Telephone disable feature

Details Telephone disable feature Telephone disable feature

1999-01-29

2002-01-15

Smith, Creighton (Department: 2742)

Telephonic communications

Terminal

Housing or housing component

C379S433070, C379S368000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06339643

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to telephone customer premises equipment. More particularly, it relates to telephone customer premises equipment which is capable of alternately disabling and enabling the buttons of the telephone customer premises equipment to inhibit inadvertent activation of the buttons, e.g., of the keypad.
2. Background of Related Art
Many times, after a user has established a telephone call with another party, the user or other person inadvertently depresses or otherwise activates a button of the telephone. While having a tendency to happen with all types of telephones, this problem occurs perhaps most frequently with telephones having buttons (e.g., a keypad) located directly on the handset, e.g., the remote handset of a cordless telephone.
Generally, activation of one or more buttons of the telephone, e.g., a button of a keypad, can cause annoying functions, e.g., a DTMF tone on the telephone line resulting in a loud tone in the earpiece of the handset of the user and/or the other party. Sometimes, however, depending upon which button is depressed, activation of the button can actually cause a control function to occur or, worse yet, can cause inadvertent disconnection of the established telephone call.
For instance, when a user is connected to-another party while using the remote handset of a cordless telephone, the user might accidentally terminate the telephone call by inadvertently activating the on-hook button, annoyingly interrupting the telephone call with DTMF tones, inadvertently change channels, etc. This type of inadvertent activation may happen most often while holding the remote handset closely against the head while using both hands to attend to another task, or even by a child playing with the remote handset.
FIG. 7
illustrates the relevant portion of a conventional telephone system
11
capable of allowing a user to establish a telephone call on a telephone line
15
with another party.
In particular, in
FIG. 7
, the telephone system
11
is connected to a telephone company central office
13
via the telephone line
15
. A telephone line interface (TLI)
17
in the telephone system
11
provides the conventional isolation, DC and AC impedance as required by telephone company standards. The telephone line interface also provides a ring detect signal to a controller
19
. The ring detect signal indicates to the controller
19
the ringing of an incoming telephone call on the telephone line
15
. The controller
19
can be any suitable processor, e.g., a a microcontroller, or digital signal processor (DSP).
The telephone system
11
further includes conventional components and features, e.g., a handset
21
(which may be wired as shown or wireless), and a set of buttons including an alphanumeric keypad
23
for dialing appropriate telephone numbers, etc. The handset
21
may include an additional or alternative set of buttons including another alphanumeric keypad
21
a
to allow telephone functionality at the handset
2
l.
The particular buttons typically available on the handset
21
(and even on a base unit) allow control of the telephone line. For instance, upon activation of an on-hook/off-hook button, a telephone call would be hung up using a conventional telephone system. Moreover, activation of a channel selection key, or any of the 12 or 16 keys of a conventional alphanumeric keypad or other buttons (including switches, etc.) may cause interruptions or other annoyances to the users of the telephone system.
There is therefore a need for a telephone system which prevents interruptions and other annoyances to the users of a telephone system as desired during the time that the telephone is being used.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the principles of the present invention, a set of buttons for customer premises equipment comprises at least one manual control. A button disabling module is adapted to selectively disable the at least one manual control on a call-by-call basis.
A method of disabling one or more manual controls of customer premises equipment in accordance with the principles of another aspect of the present invention comprises establishing a telephone call, and disabling at least one manual control on the customer premises equipment for a duration of the established telephone call only.
An apparatus for disabling at least one manual control of a customer premises equipment in accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention comprises means for allowing a user to disable at least one manual control of said customer premises equipment on a call-by-call basis.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5333173 (1994-07-01), Seaholtz et al.
patent: 5606593 (1997-02-01), Smith
patent: 5812650 (1998-09-01), Gammino
patent: 5818924 (1998-10-01), King et al.

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