Abstract:
An electronic programmer for the auto-dial functions of a telephone comprises an apparatus which electrically connects the rows and columns lines on the keyboard of a telephone so as to mimic the pressing the buttons on the telephone keypad.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to the programming of telephones with auto-dial buttons. 
     Many telephones can be manually programmed with auto-dial buttons so that a telephone number can be automatically dialed. These auto-dial numbers can be emergency response numbers, or frequently dialed telephone numbers. Typically, the user can manually program these auto-dial numbers. In one case, to program an auto-dial number, the user presses the “memory” button, types in the desired phone number and then presses an auto-dial button to be associated with that number. 
     Hotels frequently use telephones with the auto-dial functions so that the front desk and other building services can be quickly accessed. With large hotels, this produces the problem that a relatively large number of phones need to be manually programmed. This can take a lot of time and can result in a relatively large number of human errors in the auto-dial programming. For this reason, mechanical auto-dial programmers have been produced. These mechanical programmers push the buttons in the telephone in the desired sequence to program the auto-dial buttons. These mechanical programmers are difficult to adjust for different phone shapes. The telephone key pad must be correctly oriented underneath the mechanical programmer for the mechanical programming to work correctly. Slight design changes or minor variations in phone manufacture can produce difficulty in alignment of the keypad with the mechanical auto-dial programmers. In addition, if the position of the buttons are changed for a new telephone design, a new mechanical programmer must be produced. 
     It is desired to have an improved method of programming telephones having the auto-dial function. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is an electronic programmer for use with telephones having an auto-dial function. Typically, telephone keyboards have row and column lines which are electrically connected when buttons are pressed on the telephone. A dialer chip in the telephone detects the electrical connection between the row and column lines. The present invention is an electronic programmer that interconnects row and column lines of the telephone to mimic the pressing of buttons of the telephone without requiring the buttons to be pressed. 
     In one embodiment, this is done by using an external electrical connector on the telephone keyboard that allows access to the row and column lines of the telephone keyboard. An electronic programmer is connected to this connector and selectively connects the row and column lines of the keyboard electronically together so as to mimic the pressing of buttons. This electrical programming is much more convenient than the mechanical programming and is not dependent upon the size, orientation or shape of the telephone. 
     In one embodiment, the present invention comprises an electronic programmer unit including a connector which is electrically connected to the row and column lines of the telephone keyboard. This connector is preferably a multi-pin connector which can be connected to a separate multi-pin external connector on the keyboard of the telephone. The multi-pin connector on the telephone keyboard is connected to the row and column lines. The electrical connector of the programming unit is connected to an interconnect unit which is adapted to selectively connect row and column lines received from the connector. The interconnect unit can comprise a number of pass transistors. A control unit is operatively connected to the interconnect unit. The control unit controls the selection of the electrical connections to mimic the pressing of the buttons on the telephone. 
     Another embodiment of the present invention concerns a method of programming a telephone. The method steps include connecting an electronic programmer to the telephone such that the row and column lines of the telephone keyboard are electrically accessable by the electronic programming unit. The next step involves electrically connecting row and column lines in order to mimic the pressing of a sequence of buttons on the telephone such that the telephone is programmed with an auto-dial number. 
     Another embodiment of the present invention concerns a telephone having a keyboard with a row and column lines. The row and column lines are connected to an external access connector that allows external electrical access to the row and column lines. The external access connector is separate from the internal connector which connects the keyboard to a dialer chip within the telephone. In one embodiment, the external access connector can be covered with a face plate or the like after the telephone is programmed with the auto-dial numbers. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a diagram of a telephone having an external access connector of the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a diagram of a telephone keyboard including an external access connector for use with the present invention. 
     FIG. 3 is a diagram of a telephone connected to a electronic programmer for electronic programming of the auto-dial functions. 
     FIG. 4 is a diagram of the electronic programmer of one embodiment of the present invention. 
     FIG. 5 is a detailed diagram of one embodiment of an electronic programmer. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     FIG. 1 is a diagram of a telephone unit  20  for use with the present invention. The telephone unit has a number of buttons which can be pressed to dial telephone numbers. In a preferred embodiment, an external connector device  22  on the telephone keyboard allows access to the row and column lines on the keyboard. An example of keyboard for the telephone is shown in FIG. 2 below. Telephone  20  includes a number of auto-dial buttons  24  that can be associated with a memorized telephone number. By pressing one of these auto-dial buttons, the number associated with that button is automatically dialed by the telephone. In one embodiment, to program the telephone  20  a “memory” button  26  is pressed. The telephone number is coded in using the keypad  28  and then associated with one of the auto-dial buttons  24 . The telephone  20  can have display screen  30 . 
     FIG. 2 is a diagram that illustrates a keypad of one embodiment of the present invention. The keypad  32  includes a number of connection regions, such as connection region  34 . Connection region  34  is positioned beneath a button of the telephone. When a button is pressed, a resistive element on the bottom of the button electrically connects between the two halves of the connection region, electronically connecting lines on the keyboard. For example, connecting the two halves of connection region  34  electrically connects column line  36  and row line  38 . 
     The electrical connection between lines on the keyboard is detected by a dialer chip (not shown). The keyboard  32  is connected to the dialer chip using a first connection  40 . A number of column and row lines are provided on the keyboard  32 . A pair of row and column lines uniquely identifies each of the buttons. When the buttons of the telephone are pressed, the dialer chip on the telephone can detect the electrical connection between a specific row and column line. The lines on keyboard  32  are called row and column lines to describe the logical arrangement of the lines as is conventional in the telephone arts. As shown in FIG. 2, the row and column lines need not be straight or even linear. 
     The keyboard  32  is preferably made of a PC board material with a variety of electrical traces formed there upon to form the row and column lines. The contact region  34  includes an exposed metal surface. 
     In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, an external connector  42  is positioned on the keyboard  32 . The external connector  42  allows access to the row and column lines of the keyboard  32  thus allows the connection of the row and column lines to an external electronic programmer. 
     FIG. 3 is a diagram that shows a telephone  50  and an electronic programmer  52  for use with the present invention. The telephone  50  includes a keyboard  51  including an external connector  54 . The keyboard  51  is connected to a dialer chip  56  which can be one of a number of dialer chips that implement the auto-dial function. Examples of such a dialer chip include those manufactured by Holtek, Samsung, Phillips, and HMC. The dialer chip  56  detects an electrical connection between row and column lines at the keyboard  51 . The dialer chip produces a tone across the line  58  when a number is dialed. The dialer chip  56  also has an internal memory which can store auto-dial numbers. By interpreting the different connections between the row and columns (and thus the pressed buttons) the dialer chip can send out tones for the dialed number, recover a telephone number from a memory when an auto-dial button is pressed, and store an auto dial number into memory. The telephone  50  also includes a speech network  60  attached to an handset  62 , and/or a hands-free speaker phone (not shown). 
     As described above, in a preferred embodiment, the keyboard  51  has an external connector  54  which allows the connection to an electronic programmer  52 . the electronic programmer  52  can electrically connect row and columns to mimic the pressing of buttons on the telephone  50 . The electronic programmer  52  includes a controller unit which can cause the programming of different auto-dial numbers. In a preferred embodiment, the electronic programmer  52  is also connected by the output line with connector  57 . This allows the electronic programmer unit  52  to automatically detect the auto-dial numbers (that is the tones sent across line  58  from the dialer chip  56 ) and determine whether the correct telephone number has been programmed into the auto-dial button. In one embodiment of the present invention, the control unit of the electronic programmer  52  interfaces with an external computer  64 . 
     FIG. 4 illustrates details of one embodiment of an electronic programmer unit  70  of the present invention. The electronic programmer unit  70  includes a test connector  72 . The test connector  72  may include a bus connector to connect to the external connector on the telephone. The different row and column lines are then sent to an interconnect unit  74 . Row lines and column lines can be interconnected as controlled by control unit  76 . In one embodiment, the control unit  76  can be a microprocessor  78  connected to an encoder chip  80 . Alternately, the control unit  76  can be a microprocessor by itself or a dedicated logic chip. The microprocessor  78  can be connected to a computer. Computer  82  allows the inputting of the telephone number data. The line connector  84  is provided to allow the output of the telephone to be sent back to the electronic programmer for testing. The decoder  86  decodes the tones from the dialer chip of the telephone. This decoded indication is sent to the microprocessor  78  which passes the information to the computer which determines whether the correct phone number is stored. In one embodiment of the present invention, additional connections can be produced in the electronic programmer and the telephone. Looking again at FIG. 3, additional connections from the keyboard  51  can include data to be sent to the display unit  55 . The additional data can then be sent from the electronic programmer  52  to the display unit  55 . This can allow for the concurrent electronic programming of the display unit  55 . 
     FIG. 5 contains details of one embodiment of the electronic programmer of the present invention. The electronic programmer  90  includes a test connector  92 . The test connector  92  is connected to an interconnect unit  94  which is comprised of a number of pass transistors. By selecting a pair of pass transistors, row and column lines are interconnected. There is typically some resistance caused by the pass transistors which is comparable to the resistance of a depressed button on a telephone. 
     The selection lines  96  select the pair of pass transistors to be turned on. For example, if row  1  is to be connected to column  3 , pass transistors  94   a  and  94   b  are turned on by the selection lines  96   a  and  96   b.  The encoder unit  98  is connected to a microprocessor  100 . The encoder unit  98  sends out selection line signals from an indication of the button selected. The microprocessor  100  is also connected to the decoder  102 . The decoder  102  decodes the tones from the telephone via line connector  104  and thus can be used along with the microprocessor  100  to automatically test whether the correct telephone number is associated with a given auto-dial button. The system also includes a power unit  106  and a computer connector unit  108 . 
     In one embodiment of the present invention, the microprocessor  100  via the encoder  98  will send instructions to the interconnect unit  94  to connect the row and column lines to indicate the “memory” button. The connections between the row and column lines are detected by the dialer chip in the telephone. The dialer chip in the telephone will then initiate the mode in which a telephone number is stored into the memory. The microprocessor  100  will then connect the row and column lines to mimic a sequence of telephone buttons being depressed for a given telephone number. Finally, the microprocessor  100  will connect the row and column lines associated with an auto-dial button. 
     At this time, the auto-dial number should be stored in the dialer chip of the telephone. The microprocessor  100  will then test the telephone by connecting row and column lines together to mimic the pressing of the auto-dial button. This will cause the telephone to send out a number of tones which correspond to the memorized telephone number. These tones will be detected by the decoder  102  and data sent to the microprocessor  100  for testing. As can be imagined, the electronic programmer  90  of the present invention can be used for efficiently programming telephones, especially guest telephones for use in hotels. 
     It would be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the invention can be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or central character thereof. The presently disclosed embodiments are therefor considered in all respect to be illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is illustrated by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description, and all changes that come within the meaning and scope of equivalence thereof are intended to be embraced herein.