Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at separate stations
Reexamination Certificate
1994-01-05
2001-08-21
Coles, Sr., Edward L. (Department: 2622)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at separate stations
C340S870030, C340S870030
Reexamination Certificate
active
06278862
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to wireless information communication systems, and in particular to numeric paging systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An alphanumeric paging network allows a page-originating communicant to utilize a telephone network to access the paging network and initiate a page to a page-receiving communicant in the form of a page announce, coupled with alphanumeric textual data. Typically, the page-receiving communicant has possession of a portable communication device which (1) receives radio frequency paging signals, and (2) provides a page announce signal in the event the page is received by the page-receiving communicant. Additionally, typically, the portable communication device includes an alphanumeric display which then displays the alphanumeric text data which is transmitted via radio frequency signals between a central station of the paging network and the remotely located page-receiving communicant. Once the page-receiving communicant is altered, he or she may view the display on the portable communication device and make a decision on whether or not to place a call to the telephone number or entity identified in the display of the portable communication device.
Alphanumeric paging networks are considerably more expensive than numeric paging networks, because numeric paging networks remain substantially automated, while alphanumeric paging networks most frequently require the intervention of a human operator. In practice, the page-originating communicant places a call to a telephone number identified with the alphanumeric paging service. The human operator answers the call, and takes a detailed alphanumeric message which is dictated by the page-originating communicant. The human operator reads the message back to verify its accurate transcription, and then initiates the page which includes the alphanumeric textual information which has been transcribed. The human interaction required for these types of alphanumeric paging networks is very expensive when compared to the purely numeric paging networks which do not require human intervention. Certain types of alphanumeric paging networks allow the user to utilize a keyboard or other data input device to define the alphanumeric textual data themselves, thus not requiring the input or assistance of a human operator. However, these types of alphanumeric paging networks are of limited value, since computing devices are still not so widely distributed as to make this universally practical.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is one objective of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for facilitating and enhancing the communication of information over an alphanumeric paging network, which allows the operator of the alphanumeric paging network to more efficiently and accurately handle interactions with page-originating communicants.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for enhancing and improving the communication of information over an alphanumeric paging network, which automatically sends caller identification information, including numeric information and alphabetic information, over the telephone network during interactions between a page-originating communicant and the paging network, thus enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of alphanumeric paging networks, by then automatically transmitting the caller identification information over the wireless communication link between a central office and a page-receiving communicant. A personal communication device in the possession of the page-receiving communicant automatically processes the caller identification information in a manner which provides the maximum amount of information to the page-receiving communicant in the paging display. Additionally, the page-originating communicant may transmit a message along with the caller identification information, which is also transmitted over the wireless link from the alphanumeric paging central office to the remotely located page-receiving communicant. This message is also processed and displayed in a manner which maximizes the communication of information to the page-receiving communicant.
These and other objectives are achieved as is now described. When characterized as a method, the present invention is directed to a method of communicating information from a page-originating communicant to a page-receiving communicant utilizing an alphanumeric paging network, which operates by generating a page after receiving a paging request from the page-originating communicant over a telephone network. The paging request automatically transfers caller-identification information, including numeric caller-identification information and alphabetic textual caller-identification information, from the telephone network to the alphanumeric paging network. The numeric caller-identification information typically takes the form of a bit string which is representative of the telephone number for a particular telephone unit utilized by the page-originating communicant in making the paging request. The alphabetic textual caller-identification information typically comprises a directory identification of an entity associated with the particular telephone unit utilized by the page-originating communicant in making the paging request. The method includes a number of method steps. First, a portable communication device is provided which is identified in the paging network to the page-receiving communicant. The portable communication device includes a database recorded in memory with a plurality of associated data fields, including a telephone number field, means for comparing information obtained from the paging network with at least one of the plurality of associated data fields, and a display member for displaying at least one of (1) information obtained from the paging network, and (2) information obtained from the plurality of data fields. Communication is initiated between the page-originating communicant and the alphanumeric paging network over a telephone network. The caller-identification information is automatically passed from the telephone network to the paging network. The page-originating communicant is allowed an opportunity to input an optional message into the paging network. Since this is an alphanumeric paging network, the optional textual message may include alphanumeric characters (generally, any ASCII characters). The paging network is utilized to transmit to the page-receiving communicant the caller-identification information and the optional message. The caller-identification information and optional message are received at the portable communication device identified in the paging network to the page-receiving communicant. The caller-identification information and optional message are then analyzed, and information is displayed in the display member of the portable communication device as a result of the step of analyzing.
In accordance with the present invention, the optional message may comprise a variety of conventional or state-of-the-art messages, including: (1) a textual message including at least one of numeric data and alphabetic data; (2) an audio message including at least one of a digitized audio signal transmitted through the paging network, and at least of a plurality of predefined audio messages stored in memory of said portable communication device; (3) an image message including at least one of a digitized image signal transmitted through said paging network, and at least one of a plurality of predefined video messages stored in memory of said portable communication device.
Preferably, during the step of analyzing, at least one of the textual identification information, bit string representative of a telephone number corresponding to the telephone unit utilized by the page-originating communicant, and optional message are compared to at least portions of the database. More particularly, one or more of these items are compared to the telephone number field of the database. M
Coles Sr. Edward L.
Hunn Melvin A.
Lee Fan
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