Patent Publication Number: US-2004052341-A1

Title: System for automatic notification of caller ID, e-mail identification and short message

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] The present invention relates generally to an information service system, and more particularly, to a system for automatic notification of caller ID (CID), e-mail identification (EID) and short message.  
       DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART  
       [0002] Telephone systems are popular for communications. People may communicate with each other real time by telephone network. Recently, caller ID display has been developed for the telephone system and thus the called party may judge who is the caller and then determines whether or not to response to the phone call. Moreover, the caller ID can be recorded so that users may know the calling party by checking the recorded caller ID. This is beneficial for reducing the loss of calling. Many telephone systems in Europe, America and Asia have been introduced the function of caller ID display, and, therefore, more and more telephone are appended with this function.  
       [0003] In other aspect, short messages and e-mails provide further approaches for communications. Applications of short messages are popular between mobile phones. Currently, the contents transferred by short messages include texts, drawings, cartoons, music, etc.  
       [0004] With the development of networks, e-mails have become another popular way for communications. To acquire newest e-mails, the user needs to keep connected to the network or log on the network again and again to contact the e-mail server in the network. However, this will induce the waste of network resource since the e-mails are in fact not coming for each second. Furthermore, for users not using leased lines to receive and transmit e-mails, such as those using public switched telephone network (PSTN), a great expense is required for connecting to Internet and communication service.  
       [0005] It is a trend to diversify the communication applications. If caller ID display and short message services can be integrated and the disadvantages of e-mail services can be improved, the users can enjoy a real-time and convenient communication service.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0006] Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a system for automatic notification of caller ID, e-mail identification and short message, by which various communication services are integrated.  
       [0007] Another object of the present invention is to integrate other communication services with the current caller ID display system.  
       [0008] According to the present invention, a system for automatic notification of caller ID, e-mail identification and short message enables a user to receive caller ID, short message and e-mail identification that includes some of the profile of an e-mail and is provided by an e-mail identification data server. The system includes a receiver for receiving and decoding the caller ID, short message and e-mail identification and an output apparatus for display or voice output. In some applications, the receiver can be integrated to the current electronic apparatus, such as television (TV), computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), electronic dictionary, electronic watch, etc.  
       [0009] The various objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0010]FIG. 1 shows the architecture of the present invention;  
     [0011]FIG. 2 shows one embodiment architecture of the present invention for transferring short message;  
     [0012]FIG. 3 shows another embodiment architecture of the present invention for transferring short message;  
     [0013]FIG. 4 shows a further embodiment architecture of the present invention for transferring short message;  
     [0014]FIG. 5 shows one embodiment architecture of the present invention for transferring e-mail identification;  
     [0015]FIG. 6 shows another embodiment architecture of the present invention for transferring e-mail identification;  
     [0016]FIG. 7 shows a further embodiment architecture of the present invention for transferring e-mail identification; and  
     [0017]FIG. 8 shows one embodiment receiver of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
     [0018] The feature of the present invention is to integrate other communication services with the current caller ID display so as to provide a multifunctional communication service.  
     [0019] The basic architecture of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1, in which a receiver  10  is located at the telephone side  20  for receiving information, such as caller ID, short message and e-mail identification, transferred to the telephone side  20 . This information is further transferred to an output apparatus  30  for display or speech output. The output apparatus  30  can be a display or other electronic apparatus with a display thereof, or an electronic apparatus, which can output speech signals as voices. The user at the telephone side  20  may see the received message or hear the received message by the output apparatus  30 . The e-mail identification includes some basic profile of an e-mail, such as the subject of the e-mail, transfer date, e-mail address, name, etc. These summary profiles provide for the user to thereby determine whether or not to surf Internet for receiving the e-mail.  
     [0020] In the appended drawings, the receiver  10 , telephone  20  and output apparatus  30  are separately shown in respective block for illustration, while in fact, the receiver  10  may be integrated with the telephone  20  or with the output apparatus  30 , or the receiver  10 , telephone  20  and output apparatus  30  can be integrated in an apparatus.  
     [0021] The caller ID A, short message B and e-mail identification C are transferred on a communication network  40 . The communication network  40  can be serving as a medium for information transmission, or a transfer center for the information. For example, in the current caller ID system the communication network  40  typically includes an exchange system. When the telephone A on the caller end dials to the telephone  20  on the receiver end, the exchange system in the communication network  40  will transfer the basic profile, such as the directory number of the caller, name of the caller, calling time, etc., to the telephone side  20 . The receiver  10  (herein, called as a caller ID display) at the telephone side  20  will display these messages on the display. The architecture of a caller ID display is well known by those skilled in the art and thus the details thereof will not be further described herewith.  
     [0022]FIG. 2 shows one embodiment architecture for the short message transmission according to the present invention. The short message source  50  includes any source, which can provide short message, such as mobile phone  50   a , pager  50   b  and Internet  50   c . The content of the short message may include such as financial message, traffic schedule, advertise message, news, climate report, product scheme, stock message, coupon, etc. The short message may be represented by text, drawing or ringing. The short message source  50  sends short messages to a short message server  60  in wired or wireless transmission, for example, by PSTN, Internet, GSM system, etc. The short message server  60  can be provided by an Internet service provider (ISP), an e-mail service provider or a short message service (SMS) center. Other than the function of transferring short messages, the short message server  60  can be capable of storing short messages to temporarily store received messages when the communication network  40  cannot work.  
     [0023] The ways for transferring short messages from the short message source  50  to the telephone side  20  will be described in the following.  
     [0024] One method is that the short message source  50  directly sends the short message to the telephone side  20  by the communication network  40  when a connection is established between the short message source  50  and the telephone  20 .  
     [0025] Another is to transfer the short message provided by the short message source  50  to the short message server  60 , and then the short message server  60  transfers the short message to the telephone side  20  by the communication network  40 . There are two ways can be used in this method for the short message sever  60  to transfer the short message to the telephone side  20 . In one way, the short message server  60  sends the short message to the telephone side  20  after the short message server  60  is connected to the telephone  20  by the communication network  40 , and the communication network  40  is only served as a transmission medium. In another way, the short message server  60  sends the short message to an exchange system (not shown) in the communication network  40 , and then the exchange system sends the short message to the telephone side  20  after the exchange system is connected to the telephone  20 . This manner the communication network  40  is served as a transfer center for the short message.  
     [0026] Transferring short messages by the exchange system in the communication network  40  is under the consideration of current communication networks architecture, however, it is only one embodiment of the present invention and other ways of transferring short messages in the communication network  40  can be adapted to the present invention.  
     [0027] The short message sent to the telephone side  20  is received by the receiver  10  and then-is decoded and/or demodulated for recovering the original signal. Then, the recovered signal is sent to the output apparatus  30 . In this embodiment, the output apparatus  30  is a display  30   a , a television  30   b , a computer  30   c , etc. The user can view the incoming messages from the display of the output apparatus  30 , or hear the speech output from the television  30   b  or computer  30   c . The display  30   a  can be, for example, a cathode ray tube (CRT) display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), or a light emitting diode (LED) display and the like. The receiver  10  can be connected with the television  30   b  or computer  30   c  by wired or wireless means.  
     [0028]FIG. 3 shows another embodiment architecture of the present invention for short message transfer, which is similarly to that shown in FIG. 2 except that the short message sent to the telephone side  20  is received by a transceiver  22  and then sent to an electronic apparatus  80  having a receiver  10  by wired or wireless means. The electronic apparatus  80  is integrated with the receiver  10  for decoding and/or demodulating the short messages from the transceiver  22  and the output apparatus  30  for display of the short messages or reading out the short messages. Conveniently, the receiver  10  can be integrated into a current electronic apparatus capable of displaying or speech outputting, for example, personal digital assistant  80   a , electronic dictionary  80   b , mobile phone  80   c , electronic watch  80   d , pager  80   e , etc. It should be understand, in this embodiment, the transceiver  22  is only transmitting the received short message without decoding or recovering the short message.  
     [0029]FIG. 4 shows a further embodiment architecture of the present invention for short message transfer, which is different from that shown in FIG. 3 by transceiver  10 ′. Other than decoding and/or demodulating the short messages, the receiver  10 ′ has a further function of re-transmitting the recovered short messages. This function can be realized by building a transmitting module in the receiver  10 ′.  
     [0030] Other than providing an output apparatus  30 , the electronic apparatus  80 ′ further includes a receiver module  24  for receiving the short messages sent by the receiver  10 ′. Then the short messages are displayed or outputted by speech by the output apparatus  30  provided in the electronic apparatus  80 .  
     [0031] The architecture for transferring the e-mail identification is illustrated in FIG. 5. The e-mail identification data server  70  sends some identification data of the e-mail designated to the user at the telephone side  20 , such as the subject of the e-mail, mailing date, e-mail address and name of the mailer, etc., to the telephone side  20  by communication network  40 . These identification data can be provided by the mail server and then is sent to the e-mail identification data server  70 . The mail server can be provided by an Internet service provider or an e-mail provider. Alternately, the e-mail identification data server  70  is a mail server, which processes the received mails and then gets and transfers the e-mail identification data. In summary, the e-mail identification data server  70  has at least the function of transferring the e-mail identifications. In addition, the e-mail identification data server  70  can be also equipped with the function of storing the e-mail identifications to thereby store the e-mail identification when the communication network  40  does not work.  
     [0032] In the following is described the ways that the e-mail identification data server  70  transfers e-mail identifications to the telephone side  20  by the communication network  40 . One of the ways is that the e-mail identification data server  70  sends the e-mail identification to the telephone side  20  after the e-mail identification data server  70  is connected to the telephone  20  by the communication network  40 . This manner the communication network  40  is only serving as a transmission medium. In another way, the e-mail identification data server  70  sends the e-mail identification to the exchange system (not shown) of the communication network  40  and then the exchange system transfers the e-mail identification to the telephone side  20  after the exchange system is connected to the telephone  20 . This manner the communication network  40  is utilized for re-transmitting the e-mail identifications for the e-mail identification data server  70 . However, use of the exchange system in the communication network  40  to transfer the e-mail identifications is only one embodiment of the present invention, while other ways capable to transfer data to the telephone side  20  during the telephone  20  is off hook are also available from the scope of the present invention.  
     [0033] It should be appreciated that according to the present invention, e-mail identifications are provided to the telephone side  20  by the e-mail identification data server  70  actively which is different from that in prior arts by that the user accesses new e-mail by actively connecting to the mail sever on a network by prior arts. Since the e-mail identifications are obtained based on the profiles of e-mails, users may roughly understand the content of the e-mail in advance so as to determine whether receiving the e-mail or doing other processes.  
     [0034] The receiver  10  receives the e-mail identification at the telephone side  20  and then decodes and/or demodulates the e-mail identification, and then transfers the identification data to the output apparatus  30  for display or speech out put. The output apparatus  30  are described in reference to listed in FIG. 2.  
     [0035] Another embodiment architecture of the present invention for transmission of the e-mail identification is illustrated in FIG. 6, which is similar to that disclosed in FIG. 5 except that the e-mail identifications at the telephone side  20  are received by transceiver  22  and then transferred to electronic apparatus  80 , which has a receiver  10 , by wired or wireless communication. The transceiver  22  receives and transmits data without decoding or recovering the data. The electronic apparatus  80  includes the receiver  10  and an output apparatus  30  for decoding and recovering the e-mail identification from the transceiver  22  and then the e-mail identifications are outputted by a display or in speech. The receiver  10  can be integrated to an electronic apparatus having an output apparatus  30 , such as personal digital assistant  80   a , electronic dictionary  80   s , mobile phone  80   c , electronic watch  80   s , pager  80   e , etc.  
     [0036]FIG. 7 shows one further embodiment architecture for the e-mail identification transfer according to the present invention, which is different from that shown in FIG. 6 by that the e-mail identification transferred to the telephone side  20  is received by the receiver  10 ′. Other than decoding and/or demodulating the e-mail identifications, the receiver  10 ′ has a function of re-transmitting the recovered e-mail identifications. This function can be realized by a built-in transmitter module in the receiver  10 ′. Except for an output apparatus  30 , electronic apparatus  80 ′ has a receiver module  24  for receiving the e-mail identifications from the receiver  10 ′. Then, the contents of the e-mail identification are displayed or outputted in speech by the output apparatus  30 .  
     [0037] The short messages and e-mail identifications may have different transmission formats, for example, frequency Shift keying (FSK), dual Tone multi-frequency (DTMF), universal asynchronous receiver and transmitter (UART), and customer-premise-equipment alerting signal (CAS). Preferably, the caller ID, e-mail identification and short message have a same transmission format. The receiver  10  at the telephone side  20  has corresponding decoding/demodulating apparatus for processing incoming data. One embodiment of the receiver  10  according to the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 8. The receiver  10  has a control circuit  12  for controlling the process performed by the receiver  10 . A ringing detector  14 , an FSK codec (encoder/decoder)  15 , a CAS codec  16 , a DTMF codec  17 , and a UART codec  19  are coupled between a line and the control circuit  12 . A linking apparatus  13  serves for control of connection of the telephone  20  and the short message server  60  or the e-mail identification data server  70  when the telephone  20  is on-hook. Generally, the receiver  10  has at least one decoder for recovering the incoming data. In this embodiment, an encoder is added for encoding message.  
     [0038] The receiver  10  has a display driver  18  connected to the control circuit so as to drive a display panel  30 . In another embodiment, the display panel  30  and receiver  10  can be integrated as a current caller ID display. Moreover, the display panel  30 , receiver  10  and telephone  20  can be integrated as a current telephone with caller ID display function. In an alternative embodiment, the display driver  18  can be integrated with the display panel  30 . The receiver  10  can be connected to the control interface of an external electronic apparatus by an I/O port of the control circuit  12  to thereby control the external electronic apparatus. In another embodiment, the receiver  10  can further include an informing signal output apparatus (not shown) to inform the user when the caller ID, short message or e-mail identification of the caller are received. The informing signal may be speech signal, ringing signal, music signal, flash, text, symbol, etc. In other aspect, the receiver  10  comprises a speech output apparatus for outputting the received caller ID, short message or e-mail identification by voices.  
     [0039] In various embodiments of the present invention, to display messages on a television or a computer is advantageous since they are popular and frequently used in homes. In an architecture for outputting messages on a television or a computer, the receiver  10  may be an external apparatus out of the television or computer and transfers the decoded and/or demodulated caller ID, short message and e-mail identification to the television or computer by a wired or wireless connection. Alternatively, the receiver  10  can be integrated to a television or computer for receiving and recovering the caller ID, short message or e-mail identification. Then, the data are displayed on the screen of the television or computer or by speech from a speaker in the television or computer. The screen of the television or computer may be a liquid crystal display (LCD), a CRT display or a plasma display panel (PDP).  
     [0040] One aspect of the present invention is to provide diversified communication services, which may be further integrated with the current caller ID display system. The architecture of the present invention provides a new way for receiving messages, for example, the user&#39;s phone can be used to receive short messages or e-mail identifications. As for the caller ID display, the short message and e-mail identification may be provided to the user so that the user can determine whether or not to receive the message. Thereby, the time of the user can be saved, the working efficiency is improved, and the user may get the necessary messages. As compared with prior arts, the architecture of the present invention provides diversified and more valuable communication applications.  
     [0041] Another aspect of the present invention is that messages can be outputted by the current electronic apparatus, such as telephone with liquid crystal display, television, and computer. Telephone, television and computer are popular in most homes, and more especially, the television and computer can be used to display the caller ID, short message and e-mail identification when the user is watching TV or uses a computer, hence the contents of the incoming data can be reached immediately.  
     [0042] A further aspect of the present invention is that a wireless transmitter can be equipped at the user end to re-transmit the received caller ID, short message and e-mail identification to a personal portable apparatus, such as watch and personal digital assistant. Thereby, the user may reach the incoming information at any time. This is a convenient way of receiving information.  
     [0043] The above-mentioned embodiments can be combined together, where among the defective entries, some are redirected to the pseudo entries by the method shown in FIG. 3, and the rest of the defective entries are hidden by the method shown in FIG. 1, for instance when the backup register pool  400  is used up, the remaining error entries are directly hidden instead of redirected to pseudo entries.