WO1999013628A1

WO1999013628A1 - Telephone apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO1999013628A1
Application number: PCT/GB1998/002725
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mark Meyrick Stephens
Original assignee: Ericsson Mobile Communications (Uk) Limited
Priority date: 1997-09-09
Filing date: 1998-09-09
Publication date: 1999-03-18
Also published as: GB9719179D0; AU9084298A; GB2329092A

Abstract

There is disclosed a telecommunications device, such as a mobile phone, having means for identifying a caller on the basis of the calling line identifier signal, and means for selecting a particular alerter mode on the basis of the caller identified in this way.

Description

TELEPHONE APPARATUS

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates a telephone device, for example a mobile telephone. More specifically, the invention relates to a device which allows a user to identify a caller before answering an incoming call.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

Telephone devices are known which make use of the

Calling Line Identifier (CLI) signal transmitted with received calls. This can be used to allow the user of the phone to identify the caller before answering the phone, thus giving the user the opportunity to decide whether or not he wishes to receive the call. For example, the caller's telephone number might be displayed to the user when the call is received.

Moreover, phones are known which allow the user to programme a memory with text messages identifying likely callers by their CLIs, the phone then displaying that text message (which, for example, might most usefully be caller's name) when a call with that CLI is received.

Separately, phones are known which have more than one alerter mode. For example, such devices may have different ringing tones, or may play tunes instead of conventional ringing tones. Such devices may simply select between the different modes at random when a call is received.

In addition, phones (particularly, mobile phones) are known which have vibration alerters. Thus, when a user does not wish to be disturbed by a ringing tone, he can choose to switch the phone into a mode in which the phone vibrates to warn that a call has been received.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention seeks to bring together known features of telecommunications devices in a new combination, in order to provide a device which has a particularly useful feature.

More specifically, the invention relates to a device which, on receipt of a call having a calling line identifier associated therewith, is able to activate an alerter mode associated by the user with that calling line identifier.

In particular, the device includes a memory, which allows the user to input calling line identifiers which are to be associated with the unique alerter modes. Thus, the device may have a plurality of identifiable audible alerter modes, all but one of which are associated by the user with specific incoming calling line identifiers. The identifiable audible alerter modes may be different ringing tones, or tunes, or a combination of the two.

Further, or as an alternative, the device may also have a vibration alerter, which may automatically be activated as an alternative to an audible alerter, when an incoming call having a specific calling line identifier, or one of a group of particular calling line identifiers, is received.

For a better understanding of the present invention, and to show how it may be brought into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1, which shows a mobile phone in accordance with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Figure 1 is a block schematic diagram of the relevant features of a mobile phone in accordance with the invention. Other features of the phone which are not shown are not essential for an understanding of the invention. Moreover, the illustrated features of the device are described herein in sufficient detail to allow an understanding of the operation of the device to be achieved, but it is not considered that any more detailed description is required, since the general form of these components is well known in itself. The mobile phone 2 includes a transceiver 4, connected to an antenna (not shown) , which receives incoming signals. Received signals are sent to a signal processor 6, and relevant information is extracted therefrom and sent to a data processor 8. The phone also includes a memory, for storing data relating to the phone's alerter modes, and has an audible alerter 12 including a microphone (not shown) and a vibration alerter 14 including a vibrator (not shown) . The phone further includes a keyboard 16 which is used for dialling numbers when making calls, but which in this case is also used for inputting information to the data processor 8.

The phone 2 has a plurality of alerter modes, operation signals for which are stored in the memory 10. Thus, the memory contains signals for causing the audible alerter to generate a ringing tone, and for causing the audible alerter 12 to generate a plurality of identifiable tunes. In addition, the memory 10 contains a signal for causing the vibration alerter 14 to be activated. These signals are stored in the memory 10, accessible by an input signal thereto, based on the calling line identifier (CLI) signal detected by the data processor 8. Thus, whenever an incoming call is received, the CLI, if any, is extracted, and used to obtain an alerter activation signal from the memory 10, for transmission to the audible alerter 12 or vibration alerter 14.

The activation signals are stored in the memory 10 in association with the CLIs, in accordance with inputs supplied by the user through the keyboard 16. Thus, each of the identifiable tunes may be associated with a respective individual CLI of a frequent caller; the user may select another group of CLIs which are associated with a vibration alerter activation signal; and other CLIs not stored in the memory 10, or calls which have no CLI associated therewith, may result in the generation of a ringing tone. Alternatively, one group of CLIs might result in a ringing tone while another group generate a vibration alerter signal . Further, different vibration alerter modes, such as different vibration patterns, might be associated with different CLIs.

For example, the user may choose a silent, vibration alerter mode for personal calls, that is, calls with CLIs known to be associated with regular personal callers. Similarly, calls from other frequent callers, identified by their CLIs, might result in the generation of identifiable tunes.

Of course, it may be advantageous for the user to be able to identify a caller before deciding whether or not to answer a call, and the phone in accordance with the invention allows the user to obtain this information by associating the different audible and/or vibration alerter modes with different callers. This may be particularly advantageous, as compared with a conventional device which merely displays the caller's number, in various situations. For example, the invention will clearly be advantageous for partially sighted users, or when the phone is being used by a driver of a vehicle, in which case it may be unsafe for the driver to have to look at the display of the phone to identify the caller. The ability to pre-set the alerter mode for calls with particular CLIs may also be particularly advantageous in that it allows calls from some numbers to activate only a vibration alerter, even when the phone is set such that calls from some members may activate an audible alerter.

Claims

1. A telecommunications device comprising: means for identifying the calling line identifier associated with an incoming call; and means for selecting between audible and non- audible alerter modes, in dependence on the calling line identifier.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1, comprising means for selecting between a plurality of distinct audible alerter modes.

3. A device as claimed in claim 1 or 2, comprising means for inputting data relating to the calling line identifiers to be associated with available alerter modes.

4. A device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to

3, in the form of a mobile telephone.