Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-30
2001-10-02
Vo, Nguyen T. (Department: 2682)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S355000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06298247
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications networks and in particular, to a method and apparatus for improving the intelligibility of phone transmissions by automatically controlling the volume.
BACKGROUND
The increasing demand for constant personal communication has resulted in the availability of phones in just about any location imaginable. Wireless or mobile phones have enabled individuals to communicate while roaming in a variety of dynamic environments, such as airplanes, cars, restaurants, and other public and private places. Furthermore, wireline phones, such as public pay phones, can be found in a variety of different environments, such as airports, train stations, stores, and gas stations, among others. These and other such environments are associated with considerable ambient or background noise which makes it difficult to clearly transmit and receive intelligible speech at an audible level.
As a result, the individuals on a phone conversation may often have to repeat themselves, which is inconvenient, time-consuming, inefficient and costly. Alternatively, they may shout or raise their voices to be heard over the noise, which compromises the privacy of the conversation. A person in a noisy environment may also increase the volume of the phone in order to better hear the person who is speaking on the other end.
Manually adjusting the volume level in response to loud background noise is tedious for both the individual at the speaking end and the individual at the listening end. In addition, increasing the volume level of a phone user's speech has the undesirable effect of increasing the volume of the background noise in the user's environment. Furthermore, manually increasing volume in response to background noise is undesirable since the volume must be later manually decreased to avoid acutely loud reception when the background noise dies down.
Indeed, within a given environment, the level of the background noise may fluctuate; for example, in a car, the background noise may vary depending on a number of external factors, such as the amount of traffic, the speed of the car, the output of the car stereo, the engine, the type of road, and other variable factors. In such an environment, manually adjusting the volume in response to each instance that the background noise increases or decreases is not only tedious but distracting as well and can endanger the safety of those in the vehicle as well as those in the vehicle's path.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
From the foregoing, it can be appreciated that a need exists for an apparatus that allows for automatic control of the volume of a phone. It is believed that the apparatus and method of the present invention described herein solves and addresses the foregoing problems and limitations.
In accordance with the present invention, an apparatus is provided for automatically controlling the volume level of an audio signal transmitted to or received by a phone within a telecommunications network, the apparatus including a noise measuring device, a volume controller communicably coupled to the noise measuring device, and a memory module communicably coupled to the noise measuring device. In a wireless telecommunications network, the memory module may comprise a subscriber identity module (SIM) and may contain preferred volume levels for given levels of noise for that particular subscriber.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for automatically controlling the volume level of an audio signal transmitted to or received by a phone within a telecommunications network, comprising the steps of obtaining measurements of a background noise signal, obtaining a preferred volume level corresponding to the measurement of a background noise signal, and automatically adjusting the volume level of the audio signal to the preferred volume level.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4829565 (1989-05-01), Goldberg
patent: 4924193 (1990-05-01), Saito et al.
patent: 5204971 (1993-04-01), Takahashi et al.
patent: 5485515 (1996-01-01), Allen et al.
patent: 5732390 (1998-03-01), Katayanagi et al.
patent: 5778322 (1998-07-01), Rydbeck
patent: 5790671 (1998-08-01), Cooper
patent: 5966438 (1999-10-01), Romesburg
patent: 0 661 860 A2 (1993-12-01), None
patent: 0 836 310 A1 (1996-10-01), None
patent: 2 237 463 A (1989-10-01), None
patent: 2 308 932 A (1995-12-01), None
patent: 6-291815 (1994-10-01), None
Alperovich Vladimir
Evanyk Walt
Valentine Eric
Chalker Daniel J.
Gardere Wynne & Sewell LLP
Telefonaktiebolaget L.M. Ericsson (publ)
Vo Nguyen T.
Warren, Jr. Sanford E.
LandOfFree
Method and apparatus for automatic volume control does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method and apparatus for automatic volume control, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method and apparatus for automatic volume control will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2600112