Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-29
2001-12-11
Trost, William (Department: 2683)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S567000, C455S556200, C455S458000, C379S419000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06330457
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to cellular telephones, and more particularly to a method for sensing whether a cellular phone is held in a user's hand to provide a convenient phone call service.
Discussion of the Related Art
In addition to the basic transmission and reception functions, a cellular phone may have a variety of supplementary functions such as time display, memory and transmission/reception signal selection.
FIG. 1
shows a conventional cellular phone comprising an antenna
10
transmitting and receiving radio signals; a duplexer
20
integrating the transmission and reception paths into a single path to enable a bidirectional communication via the antenna
10
; a receiver
30
processing and separating a radio signal received through the antenna
10
into an audio signal and control data for the processing of the received signal. A CPU
40
processes the data from the receiver
30
and also processes the data to be transmitted. A transmitter
50
processes input audio signals and the data from the CPU
40
for the transmission of a signal via the antenna
10
.
A memory unit
60
stores various information necessary for the CPU
40
to process the data. The memory unit
60
may be, for example, a random access memory (RAM). Also, an image display
70
provides a visual display of data to the user. A microphone
80
converts a user's voice into an electrical signal as input audio signals and a speaker
90
converts an electrical signal, i.e. the audio signal, from the receiver
30
into a vibration such that a voice can be heard by the user. A keypad
100
allows user interaction by including a plurality of buttons to input various data and a power supply
110
supplies power to the cellular phone.
The operation of the conventional cellular phone in
FIG. 1
will next be described. When a call comes in to a cellular phone, a base station detects the origination of the call and transmits a signal indicating a presence of the phone call to the cellular phone. Subsequently, a radio paging signal is received by the antenna
10
of the cellular phone and is processed by the receiver
30
such that the signal is separated into an audio signal and data for the processing of the received signal.
In response to the data output from the receiver
30
, the CPU
40
confirms that the incoming call is for the cellular phone and informs the user of the phone call through the speaker
90
and image display
70
. If the user responds to the incoming call, the CPU
40
generates data to be generated and transfers the data to the transmitter
50
. The data generated by the CPU
40
is processed by the transmitter
50
and transmitted to the base station as the response to the incoming call via the antenna
10
. Moreover, the CPU
40
opens a speech path through the speaker
90
and microphone
80
to enable the phone call.
On the other hand, when the user wishes to make a phone call and enters a phone number on the keypad
100
, the outgoing call origination information is processed by the CPU
40
and transmitted to the base station via the transmitter
50
and antenna
10
. Thereafter, upon receiving a response to the call via the antenna
10
, receiver
30
and the CPU
50
opens a speech path through the speaker
90
and microphone
80
to enable a phone call.
In the conventional cellular phone, the user must manually input data to either start or stop a phone call. Thus, the user must usually pick up the cellular phone and push a button or physically maneuver the phone in a particular way to enter the data to start or stop a phone conversation. However, the user may often be a situation where it is difficult or inconvenient to enter such data. For this reason, the conventional cellular phone cannot provide a convenient phone call service.
Objectives of the Invention
An object of the present invention is to solve at least the problems and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a convenient phone call service for a cellular phone.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a phone call service by which a call can be started or stopped without the necessity to enter surplus data to start or stop a call. It is the object of the present invention to automatically start or stop a phone call based upon sensing a hand-held state of a cellular phone.
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained as particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the objects and in accordance with the purposes of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the present invention comprises (a) determining whether a user is holding the cellular phone when a call comes through under the condition when the cellular phone is at a call origination/termination wait status; (b) opening a speech path to maintain a phone call status, if it is determined that the user is holding the cellular phone; (c) determining whether the user has removed the cellular phone from his/her hand, while maintaining the phone call status; and (d) recognizing that a request to stop the phone call has been generated, if it is determined that the user has removed the cellular phone from his/her hand, and closing the speech path to return to the call origination/termination wait status.
Preferably, a hand-held state sensor is provided in the cellular phone to sense whether the user is holding the cellular phone. The hand-held state sensor may include at least one of a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, a fingerprint sensor and/or a scanning beam interception sensor.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5884156 (1999-03-01), Gordon
patent: 6002763 (1999-12-01), Lester et al.
patent: 6181267 (2001-01-01), Gehlot
patent: 6246761 (2001-06-01), Cuddy
patent: 6246862 (2001-01-01), Grivas
Fleshner & Kim LLP
LG Information & Communications Ltd.
Smith Sheila
Trost William
LandOfFree
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