Abstract:
A desk top telephone includes a network interface circuit for audio session set up and audio session communication with a remote telephone device. A display device docking bay accommodates a simple display screen or a portable computing device such as a portable data device (PDA). Each of a plurality of adapters coupled one of the modular display screens or a PDA to the docking bay. Each of the module display screens and PDAs can have various display sizes, resolutions, and color/gray-scale combinations.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
         [0001]    The present invention relates generally to a desk top telephone device, and more particularly to a configurable desk top telephone device with a docking bay and modular display devices.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    For many years, the desk top telephone device has been the terminating device of a plain old telephone service (POTS) subscriber loop. More specifically, the tip and ring lines from the telephone service provider (Telco) would couple directly to the telephone device. The telephone device would function to modulate dual-tone-multi-frequency (DTMF) dialing signals (Prior to DTMF, modulate rotary pulse dialing signals) onto the subscriber loop for initiating a telephone call to another station and would receive ring signals from the subscriber loop for alerting an operator of an incoming call. During a telephone conversation the device would both receive modulated voice signals for driving the device handset speaker and modulate the operator&#39;s voice signals from the device handset microphone. On the basic telephone device, the user interface includes the handset speaker and microphone and the numeric keypad for generating the DTMF signals.  
           [0003]    In addition to operating a telephone directly connected to a POTS subscriber loop, telephone switching technology has enabled businesses to install proprietary telephone systems which include a separate extension for each employee. A typical system will include a central switch and a proprietary “subscriber loop” interconnecting the central switch to each employees telephone device which is often called an “extension”. For initiating calls to, and terminating calls from, the local Telco, a plurality of trunk lines couple the central switch to the local Telco switching station.  
           [0004]    More recently the proprietary subscriber loop has been replaced with a TCP/IP compliant data network for a telephone system commonly referred to as a Voice-over-IP system.  
           [0005]    As telephone switching technology advanced, additional functionality has been added to the telephone. For example, services such as caller ID, call forwarding, call transferring, conference calling, have been added to both proprietary systems and Telco phone service. To accommodate this additional functionality, small liquid crystal display screens have been added to many phones.  
           [0006]    A problem associated with adding such display screens to telephones is that the small size, lack of addressable pixel resolution (many are seven segment and fixed symbol displays), and lack of gray scale (many are binary) do not provide the flexibility for providing an enhanced user interface and increased the cost of the telephone.  
           [0007]    What is needed is a telephone system with display screen flexibility that does not suffer the disadvantages of the present systems.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0008]    A first aspect of the present invention is to provide a telephone with network interface circuit for setting up audio sessions and communicating audio data during an audio session with a remote telephone system over a network. The telephone network may be an analog plain old telephone service (POTS) network, a circuit switched digital telephone network, or a packet switched telephone/data network. An audio sub-system receives a microphone input representing the voice of an operator and presents audio data to the network interface circuit receives audio data from the network interface circuit and generates a signal for driving a speaker. A display docking bay is configured for supporting and operatively coupling a modular display device to the telephone. The modular display device may be either a simple display device or a portable computing device. The portable computing device may be a commercially available device known as a portable data assistant (PDA).  
           [0009]    The information related to operation of the telephone may include a data file of tagged data elements and may include a style sheet for defining the aesthetic display of the tagged data elements on the display on the portable computing device.  
           [0010]    The telephone may further include a communication controller coupled to the display docking bay for coupling information related to operation of the telephone to a portable computing device if a portable computing device is operatively coupled to and/or supported in the docking bay. And, may include a display controller coupled to the display docking bay for coupling a video signal to a simple display device if a simple display device is operatively coupled to and/or supported in the docking bay.  
           [0011]    The telephone may further yet include a device detection circuit coupled to the docking bay for identifying whether the modular display device coupled to the docking bay is a portable computing device or a simple display device.  
           [0012]    The telephone may also include a power supply circuit for coupling operating power and/or charging power to the docking bay whereby the modular display device may operate and/or charge using the power coupled to the docking bay when operatively coupled to and/or supported in the docking bay.  
           [0013]    A second aspect of the present invention is to provide a desk top telephone system comprising a base telephone unit with a network interface circuit for audio session set-up, and audio session communication with a remote telephone system and a display docking bay. The system also comprises: a) a simple display module configured for coupling to the display docking bay, receiving a video signal from the base telephone unit, and generating a display on a display screen in accordance with the video signal; and b) a portable computing device configured for coupling to the display docking bay, receiving information related to operation of the base telephone unit and displaying the information related to operation of the base telephone unit on the display screen.  
           [0014]    The information related to operation of the base telephone unit may include a data file of tagged data elements and may include a style sheet for defining the aesthetic display of the tagged data elements on the display on the portable computing device.  
           [0015]    The base telephone unit may further include a communication controller coupled to the display docking bay for coupling information related to operation of the base telephone unit to a portable computing device if a portable computing device is operatively coupled to and/or supported in the docking bay. And, may include a display controller coupled to the display docking bay for coupling a video signal to a simple display device if a simple display device is operatively coupled to and/or supported in the docking bay.  
           [0016]    The base telephone unit may further yet include a device detection circuit coupled to the docking bay for identifying whether the modular display device coupled to the docking bay is a portable computing device or a simple display device.  
           [0017]    The base telephone unit further yet may include a power supply circuit for coupling operating power and/or charging power to the docking bay whereby the modular display device may operate and/or charge using the power coupled to the docking bay when coupled to the docking bay.  
           [0018]    A third aspect of the present invention is to provide a desk top telephone system comprising a base telephone unit. The base telephone unit includes a) a network interface circuit for audio session set-up, and audio session communication with a remote telephone system; b) a display docking bay; and c) a display control system for coupling both a video signal representing the content of a display screen and information related to operation of the base telephone unit to the display docking bay. The telephone system further includes a plurality of docking bay adapters, each configured to operatively couple and/or support one of a plurality of modular display devices in the display docking bay. The modular display devices include both simple display modules operative for displaying information in accordance with the video signal and portable computing modules operative for displaying information in accordance with the information related to operation of the base telephone unit.  
           [0019]    The information related to operation of the base telephone unit may include a data file of tagged data elements and may include a style sheet for defining the aesthetic display of the tagged data elements on the display on the portable computing device.  
           [0020]    The base telephone unit further yet may include a power supply circuit for coupling operating power and/or charging power to the docking bay whereby the modular display device may operate and/or charge using the power coupled to the docking bay when operatively coupled to and/or supported in the docking bay.  
           [0021]    For a better understanding of the present invention, together with other and further aspects thereof, reference is made to the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and its scope will be pointed out in the appended clams. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0022]    [0022]FIG. 1( a ) is a perspective view of a desk top telephone system in accordance with one embodiment of this invention;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 1( b ) is a perspective view of an alternative desk top telephone system in accordance with one embodiment of this invention;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a base telephone unit in accordance with one embodiment of this invention;  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 3 is an partial block diagram of an embodiment of the base telephone unit of FIG. 2 useful in a circuit switched telephone network;  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 4 is a partial block diagram of an embodiment of the base telephone unit of FIG. 2 useful in a packet switched telephone/data network;  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a telephone network utilizing the telephone system of FIG. 1;  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a circuit switched telephone embodiment of the network of FIG. 5;  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a packet switched telephone/data embodiment of the network of FIG. 5; and  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 8 is a flow chart of exemplary operation of a device detection circuit. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0031]    The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, each element with a reference number is similar to other elements with the same reference number independent of any letter designation following the reference number. In the text, a reference number with a specific letter designation following the reference number refers to the specific element with the number and letter designation and a reference number without a specific letter designation refers to all elements with the same reference number independent of any letter designation following the reference number in the drawings. A reference number followed by a “prime” symbol or a “double-prime” symbol represent an element that is a species embodiment of the more generic element designated by the reference number without a “prime” or “double-prime” designation.  
         [0032]    It should also be appreciated that many of the elements discussed in this specification may be implemented in hardware circuit, a processor executing software code, or a combination of a hardware circuit and a processor executing code. As such, the term circuit as used throughout this specification is intended to encompass a hardware circuit (whether discrete elements or an integrated circuit block), a processor executing code, or a combination of a hardware circuit and a processor executing code, or other combinations of the above known to those skilled in the art.  
         [0033]    Referring to FIGS.  1 ( a ) and  1 ( b ), a perspective view of a desk top telephone system  10  in accordance with this invention is shown. The desk top telephone system  10  includes a base telephone unit  12  and a plurality of modular display devices  11 ( a ),  11 ( b ),  11 ( c ),  11 ( d ), and  11 ( e ) operating in conjunction with the base telephone unit  12 . Each of the modular display devices  11 ( a ),  11 ( b ),  11 ( c ),  11 ( d ), and  11 ( e ) may be configured to couple to a display docking bay  20  on a base housing  24  of the base telephone unit  12  and to display information related to operation of the base telephone unit  12  under the control of the base telephone unit  12 . The modular display device may be secured in the display docking bay  20  by a mechanical locking mechanism such as a pair of quarter-turn screws  13 .  
         [0034]    The modular display device  11 ( a ) may be a simple display device  14  with a liquid crystal display  15  (either binary, grayscale, or color) and configured to couple directly into the display docking bay  20 . The content of the display  15  on the simple display device  14  may be driven by a video signal coupled from the base telephone unit  12  to the simple display device  14  via the display docking bay  20 . The display docking bay  20  supports the simple display device  14  in a configuration wherein the display may be visible to an operator of the base telephone unit  12  when coupled to the display docking bay  20 .  
         [0035]    The modular display device  11 ( b ) may be a portable computing device such as one of the commercially available devices known as a personal data assistant (PDA)  16 . Throughout this specification, the term PDA  16  may be used to indicate a the portable computing device  16 . Because there exist many configurations of PDA&#39;s currently available and because each PDA may be both mechanically and electrically configured to couple to a proprietary docking station, an adapter  32  may be configured to mechanically and electrically interface the PDA  16  to the display docking bay  20 . It is envisioned that a commercial embodiment of the desktop telephone system  10  would provide for an adapter  32  configured for each commonly available PDA. The content of a liquid crystal display  17  on the PDA  16  may be controlled by the base telephone unit  12 . The base telephone unit  12  passes a plurality of data files containing information related to operation of the base telephone unit  12  to the PDA  16  and display circuits within the PDA  16  generate appropriate internal video signals for driving the display  17  on the PDA  16 . The data files may comprise a plurality of tagged data elements (e.g. XML Schema) and style sheets (setting forth the aesthetic contents of the display) using a language such as Extensible Mark-up Language (XML). Again, the display docking bay  20  supports the PDA  16  in a configuration wherein the display  17  may be visible to an operator of the base telephone unit  12  when the PDA  16  may be coupled to the display docking bay  20 .  
         [0036]    The modular display device  11 ( c ) may be a simple display device  14 ′ with a high resolution full size graphic liquid crystal display  18  with advanced color depth and resolution. The simple display device  14 ′ may be referred to a graphic display device  14 ′ throughout this specification. The contents of the graphic display device  14 ′ may be driven by a high resolution video signal such as VGA, SVGA, or XVGA provided by the base telephone unit  12  and coupled to the graphic display device  14 ′ via the display docking bay  20 .  
         [0037]    Referring briefly to FIG. 1( b ), the modular display device  11 ( d ) may be a detached graphic display device  14 ″ may be configured to stand on a desk next to the base telephone unit  12  or hang on a wall near the base telephone unit  12  for easy viewing by the operator. The detached graphic display device  14 ″ may be coupled to the base telephone unit  12  by a cable  35  and an adapter  31 ′ which secures to the display docking bay  20 . Similar to the graphic display device  14 ′, the graphic display device  14 ″ may be driven by a high resolution video signal provided by the base telephone unit  12 .  
         [0038]    The modular display device  11 ( e ) may be a cellular telephone  16 ′ with embedded PDA capabilities and a PDA sized graphic display  17 ′. Similar to the PDA  16 , the cellular telephone  16 ′ may coupled to the docking bay  20  utilizing an adapter  32 ′ configured to the specific mechanical and electrical capabilities of the cellular telephone  16 ′. Also similar to the PDA  16 , the content of the PDA sized graphic display  17 ′ may be controlled by the base telephone unit  12 . The base telephone unit  12  may pass a plurality of data files containing information related to operation of the base telephone unit  12  to the cellular telephone  16 ′ and display circuits within the cellular telephone  16 ′ may generate appropriate internal video signals for driving the display  17 ′. Again, the data files may comprise a plurality of tagged data elements and style sheets using a language such as XML.  
         [0039]    The base telephone unit  12  may further include a handset  34 . The handset  34  may include a speaker and microphone for operation by the operator when conversing with an operator of a remote telephone system and the handset  34  may cradle to the base housing  24  when not in use. The handset  34  may be coupled to the base housing  24  using a cable  28  or using a wireless radio system internal within the handset housing  34  and the base housing  24 . In the embodiment with the wireless radio, the handset will include a battery power supply which may be charged by a power source in the base housing  24  when cradled. The base housing  24  may also include a microphone  30  and a speaker  22  for operation of the base telephone unit  12  as a “speaker phone”. A numeric keypad  40  on the top surface of the base housing  24  enables an operator to dial the base telephone unit  12 . More specifically, in response to operator input through the numeric keypad  40 , the base telephone unit  12  operates to set-up an audio session with a remote telephone system (not shown) utilizing an appropriate call signaling protocol and operates to generate DTMF scratch pad signals for the operator.  
         [0040]    To enable the operator of the base telephone unit  12  to converse with an operator of the remote telephone system during an audio session, the base telephone unit  12  includes a network interface circuit (FIG. 2) within the housing  24  which operates for audio session set up and audio session communication with the remote telephone system. More specifically, the network interface circuit may: i) receive a signal from the microphone  30  (or the microphone in the handset) and generate a digital signal (which may be compressed) for transmission across a network  36 ; and ii) receive a digital signal from the network and generate a signal for driving the speaker  22  (or the speaker in the handset).  
         [0041]    It is envisioned that the network  36  may be: i) a circuit switched plain old telephone system (POTS) network provided by a local telephone service provider public telephone system; ii) a circuit switched digital telephone system such as those commonly available for business telephone systems; iii) a packet switched telephone/data network such as a TCP/IP compliant Ethernet network, or iv) any other network using RF, optical fiber, twisted cable, or coaxial cable as the physical medium.  
         [0042]    Turning to FIG. 2, a block diagram of the base telephone unit  12  is shown. The basic architecture of the base telephone unit  12  includes a processor  52  coupled to a local bus  54  which interconnects the processor  52  with both RAM memory  56  and a plurality of peripheral controllers which include a ROM memory controller  58 , a keypad controller  62 , a display control system  69 , a network interface circuit  70 , an audio sub-system  74 , and an RF system  76 .  
         [0043]    A ROM memory  60  stores software for operation of the base telephone unit  12  which may include an operating system, a telephone application program  50  (which will be discussed in more detail herein), and drivers for each of the peripheral controllers. Upon boot up of the base telephone unit  12 , executable code may be copied into the RAM memory  56  and the processor  52  executes from the RAM memory  56 .  
         [0044]    The network interface circuit  70  in conjunction with an appropriate telephone application  50  and drivers executed by the processor  52 , operates to set up audio session and perform audio session communication of audio data with a remote telephone system (not shown) over the network  36 .  
         [0045]    Referring briefly to FIG. 3, the network  36  of FIG. 2 may include a circuit switched telephone network  36 ′. In such embodiment, the network interface circuit  70 ′ operates to set up audio sessions (e.g. telephone calls), using appropriate network protocols, and to both send and receive analog or digital audio signals during the audio session to and from a telephone network switch  72  which forms a part of the circuit switched telephone network system  36 ′.  
         [0046]    Referring briefly to FIG. 4, the network  36  of FIG. 2 may include a packet switched telephone/data network  36 ″. In such embodiment, the network interface circuit  70 ″ includes appropriate DSP circuits  71  (e.g. CODEC) for compressing and decompressing digital audio data for transmission in UDP data packets to a remote telephone device via a router  64 . The network interface circuit  70 ″ and the processor  52  executing appropriate software provides for operating appropriate TCP/IP stacks, media access layer and physical layer communication of data over the packet switched telephone data network  36 ″.  
         [0047]    Returning again to FIG. 2, the audio sub system  74  operates to receive a microphone signal from the microphone  30 , the handset  34 ′, or the wireless handset  34 ″ (through the RF system  76 ) and to generate a digital audio signal within appropriate dynamic range parameters. The digital audio signal may be written directly into the RAM memory  56  using DMA systems where it can be retrieved by the telephone application  50  and/or the network interface circuit  70  for transmission to the remote telephone device on the network  36 . At the same time, the audio subsystem  74  may also retrieve audio data from the RAM memory  56  (that was written to the memory by the system interface circuit  70  or the telephone application  50 ) and generate an analog signal for driving the speaker  22 , the handset  34 ′ or the wireless handset  34 ″.  
         [0048]    The keypad controller  62  functions in a typical manner to detect key pad  40  input by the operator and generate an appropriate interrupt such that the telephone application  50  may set up an appropriate audio session with a remote telephone device via the network  36  and may generate DTMF scratch pad tones for the operator in accordance with a telephone number to the remote telephone system dialed by the operator.  
         [0049]    The display control system  69  couples both a video signal  51  and data files representing information  53  related to operation of the base telephone unit  12  to the display docking bay  20 . The display control system  69  includes a display controller  66  which operates in a conventional matter for generating an appropriate video signal for driving an LCD display screen. The application  50  may write a gray scale value or color depth value for each pixel to predefined memory space and the display controller  66  will scan the predefined memory space and generate the video signal  51  representing the virtual display within the memory space. The video signal  51  may comply with the VGA, SVGA, XVGA, or other public or proprietary video signal standards. The video signal  51  generated by the display controller  66  may be coupled to the display docking bay  20  whereby it may be received by a simple display device  14  (FIG. 1) if a simple display device  14  is coupled to and/or supported in the display docking bay  20 .  
         [0050]    The display control system  69  also includes a communication controller  68  that may be a conventional serial communication controller for transferring data to and from another computing device with a compatible serial communication controller. The serial communication controller  68  may be coupled to the display docking bay  20  and operates to coupled information  53  related to operation of the base telephone unit  12  to a PDA  16  if a PDA  16  is coupled to and/or supported in the display docking bay  20 . As discussed previously, the information  53  related to operation of the base telephone unit  12  may include tagged data elements  57  (wherein each data element includes a tag identifying the significance of the data) and style sheets  55  setting forth the aesthetic display of the data elements  57  on the display screen of the PDA  16 .  
         [0051]    The device detection system  48  may also be coupled to the display docking bay  20  and functions to detect and identify which of the embodiments of the modular display device  11  (FIG. 1) is coupled to the display docking bay  20 . More specifically, referring to the flow chart of FIG. 8 in conjunction with FIG. 2, the device detection system  48  will identify whether a modular display device is a simple display device or a PDA  16  at step  80 . If the modular display device is a simple display device, the video signal requirements for the specific embodiment of the simple display device will be identified at step  82 . (e.g. VGA signal, SVGA signal, ect). Alternatively, if the modular display device is a PDA, the display capabilities of the PDA will be identified at step  84  such that an appropriate style sheet may be selected for display of the tagged data elements on the identified PDA. Step  86  represents reporting the video signal requirements and/or the display capabilities to the telephone application  50  which utilizes such to select and/or provide for an appropriate video signal to be generated by the display controller  66  or an appropriate style sheet  55  passed by the communication controller  68 . Alternatively, step  86  may represent providing identifying information about a particular modular display device coupled to the display docking bay  20  such that an appropriate video signal  51  and/or style sheet  55  may be selected by the base telephone unit  12 .  
         [0052]    Referring to FIG. 5, a block diagram of a private telephone system  38  is shown. The private telephone system  38  includes a plurality of base telephone units  12 ( a )- 12 ( d ) each of which may be configured similar to the base telephone unit  12  as discussed with respect to FIGS. 1 through 4. Each base telephone unit  12 ( a )- 12 ( d ) may be coupled to a network  42 .  
         [0053]    Each base telephone unit  12 ( a )- 12 ( d ) includes a display docking bay  20  into which may be inserted a modular display device  11 ( a )- 11 ( e ) as described with referenced to FIGS.  1 ( a ) and  1 ( b ) utilizing an adapter  32  if appropriate.  
         [0054]    The network  42 , in addition to being coupled to each base telephone unit  12 ( a )- 12 ( d ) may also coupled to a public switched telephone network (PSTN)  44  and provides a gateway such that each base telephone unit  12 ( a )- 12 ( d ) may both place and receive telephone calls with other base telephone units  12 ( a )- 12 ( d ) coupled to the network  42  and with remote telephone system (not shown) coupled to the PSTN  44 .  
         [0055]    As discussed previously, the present invention is applicable to all networks including traditional circuit switched telephone network systems (typically referred to as a “switch” or a “key switch” system) and is applicable to packet switched telephone/data network systems (typically referred to as a “voice-over-IP” or “VOIP” system).  
         [0056]    As such, FIG. 6 shows a circuit switched private telephone system  38 ′. The circuit switched private telephone system  38 ′ may similar to the private telephone system  38  of FIG. 5 and includes a central telephone network switch  72  coupling to each base telephone unit  12 ( a )- 12 ( d ) via a circuit switched telephone network  42 ′. Similarly FIG. 7 shows a packet switched private telephone system  38 ″ which may also similar to the private telephone system  38  of FIG. 5. The packet switched private telephone system  38 ″ includes a telephone gateway  26  coupling to each base telephone unit  12 ( a )- 12 ( d ) via a TCP/IP compliant telephone/data network  42 ″. The telephone gateway  26  may include the functionality of a network switch  29  (e.g. Ethernet switch) and a DHCP server  37  for providing basic operation of the TCP/IP compliant network  42 ″ and may include a PSTN-TCP/IP router  46  for enabling the telephone units  12 ( a )- 12 ( d ) to set up and maintain audio sessions (e.g. place an receive telephone calls) over the PSTN  44 .  
         [0057]    It should be appreciated that the above described telephone system and telephone network system provide optimal configurability in that the most optimal display device based on size, resolution, gray scale, color depth, and other display parameters may be coupled to each telephone system within the telephone network.  
         [0058]    Although the invention has been shown and described with respect to certain preferred embodiments, it is obvious that equivalents and modifications will occur to others skilled in the art upon the reading and understanding of the specification. The present invention includes all such equivalents and modifications, and is limited only by the scope of the following claims.