Patent Publication Number: US-2004052360-A1

Title: Equipment and method for automatically screening and filtering disturbance for the incoming phone call

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] 1. Field of the Invention  
       [0002] This invention relates to an equipment and a method for automatically screening and filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call, and more particularly, relates to an equipment and a method, capable of filtering and identifying the phone call information of the incoming call that the user does not desire to receive, according to the phone call information of the record made by the mobile communication device, so as to provide the screening function with automatic filtering and canceling the disturbing phone call.  
       [0003] 2. Description of Related Art  
       [0004] As the technology of communication network is developed in great progress, nowadays, the mobile phone or cellular phone has been one of the common communication tools. However, in the current situation, when the mobile phone is used to receive the international phone call and in some countries the domestic phone call, the system manager for the mobile phone usually makes charges to both parties. In particular, it is often for the user nowadays to receive the international phone call or to use the mobile phone in the foreign countries while on a business trip or personal travel to foreign countries. Thus, the user often would be charged the phone call bill, by the communication company, without actually dialing out the phone call.  
       [0005] In addition to this situation, the user in the some specific situations wishes to screen out some phone calls from some phone numbers, so as to avoid the disturbance to the user caused by those phone calls. For example, during the off work or vacation period, the user may not want to receive the phone calls from the clients or calls relating the business.  
       [0006] In the conventional technology, in order to solve the foregoing problems, the mobile phones in current market have the function to show the information about the incoming phone call. In other words, when the incoming phone call is made, the displaying panel will display the phone number of the incoming phone call. The user can determine whether or not receive the phone call, according to the phone number. In other words, the user can determine whether or not by the user himself to receive some specific phone calls, for example to exclude from receiving some phone calls from the strangers. However, in some situations that are not proper for receiving the phone call, if the user does not receive the phone call, it may cause the unnecessary confusion to the caller.  
       [0007] As described in the foregoing situations, it has been a necessary issueto develop a method to automatically perform the filtering and screening function for the incoming phone call, based on the information of phone number and so on of the incoming phone call.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008] It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide an equipment and a method for automatically screening and filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call, so as to achieve the mobile communication device with the function of automatically filtering the phone number with respect to the incoming phone call.  
       [0009] In accordance with the foregoing objective, the first step of the present invention is to perform a setup according to the user&#39;s requirements, so as to set up a screening data bank for the phone numbers, which need to be screened, and to further verify the phone numbers. As a result, when a phone call is dialed up, the mobile phone of the user would automatically verify the number of the phone call with the screening data bank, so as to automatically filter out the phone number in the screening data bank and to respond with a signal indicating that the line is busy.  
       [0010] In accordance with the foregoing and other objectives of the present invention, the present invention provides an equipment for automatically screening and filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call, which comprises a screening data bank, a register device, a comparing module, and an output device. In the present invention, according to the equipment for automatically screening and filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call of the present invention, it can be applied to a phone receiving device. The screening data bank stores the phone call data to be screened. The register device is used to store the information of the phone number with respect to the incoming phone call, wherein information is transmitted from the phone transmitting device to the phone receiving device when the phone transmitting device calls the phone receiving device for a signal connection. Then, the comparing module automatically makes a comparison between the screening data and the information of phone number of the incoming phone call. If the comparing result from the comparing module is a match, then the output device then issues a signal indicating that the line is busy to the phone transmitting device for rejecting the connection of the signal. If the comparing result from the comparing module is not a match, then the output device issues a signal for receiving the phone call, so that the user can receive the phone call.  
       [0011] In addition, the present invention also provides a method for automatically screening and filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call. The first step of the method is providing a screening data bank. The screening data bank comprises at least one screening data. Then, when a phone transmitting device calls a phone receiving device to have the signal connection, it is received for the phone number information with respect to the incoming phone call transmitted from the phone transmitting device to the phone receiving device. Also, the phone number information is stored in a register device. Next, it is automatically compared for a match between the screening data and the phone number information of the incoming phone call. If the screening data bank has stored the screening data that is a match with the incoming phone number information, then the phone receiving device issues a line busy signal to the phone transmitting device for rejecting the signal connection. However, if the screen data bank has stored the screen data that does not include the same phone number information as the incoming phone call, then a receiving signal is issued via the phone receiving device, so as to inform the user to answer the phone call.  
       [0012] The equipment and the method in the present invention for automatically screening and filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call first perform the setting process according to the need of the user, so as to build up the screening data bank of the phone numbers, which are necessary to be screened, for identification. In this manner, it can base on the phone number information of the incoming phone call to perform the filtering and to achieve the function of automatic screening for the incoming phone call without requiring manual operation by the user to determine whether or not to receive the phone call. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
     [0013] The invention can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, with reference made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:  
     [0014]FIG. 1 is a drawing of block diagram, schematically illustrating the architecture for the equipment for automatically screening and filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call, according to one embodiment of the present invention;  
     [0015]FIGS. 2 a - 2   b  are the process flow diagrams, schematically illustrating the method for automatically screening and filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call, according to one embodiment of the present invention; and  
     [0016]FIG. 3 is a drawing, schematically illustrating the screen phone number information stored in the screening data bank in the equipment and the method for automatically screening and filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call, according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
     [0017] In the following description, the equipment and the method for automatically screening and filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call according to the embodiments of the present invention with drawings are provided, in which the same elements are indicated with the same reference number.  
     [0018] This embodiment is associating with a mobile phone communication system, which takes the GSM mobile phone communication system, as an example. If the phone transmitting device uses the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to call the phone receiving device, which is portable and is wireless, the exchanging unit of the PSTN would first transmit the phone number of the phone transmitting device to the interrogating exchange. Then, the interrogating exchange would inquire the home location register (HLR), so as to get the visitor location register (VLR) with respect to this phone number. After the VLR receives the inquiring request, it would transmit the mobile station roaming number (MSRN), which is respect to the phone receiving device, to the interrogating exchange. Then, the interrogating exchange according to the MSRN would have the signal connection with the mobile switching center (MSC), which is in the region where the phone receiving device is located.  
     [0019] No matter which type of dialing manner is used by the phone transmitting device, such as the dual-tone multiple frequency (DTMF) or the frequency shift keying (FSK), the caller identification of the phone transmitting device always can be transmitted via the PSTN and the wireless network. As a result, the phone receiving device can receive the caller identification of the phone transmitting device.  
     [0020] Referring to FIG. 1, the equipment  1  for automatically screening and filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call according to the embodiment of the present invention is applied to a phone receiving device  801  and includes a screening data bank  101 , a register device  102 , a comparing module  103 , and an output device  104 .  
     [0021] The screening data bank  101  is used to store a screen data  105  inputted by the user  80 . The register device  102  is used to store the phone number information  106  with respect to the incoming phone call, when a phone transmitting device  802  calls to the phone receiving device  801  requesting for signal connection. The comparing module  103  automatically makes a comparison between the screening data  105  and the phone number information  106  of the incoming phone call. The output device  104  has an action according to the comparing result from the comparing module  103 . When the comparison results in a match, the output device  104  issues a line busy signal  107  to the phone transmitting device  802  for rejecting the signal connection. When the comparison does not result in a match, the output device  104  issues a signal  108  for receiving the phone call, so as to inform the user to receive the phone call.  
     [0022] In the embodiment, the screening data  105  includes a phone number to be screened  1051  and a data content  1052 . The data content  1052  includes a screening period with respect to the phone number to be screened  1051 . Referring to the screening data shown in FIG. 3, a first batch of data  301  shown indicates that the phone number to be screened  1051  is “12345678”, and the data content  1052  of the issued line busy signal  107  is “8:00-17:00 is the range of working time period, the phone call cannot be received”. As shown in FIG. 3, the second batch of data  302  indicates that the phone number to be screened  1051  is “87654321”, and the data content  1052  of the issued line busy signal  107  is “in a meeting, the phone call cannot be received”.  
     [0023] In addition, in the embodiment, the screening data  105  is inputted by an input device  109 . The input device  109  can include a standard keyboard of a consultative committee for international telephone and telegraph (CCITT) and at least one auxiliary input key. In this manner, the user  80  can input beforehand the phone numbers to be screened. The user  80  can directly use the CCITT standard keyboard to input the phone number character by character to the screening data bank  101 , or use the auxiliary input key to save the phone numbers for the previous phone calls to the screening data bank  101 , so that the screening data  105  is in the screening data bank  101 .  
     [0024] In the embodiment, the phone receiving device  801  is a wireless portable telephone, which includes a microprocessor, a memory, and a storage device, wherein the memory can be a random access memory (RAM) or a flash memory, and the storage device can be a read only memory (ROM) or a flash memory. The foregoing screening data bank  101  and the comparing module  103  are stored in the storage device of the software module. The register device  102  is a part of the foregoing memory, and a comparing result of the comparing module  103  is obtained through the operation by the microprocessor.  
     [0025] In order to make the content of the present invention to be better understood, an embodiment is provided as follows to describe the method for automatically screening and filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call  2  as shown in the process flow diagrams.  
     [0026] Referring to FIG. 2 a , the steps of the method for automatically screening and filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call  2  according the embodiment of the present invention include setting up a screening data bank  101 , and then inputting the screening data  105  into the screening data bank  101 . As described previously, the user  80  can use the CCITT standard keyboard to input the phone number character by character, or the auxiliary input key to save the phone numbers for the previous phone calls to the screening data bank  101 , so that the screening data  105  is in the screening data bank  101 .  
     [0027] Referring to FIG. 2 b , when the phone transmitting device  802  calls a phone receiving device  801  to request a signal connection, the phone number information  106  with respect to the incoming phone call transmitted from the phone transmitting device  802  to the phone receiving device  801  is obtained. The register device  102  stores the phone number information  106  with respect to the incoming phone call. Finally, the screening data  105  and the phone number information  106  of the incoming phone call are automatically compared. When the comparison results in a match, the output device  104  issues a line busy signal  107  to the phone transmitting device  802  for rejecting the signal connection. When the screening data bank  101  has not stored one screen data  105  which is a match with the phone number information  106  of the incoming phone call, the output device  104  issues a receiving signal  108 , so as to inform the user  80  to receive the phone call.  
     [0028] In the embodiment, the user  80  in the steps  201 - 202  builds up the screening data  105  beforehand as shown in FIG. 2 a . In the step  201 , the screening data  105  is first inputted via the input device  109 . In the step  202 , the screening data  105  is then stored in the screen data bank  101 .  
     [0029] In addition, when the phone transmitting device  802  calls the phone receiving device  801  via the PSTN, the steps  203  to  206  are performed as shown in FIG. 2 b . First in the step  203 , the phone number information  106  of the incoming phone call stored in the register device  102  is first obtained. Then in the step  204 , a comparing process is performed to automatically compare the screening data  105  stored in the screening data bank  101  with the phone number information  106  of the incoming phone call to see whether or not there is a match. When the screening data bank  01  has stored the screening data  105 , which is the same as the phone number information  106  of the incoming phone call, then the step  205  is performed to issue a line busy signal  107  to the phone transmitting device for rejecting the signal connection. For example, when the phone number information  106  of the incoming phone call is “12345678”, then a message of “8:00-17:00 is the range of working time period, the phone call cannot be received” is sent to the phone transmitting device  802  and the line is disconnected. Similarly, when the phone number information  106  of the incoming phone call is “87654321”, then a message of “in a meeting, the phone call cannot be received” is sent to the phone transmitting device  802  and the line is disconnected. In addition, when the screening data bank  101  has not stored the screen data  105 , which is the same as the phone number information  106  of the incoming phone call, the step of  206  is performed to generate a ringing signal via the phone receiving device  801  to inform the user  80  to receive the phone call.  
     [0030] In summary of the foregoing descriptions, the equipment and the method for automatically screening and filtering disturbance for an incoming phone call of the present invention allows the user to set the screening conditions according to the user&#39;s need, by building up the screening data bank for the phone numbers, which are desired to be screened, for the further identification. In this manner, when the phone transmitting device dials up the phone line, the phone receiving device of the user can automatically identify the phone number of the incoming phone call and automatically filter out the phone number, which has been stored in the screening data bank and automatically respond with a line busy signal. Therefore, the present invention can achieve the function of screening the incoming phone call by automatical filtering, according to the phone number information with respect to the incoming phone call. Thus, the user is not required to manually operate the phone in order to determine whether or not the phone call is to be received.  
     [0031] The invention has been described using exemplary preferred embodiments. However, it is to be understood that the scope of the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements. The scope of the claims, therefore, should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.