Communications: electrical – Selective – Having indication or alarm
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-30
2001-07-17
Zimmerman, Brian (Department: 2635)
Communications: electrical
Selective
Having indication or alarm
C340S007460, C340S005800, C455S003050
Reexamination Certificate
active
06262652
ABSTRACT:
INTRODUCTION
This invention concerns public access messaging, and in particular a public access messaging centre, a system for public access messaging and a method. Since the concept of public access messaging is believed to be original and the terminology is newly coined it will be explained below.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The conventional telephone system has gained almost universal acceptance in developed countries, and widespread acceptance throughout the rest of the world. However, this technology is subject to the limitation that the two or more participants to a call must be present at respective telephones at the same time for a call to take place. Public telephones are provided for convenience of use when away from home or office telephones, but these telephones are only conveniently useful for making outgoing calls and are generally inconvenient for receiving incoming calls.
Telephone paging systems were introduced some years ago to enable a caller to send a simple message to a portable receiver which the recipient could carry around. Mobile telephony has subsequently been introduced to enable mobile callers to send and receive calls. As mobile telephone technology has achieved greater market penetration, a number of social penalties have become apparent. For instance, users are tempted to send and receive calls from potentially hazardous situations such as while driving automobiles, and this increases the hazard of that situation. Furthermore it is becoming more and more unacceptable to be disturbed in public places such as restaurants, by the ringing of mobile phones.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
In a first aspect the present invention concerns a public access messaging centre arranged to receive incoming messages from a communications network, wherein the messages are coded for one or more specific recipients and are able to be read out of the public access messaging centre by a recipient who enters an appropriate identifier.
It is envisaged that public access messaging centres will be widely available in public places, where members of the public can verify their identity by any suitable means in order to read out any messages received for them. The users will typically have a prearrangement to check for messages at particular occasions or on particular events occurring. The senders have the advantage that they do not require the recipients to be at any specific location in order to receive a message, or to receive the message at any particular time.
Furthermore since the messaging centre is a largely passive device it is not necessary for there to be any public annoyance by ringing tones or other noise pollution. The messaging centre is, consequently, conveniently for use by the hearing impaired.
The public access messaging may conveniently make use of existing paging system technology, and may even use existing paging systems such as POCSAG-compliant radio paging systems connected to the existing public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Since it is envisaged that receivers of messages may often want to use a telephone, the telephone companies can expect an increased benefit from conventional calls by the introduction of messaging centres, and in particular public telephones and messaging centres may be conveniently placed close to each other.
In existing paging systems the message is composed with a capture code dependent upon the destination receiver. In embodiments of the invention the message may be composed with a capture code dependent on the destination. The message will be received by all messaging centres within range, but will only be retained by those messaging centres which are programmed to receive messages carrying that capture code. Each messaging centre may retain messages having any one of a number of capture codes. One of the capture codes may be unique to the centre, others may be shared with groupings of centres, such as geographical or situational groupings.
In one option the messages are also composed with, for instance, an 8-digit message code inserted between the capture code and the message. This message code is used to verify the recipient's identity and allow retrieval of messages. In a very simple embodiment the message code may be the same as a PIN number to be entered into the messaging centre by the intended recipient.
In other situations it is quite possible that a message code need not necessarily identify a unique recipient, but could identify a class of recipients. And it is even feasible for public messages, such as advertising or community information, to be transmitted to the message centres. Message centres may be equipped with large format public displays for the convenient display of these messages.
On receipt at the messaging centre, the messages may be time-stamped and stored in a database as records. Subsequent messages with the same message code may be appended to pre-existing messages and stored as additional records within a file corresponding to the message code. Messages may be deleted from the database after they have been read out, or failing that after a predetermined period of time has elapsed.
In a second aspect the invention provides a public access messaging system comprising a public access paging system and one or more public access messaging centres as described above. The public access paging system may comprise a conventional radio paging system.
In a further embodiment the invention provides a method of operating a public access messaging system comprising the steps of:
composing a message consisting of message data and a message code;
transmitting the message;
receiving the message;
storing the message data in conjunction with the message code; and
enabling read-out of the message data upon presentation of an identity code which is related in some meaningful way to the message code. The message may be time stamped upon receipt.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5146217 (1992-09-01), Holmes et al.
patent: 5241305 (1993-08-01), Fascenda et al.
patent: 5245649 (1993-09-01), Eaton et al.
patent: 5257307 (1993-10-01), Ise
patent: 5430892 (1995-07-01), Motegi
patent: 5438610 (1995-08-01), Bhagat et al.
Asmus Scott J.
Dalencourt Yves
Maine Vernon C.
Zimmerman Brian
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