KR20010023285A - Telephone apparatus and signalling method - Google Patents

Abstract

A telephone apparatus, in particular a telephone apparatus such as a portable and / or mobile and / or digital telephone apparatus, includes a database for storing a plurality of entries, the field for storing confirmation information and the field for storing signal information, said database of said Selection means for selecting one of the entries, and sound generating means 28 for generating a beep sound corresponding to the signal information stored in the selected entry in the database. The dialing method is used for such a telephone apparatus. The present invention allows telephone users to set up various types of connections in a convenient and error free manner.

Description

Telephone apparatus and signaling method

GSM mobile phones typically include a phone book directory for storing information of individuals or groups who frequently call. In each entry, the name of the person or entity is associated with the corresponding telephone number. The phone book directory can be reviewed on the display device and the entry can be selected using the cursor keys on the keypad. The telephone number stored in the selected entry can be dialed by pressing a special dialing key on the keypad.

Using the directory directory of a known mobile phone is a convenient way to contact people without having to remember the phone number. However, the user tries to force a connection through the mobile phone. Mobile phone calls are usually not really what users want because they are very expensive and have poor transmission quality.

The present invention relates to a telephone apparatus and a signal method employed in the telephone apparatus. The present invention can be used for all kinds of telephone apparatuses. In particular, the invention can be used in mobile and / or portable and / or digital telephone devices, for example GSM mobile phones.

1 shows a block diagram of a telephone apparatus according to the invention.

2 to 4 show examples of the information displayed on the visual display means while the database entry is selected.

5 to 7 show examples of information displayed on the visual display means when adjusting the telephone function.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to improve the functionality of telephones, in particular mobile telephones, and to enable telephone users to establish various types of connections that are convenient and error free.

According to the invention, this object is achieved by a telephone apparatus having the features of claim 1 and a signaling method having the features of claim 12.

By combining the database facility of the telephone apparatus with a suitable sound generating means, the present invention provides a convenient method for generating a suitable tone. Tones can be used for various purposes, for example, dialing a telephone number or telefax number to another telephone or telefax device. More generally, a beep may be used to convey any kind of information, such as for example to remotely connect an answering machine or to provide additional services.

By using the telephone apparatus to generate a beep based on the selected database entry, the user can conveniently generate the desired beep sequence. The user does not have to memorize long phone numbers or passwords, and avoids typing mistakes and the resulting problems (wrong access, lost time, etc.). The present invention can be used in combination with many different devices, i.e. any device that accepts tones generated by a telephone.

In a preferred embodiment, the tone is a dual tone multi frequency (DTMF) dialing tone. DTMF tones are very commonly used to signal dialing and other information.

The beeper is advantageously output by the electroacoustic transducer so that it can be easily connected to various other devices installed in the microphone. In a preferred embodiment, the tone level of the beeper is fixed and adjusted for input to the microphone of a regular telephone handset. The present invention can be used in all types of public and private telephones in a manner similar to known DTMF sound generators. In another preferred embodiment, the user can adjust the sound level to meet various other needs.

In another preferred embodiment, the beeper is not output by the electroacoustic transducer. Instead, the tones are produced by a suitable sound generator and supplied to the telephone connection established by the mobile telephone. In these embodiments, a database of telephones can be used to store passwords and other information. In another preferred embodiment, the user selects the output of the tones through an electroacoustic transducer and / or a mobile telephone connection.

In a preferred embodiment, the database entry can be displayed by any suitable visual display means. The user can select the appropriate entry by using the cursor keys of the keypad of the telephone or by using a touch sensitive screen or other suitable input means.

A preferred embodiment of the telephone apparatus allows a user to enter an international prefix. The international prefix code (eg "+" sign) can be part of the signal information stored in an entry in the database. When a beep corresponding to the signal information of the selected entry has been generated, the international prefix will be replaced by any occurrence of the international prefix code in the signal information. This feature is advantageous for generating a suitable tone, for example from signal information in standard GSM phone number format.

Another preferred embodiment of the telephony device may allow a user to define a default prefix such as, for example, a suitable carrier access code. The tone corresponding to this prefix will be generated before the generation of the tone corresponding to the selected signal information.

Signaling information will have a standard GSM phone number format, thus including international codes and country codes even in local or national numbers. However, these telephone numbers are invalid for domestic telephone networks because domestic telephone networks do not recognize their country codes. However, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the user can input the actual country code. If this actual country code is found in the signal information to be transmitted, it will be removed from the signal information. Thus, the telephone number of standard GSM notation is dialed to the designated country (the country code will be removed) and another country (the country code will then be dialed).

Preferably, the telephone apparatus uses a digital conversion scheme for the connection, such as a GSM telephone. In this case, the digital signal (not the analog tone signal) is used in the normal dialing method. The addition of the sound generator means greatly improves the functionality of the telephone apparatus.

The method according to a preferred embodiment of the invention comprises the features described above and / or the features of claims 2 to 11.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

The phone device described is a portable GSM cellular phone. The telephone is an audible frequency unit (audio) connected to the speaker 16 and the microphone 18 as well as a high frequency unit 10 and a high frequency unit 10 for transmitting and receiving radio frequency through the antenna 12. frequency unit 14). The processing unit 20 is connected to the high frequency unit 10, the audible frequency unit 14, the memory 22, the keyboard 24, the visual display means 26 and the sound generating means 28.

The sound generating means 28 comprises an oscillator 30 connected with the electroacoustic transducer 32. The oscillator 30 can produce all the DTMF dialing tones and a number of ringing and tones for normal operation of the phone. The electroacoustic transducer 32 is a piezo buzzer or, alternatively, a handset or loudspeaker or speaker 16. Under the control of the processing unit 20, the sound generating means 28 is suitable for generating DTMF tones at a sound level suitable for connection with a standard, fixed telephone handset. In addition, the sound generating means 28 serves as a ringer for signaling incoming telephone calls.

The processing unit 20 is a known low power microcontroller composed of suitable program routines for controlling the operation of all components of the telephone.

The memory 22 is a known nonvolatile battery buffer RAM memory or other form of nonvolatile memory capable of storing a number of entries, for example a phonebook database of 200 entries. Each entry consists of a field for storing a telephone number associated with a field for storing the name of the person to be dialed (eg an individual or a group). The name of the object serves to confirm the information, and the telephone number serves to signal the information. Since the telephone apparatus cannot check whether the number entered in the telephone number field is actually a valid telephone number, any numeric information (for example, a password) can be used as signal information.

The visual display means 26 is known graphic LCD display means capable of displaying alphanumeric data.

The processor 20, the memory 22, the keyboard 24 and the visual display means 26 together form the selection means for selecting one of the entries of the database stored in the memory 22.

2 shows a phone book menu on the visual display means 26 of the telephone when the user presses a key with a "PHONEBOOK" mark on the keyboard 24. To set up the operation of the telephone, the user selects menu option "2" in the telephone directory menu to define a number of database entries in the telephone directory database. The user is then prompted for a name and phone number, which the user enters these data items via the keyboard 24.

If the user wants to dial a telephone number stored in the fixed phone's database, the user selects menu option "11" in the phone book menu. This is done using the cursor keys on the keyboard to highlight option "11", which can be selected by pressing the enter key. The list of database entries will be provided to the user by visual display means 26. This list shown in Fig. 3 is composed of a name field of one line of each entry of the database. If there are more entries in the database than the number of lines in the visual display means 26, only part of the database list is displayed at any time. The user then scrolls through the entire database using the cursor keys of the keyboard 24.

In order to select one of the database entries, the user may brightly display the corresponding display line shown in FIG. 3 by the cursor keys of the keyboard 24. When the desired name is highlighted, the user may dial the associated telephone number of the fixed telephone. For this implementation, the user picks up the handset of the fixed telephone and leaves the mobile telephone adjacent to it so that the audible dial tone produced by the electroacoustic transducer 32 is connected to the microphone of the handset. The user now presses a key labeled "SEND" on the mobile phone's keyboard 24 or selects the corresponding menu option.

The electroacoustic transducer 32 of the mobile telephone then outputs a DTMF ring tone corresponding to the telephone number stored in the selected entry, which will be received by the microphone of the handset's handset and the dialed telephone number is dialed. Thus, the desired connection can be established via the fixed telephone. The user does not have to find and dial the desired phone number, so it is not inconvenient, slow or mistaken.

More specifically, when the desired entry is displayed brightly to the user and the " SEND " key is pressed, the processor 20 accesses the memory 22 to find the entire list of brightly displayed entries in the database. The processing unit 20 transmits a signal to the oscillator 30 to output a series of DTMF dialing tones, which correspond to telephone numbers found by the processing unit 20.

Instead of pressing the "SEND" key, there may be a corresponding menu option that the user selects or another kind of command to initiate dialing.

If the entry is highlighted in the database list shown in Fig. 3, the user can immediately start by pressing the "SEND" key. The user can also first review all database entries by pressing the key labeled "REVIEW" or by selecting the corresponding menu option. Figure 4 shows an example displayed when the entire database for the name "BENTE" in all database entries is examined. After confirming that the database entry is correct, the user can press the "SEND" key to initiate dialing as described above.

5 shows an example of a setup menu used to enter various options. The setup menu is displayed according to the user select menu option " 10 " in the phone book menu shown in FIG. Items "1", "2" and "3" in the setup menu provide input of international prefixes, actual country codes and default prefixes, respectively. When one of these items is selected, the user is prompted by the screen shown in FIG. 6 to enter a corresponding digit sequence via keyboard 24. The input digit sequence is stored in the memory 22 under the control of the processing unit 20.

The international prefix will be replaced with the international prefix code that appears in the phone number field of the selected database entry. For example, describing the GSM embodiment herein, the international prefix code is the "+" sign at the beginning of the telephone number. The international prefix can be entered as "00" by the user. Then, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, since the head "+" is replaced by "00" by pressing the transmit key, the sound generating means 28 can output a DTMF dialing sound corresponding to the number "004598346456". have.

The actual country code is the code of the country where the telephone device is currently located. For example, the country code for Denmark is "45". When a DTMF tone is generated for a number that starts with this country code, the corresponding digit is omitted because the national telephone network cannot interrupt its country code. For example, if the number "004598346456" is dialed in Denmark, an error occurs and the connection is not established. Thus, the initial digit "0045" will not be dialed as a DTMF note if the actual country code "+45" is entered. Only the number "98346456" will be dialed. Instead, a national prefix (e.g., digit "0") may be used in place of the country code.

In another embodiment, the telephone apparatus first attempts to obtain information about the actual country code from the GSM network. However, this attempt will fail if the GSM network is not accessible or inaccessible due to out of range or other reasons. If no information can be obtained from the GSM network, only the actual country code stored by the user will be used as the default value.

The default prefix will always be sent prior to dialing the selected phone number. For example, a default prefix of "1001" would set up a connection to a less expensive phone service in Denmark.

In summary, when the user selects an entry from the telephone database, the signal information of this entry will first be compared with the actual country code obtained by the GSM network or entered by the user. If the starting point of the signal information matches the actual country code, the corresponding character will be removed from the signal information, and the default prefix will be output as DTMF notes following the remaining digits of the signal information. If they do not match, the international prefix is searched for in the signal information. When searching for code like this, it will be replaced with the international prefix entered by the user. If the default prefix is output in DTMF tones and then does not include an international prefix code, the digit or original signal information resulting from the conversion operation will be output.

The sound level of the generated DTMF sound can be adjusted by selecting the selection menu option "4" shown in FIG. The screen shown in FIG. 7 is provided to the user by visual display means 26. The user can press the appropriate arrow keys on the keyboard 24 to adjust the sound level, and the current level will appear in a row of boxes on the visual display means 26. Thus, the user can select a sound level suitable for various other devices.

Claims (13)

A database for storing a plurality of entries comprising a field for storing confirmation information and a field for storing signal information, Selection means for selecting one of the entries in the database, and Telephone apparatus for portable and / or mobile and / or digital telephone apparatus, comprising sound generating means (28) for generating a ring tone corresponding to the signal information stored in a selected entry of the database. The telephone apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said database is a telephone directory database and / or said confirmation information is a name and / or said signal information is a telephone or telex fax number. The telephone apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the ring tone is a DTMF dialing tone. 4. Telephone device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the beep is output by an electroacoustic transducer (32). 5. Telephone device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the beep is generated at a sound level suitable for acoustic coupling of the beep to a standard telephone handset. The telephone apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the tones are generated at a user adjustable sound level. 7. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the selection means comprises a visual display means (26) for displaying at least one entry in the database and a keyboard (24) for selecting one of the displayed entries. Characterized in that the telephone apparatus. 8. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by means for inputting and storing an international prefix, wherein said international prefix is replaced by an international prefix code of said signal information when said beep tone is generated. Phone device. 9. Telephone device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by means for input and storage of a default prefix transmitted prior to the signal information when the tone is generated. 10. A telephone according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by means for input and storage of an actual country code which is removed from the beginning of the signal information or replaced by a national prefix when the beep is generated Device. The telephone apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the telephone apparatus employs a digital transmission method. Providing a database for storing a plurality of entries comprising a field for storing confirmation information and a field for storing signal information, Selecting one of the entries in the database, and And generating a beep sound corresponding to the signal information stored in the selected entry of the database. 13. A signaling method according to claim 12, wherein the method is used for a telephone apparatus having any one of claims 2 to 11.