Telephonic communications – Reception of calling information at substation in wireline...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-07-03
2004-10-26
Tran, Quoc (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
Reception of calling information at substation in wireline...
C379S142040, C379S142070, C379S142140, C379S142150, C379S142160, C379S093230, C379S088190
Reexamination Certificate
active
06810115
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a caller identification method which is for use in a telephone system including a plurality of telephone apparatuses connected to a telephone network and communicable with one another and which enables a receiving-side telephone apparatus to identify a transmitting-side telephone apparatus as a caller upon reception of a call. This invention also relates to a telephone system with a caller identification function using the above-mentioned method.
In recent years, various types of telephone systems are increasingly wide spread because they are conveniently used. In particular, use of a mobile telephone system is growing into market saturation. In the market of a telephone apparatus, it is predicted that, in response to users' demands, each telephone system will be improved further by differentiation from other telephone systems, exhibition of uniqueness, or establishment of a function as a communication tool which is easefully and securely used.
As one of techniques already commercialized, there is known a telephone system with a caller identification function (hereinafter abbreviated to caller identification function) in which a receiving-side telephone apparatus produces and plays a ring tone melody upon call reception if a transmitting-side telephone apparatus as a caller is identified. Such caller identification function is implemented as follows. The receiving-side telephone apparatus has a nonvolatile memory in which a plurality of ring tone melodies are preliminarily stored in correspondence to telephone numbers, abbreviation numbers thereof, or the like as unique or distinctive information of users of transmitting-side telephone apparatuses as expected callers. Upon reception of a call from a particular caller, one of the melodies is sounded and played in correspondence to a particular one of the telephone numbers or the abbreviation numbers which is assigned to the particular caller. From the uniqueness of the melody, a user of the receiving-side telephone apparatus can identify the particular caller as a user of the transmitting-side telephone apparatus.
Furthermore, as a recent tendency or trend in the telephone system in response to the users' demands, the data capacity to be transmitted and received will considerably be increased. Following such trend, it is expected that image data are handled by both of the transmitting-side and the receiving-side telephone apparatuses. Specifically, the telephone apparatus will be provided with a miniaturized camera and an image codec to be used as a digital camera or a video camera, as a so-called television telephone for exchanging image data in real time with another telephone apparatus having the similar function, and so on. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H03-162087 (JP 3-162087 A) discloses a digital television telephone system in which image data taken into a receiving-side telephone apparatus by the use of the above-mentioned means are related to telephone numbers or abbreviation numbers thereof assigned to transmission-side telephone apparatuses as expected callers. Upon reception of a call from a particular caller, a particular one of the image data is selected to display an image in correspondence to a particular one of the telephone numbers or the abbreviation numbers which is assigned to the particular caller. Thus, a user of the receiving-side telephone apparatus can identify the particular caller as a user of the transmitting-side telephone apparatus.
As another known technique related to the telephone system with a caller identification function, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H10-190843 (JP 10-190843 A) discloses a caller display system and an exchange therefor. In this system, the exchange or a telephone line control center is provided with a subscriber database. The subscriber database additionally contains various kinds of data indicative of permission or refusal to display caller information, presence or absence of an information display request key, the types of displayable characters, and so on with respect to each individual subscriber (telephone number) so that the updating operation of the subscriber database is simplified and the caller information can be displayed in various manners. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-32105 (JP 11-32105 A) discloses a mobile data terminal and a call announcing method therefor. The technique disclosed in this publication aims to provide high-value added call announcement in order to solve the problem that call announcement in the mobile data terminal is common or indistinctive and, therefore, can not easily be discriminated from call announcement in other mobile data terminals. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-78271 (JP 2001-78271 A) discloses a caller information providing device and a caller information transmitting method in a mobile communication network. In the technique disclosed in this publication, a caller can transmit image information of the caller when a telephone call is transmitted from the caller through the mobile communication network to a mobile terminal as a specific receiver.
Referring to
FIG. 1
, description will be made of a related telephone system with a call identifying function.
As illustrated in
FIG. 1
, a receiving-side telephone apparatus
3
with a caller identification function receives a call from a transmitting-side telephone apparatus (not shown) through a telephone network
10
including an ISDN network
10
a
, a mobile telephone network
10
b,
and a PHS network
10
c
. The receiving-side telephone apparatus
3
comprises a receiving portion
31
for receiving communication information including a telephone number (i.e., a caller number) of a user of the transmitting-side telephone apparatus upon call reception, a caller number detecting portion
32
supplied with the communication information received by the receiving portion
31
for detecting, as a detected caller number, the telephone number assigned to the user of the transmitting-side telephone apparatus, a telephone directory
33
which includes a text memory
33
a
, an image memory
33
b
, and a ring tone memory
33
c
preliminarily storing various kinds of caller-identifiable unique information corresponding to each of a plurality of caller numbers and which reads the unique information from those memories in correspondence to the detected caller number and outputs the unique information, a character output portion
34
supplied with character data from the text memory
33
a
as one of the unique information delivered from the telephone directory
33
for producing a character expression or output, an image decoder portion
35
for decoding image data from the image memory
33
b
to produce decoded image data, an image output portion
36
supplied with the decoded image data for producing an image expression or output, a music decoder portion
37
for decoding music data from the ring tone memory
33
c
to produce decoded music data, and a music output portion
38
supplied with the decoded music data for producing a sound expression or output.
In case where the above-mentioned receiving-side telephone apparatus
3
with a caller identification function receives a call from the transmitting-side telephone apparatus, the following operations will be carried out. The character data indicative of text information such as a caller's name are read from the text memory
33
a
so that a text comprising a set of characters is displayed by the character output portion
34
. The image data are read from the image memory
33
b
and decoded by the image decoder portion
35
so that an image is displayed by the image output portion
36
. The music data are read from the ring tone memory
33
c
and decoded by the music decoder portion
37
so that a ring tone melody is played by the music output portion
38
.
Thus, upon call reception from the transmitting-side telephone apparatus, the receiving-side telephone apparatus
3
with a caller identification function display
Foley & Lardner LLP
NEC Corporation
Tran Quoc
LandOfFree
Caller identification method for a telephone system and... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Caller identification method for a telephone system and..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Caller identification method for a telephone system and... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3327540