “8TUV” and may match the characters "T” , "U” and "V” in an entry of the directory.
• Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of a telephone apparatus according to the present invention
• Fig. 2 shows a flow diagram according to a first embodiment of the method of the invention
• Fig. 3 shows a flow diagram according to a second embodiment of the method of the invention.
• the method of the invention can be performed using any communication apparatus which has a display, a keyboard and a suitable control unit for storing and maintaining a directory.
• the keyboard may be a numeric keypad.
• a GSM mobile telephone is employed.
• the telephone is shown in Fig. 1. It includes a high frequency unit 10 for sending and receiving radio frequency over an antenna 12, and an audio frequency unit 14 coupled to the high frequency unit 10 as well as to a speaker 16 and a microphone 18.
• a processing unit 20 is coupled to the high frequency unit 10, the audio frequency unit 14, a memory 22, a numeric keypad 24, a visual LCD display 26 and a ring tone generator 28.
• the directory is stored in the memory 22. It contains a plurality of entries, each having a name field and an associated telephone number field. Each name field is divided into two subfields for holding a first name and a last name, respectively.
• the following table gives an example of such a directory, which will be used in the subsequent description:
• the numeric keypad 24, the processing unit 20 and the memory 22 form means for receiving information concerning a predefined number of characters of a name and means for receiving further information to locate a single entry from a set of identified entries.
• the processing unit 20 and the memory 22 form identifying means for identifying entries in the directory stored in the memory 22.
• the processing unit 20, the memory 22, the keypad 24 and the display 26 together form means for locating stored entries in the directory.
• a first sample embodiment of the method of the present invention which is shown in Fig. 2, exactly three keys on the keypad 24 are pressed in order to provide information concerning the first three letters of the first name subfield or the last name subfield.
• the corresponding key indications are received (box 30) and the directory is searched for entries with matching name fields (box 32) . It is then determined whether an entry has been uniquely identified (box 34) . If this is the case, the telephone number stored in this entry is dialled either automatically or by pressing a special dialling key or by selecting an appropriate menu option (box 40) .
• pressing the keys labelled “8TUV”, “6MNO” and “6MNO” in this order will uniquely match the character sequence "TON” in the first name field and will cause the number 01234-56789 to be recalled and dialled. If the entry "SAM WHITE" was not present in the sample directory, pressing the key sequence "9WXY”, “4GHI” and “4GHI” would also recall the number 01234-56789 since this sequence would uniquely match "WHI" in the last name field.
• the user may also press further digit keys to enter information about the subsequent characters of the names.
• the list of matching names is updated by the tele- phone. The user may continue typing further digit keys until an entry is uniquely identified, or he may at any point decide to select one of the shown entries manually.
• no list of matching names is shown if the name has not yet been uniquely identified. Instead, the user receives an indication that further information, i.e. further keypresses, are necessary in order to fully identify the name.
• the method of this embodiment is shown in Fig. 3, in which boxes 30, 32, 34 and 40 are the same as described above. Box 42 signifies the pressing of one further key. Box 44 denotes a searching process similar to that of box 32 with the exception that all information entered so far by the user is taken into account.
• the number of keys to be pressed before the search commences is different from three. In particular, this number may be one. Then a list of matching names is shown and updated after every single keypress.
• the "RECALL” key may also be used to distinguish dialling a number from accessing the directory.
• the key sequence "9WXY”, “4GHI” and “4GHI” may either signify that the user wants to dial the telephone number 944, or that he wants to search for a directory entry. Consequently, the user may be required to press either a "DIAL” key or the "RECALL" key after entering the above key sequence such that the appropriate action can be performed.
• the telephone can be put into a search mode by pressing the "RECALL" key before entering the search term.
• the key sequence "RECALL”, “9WXY”, “4GHI” and “4GHI” may be used to initiate a search. This special search mode is especially useful if the list of results is updated in response to every single keypress.

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• 1997
  • 1997-08-20 EP EP97937673A patent/EP1004195A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1997-08-20 WO PCT/GB1997/002226 patent/WO1999009729A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1997-08-20 KR KR1020007001638A patent/KR20010023028A/ko not_active Application Discontinuation

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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