Telephone Dialler With a Personalized Page Organization of Telephone Directory Memory

There are many different telephone sets with autodialling and stored telephone directory. They normally have some kind of memory for storing preselected and frequently called telephone numbers and usually every one of those numbers has a corresponding push-button. This kind of arrangement is very inconvenient if a large number of telephone numbers is stored as far as a separate push-button is required for each number. Also, additional information such as name and/or address can not be conveniently associated with push-buttons.

To assist in identifying the telephone numbers that are stored in the respective memory location, paper tabs, or inserts are juxtaposed the respective keys, and it is expected that the user will write onto each paper tab the name of the individual whose telephone number is stored in the associated memory locations.

It has been proposed in Can. Pat. 1,266,930 (pg.1, 1n.24 . . .): ". . . a hybrid alphanumeric directory comprising a portable note book having a plurality of bound pages, which can be opened to expose a desired page, each page having a plurality of writing areas in the same relative positions where alpha-numeric information can be entered; and an electronic unit comprising a receiving surface on which said note book can be placed, a plurality of actuators associated with said respective relative positions when said note book is placed on the receiving surface . . . means, for indicating which page is exposed and means responsive to an output from said indicating means to associate said actuator with the respective data associated with the writing areas of the exposed page." This way the number of actuators (push-buttons) has been reduced, but there is additional operation to find the fight page and also there is no feedback to show that the selected number is the desired one.

In some telephones with autodialling memory the number is displayed on alpha-numeric display during its entry into memory and also during dialling, so it could be verified. Even it has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,341,929 to display in addition to a numerical telephone number, alphabetic characters representing the name of the individual associated with that telephone number.

Thus both the name and the telephone number are stored and displayed. However, in this proposal, a separate alpha-numeric character keyboard is provided for the purpose of entering signals representing names.

The subject matter of the present invention relates generally to advanced use of the telephone directory in a telephone system for improved human interface and better access, retrieval and use of the data stored in this directory. At the same time the organization of the telephone directory into pages with the option of individual access to each page, allows for better utilization of the telephone directory and creation of a number of personalized subdirectories with individual access.

The telephone dialler according to the invention provides an easy and fast access to the stored telephone directory through repositioning of a single sliding or rotary control, which depending on its position causes the associated address generator to generate an address, used to retrieve the necessary telephone number and associated with it additional information. Moving this control permits easy scanning of the contents of the telephone directory memory and by displaying it on an alpha-numeric display easy location of the desired number. The depressing of another button performs the autodialling of the selected this way number.

In addition to the dialled number, additional alpha-numeric information, like the name of the called person is displayed on the display thus permitting easy verification.

A standard telephone dialler keypad is used for entering the numbers and as well as the letters, but the keypad is allowed to enter alphabetic characters only during "name" programming mode and behaves in all other modes as a standard telephone dialling keypad.

In addition to the scanning mode, "shortcut" and "manual" modes are also available. The "shortcut" dialling means that just dialling the sequential number of the person to be called as it is stored in the telephone directory memory is enough This feature is very useful for numbers, which are frequently used, and the caller knows their position numbers in telephone memory.

The keypad permits in "name" programming mode (the mode when the additional alphanumeric information is entered into telephone memory) to enter a full set of ASCII characters by multiple depressings of a button. For example for entering the letter "B" the button "2" on the keypad should be depressed 3 times in a row and then depressing the button "enter" will cause the ASCII code corresponding to this letter to be stored in memory. This way the need for an alpha-numeric keyboard with all its complexity and cost is avoided.

The ready availability of the additional alpha-numeric information in telephone memory is not only indispensable in medium to large autodialling directories, for identification and verification purposes during dialling, but it also ensures such advanced features as "who is calling" information (service provided by some North American companies), if the telephone number of the caller exist in the directory not only the number is displayed but also the name of the caller, this last in combination with an answering machine could keep track for all incoming calls.

The telephone directory is organized in pages; for example 9 pages, each containing 16 telephone number entries with corresponding names.

In order to make the telephone directory to serve different people, for example different members of a family, each page can be locked by its own access code. This will allow each member of the family, as in the example, to have his/her own directory not accessible by the others. At the same time some of the pages, which are not locked by an "access code" are available for scanning by everyone and when the page change button switches to this page the display will show the numbers and names contained in this page. If the page change button switches to a page which has been locked by an access code the display will display the name of the "owner" of the page and request an access code entry for this page. This will make it possible to have a common telephone serving several people and having an open and several personalized telephone directories.

With a telephone directory memory organized in pages, during "programming" mode the dialler first prompts to enter the identifier of the page, where the telephone number to be programmed, will reside. The identifier could be either the sequential number of the page, or the additional alphanumeric page identifier. If the page has been locked, the dialler will next issue a prompt to enter the proper access code for this page.

There is also a code word called "master code" for the purposes to make the directory controllable, as in cases when the "page access code" has been lost or forgotten, or when it has to be changed. In this case, however when the master code is used to open a page its contents is erased automatically before its been open. This way the privacy of the owner of the page will be protected. The "master code" is available to the prime owner of the telephone and is entered during the initial setup of the dialler.

If "calling party number" service is available, the telephone number of the incoming call is checked for match with the numbers in telephone directory memory for all pages, open or locked, and if such is found either only the name of the caller, or the name of the "owner of the page" or both are shown on the alphanumeric display. This will provide information not only in regard who is calling but also to whom this call could relate. If the display permits also the calling party telephone number will be displayed.

By switching from page to page with the page selector device without moving the inside page address selector the dialler will display on the alphanumeric display the information related to the currently selected page, like page sequential number and the additional alphanumeric page identifier. Any movement of the inside page address selector device, however, will cause the dialler to start displaying on the alphanumeric display the telephone number and "name" currently pointed by the inside page address selector device within the selected page.

The application of this telephone system is also very convenient for use in such office automation and home automation equipment as fax machines etc.

The embodiment of a telephone dialler according to the present invention includes a CPU which controls all telephone system periphery and performs all algorithms to implement the system, a nonvolatile memory for storing the telephone directory (could be EEPROM, Flash ROM, battery backed up RAM or any other in circuit programmable memory) and permitting easy modification of the data, a standard telephone like keypad (with small modifications explained later and made in order to accommodate the input of some additional characters), data character display (LCD or any other similar) for displaying the contents of the telephone directory and means for scanning the contents of the telephone directory on the display and direct dialling using the data displayed on the display.

The block diagram of the whole system has been shown on FIG. 1, forming one embodiment of the invention.

On FIG. 2 is shown an embodiment of the Address Generator of the telephone system, based on a potentiometer connected to one of the inputs of an A to D converter. The outputs of the A to D converter are connected to the parallel inputs of a shift register performing normalization of the result and outputting it to a temporary buffer (note, the shift register and the buffer could be implemented by software).

On FIG. 3 there is another embodiment of the Address Generator, based on a variable duty cycle generator and following it timer circuitry. The input controls change the generator duty cycle and the timer measures it and then transfers the result to a shift register for normalization and finally to a temporary buffer (note again, the shift register and the temporary buffer could be implemented by software).

On FIG. 4 is shown yet another embodiment of the Address Generator based on a variable frequency generator and following it timer. The input controls vary the generator's frequency, which is then measured by the timer, normalized afterwards by a shift register and finally stored into a temporary buffer (again the shift register and the temporary buffer could be accomplished by software).

FIG. 5 shows the layout picture of the telephone system keypad, connected to the CPU and respectively the character display connected also to the CPU and displaying the result of three consequent depressings of the button "1" on the keypad. The consecutive characters are shown overlapped but actually at first depressing of "1" button an "1" will be displayed, at second depressing it will be replaced by "Q", at third--by "Z" and then the process will repeat until the button "enter" has been depressed, which will cause the current displayed character to be stored and the display cursor to move to the next position. The above sequence will be valid during entering the "name" information into the telephone directory memory. During normal dialling, shortcut dialling or entering the telephone number into directory the keypad behaves as a standard telephone keypad.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a structure of the temporary buffer between the telephone directory and the CPU. As it could be seen the "name" is stored in ASCII code and the "length" of the telephone number and the telephone number itself--in Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) code. This is done in order to save memory space.

The number, sequence and contents of the blocks comprising the temporary buffer could be different depending on specific requirements to the system but should match the number and contents of the cells of the telephone directory.

FIG. 7 shows an example of organization of the telephone directory. As it could be seen from this example the separate cells containing the name, telephone number and the length of the telephone number have equal length and should be in correspondence to the structure of the temporary buffer. This will make easier for the software to move the traffic both ways.

FIG. 8 shows an implementation for the page select and inside page address select controls.

FIG. 9 shows a flowchart describing the algorithm for entering of the master code, for opening or locking of a given page, and finally for entering of a new page access code, as well as the additional alphanumeric page identifier.

The page select algorithm is shown on FIG. 10, and the algorithm for displaying the name of the person to whom a page has been assigned in the case of the calling party number display mode is shown on FIG. 11.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of the algorithm from switching from manual mode of dialling to memory mode of dialling, as well as the opposite--from memory dialling to manual.

As shown on FIG. 1 the telephone system according to the present invention includes an address generator 1 connected to a buffer 2 on one side and receiving control signals from the CPU 3 on the other. The buffer 2 on its side is connected also to the CPU 3. The telephone directory RAM 5, which could be either a non volatile RAM, EEPROM or any other kind of non volatile memory permitting segment erasure and on line programmability, is connected with its I/O data bus to a temporary buffer 4 and receives control and address data from the CPU 3, which on its side is connected to a standard telephone like keypad 6, an alphanumeric display 15 of suitable size and type and to telephone interface circuits 7, such as tone dialler, ring detector, call progress detector, a standard telephone handset circuit plus the handset itself, a speakerphone circuit etc. The telephone interface circuits 7 on their side are connected to a suitable telephone line interface 8 such as telephone transformer and relay etc.

The system functions as follows: the address generator 1, which could have different embodiments explained later, but in all cases is controlled by a single sliding or rotary type control, generates depending on the position of the control an address or part of an address (could be simply the sequential order of a cell from telephone directory), which is stored in the buffer 2; after depressing the button "tel." on the keypad 6, the CPU 3 takes the address from the buffer 2, reads the corresponding cell from the telephone directory 5, which contains the telephone number and other identifying alpha-numeric data, moves this data into the temporary buffer 4 and then displays it in suitable form on the alpha-numeric display 15. This process is continuous but discrete in time, so moving or rotating the control of the address generator 1 modifies the address in buffer 2 and in discrete suitably chosen moments of time the CPU 3 takes this address reads the corresponding cell of the telephone directory 5, moves the data to the temporary buffer 4 and display 15. This way just by moving the sliding or rotary control of the address generator 1 one could easily, fast and conveniently scan the contents of the telephone directory 5 on the display 15 keeping at the same time the currently displayed information into the buffer 4. If one presses in the mean time the button "tel." on the keypad 6 the displayed number is outputted by the CPU 3, from the buffer 4 to the telephone interface circuit 7 and from there through the telephone line interface 8 to the telephone exchange. A variation of the above described way for scanning of the telephone directory memory 5 is performed following way--after depressing the appropriate control button the keypad 6 is switched into "name" mode, described in the next pages, but only for the first entered alpha-numeric character, and after that by activating the sliding/rotary control of the address generator 1 only those numbers from the telephone directory memory 5 are displayed on display 15 and moved to the buffer 4 for which the alpha-numeric supplementary data starts with the selected letter. In case of an incoming call (if the option is available) the system sends a request through the telephone interface circuits 7 and receives the calling party number which is stored in buffer 4 and then compared to the telephone numbers contained inside the telephone directory RAM 5 and if a match is found all the additional information is concatenated to the number data inside the buffer 4 and displayed on to display 15.

One possible embodiment of the address generator 1 is shown on FIG. 2. The variable voltage from the slider of the potentiometer 9 is fed to one of the inputs of the A to D converter 10 with a suitable resolution and accuracy. The transformed into digital code value of this voltage from the outputs of the A to D converter 10 is supplied to the parallel inputs of the shift register 11, where a logical shift right is executed under control of the CPU 3, depending on the A to D converter resolution 10 and the size of the telephone directory RAM 5. As an example if the A to D converter 10 has 8-bits resolution and the telephone director RAM 5 has 16 cells, the data inside the shift register 11 will be shifted four bits to the right. After that from the outputs of the shift register 11 data is moved to the buffer 2 and is used further by the CPU 3 for generation of an effective address, adding it to the offset address of the telephone directory RAM 5, the CPU accesses a cell in the telephone directory RAM 5 which directly corresponds to a given position of the slider of the potentiometer 9, so, this way moving the slider causes the digit stored in buffer 2 to change in such a way that all addresses in telephone directory RAM 5 are scanned and a fixed given position of the potentiometer 9 corresponds always to a fixed cell inside telephone directory RAM 5.

Different embodiment of the address generator 1 is shown on FIG. 3. There a fixed frequency variable duty cycle generator 12 is controlled either by potentiometer or variable capacitor 16, which varies the duty cycle of the signal fed from its output to the input of a timer 13 measuring the width of the signal and loading the result to the parallel inputs of the shift register 11. The next steps are identical to that from FIG. 2. With a suitable choice of the duty cycle range and the frequency of the generator 12 and accordingly the resolution of the timer 13, this embodiment of the address generator 1 will meet any requirements regarding the size of the telephone directory RAM 5.

Third variation of the address generator 1 is shown on FIG. 4. Here the main difference from FIG. 3 is that the position of the controls 13 control a variable frequency generator 14 and the timer 13 is in period (frequency) mode of measurement. Here too by properly choosing the frequency range of the generator 14 and the resolution of the timer 13, a wide range of telephone RAM 5 could be reliably accessed.

FIG. 5 shows some particularities of the keypad 6 and the way the data is interpreted by the CPU 3 and displayed on the alpha-numeric display 15 during "name" programming mode, eliminating this way the need for an alpha-numeric keyboard. When in program mode to enter the name of the person, after first depressing of a given push button the keypad 6 output is interpreted by the CPU 3 as the digit marked on it, and it is displayed same way on the alpha-numeric display 15, second depressing of the same button is interpreted by the CPU 3 as the first character marked on the push button bellow the digit and accordingly replaces the digit on the display 15 and its ASCII code is stored into buffer 4; third depressing is interpreted as the second character bellow the digit and next depressings of the same button are interpreted as next marked characters and after the last again the digit is displayed and so on until the "enter" button on the keypad 6 is depressed which leaves last character into buffer 4 and moves to next position for entering next character of the name till the depressing of the "end" button, the maximum allowed number of characters has been exceeded, or the button "cancel" has been depressed In first two cases the mode automatically switches to entering the telephone number and already the keypad 6 is interpreted by the CPU 3 as a normal only digital keypad. Only the digits corresponding to the depressed buttons are displayed on the display 15 and accordingly their codes stored in buffer 4. In the third case the buffer 4 and the display 15 are cleared and the whole procedure starts from the very beginning. The entering of the telephone number is complete either after depressing the "end" button on the keypad 6 or exceeding the allowed length for the telephone part of the buffer 4. In both cases the "length" is automatically stored in the appropriate location in buffer 4. Next procedure is to depress the button "store" on the keypad 6 and the contents of the buffer 4 is automatically stored by the CPU to a cell in the telephone directory RAM 5, currently pointed by the address contained in the buffer 2. The only difference from the standard keypad is the addition in the new keypad 6 of letters "Q" and "Z" bellow number "1" and--"." and space "SP" bellow "0", which was necessary to make them also available for programming.

The structure of the buffer 4 is explained on FIG. 6. It should be noted that the "name" information is in ASCII code and the "length" of the telephone number and the telephone number itself in BCD in order to save memory space, but they could be of any other suitable type.

FIG. 7 shows the internal structure of the telephone directory RAM 5. Rows are cells and as is shown the n-th address is displaced from the first by (n-1)*(M+N+1) bytes, where n--is the cell number; M--length of the "name" in bytes; N--length of the telephone number in bytes. So, the address increments from cell to cell by M+N+1 bytes. The structure of a row in telephone directory RAM 5 corresponds exactly to the structure of the buffer 4.

One embodiment of the combination of page selector and inside page address selector devices is shown on FIG. 8. By initial depression on the slider/push button control 1 the telephone directory memory is selected and page one (in other implementation--last selected page) contents can be scanned by sliding the control 1. Further depressions on the control 1 will switch consecutively to next pages.

A flowchart for initial setup, for change, and finally for regular use of the master code is shown on FIG. 9. At the very beginning when the request for master code has been issued either by depressing dedicated button or combination of buttons the CPU checks if it is initial setup 2, if it is an initial setup, a request to enter new master code 3 is issued by the system. After the new master code has been entered the system exits from master code entry mode of operation. On the second hand, if it is not an initial setup 2, there is another branch asking if it is to enter a new master code 4, if the answer is yes, the system requests the entry of the current master code 5. If the entered code is incorrect the process repeats either until a correct master code has been entered, followed by the entry of the new master code 3 and exiting master code mode 18, or if the incorrect entry is repeated more than certain number of times 10, eight in this case, further entry of the master code is blocked for a certain amount of time 14, thirty minutes in this case, and the CPU exits from the execution of the algorithm 18. In case that the answer to the request for new master code 4 is no, the system asks again to enter the current master code 7. It checks if the entered master code is correct 9, if it is incorrect the action of the system is the same as in the case of the entry of new master code. If the entered master code is correct the system switches to the branch of the algorithm dealing with the parameters of the currently selected page. First thing the system does is to erase the content of the current page 11, thus privacy of the "owner" of the page is assured. Next choice is to keep the page locked with a new page access code or to open it. If the choice is to unlock it, the system resets the special page locked flag 16, asks to enter new alphanumeric page identifier 13 and exits 18. If however, the request is to keep the system locked, page locked flag is set 17, the system requests the entry of a new page access code 12, then the entry of the additional alphanumeric page identifier for this page 13, and exits 18 the algorithm.

The algorithm for page selection is described by the flowchart on FIG. 10. The page is selected by means of the page selector device 2; first thing the system checks for is if the page has been locked 3. If it is open the inside page address selector 9 is enabled and the system exits 10 the page selection algorithm. If the page is locked 3, system requests the entry of the page access code 4 this page. The system then checks for incorrect entry 6, if this is the case the process is repeated, either until a correct entry, or the number of entries exceeds eight 5, as in this case. In the last case the system blocks further entry of the page access code 8 for this page, for a predetermined amount of time (30 minutes in this example). If the entered page access code 6 is correct the system enables the inside page address selector 9 and exits the execution of the algorithm 10.

FIG. 11 shows the flowchart for the calling party number algorithm. The incoming call number is loaded into a temporary buffer 2 and then compared by the means of the CPU with all numbers stored in the telephone directory memory 3, the CPU checks if a match is found 4. If there is no match, only the telephone number of the caller 5 is displayed on the alphanumeric display. If, however, there is a match, the system will display the name of the caller and the alphanumeric identifier of the page 6, where this number resides. This is a very convenient feature to identify not only who is calling, but also for whom is this call. The displayed information depends on the capabilities of the alphanumeric display, in one case it could be the name of the caller, the "name" of the person to take the call, the sequential number of the page and the calling party telephone number, but depending on the size of the display, only part of this information could be displayed, or displayed sequentially after depressings of a dedicated button for example.

FIG. 12 describes a convenient way to switch between manual dialling mode 1, and memory dialling mode 3. Let assume the dialler is in a manual dialling mode 1, where a telephone number is dialled manually by sequential depressings of numerical keys of the keypad. System checks continuously if the page selector device has been activated, if it is not the dialler stays in manual dial mode 1. If the page selector 2 has been activated, the system switches the dialler to memory dial mode 3, it checks further if the inside page address selector has been activated 5, if it is not it displays on the alphanumeric display the selected page sequential number and the additional alphanumeric identifier for this page 8, in another embodiment not shown in FIG. 12 the system will display page one sequential number and its alphanumeric identifier. It will stay this way checking if a numerical key of the keypad has been activated 9, if it is the dialler will switch back to manual dial mode 1, if there is no numerical key activated 9, the system will check if the page selector device is activated 10 to switch to another page, if it is it will switch to another page 11, then check if the inside page address selector is active 5, display the new page sequential number and alphanumeric identifier 8 and cycle this way if the page selector has not been activated 10, the system will directly go to check if the inside page address selector 5 is active and stay cycling inside the branch, until the inside page address selector has been activated 5, the system checks again if a numerical key on the keypad has been activated 6, and if so switches to manual dial mode 1, if not it starts displaying the telephone number indicia pointed by the inside page address selector device 7.

While, the above described embodiments of the invention are the preferred ones, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that many other changes and modifications may be made without departing from the invention in its broader aspects. Therefore the intention of the claims is to cover such changes and modifications falling within the true spirit and scope of the invention.