Abstract:
A mobile phone with built-in voice recorder which can record conversation for a fixed line telephone. The voice recorder is a digital recording device. The voice recorder can record conversation of the mobile phone and externally input audio signal under control of a control unit. The mobile phone has a connecting interface for connecting a telephone adapter connected to a fixed line telephone. The telephone adapter converts a audio signal of the fixed line telephone to the mobile phone for recording.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to a mobile phone, especially to a mobile phone with voice recording function.  
         [0003]     2. Description of Prior Art  
         [0004]     Mobile phones have become the important tools of communication. In the past, communication was always made at fixed location through fixed network telephones. However, it has been changed into communication at unfixed locations through mobile phones. Spatial limitation of communication has been broken by mobile phones. With the maturity and popularity of mobile communication networks and mobile phones, the conversation quality and additional functions of the mobile phone always keep increasing, however, the costs of phone calling is being low enough to be comparable with fixed telephone, even cheaper. The mobile phone has been used much more frequently than the fixed telephone. There are many people that even use mobile phone as their only communicative tool. Now it can be said that people&#39;s dependence upon the mobile phone has exceeded the fixed telephone.  
         [0005]     The mobile phones have the advantage of communication everywhere. However, some conventional recording medium such as paper and pen may not be available at place where the user uses mobile phones. Therefore, mobile phones with voice recording ability are provided to record voice message during conversation. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,543, U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,793 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,995,824 disclosed mobile phones with voice recording ability, wherein the conversation in phone call is recorded and user can rehear the voice message after finishing the phone call.  
         [0006]     However, the conventional mobile phones with voice recording function cannot provide voice-recording function for fixed-line telephone, such as conventional PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) phone, or newly prevailing VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone, or other types of digital phones. Specific telephone recorder or recording software should be bought when voice recording is needed for those fixed-line telephones. It is extra cost for user. Because most existent mobile phones in the market are capable of voice recording function, users can gain great convenience if the mobile phones with voice recording function can be used with fixed-line telephone to provide voice recording function to fixed-line telephone.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     The present invention is to provide a mobile phone with voice recording function for fixed line telephone. The mobile phone comprises a connecting interface connected to a telephone adapter. The telephone adapter is connected to fixed line telephone and used convert the signal of the fixed line telephone to recognizable form of mobile phone. The recognizable form is sent to mobile phone through connecting interface such that the voice recorder can record voice for the fixed line telephone.  
         [0008]     The fixed line telephones indicated in the description and claim include PSTN analog and digital phones, or other analog or digital phones connected with fixed lines. The fixed line telephones also include telephones using fixed lines for trunk connection and the last mile using wireless transmission to user ends. Besides, the PSTN phones indicated in the description and claim include telephones connected by PSTN and using PSTN as main communication network with private automatic switch system (such as PABX) at user end. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING  
       [0009]     The features of the invention believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention itself however may be best understood by reference to the following detailed description of the invention, which describes certain exemplary embodiments of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:  
         [0010]      FIG. 1  shows the block diagram of the mobile phone according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0011]      FIG. 2  shows a using status for the mobile phone according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0012]     Referring to  FIG. 1 , a block diagram of the mobile phone according to the present invention may be seen. The mobile phone  1  comprises a main circuitry  11 . The main circuitry  11  essentially consists of a receiver  111 , a transmitter  112  and a control unit  113 . The receiver  111  receives RF signals transmitted from a base station (not shown) through an antenna  114 . The RF signals are demodulated by the receiver  111  and then sent to the controller  113  for signal processing. The transmitter  112  modulates a signal sent from the control unit  113  and then sends the modulated signal to the base station through the antenna  114 . The control unit  113  is the console for the whole mobile phone and controls the peripheral circuits  12  to operate and cooperate. The peripheral circuits  12  comprise a keypad  121 , a display  122 , a voice recorder  123 , an audio circuitry  124  and a connection interface  127 . The peripheral circuits  12  are connected to the control unit  113 , respectively. The keypad  121  and the display  122  are used for inputting command and displaying status of the mobile phone. The audio circuitry  124  processes audio signals from the microphone  126  and sends the processed audio signals from the control unit  113  to the loudspeaker  125 . The loudspeaker  125  and the microphone  126  are used as earpiece and mouthpiece for the mobile phone  1 , respectively.  
         [0013]     A voice recorder  123  is electrically connected to the control unit  113  and controlled by the control unit  113 . The voice recorder  123  is a digital voice recording device utilizing solid state nonvolatile memory as a storage medium. The solid state nonvolatile memory, for example, can be Flash Memory or Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM). The control unit  113  executes phone call receiving and making through the receiver  111  and the transmitter  112 . At the beginning of a conversation, starting to make phone call or starting to receive phone call, the control unit  113  will automatically activate the voice recorder  123  for voice recording without manual operation. When the phone call is finished, the control unit  113  will automatically end the voice recorder  123  without manual operation. Alternatively, activating or ending the voice recording can be triggered by the keypad  121  with manual operation.  
         [0014]     With reference to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the mobile phone  1  of the present invention comprises a connecting interface  127  connected to the control unit  113 . The connecting interface  127  is connected to a telephone adapter  2  through wireless or wired line. The telephone adapter  2  comprises one or more than one ports  21 ,  22 . In a preferred embodiment as shown in  FIG. 1 , the telephone adapter  2  comprises a PSTN port  21  and a VoIP port  22 , which are used to connect to PSTN or VoIP phone or line, respectively. The ports  21 ,  22  can be optionally selected and the number thereof can be increased or decreased, depending on practical requirements.  
         [0015]     The telephone adapter  2  can convert signal of fixed line telephone, which is connected to the ports  21 ,  22 , to digital signal or analog signal recognizable by the mobile phone  1 . The converted signal is sent to the control unit  113  through the connecting interface  127 . The converted signal is recorded by the voice recorder  123 . When the input signal from the telephone adapter  2  is analog type, the control unit  113  will convert the analog signal to digital signal and then sends the digital signal to the voice recorder  123  for recording. The activating and ending of the voice recording can be manually controlled by the keypad  121  of the mobile phone  1 . Alternatively, the telephone adapter  2  can detect if the fixed line telephone is starting to converse, make phone call or receive phone call. The telephone adapter  2  sends the audio signal to the control unit  113  while the fixed line telephone is starting to converse, make phone call or receive phone call. For example, an apparent variation of signal and/or voltage will appear in the transmission line of the fixed line telephone during the period of standby, conversation, ring back tone of making phone call or ring tone of receiving phone call. The telephone adapter  2  can detect the status of the fixed line telephone according to the variation, and then utilize the mobile phone  1  of the present invention to achieve the automatic voice recording function. The telephone adapter  2  preferably has charging and/or calling or called number identifying function. The former function charges the mobile phone when it is connected to the adapter  2 ; the later function send calling or called number of the fixed line telephone with audio signal to the mobile phone  1 . Therefore, the voice data in the voice recorder  123  can be stored with calling/called start time, conversation start time, conversation duration and calling/called number.  
         [0016]     Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details thereof. Various substitutions and modifications have suggested in the foregoing description, and other will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.