Electronic telephone book

Details Electronic telephone book Electronic telephone book

1995-06-07

2001-01-09

Chan, Wing F. (Department: 2743)

Telephonic communications

Telephone line or system combined with diverse electrical...

Having transmission of a digital message signal over a...

C379S201060, C379S354000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06173045

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates in general to telecommunications, and more particularly to an electronic telephone book.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Each year, hundreds of millions of telephone books are reprinted for distribution to households and businesses around the world. The telephone books are updated yearly, even though the dynamic portion of the telephone book (that portion which actually changes) is extremely small. Consequently, an enormous amount of energy and natural resources are consumed in order to revise a relatively small amount of information.
Several computer programs now provide autodialing features, which allow the user to generate a list of his or her most frequently called numbers. A selected number may be dialed by pressing a button. Autodial features are also found on many phones, wherein each button corresponds to a frequently dialed number.
Autodialing features, while reducing the frequency with which the telephone book is used, does not relieve the necessity for updated information. Hence, autodialing phones and computer programs do not diminish the need for updated telephone books on a yearly basis.
Another problem with telephone books is the arrangement of advertisements in the yellow pages. To conserve money, a business operation will normally advertise in only one section. Therefore, a store which sells appliances, video, audio and photographic products will normally advertise in only section, or will place a advertisement in one section and have a plain listing in the other sections. Consequently, a potential customer searching for a particular good or service may not get a full listing of providers from the yellow pages.
Therefore, a need has arisen for a replacement to the traditional telephone book which reduces the waste involved in yearly updates to the telephone book and which provides more advanced searching capabilities.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, an electronic telephone book is provided which eliminates substantial problems associated with the prior art.
The electronic telephone book comprises a central processing unit and telephone interface circuitry for coupling a central processing unit to a telephone line. A display comprises output circuitry to output information and control graphics and input circuitry for generating control signals responsive to user interaction with the control graphics.
The present invention provides significant advantages over the prior art. The electronic telephone book replaces the telephone directory and yellow pages without losing the ability to display graphic advertisements as well as text line listings. The size of the electronic telephone book may be significantly less than that of a medium-sized metropolitan telephone book. Information may be retrieved from the telephone company's central office, thereby eliminating the need to provide updates to telephone books. Searching can be done electronically on a number of fields such as name, category or keywords, thereby providing a more accurate listing of yellow page advertisers.


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