Telephonic communications – Call or terminal access alarm or control – At substation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-11
2001-08-07
Matar, Ahmad (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Call or terminal access alarm or control
At substation
C379S038000, C379S045000, C379S350000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06272212
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to telephone equipment and, in particular, to an apparatus for monitoring outgoing phone calls toward intercepting and redirecting certain telephone calls.
2. Background Art
Home alarm systems are common-place. These systems are generally programmed upon installation to dial-out information via a standard telephone company network information to a central monitoring company selected by the alarm installer. Reprogramming of these alarm systems (and more particularly the telephone number of the monitoring company) is often difficult or cumbersome. Nevertheless, a home owner may be desirous of changing monitoring companies without the expense and/or aggravation of reprogramming the alarm system. Consequently, it is an object of the present invention to provide a device that can intercept telephone calls from home alarms and redirect those calls to different monitoring companies.
The number of long distance telephone companies has increased. While some long distance companies can be directly associated with a consumer's telephone, some of these companies are accessed by dialing a prefix in the form of “10-10-xxxx” before dialing the telephone number of the desired called party. Consequently, it is another (and potentially alternate) object of the present invention to provide a device that can automatically dial this prefix in response to the consumer dialing a standard long distance call (i.e. “1” and then the telephone number).
Additionally, there are various events that consumers manually monitor and, then upon occurrence of the event (e.g. low propane pressure) manually call a third party (e.g. the gas company to schedule a propane delivery). Often times the user fails to note the occurrence of the event or cannot timely place the responsive telephone call to the third party. Accordingly, it is a further (potentially alternate) object of the present invention to provide a device that can automatically dial the appropriate third party automatically upon notification of the occurrence of the event.
These and other objects will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the present drawings, specification and claims before them.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention discloses, in part, a telephone intercept device interposed between a telephone company network and telecommunications equipment in a consumer unit, such as a home, office or store. The telephone intercept device includes a voltage regulator, an electrically-controlled switching circuit, a first off-hook detection circuit, a second circuit for mimicking an off-hook state, means for capturing digits dialed out by the telecommunications equipment, a memory and control means.
The voltage regulator has a small quiescent current requirement and draws its supply voltage from the telephone company network. The electrically-controlled switching circuit is operably disposed between the telecommunications equipment and the telephone company network.
The off-hook detection (first) circuit is operably disposed between the telephone company network and the voltage regulator. The first circuit is also operably connected to the electrically-controllable switching circuit such that the first circuit operably connects the voltage regulator to the telephone company network upon the telecommunications equipment assuming an off-hook state while the electrically-controlled switching circuit is in its closed state. The second circuit, when operably connected to the telephone company network, mimics an off-hook state.
The intercept device further includes means for capturing each digit from the telecommunications equipment (preferably represented by a DTMF signal), in sequence, into a dialed digit word. The memory contains at least one function word. Each function word has an associated telephone number intended to redirect the original phone call (represented by the captured dialed digit word) to the associated telephone number.
The device additionally includes control means for (i) opening the electrically-controlled switching circuit, (ii) forcing the first circuit to operably connect the voltage regulator to the telephone company network, (iii) activating the second circuit, (iv) waiting for dial-tone from the telephone company network, (v) dialing out the associated telephone number after waiting for the dial tone; and (vi) closing the electrically-controlled switching circuit after dialing out the associated telephone number, the control means operating only when the dialed digit word corresponds to one of the function words stored in memory.
In one embodiment, the control means includes a wave table for generating each possible set of DTMF codes and may further include a filter tuned to remove any non-DTMF code frequencies generated by the control means. Still further the device may include a modulating amplifier for modulating the dialed out associated telephone number. Of course, other DTMF generating techniques and/or specialized IC's could be used instead within the teachings of the present invention.
In one potential embodiment of the telephone intercept device, the device further includes an auxiliary input for receiving signals from a non-telephone based device. In this embodiment, the first circuit can also be activated by said non-telephone based device. Also in this embodiment, the memory further includes a dedicated telephone number associated with the non-telephone based device. Further in this embodiment, in addition to the first control means there is a second control means for servicing the non-telephone based device interrupt.
The second control means is for (i) forcing the first circuit to operably connect the voltage regulator to the telephone company network, (ii) activating the second circuit to mimic an off-hook state, (iii) waiting for dial-tone from the telephone company network, (iv) dialing out the dedicated telephone number after waiting for the dial tone; and (v) transmitting information associated with the non-telephone based device, the second control means operating only upon activation of the non-telephone based device.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3681532 (1972-08-01), Simon
patent: 4450320 (1984-05-01), Ostermann et al.
patent: 4747120 (1988-05-01), Foley
patent: 5161180 (1992-11-01), Chavous
patent: 5408525 (1995-04-01), Eldering
patent: 5425085 (1995-06-01), Weinberger et al.
Sandler David A.
Wulforst Howard E.
Matar Ahmad
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
Tieu Benny Q.
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