Patent EA-001807-B1 (EA)
Title: Electronic communications system and method
Inventor: PERETZ NEIL M
IPC: H04L1/22
Filed: 1999-01-07
Abstract: 1. A system for communicating data between a computer and a unit remote to the computer, comprising means in the remote unit for receiving input information from a user and for producing data signals corresponding to the input information; means in the remote unit for generating acoustical tones corresponding to the input information; means for communicating said acoustical tones over an acoustical communications link to the computer; said communicating means further comprising means for determining, based on predetermined criteria, whether a bi-directional communications channel has been established over the acoustical communications link between said computer and said remote unit; and receiving means in the remote unit for receiving data from the computer over a second communications link which is independent of the acoustic communications link so that the remote unit receives data from the computer over two different communications links. 2. The system of Claim 1, wherein said acoustical communications means comprises means, if the bi-directional communications channel has not been established between said computer and said remote unit, for coupling the acoustical tones to the acoustical communications link for unidirectional transmission from the remote unit to the computer, and means, in the remote unit, for receiving a voice prompt from the computer after the data has been transmitted to acknowledge receipt of the acoustical tones. 3. The system of Claim 1, wherein said communicating means further comprises means, if a bi-directional communications path is established between the remote unit and the computer, for transmitting said acoustical tones over the acoustical communications link to the computer and means for receiving acoustical tones from said computer over said acoustical communications link to acknowledge receipt of the acoustical tones. 4. The system of Claim 1, wherein the acoustical communications link comprises a telephone link and wherein the second communications link comprises a wireless link, and the means for receiving data from the second communications link comprises a radio pager receiver. 5. The system of Claim 2, wherein the computer further comprises means for receiving data packets from the remote unit, the data packets each comprising a plurality of bits, means for error checking the data packets in the computer, means for communicating to the user of the remote unit from the computer to resend all data packets when errors are present in any data packet, means for comparing the first-sent data packets to corresponding ones of the resent data packets to determine the presence of errors, and means for comparing corresponding bits of each first-sent data packet and each resent data packet to select a bit value that is present in a more than half of the data packets. 6. The system of Claim 5, wherein said resending means comprises means for generating a voice prompt instructing the user to resend the data packets if a bi-directional communications path has not been established between the remote unit and the computer, and wherein said resending means comprises means for transmitting an acoustical tone to the remote unit to request the resending of the data packets when a bi-directional communications path has been established. 7. The system of Claim 1, wherein said computer comprises means, if the bi-directional communications path has been established between the remote unit and the computer, for adjusting the acoustic tones transmitted to the remote unit over said acoustical communications link from the computer, the acoustical tones being adjusted for the conditions of the acoustical communication link prior to transmission to the remote unit. 8. The system of Claim 7, wherein said adjusting means further comprises means for receiving said acoustical tones from said remote unit, means for determining line condition errors from said received acoustical tones, means for correction said received acoustical tones for said line condition errors, and means, if a bidirectional communications path has been established, for transmitting acoustical tones to the remote unit, the transmitted acoustical tones being corrected based on said line condition errors in the received acoustical tones. 9. The system of Claim 8, wherein said means for determining line condition errors comprises means for detecting phase errors in said received acoustical tones, means for detecting frequency errors in said received acoustical tones and means for detecting clock errors within said acoustical tones received from the remote unit. 10. The system of Claim 1, wherein said remote unit further comprises means for determining the length of time for the transmission of the acoustical data sent from the computer to the remote unit prior to the transmission of the acoustical data, and means for indicating the length of time of the acoustical data transmission. 11. The system of Claim 10, wherein said time length determining means comprises a preamble message that is transmitted from the computer to the remote unit prior to the transmission of a plurality of messages, the preamble message containing a summary of each message that is going to be transmitted to the remote unit and a time length for each message transmission. 12. The system of Claim 10, wherein said transmission length indication means comprises means for indicating to the user of the remote unit that breaking of the acoustical communications link would not result in the loss message data. 13. The system of Claim 1, wherein said remote unit further comprises means for generating a command message that contains commands for the computer and preferences of the user, said command message being a first message transmitted to the computer when a communications link is established between the remote unit and the computer. 14. The system of Claim 1, wherein said computer further comprises means for establishing a communications session between said remote unit and the computer over the acoustical communications link and means for switching between a plurality of different messaging sessions based on acoustical tones received during the communications session, said plurality of messaging sessions comprising an acoustical voice data session for receiving voicemail messages and an acoustical electronic data communications session for communicating acoustical electronic data between the remote unit and the computer so that the user may communicate voice data and electronic data acoustically to the computer during a single communications session. 15. A device for communicating electronic data with a remote computer system, the device comprising: means for receiving input information from a user and for producing data signals corresponding to the input information; means for generating acoustical tones corresponding to the input information; means for communicating said acoustical tones over an acoustical communications link to the remote computer, said acoustical communications link being capable of establishing a unidirectional or a bi-directional communications path between the device and said remote computer and a receiving means for receiving data from the computer over a second communications link which is independent of the first communications link so that the remote unit receives data from the computer over two different communications links. 16. The device of Claim 15, wherein said acoustical communications means comprises means for receiving acknowledgment information over the acoustical communications link from the remote computer. 17. The device of Claim 16, wherein said acknowledgment information comprises a voice prompt from the computer after the data has been transmitted to acknowledge receipt of the acoustical tones when a unidirectional acoustical communications path has been established between the device and the computer and wherein said acknowledgment information comprises acoustical tones that acknowledge receipt of the acoustical tones when a bi-directional acoustical communications path has been established between the device and the computer. 18. The device of Claim 15, wherein the acoustical communications link comprises a telephone link and the second communications link comprises a wireless link, and the means for receiving data from the second communications link comprises a radio pager receiver. 19. The device of Claim 15 further comprises means for receiving a request from the computer to resend the data packets. 20. The device of Claim 15, wherein said remote unit comprises means, if the bi-directional communications path over the acoustical communications link has been established between the remote unit and the computer, for receiving acoustic tones over said acoustical communications link from the computer, the acoustical tones being adjusted for conditions of the acoustical communication link prior to transmission to the remote unit. 21. The device of Claim 15, wherein said remote unit further comprises means for determining the length of time for the transmission of the acoustical data sent from the computer to the remote unit prior to the transmission of the acoustical data, and means for indicating the length of time of the acoustical data transmission. 22. The device of Claim 21, wherein said time length determining means comprises a preamble message that is transmitted from the computer to the remote unit prior to the transmission of message data, the preamble message containing a summary of the message data that is going to be transmitted to the remote unit and a time length for the message transmission. 23. The device of Claim 21, wherein said transmission length indication means comprises means for indicating to the user of the remote unit the breaking of the acoustical communications link would not result in the loss of message data. 24. The device of Claim 15, wherein said remote unit further comprises means for gen