Telephone having convenience feature data transfer capability

Details Telephone having convenience feature data transfer capability Telephone having convenience feature data transfer capability

2001-01-25

2003-08-19

Chan, Wing (Department: 2643)

Telephonic communications

Telephone line or system combined with diverse electrical...

Having transmission of a digital message signal over a...

C379S093050, C379S090010, C379S355060, C455S557000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06608889

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to telephones with memories. In particular, it relates to corded and cordless telephones capable of transferring convenience data associated from one telephone which is already programmed by a user, and a target telephone.
2. Background
Telephones have become essential parts of homes and businesses. Networks of copper and fiber optics wires interconnect users from all over the world, thereby allowing users to conveniently communicate with each other by merely pressing a few buttons on a keypad.
In general, digital telephones come in two varieties: corded and cordless telephones.
FIG. 8
illustrates a block diagram of a conventional digital corded telephone, and
FIGS. 9A
,
9
B illustrates block diagrams of a conventional digital cordless telephone.
As shown in
FIG. 8
, a conventional digital corded telephone
700
includes a telephone line interface (TLI)
702
, a ring detect circuit
704
, a controller
706
, a coder-decoder (CODEC)
708
, a keypad
714
, a memory
712
, a program read only memory (ROM)
710
, and a handset
716
. The handset
716
of the corded telephone
700
includes a microphone
718
and a speaker
720
.
An incoming call is received through the TLI
702
that is configured to provide an interface to a telephone switch network. The ring detect circuit
704
is configured to provide detection an incoming telephone call coming through the TLI
702
and to initiate the familiar telephone ring associated with the incoming telephone call.
The controller
706
is configured to place the telephone
700
in an off-hook mode in response to the user picking up the telephone handset
716
from a cradle (not shown) of the corded telephone
700
. Incoming voice signals are converted by the CODEC
708
to drive the speaker
720
for the user to hear the incoming telephone conversation.
In the transmit direction, the CODEC
708
receives output voice signals from the microphone
718
and converts the output voice signals to analog electrical signals to send back to the caller through the TLI
702
.
The controller
706
is configured to execute a software program or state machine that defines the functions of the corded telephone
700
. With the appropriate software program or state machine, the corded telephone
700
may implement functions such as caller identification, speed dialing, or call waiting. The controller
706
may be implemented with a digital signal processor (DSP), microprocessor, microcontroller, or combinational logic.
The program ROM
710
is configured to provide a storage medium to store a software program or state machine that provides the functionality of the corded telephone
700
. The memory
712
is configured to store user programmed data such as speed memory dial numbers, emergency numbers, and etc.
The keypad
714
is configured to provide an interface for a user to operate the corded telephone
700
.
FIG. 9A
shows a handset of a typical digital cordless telephone. In the transmit direction of the handset
802
of the conventional cordless telephone
800
, a microphone
802
outputs an analog signal to a CODEC
804
in response to a user speaking during an active telephone call. The CODEC
804
is configured to convert a microphone input signal to a digital microphone signal to a radio frequency (RF) transceiver
806
. In response to the received digital microphone signal, the RF transceiver
806
is configured to convert the received digital microphone signal into an RF signal for transmission to a complementary base unit
850
.
A program read-only-memory (ROM) memory
810
is configured to provide a storage medium for the software or state machine that provides the functionality of handset
801
. A memory
812
is configured to store user programmed data such as speed memory dial numbers, emergency numbers, and etc.
In the receive direction, the RF transceiver
806
receives an RF signal from the complementary base unit
850
. The RF transceiver
806
converts the RF signal to a digital signal that is passed to the CODEC
804
for decoding. The output of the CODEC
804
is an analog signal for output by a speaker
816
.
FIG. 9B
shows a block diagram of a base unit
850
of the conventional digital cordless telephone
800
. The base unit
850
contains circuitry which is complementary to that contained in the handset
801
, i.e., a complementary RF transceiver
852
, a controller
856
, a CODEC
854
, a program ROM
860
, and a memory
862
. The base unit
850
also includes a telephone line interface (TLI)
858
to interface with a public switched telephone network and a ring detect circuit
864
to detect an incoming telephone call through the TLI interface
858
.
As digital telephones have become an essential part of homes and businesses, the cost of digital telephones has also dropped. As a result, it is not surprising to find multiple telephones in a home and/or business.
Moreover, digital telephones have become increasingly more and more sophisticated. Many digital telephones provide convenient functions such as speed dial, call waiting, caller identification (ID), and etc. In order to implement many of these features, digital memory is used to store convenience data, e.g., telephone numbers, caller ID tables, and etc.
However, in households with multiple digital telephones, each digital telephone must be manually programmed by the user with the same or similar convenience information, which leads to excess labor by the user, and the risk of errors or differences between different digital telephones.
Moreover, convenience memory of a digital telephone may become erased or corrupted, leading to the need for the user to again manually reprogram the digital telephone with custom convenience information, e.g., speed dial telephone numbers.
There is a need for an improved digital telephone which avoids the need to separately program different telephones within a house or small office.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the principles of the present invention, a telephone module capable of transferring convenience feature data between separate telephones comprises a convenience feature data memory located within a first telephone configured to store convenience feature data relevant to the first telephone. A data transfer module is in communication with the convenience feature data memory, and is configured to transfer the convenience feature data to another telephone.
A method of transferring convenience feature data to a user's telephone from another telephone comprises initiating a request to transfer the convenience data from the other telephone. The convenience feature data is transferred from the other telephone to the user's telephone in response to the transfer request.


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patent: 5812946 (1998-09-01), Nakabayashi
patent: 5930703 (1999-07-01), Cairns
patent: 6246376 (2001-06-01), Bork et al.
patent: 0 526 729 (1993-10-01), None
patent: 2 283 151 (1995-04-01), None

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