Information payphone

Details Information payphone Information payphone

1999-12-23

2001-11-20

Tieu, Binh (Department: 2643)

Telephonic communications

With check operated control

C379S093220, C379S144050, C379S144070, C379S144080, C379S155000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06320946

ABSTRACT:

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
(Not Applicable)
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
(Not Applicable)
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention broadly relates to telecommunication devices, and more particularly, to a payphone that stores different categories of information and audibly plays back one or more categories of information to a user of the payphone.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telephone communication has seen a phenomenal growth since its inception because of its extreme usefulness in today's world. It is hard, and almost impossible, to conceive of a world without telephones. Telephones have almost become an integral part of a civilized society. One major source of revenue for a telephone service provider is derived from supplying telephone services to residential and business customers. However, payphones owned and operated by the service provider may also generate substantial revenues for the service provider because of the call-making flexibility afforded by a payphone.
Payphones or coin-operated phones are, as the names suggest, regular telephones that are operative when a requisite amount of money is deposited into the phone units. When a user wishes to use a payphone, the user deposits a minimum amount (e.g., 35 cents), dials the telephone number of the called party, and a central office enables completion of the call once the minimum cost of the call has been satisfied. The central office also determines how much the call will cost beyond the minimum amount already deposited and advises the caller of any added cost to allow continuation of the call. When the called party answers, the user can immediately speak with the called party. However, if the called party does not answer or if the called telephone is busy, the deposited coins are returned to the user.
Signals from a central office which enable collection or return of deposited coins may not be provided on all telephone lines emanating from the central office, but may be provided to only those telephone lines running from the central office to central office-owned (i.e., telephone service provider-owned) payphones. Alternatively, privately-owned payphones may be available with requisite signal generation and control circuitry physically built into the payphones. In that event, the person owning the payphone may provide coin-operated telephone services to users by installing the payphone at the person's place of business, e.g., a restaurant, and connect the payphone to a conventional telephone line running into such place of business. Such purchased payphones have self-contained control and operation circuitry, internal to the payphone unit, to compute required coin deposits and to control whether deposited coins should be collected or returned. In one version of a privately-owned payphone, the payphone is initially coupled to the central office when the user removes a handset from the switch-hook so that a dial tone may be supplied from the central office to prompt the user to enter the telephone number of the called party. In another version, a privately-owned payphone may include a local dial tone generator to supply the dial tone from the payphone itself without obtaining the dial tone from the central office. The payphone may receive the digits dialed by the user and may then transmit them to the central office for further call processing.
Further improvements in payphones have resulted in payphones with display terminals and/or with facilities to swipe a calling card prior to placing a phone call. A display screen provided as part of the payphone may allow a user to monitor the cost of the phone call, the time spent on the call, the number dialed to reach the called party, the calling card number entered (if applicable), etc. The display screen may also show marketing messages the service provider wants the user to read. A calling card swiping facility relieves the user from entering a calling card number, thereby preventing mistakes that may be made while entering a long account number.
It is noted, however, that a technologically-advanced payphone still fails to provide solutions to a number of problems routinely encountered by payphone users. For example, a car owner whose car needs to be towed may not be aware of which towing companies are present in the neighboring area. In that case, the car owner may have to place one or more directory-assistance calls using the payphone, thereby incurring call charges. In another example, a tourist at a payphone may desire to get up-to-date weather information for the local area. Without knowing who to call, the tourist may have to rely on the information supplied by people nearby or may incur call expenses to obtain the desired information. Also, a person at a highway payphone booth may wish to receive the latest information about the person's choice of sports events. Such information may not be easily available unless that person has access to the Internet or the person calls somebody (thus incurring call expenses, which may be long-distance call expenses in certain cases) who can then supply the desired information.
The foregoing examples illustrate how inconvenient and frustrating it is to obtain certain information during routinely occurring real-life situations. It is therefore desirable to have a mechanism whereby a user can obtain the desired information directly from the payphone without resorting to phone calls and their concomitant call expenses. In other words, it is desirable to enhance the functionality of a payphone so that the payphone audibly dispenses the requisite information (i.e., functions as an information transmittal device).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A payphone or coin-operated telephone according to the present invention includes a speaker, and an off-hook sensor configured to generate an off-hook signal upon detecting an off-hook condition, a housing, an information storage unit in the housing and capable of storing audio information therein, wherein the information storage unit is configured to send one or more parts of the audio information to the speaker when connected thereto, and a processing unit in the housing and coupled to the information storage unit and the off-hook sensor, wherein the processing unit is configured to receive the off-hook signal from the off-hook sensor and thereafter connect the information storage unit to the speaker upon occurrence of a predetermined event.
The information stored in the information storage unit may include frequently-requested information on topics such as, for example, news, weather, sports, financial market reports, local travel information, local telephone yellow pages, etc. The user of the payphone may incur a nominal charge to retrieve the information from the payphone. In other words, the payphone may function as an information transmittal device that dispenses user-selected information audibly to the user via the speaker in the payphone, e.g., the speaker in a payphone handset.
In one embodiment, the user may be prompted by the processing unit to enter specific digits and/or symbols from the keypad on the front panel of the payphone to initiate information retrieval from the payphone. In another embodiment, the user may select the desired information by speaking the user's choice into the microphone of the payphone handset. The payphone front panel may also include a display screen allowing the user to view the selection made, and also allowing the user to view certain information on the display screen.
The payphone is typically connected to a telephone company central office or to a private branch exchange via a telephone line. The information stored in the information storage unit may be downloaded automatically from an information server (external to the payphone) or the Internet or may be manually updated with information stored on a magnetic storage medium, e.g., audio tapes. The processing unit may be configured to access the information server through the Internet for requisit

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