Abstract:
An elliptically shaped cellular phone is elliptical in both the front access, the bottom access and the side access. This elliptical shape enables the telephone to be more easily carried in pocket for example. The telephone includes two slidable modules which are string biased relative to one another. Opening the telephone enables answering and closing the telephone enables hanging up. Even when the telephone is closed, however, one part of the keyboard is still accessible. That part of the keyboard can be used to carry out various functions on an incoming call. One function is blocking the call from passing to voice mail.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     Portable telephones, such as cellular telephones, must have a way of activating and deactivating the telephone. It is also desirable to make the telephone as small as possible. However, a certain distance between the earpiece and mouthpiece is useful to enable the telephone to extend from the user&#39;s ear to the user&#39;s mouth. Telephones, such as the Motorola flip-phone series, have conventionally pivoted into the open position to extend this distance. In addition, the telephone has often used the opening operation to control answering the call, and conversely used the closing operation to control ending the call. 
     Other systems are known which use a sliding portion. For instance, the Qualcomm sliding ear piece telephone allows the ear piece to extend. When the ear piece is down, however, the telephone is totally locked. It cannot make or receive calls, nor use any of the keyboard functions. 
     SUMMARY 
     The present system defines a new way of packaging cellular electronics. This system includes an elliptically-shaped telephone which has one electronics module that slides relative to the other electronics module to compress the cellular telephone&#39;s overall outer size. The device includes two keyboards, including a first keyboard which is physically blocked by the compressing of the telephone, and a second keyboard which is still accessible after the compressing. Hence, the telephone is still usable even when compressed. It can be extended to answer and to provide full functionality. 
     A spring-loaded mechanism biases the modules apart. The release button releases the modules and hence enables answering an incoming call. Conversely, compressing the telephone hangs up a call in progress. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     These and other aspects will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: 
     FIGS. 1A-1C respectively show front, side and bottom views of the first preferred mode in the cellular phone configuration. 
     FIGS. 2A and 2B show front and side views of the second preferred mode in the satellite phone configuration, with the optional antenna clipped on. 
     FIG. 3 shows a view of the preferred mode in the folded position; and 
     FIG. 4 shows a cutaway view of the telephone from the side, in the unfolded position showing internal components; 
     FIG. 5 shows the cut away of the telephone in the contracted position; 
     FIG. 6 shows the menu; and 
     FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of operation of the telephone&#39;s processor. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     The overall front view of the telephone in its extended position is shown in FIG.  1 A. FIGS. 1B and 1C respectively show a side view and a bottom view of the telephone package. The telephone housing  100  is formed of a generally elliptical outer shape in two orthogonal planes. The front on view of the telephone in FIG. 1A shows that it is elliptical in that flat on plane view. The bottom view of the telephone in FIG. 1C shows that the outer housing is elliptical in outer shape from that view also. The telephone package  100  is also elliptical from the side view as shown in FIG.  1 B. In this most preferred mode, the telephone is elliptical in all planes. 
     The telephone has two modules  102 ,  104  which slide relative to one another. Each module includes different electronics. At least one of the modules is mounted on a slide, and is spring-biased into the open position. For example, module  102  can be movable. The modules collapse to the position shown in FIG.  3 . In this position, the spring is tensioned, but the two modules are held by a latch  400 ,  401 . Release button  106  releases the latch and causes the phone to automatically extend to its expanded state shown in FIG.  1 . 
     The telephone includes, as is conventional, an ear portion  110 , a mouthpiece  112 , and a display  114 . Power switch  116  controls turning on and off the telephone&#39;s main power. 
     This telephone also includes two physically-separated keyboard parts, a first part  120  including a 10-key keyboard as well as a TALK button to initiate a connection and an END button to end a connection. A second keyboard part  125  includes arrow keys. FIG. 3 shows that the second keyboard  125  is not covered even when the cellular phone is collapsed into its collapsed position. In that position, both the POWER button and the ARROW keys are still exposed and usable. 
     The slidable module  102  is not just a cover, but in fact includes electronic portions. Module  102  includes the menu  114  which displays information, and also holds the logo portion  130 . Logo portion  130  preferably includes a biometric recognition chip behind it which recognizes some aspect that is individual to the user of the telephone. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the biometric recognition is a fingerprint recognizer chip. This device automatically obtains a fingerprint, and validates the fingerprint against a stored database of acceptable printsand determines certain aspects about that fingerprint from its own internal operations. 
     A second mode uses a voice recognition chip as the biometric recognizer, which obtains a user&#39;s voice print, and compares the voice print to a prestored voice print. The FIG. 2 embodiment shows a voice recognition chip  230  being used, with holes in the upper surface  103  of the first portion  102  that allow sound to enter and be accumulated by the voice recognition chip. 
     The housing  100  also holds the communication electronics  450 , which includes at least a transceiver that carries out the RF communication. In the satellite embodiment, a satellite RF transceiver would be used. 
     The microprocessor of the telephone then optionally allows the phone to be used only when the acquired information matches the stored information. This can be selected. 
     A particularly preferred mode of this system is its oval outer shape. The inventor recognized that many people want to hold the cellular telephone in their pocket. Typical cellular telephones include edges. The rounded edges of the oval, especially when collapsed, as shown in FIG. 3, can provide fewer pointed edges. 
     The system as shown herein also enables both ending a cell and also answering a call one-handed. FIG. 4 shows a cross-section of a cutaway view of the telephone. The module  102  slides relative to the module  104 . A spring  400  spring-biases the module  102  relative to the module  104  so that the module  102  automatically moves to the open position when released. The latch shown as element  420  holds the device in the open position by coupling against a corresponding holding portion  422  and the sliding module  102 . Depressing the button  106  moves the latch shown in the direction shown by arrow  424 , and thereby allows the sliding module  102  to move in the direction  426  and release the tension on the spring. 
     A switch  428  is connected to the module  102 , and is actuated when the module is in the closed position. Certain actions occur based on the condition of this switch. Changes in the position of the switch are interpreted by the processor. An “open” position (yes at  708 ) during ringing (yes at  706 ) tells the processor  452  to “answer the call”  710 . A close indication during a call (yes at  714 ) tells the processor to hang up ( 716 ). 
     However, even when the keyboard is collapsed, the second keyboard  125  is still active. This allows certain actions when the caller ID appears on the menu screen  114 . The caller ID is displayed at the top of the menu screen, bringing up a menu as shown in FIG.  6 . 
     This menu includes “silence”, which stops the phone from ringing. 
     The second option, shown as  610 , is voice mail block, which prevents the call from going to voice mail. This way, the caller cannot leave a voice mail. The user may want to block voice mail and therefore the telephone owner has no voice mail to return. 
     Fax mode commands the cellular electronics  450  to reconfigure the path of the received signal; and thereby produce an output on the fax connector  452 . 
     In operation, if the telephone rings when collapsed, first, the display of FIG. 6 appears on the display. The user then has choices of selecting one of the options on the menu, e.g. options  608 - 612 , or answering the call. The call can be answered by depressing the button  106  thereby causing the telephone to extend, actuating the switch  428  which commands the telephone to answer. 
     Similarly, once the call is ongoing, the user can hang up by contracting the module  102  relative to the module  104 . A special pressing surface  130  of the telephone defines has a rounded surface which can be pressed for example against the user&#39;s knee while the user holds. This actuates the switch  428  which commands the cellular electronics  450  to end the call. 
     Satellite telephones often require special kinds of antennas which are relatively thick. 
     FIG. 4 shows a braid antenna  452  being used as part of the antenna. This braid antenna is also electrically connected to a clip portion  454 . The clip portion  454  enables clipping on an additional antenna a shown in FIG. 2. A curved telescoping antenna can be clipped on to improve the reception. 
     Although only a few embodiments have been described in detail above, other embodiments are contemplated by the inventor and are intended to be encompassed within the following claims. In addition, other modifications are contemplated and are also intended to be covered. 
     For example, while this describes the module  102  being the sliding module, of course  104  could similarly slide.