Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
1996-03-09
2001-03-06
Cumming, William (Department: 2749)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S039000, C455S410000, C379S088020, C379S088030
Reexamination Certificate
active
06198947
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the field of telecommunications, and more specifically, to the field of voice activated vehicular telephone systems.
It is well known in the wireless telecommunications industry that voice recognition technologies can be used to interface with vehicular telephone systems, including analog and digital cellular telephones, personal communication system devices, and other types of communication devices. It has long been hoped that the addition of voice recognition capabilities to such systems would make the systems more user friendly, more convenient and efficient to use, easier to learn to use, and more conducive to driver safety. However, the reality is that such systems have not yet been very successful in the market. Past implementations of voice recognition technologies with vehicular telephone systems have often proven to be user unfriendly, difficult to use and learn, and lacking in incentive to overcome the learning curves associated with such systems. First of all, some of the previous systems are capable of providing only a small portion of the important call processing functions which are manually supported by the vehicular telephone system, thus incentive to use is low. Secondly, in order for other systems to provide the user a voice-based method of accomplishing many of the option-laden functions of a vehicular telephone system, such a system would need to support a large and complicated set of multi-layered commands, making it much easier for the user to decide to simply look & reach down to use the vehicular telephone system handset. As a result of not being used, the voice recognition capabilities of such systems have not facilitated greater driver safety.
Another element in many conventional vehicular telephone systems is an external control unit (ECU). Such a device provides an additional user interface which is intended to be more convenient to use than the primary control unit and is often located in the dash of an automobile, or other type of vehicle, but may also be located elsewhere inside the vehicle. A typical ECU includes an output display and most, if not all, of the keys located on the primary control unit, such as a portable telephone resting in a vehicular holder or an installed full-function handset. While ECU's are often more conveniently positioned with respect to the driver, they are typically rather large and present great positioning difficulties to automotive designers. As a result, ECU's are not currently implemented on a very large scale, and, furthermore, after-market attempts to accomplish similar functions frequently appear to consumers to be less impressive or valuable.
There have also been vehicular telephone systems which include both an ECU and a voice recognition component. While both elements have previously been included as options in vehicular telephone systems, each element has previously been designed to address the individual objectives of that element. Consequently, such thrown-together systems also fail to address the problems discussed above. In addition, the very presence of both elements in a vehicular telephone system often exacerbates those problems. For example, a user is much less likely to try to learn how to use a voice recognition system if similar call processing functions may be accessed more quickly through manual operation of a conveniently located, yet non-integrated, ECU.
There is, therefore, a need in the industry for a system for addressing these and other related, and unrelated, problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, an external control unit (ECU) with a reduced keypad for more versatile and universal vehicular installation is tightly integrated in a voice activated vehicular telephone system which further includes a voice adapter (VA) providing an intelligent interface between the ECU and a portable telephone removably coupled to a portable telephone holder (instead of a portable telephone and holder, other embodiments include a conventional full-function automotive handset system). By taking full advantage of the voice recognition capabilities of the VA, the ECU is able to effectively harness the extensive power of the telephone system while requiring a very small amount of vehicle space through the combination of an internal microphone and a keypad with substantially fewer keys than conventional portable telephones. The keys which remain on the ECU are specifically chosen for their value as one-touch implementations of many functions which could otherwise require more time-consuming and complicated voice instructions, as well as for their ability to ensure that all call processing functions are provided by the telephone system without access to a complete keypad. Likewise, by leveraging a carefully designed VA's ability to efficiently and precisely provide audible prompts and other status information to the user, the ECU of the preferred embodiment of the present invention is intentionally designed without a display. Thus, due, at least in part, to the reduced number of keys on the ECU and the intentional absence of a display, the ECU of the preferred embodiment is easy and convenient to learn and use and provides a user the incentive to use the voice recognition capabilities of the VA, resulting in more realization of the intended benefits of voice recognition integration into a vehicular telephone system.
In addition, the tight integration of the telephone system enables the ECU keys to provide a variety of different functions varying with different operational modes of the system, such as, for example, during an idle mode compared to a call-in-process mode. Accordingly, use of a voice activated dialer (VAD) key during the idle mode causes the vehicular telephone system to prompt the user to speak a number to be dialed. However, use of the VAD key during the call-in-process mode causes the vehicular telephone system to, for as long as the key is depressed, to activate a voice-to-tones conversion facility to generate, play, and transmit dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones, a unique voice-activated call-in-process facility. This facility enables a user to, for example, operate an audio response system, such as a voice mail system, without the need for a conventional keypad with a full complement of digit keys. Likewise, use of a directory (DIR) key during the idle mode results in a prompt for the user to speak a name previously stored in the directory for quickly dialing an accompanying stored telephone number. However, use of the same key during the call-in-process mode enables a voice-to-memory conversion facility for storing in scratchpad memory digits spoken while the key is depressed. According to this inventive aspect of the present invention, a call to the telephone number spoken by the user during the current call may be started immediately upon completion of the current call. Of course, a variety of other equally important inventive aspects of the present invention are also described below, such as, for example, the existence of UP and DOWN keys on the ECU which are supported by the VA to be mode-specific and multi-functional, as is discussed below.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an external control unit with a reduced keypad based on a supporting voice activated dialing facility.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a voice activated vehicular telephone system with a call-in-process voice-to-tones facility.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a voice activated vehicular telephone system with a call-in-process voice-to-memory facility.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a voice activated vehicular telephone system with an external control unit with a reduced keypad integrated with a call-in-process voice-to-tones facility and a call-in-process voice-to-memory facility.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an external control unit for a vo
Cumming William
Oki Telecom, Inc.
Thomas Kayden Horstemeyer & Risley LLP
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