Abstract:
A method and apparatus of call forwarding is presented whereby a wireless phone and one or more landline phones are equipped and programmed to perform call forwarding activation and de-activation automatically, without user intervention, based on geographic proximity relationships between the phones. When the wireless phone is not in near-proximity to any of the landline phones, calls to the landline phones are forwarded to the wireless phone. When the wireless phone comes in near-proximity to one of the landline phones, all calls to the wireless phone—including calls forwarded from other phones—are forwarded to the nearby landline phone. When the wireless phone subsequently leaves the nearby landline phone, all calls are sent to the wireless phone again. Advantageously, this arrangement overcomes numerous problems associated with manual activation and de-activation of call forwarding. In addition, the arrangement is entirely handset-based and requires no changes to network infrastructure, software, or established call forwarding procedures.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates generally to the forwarding of calls within a telecommunications system, and specifically to the automatic forwarding of calls from one or more phones to another phone, based on the geographic proximity between the phones.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    It is common for wireless phone users such as cellular phone subscribers to carry their wireless phones at home, in the office, and at other places where landline phones are available for use. At such locations, it is to the advantage of the user to have wireless calls forwarded to a nearby landline phone, since landline service is typically less expensive. For example, when a cellular subscriber with call forwarding service arrives at the office, he/she would benefit by manually activating call forwarding so that calls intended for the wireless phone are automatically forwarded to the office phone. The activation process typically involves the user dialing a phone number and/or a feature code to activate call forwarding. Also, the user must typically enter a phone number to which calls are to be transferred.  
           [0003]    A number of problems arise with the manual activation of call forwarding. To start, the user must remember the activation phone number and/or the feature code. In addition, manual activation takes time and is cumbersome—typically, the user must dial the activation phone number and/or feature code, wait for a system response, and then enter the forwarding number. Another problem is that the user must remember to activate the service. If the user is preoccupied or distracted, he/she may very well forget to activate call forwarding, resulting in receiving a call at a wireless phone that would have been more economical to take at a landline phone. Yet another problem that would typically occur in situations similar to the example stated above, is that the user must remember to de-activate call forwarding on the cellular phone when leaving the proximity of the office phone, to run an errand for example. If the user forgets to de-activate, he/she could miss important calls to the cellular phone. And even if the user does remember to de-activate call forwarding on the cellular phone, the user is faced with the problematic temptation to activate call forwarding on the office phone so that calls intended for the office phone are forwarded to the wireless phone. That manual activation is subject to its own set of problems analogous to those already stated. In short, it is easy to forget or forego the manual activation and de-activation of call forwarding on one phone, and it would be an outright annoyance to have to activate and de-activate call forwarding on multiple phones every time you go to the copy machine, run down the hall to pick up a report, or take some other short excursion away from your office.  
           [0004]    Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus that allows for the forwarding of calls between wireless and landline phones automatically, without user interaction.  
         BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    The present invention enables the automatic forwarding of calls between wireless and landline phones, based on the geographic proximity relationship between the phones. An exemplary embodiment of the present invention works as follows. Wireless phones and landline phones that provide automatic call forwarding are each equipped with a low-range radio transceiver, in addition to their traditional hardware and software components. Control programs operating within the wireless phones and the landline phones are further modified so that the phones attempt to establish communications with each other via the low-range radio transceivers. Call forwarding activation sequences are automatically performed by the wireless and landline phones, based on the ability or inability to establish communications between similarly enabled devices via the low-range radio transceivers. The user can also, upon entry of a code into one of the wireless phones or the landline phones, temporarily suspend automatic call forwarding.  
           [0006]    The present invention therefore provides the ability for users to have call forwarding activated automatically based the proximity of the involved phones without having to remember to activate or de-activate call forwarding. In addition, users do not have to remember activation phone numbers or feature codes. These need to be programmed only once by the manufacturer or by the user, at set-up time. Further, the present invention allows users the ability to temporarily suspend automatic call forwarding. Another significant advantage of the present invention is that no network hardware, software, or feature protocol changes are required to implement this invention. Sensing the need to forward calls and performing the procedures to forward calls are carried out entirely within the involved phones. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]    [0007]FIG. 1 depicts a communication system for providing proximity-based call forwarding in accordance with the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008]    The present invention can be better understood with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 depicts a communication system in accordance with the present invention. Phone  10  is a landline phone comprising traditional landline hardware/software components  12 , processor  14 , low-range transceiver  15 , and antenna  17 . The user of phone  10  can use traditional landline components  12 , which includes a keypad and optional display, not shown, to place and receive calls to and from telephone network  50 , and to manually activate and de-activate call forwarding by calling service provider equipment  52  and using established procedures. Telephone network  50  can be the Public Switched Telephone Network or some other public or private network. Service provider equipment  52  includes a switch and possibly other equipment, not shown, necessary to facilitate call forwarding.  
         [0009]    Processor  14  in phone  10  runs a program to facilitate Automatic Call Forwarding (ACF) in accordance with the present invention. Although illustrated in FIG. 1 as a separate component, processor  14  can in fact be a processor included in traditional components  12 . Processor  14  passes messages to low-range transceiver  15  for transmission. For example, a “beacon message” can be transmitted to notify other phones in nearby proximity that phone  10  is equipped to provide automatic call forwarding. Other messages can be used to pass information to nearby phones that are similarly capable, as discussed later. Transceiver  15  also receives beacon messages and other messages from nearby, similarly capable phones and passes them to processor  14  for processing. Transceiver  15  transmits and receives signals through antenna  17 .  
         [0010]    In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, low-range transceivers  15 ,  25 , and  35  utilize Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth is a wireless personal area network (PAN) technology from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. Bluetooth is an open standard for short-range transmission of digital voice and data between mobile devices, such as laptops, PDAs, and phones, and desktop devices. Bluetooth supports point-to-point and multipoint applications. Bluetooth provides up to 720 Kbps data transfer within a range of 10 meters and up to 100 meters with a power boost. Bluetooth uses omnidirectional radio waves that can transmit through walls and other non-metal barriers. Bluetooth transmits in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band and uses a frequency hopping spread spectrum technique that changes its signal 1600 times per second.  
         [0011]    Phone  30  is a landline phone, similar to phone  10 , with components analogous to those of Phone  10 .  
         [0012]    Wireless phone  20  comprises traditional wireless hardware/software components  22 , processor  24 , low-range transceiver  25 , and antenna  27 . Wireless phone  20  may be a cellular phone or some other wireless device. The user of phone  20  can use traditional wireless components  22 , which includes a keypad and optional display, not shown, to place and receive calls to and from wireless network  40 , and to manually activate and de-activate call forwarding through wireless service provider equipment  42 , using established procedures. Wireless network  40  can be a cellular network or some other public or private wireless network. Wireless service provider equipment  42  includes a radio base station, a switch, and possibly other equipment, not shown, needed to facilitate call forwarding. Processor  24  runs a program to facilitate Automatic Call Forwarding (ACF) in accordance with the present invention.  
         [0013]    Although illustrated in FIG. 1 as a separate component, processor  24  can in fact be a processor included in traditional wireless components  22 . Low-range transceiver  25  is used to communicate with low-range transceiver  15  of phone  10  and with low-range transceiver  35  of phone  30 , sending and receiving beacon messages and other messages that come from and go to processor  24 . Transceiver  25  transmits and receives signals through antenna  27  which may be duplexed to operate with transceiver  25  and with the traditional wireless components  22 , as illustrated in FIG. 1, or antenna  27  may be a separate antenna dedicated to low-range transceiver  25 .  
         [0014]    When phones  10 ,  20  and  30  are first installed, they need to be programmed with call forwarding details. Typically, each phone needs to be programmed with the phone number and/or feature code needed to activate call forwarding, and each phone needs to be programmed with the forwarded phone number. In addition, each phone needs to be programmed with the conditions that trigger activation and de-activation of automatic call forwarding.  
         [0015]    While the programming of call forwarding details can be relatively straightforward, different trigger conditions and many variations in the sequencing of data entry are possible. Manufacturers may choose to sell multiple phones that are pre-programmed to implement automatic call forwarding when the phones come in near proximity of one another. Alternately, programs running within a phone can be activated to implement call forwarding with a similarly equipped phone upon the receipt of the first beacon message from the similarly-equipped phone.  
         [0016]    Once a set of phones is programmed to work with each other, call forwarding between the phones is automatic, based on the proximity relationships of the phones. For example, consider FIG. 1 again. Preferably, phones  10  and  30  are initially programmed to forward calls to wireless phone  20  whenever phone  20  is outside the range of the low-range transceivers in phones  10  and  30 . Thus, if a user has his/her cell phone in the car on the way to the office, calls intended for any of the three phones will be sent to wireless phone  20 . Later, when wireless phone  20  comes in near proximity to landline phone  10  (at the office, for example), phone  10  and phone  20  will pick up each other&#39;s beacon message over 2-way radio link  62  and respond according to its own programming. The programming in landline phone  10  preferably directs landline phone  10  to de-activate call forwarding to phone  20 , so that phone  10  can receive it&#39;s own calls. The de-activation is preferably carried out by processor  14 , which directs conventional components  12  to access service provider equipment  52  over transmission link  19 . Once connected, phone  10  sends the de-activation code to service provider equipment  52 , using the established protocol to de-activate call forwarding, producing the same result a user would achieve if he/she manually deactivated call forwarding using the keypad included in conventional components  12 .  
         [0017]    The programming in wireless phone  20  preferably directs wireless phone  20  to activate call forwarding to phone  10 . Processor  24  within phone  20  controls this by using traditional wireless components  22  to access service provider equipment  42  over radio link  60 , and by carrying out the established procedure to activate call forwarding to phone  10 . Thus, when phones  10  and  20  remain in proximity of one another, phone  10  receives its own calls as well all calls to phone  20 —including the calls forwarded to phone  20  from phone  30 .  
         [0018]    Let&#39;s continue the example by considering what happens when wireless phone  20  leaves the proximity of phone  10 . This could occur when the user leaves the office to go on an errand or to go home. When the low-range transceivers go out of each other&#39;s range, phones  10  and  20  will sense the loss of each other&#39;s beacon message. In that situation, phone  20  will de-activate call forwarding to phone  10 , and phone  10  will activate call forwarding to phone  20 . Thus, all calls to all three phones will be sent to phone  20  again.  
         [0019]    Continuing the example further, consider what happens if the user brings phone  20  within near proximity of phone  30  (at home, for example). Preferably processor  34  in phone  30  will interpret the presence of the beacon message from phone  20  over 2-way radio link  64  as a directive to de-activate call forwarding to phone  20 . Phone  30  will de-activate in a manner analogous to how Phone  10  deactivated call forwarding to phone  20 , as discussed earlier. Similarly, phone  20  will interpret the presence of the beacon message from phone  30  as a directive to activate call forwarding of its calls to phone  30 , and will do so in a manner analogous to that discussed earlier.  
         [0020]    An enhancement to this invention is to allow users to suspend the preprogrammed call activation defaults, and later re-instate the pre-programmed defaults. Consider the suspend case. In the preceding example, just before the user goes home, while low-range transceivers  15  and  25  are still receiving each other&#39;s beacon message, the user could enter a code using the keypad of phone  20  to suspend call forwarding. This would preferably result in phone  20  de-activating call forwarding to phone  10 , even though phone  20  is in near-proximity of phone  10 . In addition, processor  24  would direct low-range transceiver  25  to send a message to low-range transceiver  15  to direct phone  10  to not activate call forwarding when phone  20  subsequently leaves the near proximity of phone  10 . The user could just as easily entered the suspend command using the keypad of phone  10 . In that case, phone  10  would take note to not activate call forwarding when phone  20  goes out of proximity. Phone  10  will also send a message to phone  20 , directing phone  20  to de-activate call forwarding to phone  10 .  
         [0021]    Thus, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for allowing phones to automatically forward calls intended for a first phone to a second phone based on the proximity of the phones to each other. In an exemplary embodiment, calls intended for a wireless phone while the wireless phone is in proximity to a landline phone are forwarded to the landline phone. This automatic call forwarding can be overridden by manually entering a key sequence into the wireless phone.  
         [0022]    In accordance with a further exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when the wireless phone and the landline phone are no longer in proximity, calls intended for the wireless phone are no longer automatically forwarded to the landline phone. This is typically accomplished by having the wireless phone send a key sequence to the network infrastructure canceling the call forwarding.  
         [0023]    In a further exemplary embodiment, upon leaving the proximity of the landline phone, calls now intended for the landline phone are automatically forwarded to the wireless phone. This is preferably done by sending a key sequence from the landline phone to the network infrastructure. This forwarding is done automatically, but can be overridden by entering a key sequence into the landline phone to cancel the automatic call forwarding.  
         [0024]    While this invention has been described in terms of certain examples thereof, it is not intended that it be limited to the above description, but rather only to the extent set forth in the claims that follow.