Patent ID: 7406162

Claim:
A communication support system which is adapted to connect a telephone unit through a communication control device to a data processing device and adapted to connect a telephone network to the communication control device, the communication support system comprising: a command signal recognition unit either detecting a Dual Tone MultiFrequency (DTMF) command signal sent from the telephone unit or a network DTMF command signal sent from the telephone network, and determining, when the DTMF command signal is from the telephone unit, which one of a plurality of telephone services of the data processing device the DTMF command signal from the telephone unit indicates, wherein the command signal recognition unit includes a DTMF detection unit that detects the network DTMF signal sent from the telephone network, the DTMF command signal from the telephone unit having a predetermined value different from a value of the network DTMF signal; a signal transmission inhibition unit including a switch connected between the telephone network and either the telephone unit or the data processing device to switch therebetween so as to selectively open-circuit the telephone network from either of the telephone unit or the data processing device, and when the telephone network is open-circuited from either of the telephone unit or the data processing device, completely blocks transmission of the DTMF command signal from the telephone unit to the telephone network and allows transmission of the DTMF command signal directly to the data processing device when the DTMF command signal indicates one of the plurality of telephone services; and a telephone service processing unit that performs a telephone service processing of the data processing device for the telephone service indicated by the DTMF command signal from the telephone unit, the telephone service processing unit starting execution of the telephone service processing when the command signal recognition unit determines that the DTMF command signal is from the telephone unit.