Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W88/00—Devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations or access point devices
  • H04W88/02—Terminal devices
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M1/00—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers
  • H04M1/72—Mobile telephones; Cordless telephones, i.e. devices for establishing wireless links to base stations without route selection
  • H04M1/725—Cordless telephones
  • H04M1/72502—Cordless telephones with one base station connected to a single line
  • H04M1/72505—Radio link set-up procedures
  • H04M1/72513—On hold, intercom or transfer communication modes

Definitions

• a cellular phone user may receive a call while in a situation where it may not convenient for the user to talk.
• the user may be in a quite environment (e.g., a movie theater) where the user may not able
• the user may be in an environment where it may be
• FIG. 1 is an illustration of a portable communication device in accordance with an embodiment the present invention
• FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
• FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of at least a portion of a portable communication device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
• determining refers to the action and/or processes of a computer
• computing system or computing system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulate and/or transform data represented as physical, such as electronic, quantities within the computing system's registers and/or memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computing system's memories, registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
• This apparatus may be specially constructed for the desired purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose
• Such a computer program may be stored in a computer
• readable storage medium such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk
• floppy disks including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, magnetic-optical disks, readonly memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), electrically
• EPROMs programmable read-only memories
• EEPROMs electrically erasable and programmable read only memories
• magnetic or optical cards or
• Embodiments of the present invention may include portable communication devices (e.g., cell phones, wireless communication devices, etc.).
• Types of cellular radiotelephone communication systems intended to fall within the scope of the present invention include, although not limited to, 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 systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, and Extended-TDMA (E-TDMA) cellular radiotelephone systems, and the like.
• DS-CDMA Direct Sequence - Code Division Multiple Access
• GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
• NADC North American Digital Cellular
• TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
• E-TDMA Extended-TDMA
• Embodiment 100 may comprise a portable communication device 110 such as a mobile communication device (e.g., cell phone), a two-way radio communication system, a one-way pager, a two-way pager, a personal communication system (PCS), a portable computer, or the like.
• a mobile communication device e.g., cell phone
• PCS personal communication system
• a portable computer or the like.
• portable communication device 110 may provide a user with the ability to temporarily place an incoming call on hold until the user desires to accept the call.
• a display 50 may provide identification information associated with the origin of the call. If a user is temporarily unable to talk (e.g., the user may be temporarily busy, may be in a quiet environment, such as a theater, or in a noisy environment, such as an airport), the user may enable an auto-answer feature by depressing an Auto-Answer Hold (AAH) button 25, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect.
• AAH Auto-Answer Hold
• a prerecorded message may be transmitted by portable communication device 110 notifying the caller that the user is temporarily unable to talk.
• the user may select from a variety of prerecorded messages that are either associated with AAH button 25 or feature buttons 20-21.
• call e.g., caller ID
• caller ID e.g., caller ID
• the user may use the identification
• the user may also use the identification information to decide whether to take the call, ignore the call, or to temporarily place the call on hold with an auto-answer hold feature.
• the user may also use the identification information to decide to
• the user may decide to transfer the incoming call to voicemail by enabling this option on portable communication device 1 10, block 214.
• portable communication device 1 10 may acknowledge the call from the communication system, block 203. At this point, the user may have the
• the user may decide not to enable the auto-answer mode, but rather, decide to talk with the caller, block 205, if the talk feature is enabled, block 208.
• the user may also decide not to enable the auto-answer feature and
• the microphone may be muted
• a predetermined message may be transmitted by the portable communication device, block 207.
• a prerecorded message such as
• the portable communication device may be transmitted from the portable communication device depending on such factors as how formal or casual is the greeting, how long the user expects the call to be on hold, or on the nature of the call as suggested by the
• transmitted may be selected by the user, or alternatively, may be determined by predefined rules that the user may have created. For example, the user may customize the portable communication device so that calls received from particular callers, or received at particular times of the day, result in one
• a timer may be set to record how long the hold message is transmitted by the portable communication device.
• the hold time may be presented to the user, for example, through display 50 of portable communication
• the communication device may transmit additional messages (e.g., a heartbeat message) that reminds the caller that they are temporarily on hold.
• additional messages e.g., a heartbeat message
• the portable communication device may periodically repeat the original hold message that was transmitted when the auto-answer
• the user may decide to then transfer the incoming call to voicemail, blocks 21 1 and 214. For example, the user may change his mind about
• portable communication device 1 10 may permit the caller to transfer from hold to the user's voicemail by pressing a button (e.g., the "#" button).
• the user may continue to keep the incoming call on hold as long as desired. If the auto-answer mode is still enabled, block 21 2, the portable communication device may continue to
• the user may disable the auto-answer feature and enable the talk feature on the portable communication device, block 21 3. It should be understood, however, that the user need not disable the auto-answer
• portable communication device 1 10 may include
• a receiver 40 may receive an incoming communication from a communication system (e.g., a base station). Receiver 40 may then provide all or part of the incoming message to a processor 10 that may comprise, for example, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor, a microcontroller, or the like. However, it should be understood that the scope of the present invention is not limited to these examples.
• Portable communication device 110 may also include feature buttons 20, 25, and 21 , labeled Fund , Func2, and Func3, respectively.
• Feature buttons 20, 25, and 21 may be used to enable an auto-answer hold feature in accordance with the method illustrated in FIG. 2.
• feature button 25 may be used to enable the auto-answer mode
• feature buttons 20-21 may be used to select the prerecorded message to be transmitted while the caller is on hold, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect.
• Feature buttons 20, 25, and 21 may provide processor 10 with control signals, labeled Func1_sig, Func2_sig, and Func3_sig, to indicate the choices made by the user.
• portable communication device 110 may transmit one or more predetermined messages.
• portable communication device 110 may comprise a speech control subsystem 60 that, among other things, may select the source for the outgoing message to be transmitted by a transmitter 70.
• speech control subsystem 60 may select a prerecorded message stored in a memory 80 or transmit the message provided by the user through a microphone 90, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect.
• portable communication device 110 transmits a predetermined message stored in memory 80, it may be desirable to mute or disconnect microphone 90 from speech control subsystem 60 so that noise from the user or the environment may not transmitted while the caller is on hold.
• memory 80 may comprise a flash memory array that stores one or more predetermined messages that may be transmitted while an incoming call is on hold.
• memory 80 may be a variety of storage devices (e.g., readonly memory, electrically erasable and programmable read only memory (EEPROM), and the like) and may also store information other than the messages to be transmitted during when the auto-answer hold feature is
• memory 80 may also store the program instructions
• memory 80 may store the message or messages previously recorded
• Memory 80 may also store generic messages that may be prerecorded by others. For example, memory 80 may store messages
• memory 80 may store two or more messages (e.g., a plurality).
• the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect as
• memory 80 may store a single message.
• Portable communication device 1 10 may also comprise a timer 55 that may be used to record how long the auto-answer hold feature as been
• the hold time along with identification information associated with the origin of the incoming call, may be presented to the user on display 50, although the scope of the present invention is not
• present invention provides a method by which an incoming call from a communication system to a portable communication device may be placed on hold. This may allow the user to relocate to an environment that is more suitable to talk with the caller.
• One advantage of particular embodiments of the present invention is that the portable communication device may transmit
• the auto-answer hold feature may be provided independently from the communication system.
• the auto-answer hold feature may be provided independently of the

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (1)

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• 2001
  • 2001-04-20 TW TW090109535A patent/TWI238015B/zh not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2001-06-07 WO PCT/US2001/018693 patent/WO2002003734A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2001-06-07 CN CN01814606.6A patent/CN1232147C/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2001-06-07 EP EP01944402A patent/EP1297713A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2001-06-07 AU AU2001266817A patent/AU2001266817A1/en not_active Abandoned

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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