Telephonic communications – Special services – Call diversion
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-20
2004-08-17
Matar, Ahmad F. (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Special services
Call diversion
C455S041200, C455S461000, C455S517000, C455S519000, C455S550100, C455S554100, C455S555000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06778654
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a telephone line control transfer system, and more specifically, to a system for transferring telephone line utilization rights from a base terminal, for example a portable telephone, to one or more remote terminals, to effectively use telephone lines.
BACKGROUND ART
In recent years, mobile communications terminal devices, such as portable telephones, personal handyphone systems (PHS), and personal digital assistants (PDA) have rapidly grown in popularity. As a consequence, it has become common for individuals to use two telephone lines separately in their day-to-day lives, one line being an ordinary wired household telephone line, and the other being the wireless line of a mobile communications terminal device.
Recent years have also seen an increase of the popularity of info-communications networks such as the Internet. As a result, users of info-communications networks have come to be able to receive a variety of services using the above-mentioned mobile communications terminal devices, including sending and receiving e-mails, obtaining various types of information, purchasing products, and making hotel and ticket reservations.
In addition, the next generation of portable telephone has recently been proposed in the form of a multi-functional terminal device equipped with such functions as reception of various broadcasts, video telephone, and navigation using multiple artificial satellites via the global positioning system (GPS). Another prediction for the shape of the next generation of portable telephones is the partition of a single line into multiple lines, and the offering of so-called multi-rate and multi-call functions, wherein various portable telephones use the same partitioned line, allowing the corresponding multiple portable telephones to communicate over the same line simultaneously.
This situation is predicted to expand the types of devices available to the users for receiving info-communications network services from the above-mentioned mobile communications terminals and PCs to televisions and other consumer electronics devices. It is also predicted that in the near future, info-communications network access functions will be built into all electrical appliances, and that these will be able to access info-communications networks via telephone lines and other means, for the purpose of data communications, billing processing by service providers, and the like.
This trend toward possession of multiple telephone lines, the addition of telephone functions to electrical appliances, and the like will make user authentication increasingly important Take the example of a case where an unspecified large number of users are at a meeting at work or in a similar situation, and in the room is located a common television, by means of which the users access an info-communications network and receive certain services. In this case, the parties that should be billed for these services are the unspecified large number of users who accessed the network, but in practical terms it is unfeasible to authenticate the parties who should be billed.
To contrast this situation, there is a system to provide a uniform service to the corresponding unspecified large number of users, who each utilize his own personal terminal device, and each of these plural devices accesses the info-communications network simultaneously using individual terminal device IDs specific to each terminal device. With this type of system, it is possible to identify each user to be billed. However, in this case it will be inconvenient if one desires to bill the costs of the service(s) to the company.
Meanwhile, there is a demand for mobile communications terminal devices to have such features which lead to ease of mobility as compact size and light weight. As a result, there have been a number of difficulties with their use. For example, a small keypad brought on by the downsizing of the unit made its operation difficult and mistakes easy to be made, and there are limits to the memory , the display area, and the time of continuous use.
Because of these problems, it would be preferable for the users indoors such as at home or in the office to use an electronic device suitable for accessing and receiving services over the info-communications network In this case, however, if new lines and IDs for the subscribers must be established for electronic devices other than mobile communications terminal devices, it would create more problems It would greatly complicate ID management and the base fees for utilization rights on a subscriber line would cost more
For example, take a case that a user utilizes a portable telephone or other mobile communications terminal device to access an info-communications network and obtain a stock market report. The small size of the display area makes it impossible to make out and/or display the lines of graphs showing movements in stock prices, and other detailed information that is most important to the user. In this case, it would be appropriate to use a device with a large display screen, such as a television at home, in stead of the mobile communications terminal device in order to display this detailed information. This solution, however, necessitates that the television or other device be hooked up to a subscriber line, and that a user ID be established for that device as well. However, if all the family members use this home television to access an info-communications network and obtain a service—for example a ticket reservation. In this case, settings such as the user ID and other information must be modified for each family member, making management inconvenient.
Furthermore, if in the future all electrical products come to be equipped with the above-mentioned telephone functions, then each of these products will have to be allocated a separate telephone number and billed a base telephone fee. This would create a huge burden, both in terms of managing each telephone number and in terms of cost as well.
As shown here, present systems have great difficulty in effectively utilizing telephone lines and conducting billing that meets user intentions, despite the fact that even further development of mobile communications terminal devices in the near future can be assured.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a system that helps improve the level of services for the users, effectively utilizing telephone lines and conducting billing that meets user intentions when utilizing the info-communication network.
The telephone line control transfer system according to the present invention has a host computer which controls communications services provided by telecommunications carriers; a base terminal having base ID information which the host computer can identify; and a plurality of remote terminals having remote terminal ID information which the host computer can identify, and which, upon receiving transfer of control from the base terminal, communicate with the host computer; the base terminal having a first communication means to communicate with each remote terminal; a selection means to select n remote terminals (n being an integer greater than or equal to 1) to which the control is to be transferred among the remote terminals which have communicated via the first communication means; and a control means to control the first communication means; the remote terminal having a first communication means to communicate with the base terminal; a second communication means to communicate with the host computer; and a control means to control the first communication means and the second communication means; the control means of the base terminal controlling the first communication means in order to generate n remote IDs based on the base ID information, from which the host computer can specify the base ID information, for n remote terminals selected using the selection means, and send the generated remote IDs in turn to each remote terminal; and the control means of each remote terminal controlling the secon
Kiyomatsu Hisanori
Takatori Sunao
Zhou Changmine
Matar Ahmad F.
Ubiles M. C.
Wenderoth , Lind & Ponack, L.L.P.
Yozan Inc.
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