Patent Publication Number: US-2006003806-A1

Title: Phone synchronization device and method of handling personal information

Description:
BACKGROUND  
      1. Field of the Disclosure  
      The present disclosure relates generally to data synchronization and more specifically to phone synchronization devices and methods of handling personal address book information for such devices.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      Local wireless communication devices, such as cordless or patio type telephones, have routinely included basic phone number directories. Such basic phone number directories allow a cordless phone user to store a set of names and associated phone numbers. The phone number directory may be accessed by the user at a later time to provide for convenient retrieval of phone numbers and often provides for automatic dialing of a selected phone number for a desired contact.  
      Cellular telephones offer address book functionality that includes a richer set of information when compared to the basic phone directory of the cordless telephone. The address book functionality is often also referred to as a contact list. The address book provides contact names and other information, such as physical address, title of contact, business name, cellular, landline, home phone numbers, and email addresses for the contact. For a user of both a cordless telephone and a cellular telephone, it is often inconvenient to input phone number data into both the cordless telephone and into the separate cellular telephone address book. Also, to the extent that cordless telephones are enhanced to provide address book functionality similar to that found in cellular phones, it would be desirable to provide an easy to use system and method for programming and synchronization of address books of multiple devices.  
      Accordingly, there is a need for a phone synchronization device and method of handling personal information for multiple types of phone devices. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is a general diagram that illustrates a particular embodiment of a phone synchronization device.  
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram that illustrates functionality within a phone synchronization device.  
       FIG. 3  is a flow chart that illustrates a method of operation of a phone synchronization device. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      A phone synchronization device and method of synchronizing electronic address book data between multiple phone devices is disclosed. In a particular embodiment, the phone synchronization device includes a housing having a support base, a first phone device reception slot, and a second phone device reception slot. The first phone device reception slot includes a first data synchronization port configured to receive and transmit data with respect to a first phone device when the first phone device is disposed within the first phone device reception slot and is in electrical contact with the first data synchronization port. The second phone device reception slot includes a second data synchronization port configured to receive and transmit data with respect to a second phone device when the second phone device is disposed within the second phone device reception slot and is in electrical contact with the second data synchronization port. The phone synchronization device also includes a synchronization data communication bus that is coupled to the first synchronization port and coupled to the second synchronization port.  
      Optionally, an external dongle attachment to the housing may be provided. The external dongle attachment may be coupled to the housing via an extension wire. The external dongle attachment has an external device connector to attach to an external communication device having an electronic address book. The optional dongle attachment allows synchronization of additional types of devices and those devices from different manufacturers that may require different connectors. In a particular embodiment, the second phone device reception slot may be replaced by the use of an external device data port attached to an external dongle attachment.  
      As another option, one of the phone devices, such as a cellular phone, may initiate forwarding of incoming calls to the second phone device, such as a cordless phone, upon detection that the cellular phone has been received within a slot of the phone synchronization device. This allows a user to have calls automatically transferred from their cellular phone to their cordless phone when the user returns home and places their cellular phone in the phone synchronization cradle.  
      In a particular embodiment, the method includes detecting docking of a first phone device having a first address book within a first reception location within a phone synchronization cradle, detecting docking of a second phone device having a second address book within a second reception location within the phone synchronization cradle, and initiating data synchronization to synchronize data between the first address book and the second address book. In a particular embodiment, the first phone device is a first type of device, such as a cordless telephone, and the second phone device is a second type of device, such as a cellular telephone. The method may also further include communicating data between the first phone device and the second phone device locally using an internal data bus located within the housing of the phone synchronization cradle to avoid the need to use or have access to an external network.  
      Referring to  FIG. 1 , an illustrative embodiment of a phone synchronization device  100  is shown. The phone synchronization device  100  includes a housing  102  having a base and having a first phone slot  104  and a second phone slot  106 . The housing is connected via wire  110  to an external dongle attachment for other devices  112 . A cordless phone  108  is shown as inserted in the second slot  106 . The first slot  104  is configured to receive a portable device, such as a cellular phone. The phone synchronization device enables users of hand held devices to synchronize data on such devices. Examples of such data includes address books, contact lists, calendars, buddy lists and preferences across cordless and cellular phones.  
      In addition, internet connectivity is not required to provide data synchronization since the data is communicated between the first slot and the second slot via an internal communication bus. Data synchronization may also be provided across a variety of other devices such as wired phone, PDA, or hand held computer using the optional dongle attachment  112 . In addition, in a particular embodiment, a charger may be provided to charge a battery within the hand held device as well as providing the data synchronization functionality.  
      Referring to  FIG. 2 , an illustrative embodiment of a phone synchronization device functionality is shown. The phone synchronization device  200  includes a first phone receiving slot  202  and a second phone receiving slot  204 . The first phone receiving slot  202  includes a first charging circuit  212  and a first data synchronization port  214 . Similarly, the second phone receiving slot  204  includes a second charging circuit  222  and a second data synchronization port  224 . The first and second charging circuits  212 ,  222  are coupled to each other and coupled to a power terminal  232  to provide for power to the charging circuits. Alternatively, charging may also be provided by the dongle attachment. The first data synchronization port  214  is coupled via an internal data communication bus  220  to the second data synchronization port  224  and also to the optional external data port  270 .  
      The external data port  270  is linked to an external connector  274 , such as the dongle attachment via wire extension  272 . In a particular embodiment, the dongle attachment  274  can have a replaceable adapter at its end to connect to different types of phone devices. While a wired dongle attachment  274  is shown, the dongle may also be configured for insertion into one of the phone reception slots. In this manner, a phone slot with the inserted dongle can receive multiple types of phone devices.  
      A first phone device  250  may be inserted into the first phone receiving slot  202 . As illustrated, the first phone device includes a battery  254  and includes a memory having electronic address book  256 . The first phone device  250  also includes a first phone electrical connector  257  and a first phone data connector  258 . When the first phone device  250  is inserted and docked in the phone receiving slot  202 , the first phone electrical connector  257  is coupled to the first charging circuit  212  and the first phone data connector  258  is coupled to the memory  252  storing electronic address book data  256  and is coupled to the first data synchronization port  214 . In this configuration, the first charging circuit  212  may provide additional charge via the first phone electrical connector  257  to the internal battery  254  of the first phone device  250 . In addition, data may be communicated between the electronic address book  256  and the first data synchronization port  214  via the first phone data connector  258 .  
      Similarly, a second phone device  260  including battery  264  and electronic address book  266  may be inserted into the second phone receiving slot  204 . The second phone device  260  includes a second phone electrical connector  267  coupled to the battery  264 . In addition, the second phone device  260  includes a second phone data connector  268  coupled to the memory  262  storing electronic address book data  266 . The second phone data connector  268  and the second phone electrical connector  267  are respectively coupled to the second data synchronization port  224 , and the second charging circuit  222  as shown when the second phone device  260  is docked within the phone reception slot  204 .  
      In a particular embodiment the first phone device  250  may be a cellular phone and the second phone device  260  may be a cordless telephone. Other optional devices may also be received by the phone synchronization device  200 , such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), wired telephones, and other hand held communication devices including electronic address books. After the first and second phone devices  250 ,  260 , have been docked within the phone synchronization device  200 , data from the electronic address books of such devices may be synchronized to one another. For example, data from electronic address book  256  may be passed through the first phone data connector  258  via the first data synchronization port  214  over the internal communication data bus  220  to the second data synchronization port  224 . Such data is then further communicated over the second phone data connector  268  to the electronic address book  266  within the second phone device  260 .  
      Alternatively, data from the second phone device electronic address data book  266  may pass in the other direction over the communication bus  220  and the data synchronization ports to provide for updated synchronization of the first phone device  250  with respect to the second phone device  260 . In addition, other external devices connected to data connector  274  may pass synchronization data over external data port  270  and data communication bus  220  to either the first phone device or the second phone device via the data synchronization port when such phone devices are docked in the respective receiving slots. As shown the phone synchronization device  200  includes a data synchronization logic unit  280  coupled to the internal data communication bus  220 . The data synchronization logic unit  280  may be implemented as software stored within a computer processor programmed to provide for data synchronization between the various hand-held devices that may be inserted in their respective receiving slots. While such data synchronization logic is shown as being within an internal microprocessor or similar computer device located within the phone synchronization device, it should be understood that such logic may be provided by a host computer attached externally to the phone synchronization device.  
      Referring to  FIG. 3 , a method of operation with respect to a phone synchronization device is shown. The method of phone synchronization includes detecting docking of a first phone device having a first electronic address book within a first reception location in a phone synchronization cradle, as shown at  302 . The method further includes detecting docking of a second phone device having a second electronic address book within a second reception location in the phone synchronization cradle, at  304 . Data synchronization is initiated to synchronize data between the first electronic address book and the second electronic address book of the first and second phone devices respectively, at  306 . Data is then communicated between the first phone device and the second phone device locally using an internal data bus that is located within the housing of the phone synchronization cradle, as shown at  308 .  
      A system and method of providing synchronization of electronic address book data of hand held devices such as cellular and cordless phones has been illustrated. The disclosed method and system uses an internal communication data bus to avoid the need for an internet connection or other network connection. Thus, a portable synchronization device may be used to provide for synchronization for various user devices having electronic address book data and similar contact information. In addition, the hand-held devices may have their batteries charged while data synchronization is being applied. Data that may be synchronized includes contact list information, calendar information, buddy list information, and user preference information. In addition, while a dongle attachment has been shown as an additional option, it should be understood that one of the slots of the phone synchronization device may be replaced by a dongle attachment. In this embodiment, a single reception slot would be used and a second device for data synchronization would be attached to the external dongle attachment. In addition, it should be understood that the synchronization process may be triggered automatically in response to detecting docking of the first phone device in the first phone device reception slot and in response to detecting docking of the second phone device in the second phone reception slot. Alternately, a synchronization event may be triggered manually by a user of the device.  
      In another illustrative embodiment, one of the phone devices, such as a cellular phone, may include call forwarding logic to initiate forwarding of incoming calls to the second phone device, such as a cordless phone, upon detection that the cellular phone has been received within a slot of the phone synchronization device. The detection of placement into the slot may be determined in response to an electrical signal sent to the cellular phone upon connection to an electrical connector within the phone receiving slot. In addition, the cellular phone may initiate call forwarding by sending a wireless data message to a cellular base station or other similar wireless equipment that supports the cellular phone. An example of a messaging protocol is the SMS messaging system. Upon detection of the message from the cellular phone, the cellular equipment can initiate a feature to forward future calls addressed to the cellular phone to instead by routed to the cordless telephone. This allows a user to have calls automatically transferred from their cellular phone to their cordless phone when the user returns home simply by placing their cellular phone in the phone synchronization cradle. Thus, the cellular phone can have electronic address book data synchronized and can be charged while also having calls conveniently forwarded to a co-located cordless phone.  
      The above disclosed subject matter is to be considered illustrative, and not restrictive, and the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications, enhancements, and other embodiments which fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, to the maximum extent allowed by law, the scope of the present invention is to be determined by the broadest permissible interpretation of the following claims and their equivalents, and shall not be restricted or limited by the foregoing detailed description.