Patent ID: 6240168
Filing Date: 2001-05-29
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
An apparatus comprising:a computer controlled by an operating system program and having a telephone function library of programs that control the computer to implement conventional telephone functions, said operating system controlling said computer to implement a telephone application programmatic interface (TAPI), comprising a plurality of function calls that may be invoked to implement various telephone functions, said operating system being configured to run a telephone application program;a TAPI compliant telephony device (TAPI device), coupled to said computer by a data path and structured for connection to a telephone line from a telephone service provider, said TAPI device being interfaced with a TAPI compliant driver program, said driver program being capable of receiving general telephone function commands from said programs in said telephone function library and converting them to commands and/or signals specific to said TAPI device and of sending said commands and/or signals to said TAPI device to cause it to carry out telephone functions;a keyboard coupled to said computer for providing user inputs;a pointing device coupled to said computer for providing user inputs; anda video display coupled to said computer;wherein said telephone application program controls operations of said computer and a modem via function calls to said TAPI and other application programmatic interfaces to display a telephone on said video display with various displayed virtual keys which may be virtually pushed by a user using said keyboard or pointing device to cause various programs in said telephone function library to execute and cause said TAPI device to carry out the user selected telephone function and to cause said display of said telephone on said video display to have a user selectable size using one or more size change virtual buttons displayed on said telephone, said size changing in increments by repeated virtual pushes of said one or more size change virtual buttons with one segment added for each push of a size increase virtual button until the maximum size is reached and then not responding to further pushes of said size increase virtual button, and one segment removed for each push of a size decrease virtual button until a minimum size segment of the phone display is reached and then not reducing the phone display size further in response to further pushes of said size decrease virtual button.