WO1998030014A1

WO1998030014A1 - Method for storing and dialing telephone numbers

Info

Publication number: WO1998030014A1
Application number: PCT/US1997/024027
Authority: WO
Inventors: Lupu Wittner
Original assignee: Target - Hi-Tech Electronics Ltd.; Friedman, Mark, M.
Priority date: 1997-01-03
Filing date: 1997-12-29
Publication date: 1998-07-09
Also published as: AU5723298A

Abstract

A method for storing and dialing frequently dialed telephone numbers. Names of parties corresponding to telephone numbers, and the telephone numbers themselves, are encoded numerically using a standard telephone keypad, and stored in a lookup table. Provision is made for guaranteeing the uniqueness of stored encoded names despite the many-to-one mapping of letters to numbers inherent in a standard telephone keypad. The telephone number of a desired party is dialed by dialing the name of the party.

Description

METHOD FOR STORING AND DIALING TELEPHONE NUMBERS

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method for storing and dialing telephone

numbers and, more particularly, to a method that allows a user to dial a stored number

by entering, on a standard telephone keypad, a portion of the name of the party being

called.

There are many devices and procedures that allow telephone users to store

frequently used telephone numbers and dial them by dialing a small number of digits

rather than the seven to ten digits commonly used to define full telephone numbers.

All such devices and procedures have one or another inconvenience associated with

their use.

Many answering machines include a feature that allows a user to define and

store telephone numbers that correspond to a number of small integers ( 1 through 20

or 1 through 99), and to dial one of those numbers by dialing the corresponding

integers. In order to use this feature, the user must keep or memorize a list of integers

and corresponding parties.

Sophisticated PBX systems often include a feature that enables a user to look

up the extension number of a party on the system by dialing the first several letters of

the party's name on a standard telephone keypad. Because the standard telephone

keypad has three letters per key, in a large organization, several parties are likely to

correspond to some combinations of three or four keys, so to truly enable this feature,

each telephone set in the system must be provided with a display that allows the user to recognize and select the desired party. Furthermore, this feature is of no help in

dialing parties outside the organization.

With personal computers becoming increasingly common, it is a

straightforward matter to program a personal computer to store a set of frequently

dialed telephone numbers and the names of the associated parties, and to look up and

dial the telephone number of a name entered via the computer's keyboard. For that

matter, a table of names and telephone numbers may be displayed in an interactive

window, and the computer may be instructed to dial one of the numbers by the user

indicating the corresponding line of the table, using an entry device such as a mouse.

This solution clearly is of no use in situations where the computer is unavailable, for

example if a user, in a remote location such as the user's private vehicle, wishes to

place a call on a cellular telephone.

Lee et al., in US Patent No. 4,475,013, disclose an apparatus for storing

telephone numbers, and dialing a number by keying in the first several letters of the

name of the corresponding party. This apparatus uses its own keypad, rather than the

keypad of the attached telephone set, to enter the letters, and also suffers from the

encumbrance, noted above in connection with PBX systems, that the apparatus needs

a display of names to enable the user to disambiguate names that share common sets

of first letters.

There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly

advantageous to have, a method that allows a user to quickly dial a commonly used

telephone number, by merely dialing a portion of the name of the desired party,

without the encumbrances of the presently known systems. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention there is provided a method for storing a

telephone number of a party and dialing the telephone number on a telephone line,

comprising the steps of: (a) providing a telephone set including a keypad, the keypad

including a plurality of alphanumeric keys, at least one of the alphanumeric keys

being labeled with a unique digit and at least two letters, the keypad further including

a control key; (b) providing a dialer including: (I) a microprocessor, (ii) a memory

unit communicating with the microprocessor, (iii) a first interface whereby the

microprocessor transmits signals to the telephone line, and (iv) a second interface

whereby the microprocessor exchanges signals with the telephone set; (c) entering, via

the keypad, a name of the party; (d) storing the name in the memory unit, by the

microprocessor; (e) entering, via the keypad, the telephone number; and (f) storing the telephone number in the memory unit, by the microprocessor; thereby creating a table

of names and associated telephone numbers.

The present invention relies on the fact that, even though, on a standard telephone

keypad (Figure 1 ), each alphanumeric key (the keys labeled with the digits 2 through

9 in this example) is labeled with three letters, most users have only a small number of

telephone numbers that they dial frequently, and the names of the parties almost always can be encoded uniquely by the keypad digits that correspond to the first few

letters of the names. The following table presents a typical example of five names and

the corresponding unique numerical encoding. TABLE 1

Name Code

HOME 4663

MOM 666

TOM 866

DICK 3425

HARRY 42779

According to the present invention, if a dialer for implementing the present invention

has been loaded with five telephone numbers and the corresponding names as encoded

numerically in Table 1, in order to dial Mom, the user dials a standard dialing prefix

followed by 666" instead of dialing Mom's full telephone number. A telephone

number is loaded into the dialer by dialing a first standard storage prefix, the party's

name, a second standard storage prefix, the party's full telephone number, and a

standard storage suffix. If the name of the party, as encoded, has already been loaded,

the entry is aborted and the user must start over with a different name. For example,

"Jim" and "Kim" are not unique within the numerical encoding scheme of Figure 1 :

both names are encoded as "546". If a party named "Kim" is stored in the dialer, and

the user attempts to enter "Jim", the dialer signals the user that an ambiguity is

present, and the user must start over, for example by entering the name "Jimmy" (code

54669).

Note that the fact that the standard telephone keypad of Figure 1 has three

letters per key does not introduce any ambiguity to the dialing system of the present

invention. In particular, there is no need for the user to indicate, by extra keystrokes, which of the three letters is desired. In the above example, "Mom" is dialed by

pressing the "6" key three times, and it does not matter that the middle letter of

Mom's name is "O" and not "M". Indeed, Mom's name could have been encoded

simply as the number "6", and the user could then dial Mom's telephone number by

pressing the "6" key only once.

A dialer for implementing the present invention may easily be built into a

standard touch-tone telephone set. Alternatively, a stand-alone dialer may be equipped with a standard telephone jack and a standard telephone socket, and

retrofitted to a standard touch-tone telephone set by plugging the jack of the telephone

set into the socket of the dialer and plugging the jack of the dialer into a standard

telephone line socket.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is herein described, by way of example only, with reference to

the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 (prior art) is a standard telephone keypad;

FIG. 2 (prior art) is a schematic diagram of a dialer for implementing the

present invention;

FIG. 3 (prior art) is a Hebrew telephone keypad.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention is of a method for storing and dialing frequently used

telephone numbers. Specifically, the present invention can be used to dial a party by

dialing a portion of the party's name on a standard telephone keypad.

The principles and operation of telephone number dialing according to the

present invention may be better understood with reference to the drawings and the

accompanying description.

Referring now to the drawings, Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a basic

dialer, for implementing the present invention, configured to be retrofitted to a

standard touch-tone telephone. The two central components of the dialer are a

microprocessor 10 and a random access memory unit 30. Microprocessor 10 controls

the operation of the dialer. Memory unit 30 is used for storing encoded names and

telephone numbers. The other two components of the dialer are interfaces 40 and 42.

The dialer communicates with a telephone line 44 via first interface 40 and with a

standard touch-tone telephone set 46 via second interface 42. Interface 40 includes a

mechanism for generating standard touch-tone signals, typically DTMF signals, under

the control of microprocessor 10. Interface 42 receives standard touch-tone signals

from the keypad 20 of telephone set 46. Interface 42 also includes a mechanism for

signaling the user, as detailed below, via telephone set 46.

Conventionally, keypad 20 is furnished with keys including several alphanumeric keys 22 and control key 24. Keys 22 and 24 often are labeled as shown

in Figure 1. In particular, control key 24 is conventionally labeled with a pound sign,

"#". Although the description herein refers to keys labeled as in Figure 1 , the present

invention may be easily adapted to any suitable keypad having suitable alphanumeric keys and control keys, and the scope of the present invention includes the use of all such keypads. Note in particular that in the description herein, the asterisk ("^•*") key

is treated an alphanumeric key; but the asterisk key may be treated as a second control

key without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Interface 42

translates signals from alphanumeric keys 22 into bit strings that microprocessor 10

interprets as numbers, and translates signals from control key 24 into a bit strings that microprocessor 10 interprets as a control signal. Most preferably, of course, a signal

from one of the alphanumeric keys labeled with a digit (0-9) is interpreted by

microprocessor 10 as a number equal to that digit.

The solid arrows in Figure 2 indicate the direction of the flow of

communication in the dialer. Names and telephone numbers are entered by the user

via keypad 20, and are transmitted via interface 42 to microprocessor 10.

Microprocessor 10 stores names and telephone numbers in memory unit 30 and

retrieves names and telephone numbers from memory unit 30. Microprocessor 10

instructs interface 40 to send touch-tone signals to telephone line 44. Microprocessor

10 instructs interface 42 to send audible signals to telephone set 46. Interfaces 42 and

46 also communicate directly with each other, as shown, so that analog voice signals

may be exchanged between telephone line 44 and telephone set 46 without the

intervention of microprocessor 10.

The dialer of Figure 2 receives electrical power directly from telephone line

44. This is indicated in Figure 2 by a dashed arrow from telephone line 44 to

microprocessor 10. Other dialers may receive electrical power from built-in batteries,

or indeed from any suitable power source. In the context of the present invention, "dialing" means pressing the

appropriate sequence of keys, including alphanumeric keys 22 and possibly control

key 24, on keypad 20. These sequences are defined below by quoted strings of

corresponding labels of keys as shown in Figure 1. For example, "dialing" the

sequence "#*65" means successively pressing the keys labeled "#", "*", "6" and "5".

The description that follows includes examples of instruction codes, entered to

microprocessor 10 via keypad 20. These instruction codes are illustrative, and the scope of the present invention includes all functional equivalents of such codes. All

that is necessary to define these codes within the scope of the present invention is that

there must be a way for microprocessor 10 to distinguish instruction codes from

names and telephone numbers, for example, by preceding or terminating instruction

code sequences, as is done below, by pressing control keys 24.

To store a new name and a corresponding telephone number in the dialer, a

user first dials a store instruction code, "#*65". This store instruction code instructs

microprocessor 10 to expect a sequence of digits corresponding to a new name. The

user then dials the numerical sequence corresponding to the name. For example to

enter the name "home", the user dials "4663". The user then dials "#" to indicate that

the name sequence has terminated, and to instruct microprocessor 10 to expect a

sequence of digits corresponding to the telephone number associated with the new name.

At this point, if there already are names and associated telephone numbers

stored in memory unit 30, microprocessor 10 compares the new name with the stored

names. If microprocessor 10 finds a match, microprocessor 10 instructs interface 42 to generate an audible signal, in the transmitter of telephone set 46, to indicate to the

user that the new name is not unique. This audible signal may be a special tone, such

as a series of beeps, or may be a pre-recorded message. The user then must start over

by dialing "#*65" and then dialing an alternative name for the party whose telephone

number is to be entered. If microprocessor 10 does not find a match, microprocessor

10 instructs interface 42 to generate an audible signal, in the transmitter of telephone

set 46, to indicate to the user that the new name is unique and acceptable. The user then dials the telephone number to be associated with the new name. For example, to

enter the telephone number "995-0764", the user dials "9950764". The user then dials

"#" to indicate to microprocessor 10 that entry of the new telephone number is

finished. Microprocessor 10 now stores the new name and the associated telephone

number in memory unit 30.

To place a call to one of the parties whose names and telephone numbers are

stored in memory unit 30, the user first dials a call instruction code, "##". This call instruction code instructs microprocessor 10 to expect a sequence of digits

corresponding to a stored name. The user then dials the numerical sequence

corresponding to the target name, and then dials "#" to indicate that the name

sequence has terminated. Microprocessor 10 compares the dialed name with the

stored names. If microprocessor 10 finds a match, microprocessor instructs interface

40 to issue a sequence of dial tones, to telephone line 44, that correspond to the

telephone number associated in memory unit 30 with the dialed name. If

microprocessor 10 does not fine a match, microprocessor 10 instructs interface 42 to generate an audible signal, in the transmitter of telephone set 46, to indicate to the user

that the target name does not appear in memory unit 30.

The scope of the present invention is not limited to keypads whose

alphanumeric keys are labeled with Latin letters. Figure 3 shows an example of a

keypad consistent with the present invention whose alphanumeric keys are labeled

with Hebrew letters. Note that the alphanumeric keys of Figure 3 are labeled with

only two letters per key.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of

embodiments, it will be appreciated that many variations, modifications and other

applications of the invention may be made.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A method for storing a telephone number of a party and dialing the

telephone number on a telephone line, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a telephone set including a keypad, said keypad including a

plurality of alphanumeric keys, at least one of said alphanumeric keys

being labeled with a unique digit and at least two letters, said keypad

further including a control key;

(b) providing a dialer including:

(i) a microprocessor,

(ii) a memory unit communicating with said microprocessor,

(iii) a first interface whereby said microprocessor transmits signals

to the telephone line, and

(iv) a second interface whereby said microprocessor exchanges

signals with said telephone set;

(c) entering, via said keypad, a name of the party;

(d) storing said name in said memory unit, by said microprocessor;

(e) entering, via said keypad, the telephone number; and

(f) storing the telephone number in said memory unit, by said

microprocessor;

thereby creating a table of names and associated telephone numbers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said entering of said name is effected

by pressing said control key and at least one of said alphanumeric keys.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(g) entering, via said keypad, a target name;

(h) searching for said target name in said table, by said microprocessor;

(i) if said target name is found in said table of names, transmitting said telephone number associated with said target name to the telephone

line, via said first interface.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said entering of said target name is

effected by pressing said control key and at least one of said alphanumeric keys.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of:

(j) entering, via said keypad, a call code, prior to said entering of said

target name.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(g) searching for said name in said table, by said microprocessor; and

(h) if said name is found in said table, transmitting a non-uniqueness

signal to the telephone set, via said second interface.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of: (h) entering, via said keypad, a store code, prior to said entering of said

name.