WO2003065705A1 - A method for providing a signal to be output by a telephone for indicating an incoming call - Google Patents

A method for providing a signal to be output by a telephone for indicating an incoming call Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2003065705A1
WO2003065705A1 PCT/EP2001/015334 EP0115334W WO03065705A1 WO 2003065705 A1 WO2003065705 A1 WO 2003065705A1 EP 0115334 W EP0115334 W EP 0115334W WO 03065705 A1 WO03065705 A1 WO 03065705A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
tones
telephone
tone
characteristic
audio information
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/EP2001/015334
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Jochen Marx
Original Assignee
Nokia Corporation
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Nokia Corporation filed Critical Nokia Corporation
Priority to PCT/EP2001/015334 priority Critical patent/WO2003065705A1/en
Publication of WO2003065705A1 publication Critical patent/WO2003065705A1/en

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M19/00—Current supply arrangements for telephone systems
    • H04M19/02—Current supply arrangements for telephone systems providing ringing current or supervisory tones, e.g. dialling tone or busy tone
    • H04M19/04—Current supply arrangements for telephone systems providing ringing current or supervisory tones, e.g. dialling tone or busy tone the ringing-current being generated at the substations
    • H04M19/041—Encoding the ringing signal, i.e. providing distinctive or selective ringing capability
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M1/00—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers
    • H04M1/57—Arrangements for indicating or recording the number of the calling subscriber at the called subscriber's set
    • H04M1/575—Means for retrieving and displaying personal data about calling party
    • H04M1/578—Means for retrieving and displaying personal data about calling party associated with a synthesized vocal announcement
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M1/00—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers
    • H04M1/57—Arrangements for indicating or recording the number of the calling subscriber at the called subscriber's set
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M19/00—Current supply arrangements for telephone systems
    • H04M19/02—Current supply arrangements for telephone systems providing ringing current or supervisory tones, e.g. dialling tone or busy tone
    • H04M19/04—Current supply arrangements for telephone systems providing ringing current or supervisory tones, e.g. dialling tone or busy tone the ringing-current being generated at the substations
    • H04M19/047—Vibrating means for incoming calls

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a method for providing a signal to be output by a telephone for indicating an incoming call.
  • a telephone outputs an acoustical signal, i.e. a ringing tone for indi- eating an incoming call.
  • This ringing tone that is generated by a tone generator can be usually modified in loudness and frequency in conventional wired telephones.
  • Mobile telephones usually provides the possibility to select one of a plurality of melodies that will be output as ringing tone. Further, it is possible to get new melodies as ringing tones from the website of the manufacture of the mobile telephone.
  • each incoming call usually will be indicated with the same ringing tone.
  • the user of the telephone has to look at the telephone display to learn who is calling.
  • the telephone number of a calling party is separated first from an incoming signal, then audio information is selected in accordance with the digits of the separated telephone number and thereafter the selected audio information is put in sequence to form a sequence of audio information that can be used as an acoustical signal, i.e. as ringing signal for indicating an incoming call.
  • each digit is assigned characteristic tone as audio information and the selected tones are put in sequence to form a tone sequence used as ringing tone, wherein the characteristic tones are dual tone multi-frequency tones, i.e. DTMF tones which are also used as dialing tones.
  • the characteristic tones assigned to the digits are tones individually configured wherein the individually configured tones may be special single tones or special short sequences of tones, i.e. short melodies. This means that for each of the 10 possible phone number digits, a special tone or even a special short melody can be selected. This leads to a personal configuration of the ringing tone of the telephone. If melodies are use to be assigned to the digits such melodies could be composed individually or provided by the mobile phone manufacturer.
  • each character of an alphabet is assigned a characteristic tone as audio information, that a telephone book entry is retrieved in accordance with the separated telephone number, and that tones selected in accordance with the telephone book entry retrieved are put in sequence to form a tone sequence used as ringing tone.
  • a number of digits of the separated telephone number is used to select a characteristic announcement output prior to or instead of a ringing tone provided in accordance with the separated telephone number.
  • the name of the calling party is announced if it is possible to get the name from a respective telephone book entry.
  • an announcement can be also selected in accordance with a leading sequence of digits of the separated telephone number so that, e.g. the country where the caller stays can be derived from the country code and announced or a corresponding city may be derived from an area code.
  • each digit is assigned a characteristic graphical element to be output on a display of the telephone.
  • each digit of the separated telephone number is assigned a characteristic vibration frequency that modifies the vibration frequency of a vibrator used to output a tactile signal indicating an incoming call. Therefore, it is possible to distinguish different callers even if the telephone, in particular the mobile telephone is switched into a silent operating mode where an incoming call is indicated by a vibration of the telephone, since the telephone is vibrating in a different way depending on the telephone number of the calling party.
  • the single figure of the drawing shows a simplified schematic block diagram of a circuit for outputting a ringing signal.
  • a circuit for providing a ringing signal i.e. an acousti- cal, optical, and /or a tactile alarm signal for indicating an incoming call
  • a telephone number extracting circuit 10 that firstly separates so called header information from an incoming base band signal of the calling party. Then, the phone number of the calling party is extracted from the header information and send to a ringing mode selecting circuit 1 1 that is controlled by a control signal CS supplied to the ringing mode selecting circuit 1 1 in accordance to an operating profile of the telephone.
  • the ringing mode selecting circuit forward the telephone number selectively to a tone generator circuit 12, a display control unit 13 and /or to a vibration frequency generating circuit 14.
  • a memory 15 for storing audio information, optical information and vibration frequency information is respectively connected to the tone generator, display control and vibration frequency generating circuits 12, 13, 14.
  • a loudspeaker 16 is connected to the tone generator circuit 12 for outputting audio information, in particular ringing tones.
  • a display 17 is connected to the display control unit 13 for outputting optical information and a vibrator 18 is connected to the vibration frequency generating circuit 14 for indicating an incoming call by means of a tactile ringing signal.
  • each of the 10 possible digits of telephone numbers is assigned a piece of audio informa- tion that is stored in memory 15.
  • These different pieces of audio information may be DTMF tones that are assigned to the digits in the same manner as used for dialing. However, every other assignment pattern can be used. Further, the pieces of audio information can be also other individual tones or short melodies.
  • the specific melody according to the incoming tele- phone number the telephones can be personalized by using different tone sets for generating telephone number melodies.
  • the display 17 can show different graphical pattern in accordance with different telephone numbers so that each telephone number causes an individual pattern on the display beside the telephone number that is also displayed.
  • a default ringing tone is used that is either preselected from available melodies or generated from a given or predetermined sequence of digits so that the user knows that an unknown party is calling.
  • a ringing tone not directly from a telephone number, but from a telephone book entry associated therewith.
  • each character of an alphabet is assigned a characteristic tone, e.g. a tone similar to DTMF tones. Therefore, a telephone book entry like a name of another subscriber, that can be retrieved in accordance with the separated telephone number from a telephone book, can be transferred in a short melodie that can be used as ringing tone. For generating such a short melodie by putting in sequence tones selected in accordance with the telephone book entry a greater number of different tones can be provided.

Abstract

The present invention realtes to a method for providinga singal to be output by a telephone for indicating an incoming call. To enable the user of a telephone to recognize who is calling the method comprises the steps of: separating the telephone number of a calling party from an incoming signal, selecting audio information in accordance with the digits of the separated telephone number, and putting the selected audio information in sequence to form a sequence of audio information to be used as acoustical signal for indication the incoming call.

Description

A method for providing a signal to be output by a telephone for indicating an incoming call
Description
The present invention relates to a method for providing a signal to be output by a telephone for indicating an incoming call.
Usually a telephone outputs an acoustical signal, i.e. a ringing tone for indi- eating an incoming call. This ringing tone that is generated by a tone generator can be usually modified in loudness and frequency in conventional wired telephones.
Mobile telephones usually provides the possibility to select one of a plurality of melodies that will be output as ringing tone. Further, it is possible to get new melodies as ringing tones from the website of the manufacture of the mobile telephone.
However, even if it is possible to select one specific ringing tone from a plu- rality of ringing tones each incoming call usually will be indicated with the same ringing tone. Thus, the user of the telephone has to look at the telephone display to learn who is calling.
Recently, the users of telephones in particular the users of mobile telephones more and more desire to recognize who is calling without looking at the display. For solving this problem conventional telephones provide the possibility of individual configuring ringing tones for specified phone numbers or for subsets of phone numbers. Using this feature the telephone can be configured, in such a way that e.g. a general ringing tone may be used for unknown callers, two other different ringing tones may be respectively used for known business callers and private callers. Further, it is also possible to assign a specific ringing tone to a very specific telephone number. Therefore, the users of telephone configured as describe above have some idea who is calling when their telephones are ringing.
However, it is impossible to configure all possible telephone numbers to individual ringing tones with the conventional method described above. Summary of the invention
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for generating a signal to be output by a telephone for indicating an incoming call that enables the user to recognize who is calling.
This object is complished by the method according to claim 1. Further developments and refinements of the present invention are described in the dependent claims.
According to the present invention the telephone number of a calling party is separated first from an incoming signal, then audio information is selected in accordance with the digits of the separated telephone number and thereafter the selected audio information is put in sequence to form a sequence of audio information that can be used as an acoustical signal, i.e. as ringing signal for indicating an incoming call.
Therefore, it is possible to assign a specific piece of audio information to each telephone number so that the user of the telephone can distinguish the dif- ferent ringing tones and can learn to recognize who is calling since each telephone number is assigned a very specific piece of audio information.
According to a preferred development of the present invention each digit is assigned characteristic tone as audio information and the selected tones are put in sequence to form a tone sequence used as ringing tone, wherein the characteristic tones are dual tone multi-frequency tones, i.e. DTMF tones which are also used as dialing tones.
In this way it is possible to create a short characteristic melody for each tele- phone number in a very simple way at low costs because a tone generator for generating the DTMF tones is included in each telephone and the tones as such are already stored.
However, it is also possible that the characteristic tones assigned to the digits are tones individually configured wherein the individually configured tones may be special single tones or special short sequences of tones, i.e. short melodies. This means that for each of the 10 possible phone number digits, a special tone or even a special short melody can be selected. This leads to a personal configuration of the ringing tone of the telephone. If melodies are use to be assigned to the digits such melodies could be composed individually or provided by the mobile phone manufacturer.
Consequently, it is possible to configure different telephones in a different way so that the ringing tones of them sound different even if the telephones are called by the same calling party using the same telephone.
Another refinement of the present invention is characterized in that each character of an alphabet is assigned a characteristic tone as audio information, that a telephone book entry is retrieved in accordance with the separated telephone number, and that tones selected in accordance with the telephone book entry retrieved are put in sequence to form a tone sequence used as ringing tone.
Furthermore, it is possible that a number of digits of the separated telephone number is used to select a characteristic announcement output prior to or instead of a ringing tone provided in accordance with the separated telephone number. In particular, the name of the calling party is announced if it is possible to get the name from a respective telephone book entry.
Furthermore, an announcement can be also selected in accordance with a leading sequence of digits of the separated telephone number so that, e.g. the country where the caller stays can be derived from the country code and announced or a corresponding city may be derived from an area code.
In addition, according to another development of the present invention each digit is assigned a characteristic graphical element to be output on a display of the telephone.
At least, it is also possible that each digit of the separated telephone number is assigned a characteristic vibration frequency that modifies the vibration frequency of a vibrator used to output a tactile signal indicating an incoming call. Therefore, it is possible to distinguish different callers even if the telephone, in particular the mobile telephone is switched into a silent operating mode where an incoming call is indicated by a vibration of the telephone, since the telephone is vibrating in a different way depending on the telephone number of the calling party.
Brief description of the drawing
The invention will be explained in more detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawing.
The single figure of the drawing shows a simplified schematic block diagram of a circuit for outputting a ringing signal.
Detailed description of the preferred embodiments
As shown in Figure 1 a circuit for providing a ringing signal, i.e. an acousti- cal, optical, and /or a tactile alarm signal for indicating an incoming call, comprises a telephone number extracting circuit 10 that firstly separates so called header information from an incoming base band signal of the calling party. Then, the phone number of the calling party is extracted from the header information and send to a ringing mode selecting circuit 1 1 that is controlled by a control signal CS supplied to the ringing mode selecting circuit 1 1 in accordance to an operating profile of the telephone. The ringing mode selecting circuit forward the telephone number selectively to a tone generator circuit 12, a display control unit 13 and /or to a vibration frequency generating circuit 14.
A memory 15 for storing audio information, optical information and vibration frequency information is respectively connected to the tone generator, display control and vibration frequency generating circuits 12, 13, 14.
A loudspeaker 16 is connected to the tone generator circuit 12 for outputting audio information, in particular ringing tones. Similarly, a display 17 is connected to the display control unit 13 for outputting optical information and a vibrator 18 is connected to the vibration frequency generating circuit 14 for indicating an incoming call by means of a tactile ringing signal.
According to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention each of the 10 possible digits of telephone numbers is assigned a piece of audio informa- tion that is stored in memory 15. These different pieces of audio information may be DTMF tones that are assigned to the digits in the same manner as used for dialing. However, every other assignment pattern can be used. Further, the pieces of audio information can be also other individual tones or short melodies.
Furthermore, it is also possible to assign specific audio information to a subset of digits of the telephone number, for example the country code or the area code with specific audio information.
Therefore, it is possible to generate an individual ringing tone on the basis of the calling parties telephone number so that the ringing tone of all telephone numbers sound different.
These different ringing tones enable the user to recognize who is calling even if he/she has no chance to look at the display.
Since not only DTMF tones but also any other suitable tones can be use for generating ringing tone, the specific melody according to the incoming tele- phone number the telephones can be personalized by using different tone sets for generating telephone number melodies.
Similarly, it is possible to generate a specific vibration frequency pattern for each telephone number so that a vibrator driven in accordance with the vi- bration frequency supplied from the vibration frequency generating circuit 14 vibrates in different ways.
At least, the display 17 can show different graphical pattern in accordance with different telephone numbers so that each telephone number causes an individual pattern on the display beside the telephone number that is also displayed.
In case that the incoming signal does not include the telephone number of the calling party a default ringing tone is used that is either preselected from available melodies or generated from a given or predetermined sequence of digits so that the user knows that an unknown party is calling. According to another embodiment of the present invention, it is also possible to derive a ringing tone not directly from a telephone number, but from a telephone book entry associated therewith. In this case each character of an alphabet is assigned a characteristic tone, e.g. a tone similar to DTMF tones. Therefore, a telephone book entry like a name of another subscriber, that can be retrieved in accordance with the separated telephone number from a telephone book, can be transferred in a short melodie that can be used as ringing tone. For generating such a short melodie by putting in sequence tones selected in accordance with the telephone book entry a greater number of different tones can be provided.

Claims

Claims
1. A method for providing a signal to be output by a telephone for indicating an incoming call comprising the steps of: - separating the telephone number of a calling party from an incoming signal, selecting audio information in accordance with the digits of the separated telephone number, and putting the selected audio information in sequence to form a se- quence of audio information to be used as acoustical signal for indicating the incoming call.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , characterized in that each digit is assigned a characteristic tone as audio information, and that the selected tones are put in sequence to form a tone sequence used as ringing tone.
3. The method as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that the characteristic tones assigned to the digits are dual tone multi-frequency tones.
4. The method as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that the characteristic tones assigned to the digits are tones individually configured.
5. The method as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that the individually configured tones are special single tones or special short sequences of tones.
6. The method as claimed in claims 1 , characterized in that each character of an alphabet is assigned a characteristic tone as audio information, that a telephone book entry is retrieved in accordance with the separated telephone number, and that tones selected in accordance with the telephone book entry retrieved are put in sequence to form a tone sequence used as ringing tone.
7. The method as claimed in claims 1 to 6, characterized in that a number of digits of the separated telephone number is used to select a characteristic announcement output prior to, in addition to or instead of a ringing tone pro- vided in accordance with the separated telephone.
8. The method as claimed in claim 7, characterized in that the name of the calling party is announced.
9. The method as claimed in claim 7, characterized in that an announce- ment is selected in accordance with a leading sequence of digits of the separated telephone number.
10. The method as claimed in claims 1 to 9, characterized in that each digit is assigned a characteristic graphical element to be output on a display of the telephone.
11. The method as claimed in claims 1 to 10, characterized in that each digit is assigned a characteristic vibration frequency that modifies a vibration frequency of a vibrator used to output a tactile signal indicating an incoming call.
PCT/EP2001/015334 2001-12-27 2001-12-27 A method for providing a signal to be output by a telephone for indicating an incoming call WO2003065705A1 (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/EP2001/015334 WO2003065705A1 (en) 2001-12-27 2001-12-27 A method for providing a signal to be output by a telephone for indicating an incoming call

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/EP2001/015334 WO2003065705A1 (en) 2001-12-27 2001-12-27 A method for providing a signal to be output by a telephone for indicating an incoming call

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Citations (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO1996027974A1 (en) * 1995-03-08 1996-09-12 Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ) A telephone set having calling party dependent ringing
GB2308038A (en) * 1995-12-07 1997-06-11 Nokia Mobile Phones Ltd Calling line identification
GB2308783A (en) * 1995-12-22 1997-07-02 Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Announcing CLI
WO1999001973A1 (en) * 1997-07-03 1999-01-14 Maxon Systems Inc. (London) Ltd. Telephone apparatus and user notification method
GB2329092A (en) * 1997-09-09 1999-03-10 Ericsson Omc Limited Calling line identifier providing distinctive alert modes for caller identification
GB2333209A (en) * 1998-01-08 1999-07-14 Matsushita Electric Ind Co Ltd Caller-influenced call notification at called mobile terminal
WO2001049010A1 (en) * 1999-12-27 2001-07-05 Benefon Oyj Method and arrangement as well as terminal for indicating a calling subscriber, or an a-subscriber, in the telecommunications connection setup phase

Patent Citations (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO1996027974A1 (en) * 1995-03-08 1996-09-12 Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ) A telephone set having calling party dependent ringing
GB2308038A (en) * 1995-12-07 1997-06-11 Nokia Mobile Phones Ltd Calling line identification
GB2308783A (en) * 1995-12-22 1997-07-02 Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Announcing CLI
WO1999001973A1 (en) * 1997-07-03 1999-01-14 Maxon Systems Inc. (London) Ltd. Telephone apparatus and user notification method
GB2329092A (en) * 1997-09-09 1999-03-10 Ericsson Omc Limited Calling line identifier providing distinctive alert modes for caller identification
GB2333209A (en) * 1998-01-08 1999-07-14 Matsushita Electric Ind Co Ltd Caller-influenced call notification at called mobile terminal
WO2001049010A1 (en) * 1999-12-27 2001-07-05 Benefon Oyj Method and arrangement as well as terminal for indicating a calling subscriber, or an a-subscriber, in the telecommunications connection setup phase

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