Emergency interrupt technique

Details Emergency interrupt technique Emergency interrupt technique

1998-07-29

2001-03-27

Woo, Stella (Department: 2743)

Telephonic communications

Telephone line or system combined with diverse electrical...

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

C379S218020

Reexamination Certificate

active

06208718

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to the data communication, and more particularly, to data communication that cannot be disrupted under ordinary circumstances.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
For households and other locations served by only a single telephone line, when that telephone line is utilized for data communication, e.g., via modem, call waiting, if subscribed to, is typically disabled. This disabling is often performed by the dialing software, which dials an appropriate prefix code for disabling call waiting before dialing the telephone number at which is located the remote device with which the data communication will take place.
When the data communication is for purposes of enabling a user to communicate with remote sites via the Internet, the data communication session can take a long time, e.g., several hours, or longer. Because of a) transmission errors, b) delays in communication over the Internet, c) problems at the Internet service provider (ISP) to which the call was placed for access to the Internet, d) software errors, and e) the like, one may become disconnected from the Internet, with the connection to the ISP being dropped. During peak usage periods, and under other situations, such disconnection may occur several times during an Internet session, and, in fact, several such disconnects may occur within a relatively short period of time, e.g., within several minutes of each other. When one gets disconnected, there is a tendency to simply redial to reestablish the connection. This can be done very quickly using the dialing software, which, typically, also is combined with automatic logon software.
Since there is only one telephone line, and call waiting has been disabled or is not provisioned therefor, it is ordinarily not possible to reach the user by telephone while the user is engaged on the Internet session. This is because, by virtue of the lack of call waiting, the connection from the user to the ISP will not be disturbed by an incoming call and any caller will receive a busy signal. Consequently, in the event of an extraordinary circumstance, such as an emergency, the only resort of a party needing to contact the user by telephone is to call the telephone company and arrange for an operator to attempt an emergency interrupt for the user's telephone line.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
I have recognize that such an emergency interrupt is likely to be perceived by the user as merely a dropped connection. Since a dropped connection could have occurred because of any of the above-noted causes, which are more likely causes of a dropped connection than an emergency interrupt, it is unlikely that the user would recognize that an emergency interrupt has, or is, occurring. This is especially true if the speaker of the modem, which may be bridged on the telephone line, is turned off after the initial establishment of the data connection, as is typically done.
Therefore, if the user was disconnected because of an emergency interrupt, he would not be aware of this, and instead, if his session was not yet completed, he would originate a new call to the ISP. This is typically achieved by having the modem go on-hook, then substantially immediately go back off-hook and redial the telephone number of the ISP. With the automated dialing software, this procedure can be performed very quickly. As a result, the user may never become aware that there has been an attempt to bring to his attention, via the emergency interrupt, an extraordinary circumstance.
Therefore, in accordance with the principles of the invention, the fact that the emergency interrupt took is now taking, or has recently taken, place is made more likely to be brought to the user's attention. This may be achieved by the user's modem recognizing a signal from the communications network that indicates that an emergency interrupt has taken, or is taking, place. The modem may then take appropriate action. The signal may be a specially defined signal transmitted by the network or it may be speech energy which is received from the network and detected when speech energy is otherwise not expected to be on the telephone line at a particular time. The action taken may include preventing the user from establishing a data call substantially immediately after an emergency interrupt has been initiated or activating the speaker of the modem while the emergency interrupt is taking place.
In one embodiment of the invention, after the line is interrupted by an emergency interrupt a signal indicating that an emergency interrupt occurred is transmitted when the line next goes off-hook. This signal may be in addition to or in lieu of dial tone, and it is detectable by the user's modem, which can then take appropriate action in response to its detection. For example, in response to the emergency-interrupt-occurred signal the modem will not initiate the dialing out for the next attempt to connect the ISP, and instead, the modem will hang up, so that an incoming call can be received. In accordance with an aspect of the invention, the auto answer mode of the modem may also be disabled temporarily. As a result, another call attempt to the user's telephone number, either by an operator as part of the emergency interrupt procedure, or by those attempting to reach the user after the emergency interrupt procedure is completed, will require the telephone to be answered by some other device which, preferably, will be a telephone connected to the telephone line that is picked up by the user. If the user picks up the telephone, he will become aware of the attempt to reach him and the emergency circumstance that necessitated it. The modem may be reenabled after either a) a predetermined period, b) detecting that there was an incoming call answered by another device, or c) resetting the modem, e.g., by cycling power to it.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the modem is equipped with a speech detector and the speaker in the modem is connected through to the telephone line if speech energy is detected thereon after the data connection is dropped. The checking for speech energy may be performed substantially immediately upon the dropping of the connection to the Internet or prior to initiating the next call attempt, or both, so that in the event the user attempts to reconnect to the ISP, if the operator, or another, is connected on the line and is speaking when the modem initiates the call, the speaker in the modem is connected through to the telephone line so the user can hear the speech and become aware of the emergency interrupt condition. The speech detector may also be activated in the event the modem automatically answers a call within a period of time after a data connection is dropped regardless of the user selected mode for speaker usage on automatic answer.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, if a dial tone is not detected when the user attempts to reconnect to the ISP within a predetermined period of time after having been disconnected from a previous data connection on the same telephone line for which call waiting was disabled or not provisioned, in addition to the conventional message of the type indicating that there is no dial tone and that the user should check all the connections, an additional message is displayed indicating that an emergency interrupt might have, or currently be, taking place and the user should delay reconnecting and endeavor to find out if someone is attempting to reach him.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5651060 (1997-07-01), Cohn et al.
patent: 5805587 (1998-09-01), Norris et al.
patent: 5809128 (1999-05-01), McMullin
patent: 5905788 (1999-05-01), Bauer et al.
patent: 5982774 (1999-11-01), Foladare et al.
patent: 6104800 (2000-08-01), Benson

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