WO2001024484A1

WO2001024484A1 - A remote control telephone system

Info

Publication number: WO2001024484A1
Application number: PCT/KR1999/000603
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ho Jeong
Original assignee: Ho Jeong
Priority date: 1999-09-29
Filing date: 1999-10-07
Publication date: 2001-04-05
Also published as: AU6009199A

Abstract

Disclosed is a remote control telephone system which can be made of a small size, prevent an erroneous operation due to a wrong pressing of key buttons, be used conveniently without restriction of an installing or calling place and be installed within an ornament. The system comprises a remote dialing unit (10) composed of a key pad unit (11) including a number key and a signal transmitting portion (12) for transmitting key cord signals corresponding to keys in infrared or RF signals; a base unit (20) composed of a signal receiving portion (21) for receiving the transmitted key cord signals, a microprocessor (22) for generating dialing pulses in accordance with the key cord signals, transmitting them to a telephone station, and when a dialing signal is inputted from the telephone station, enabling a bell or melody to sound by generating a ring signal by means of a speaker SP, an earphone/microphone terminal (23) connected to the microprocessor (22) for inputting and outputting a voice signal; and an earphone/microphone (30) being connected via a cable (31) to the earphone/microphone terminal (23) and having transmitter/receiver functions for performing a call by inputting and outputting a voice signal between the earphone/microphone and the microprocessor.

Description

TITLE OF THE INVENTION

A REMOTE CONTROL TELEPHONE SYSTEM

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a remote control telephone

system and more particularly a remote control telephone system in

which, by pressing number keys on a remote dialing unit, a key cord

is transmitted to a base unit configured to be detachably housed into

a product on which the telephone system may be embodied and in

response to receive the key cord, the base unit transmits a dialing

signal, thereby enabling a telephone conversation.

BACKGROUND ART

In general, consumers tend to prefer a product capable of

providing easy usage functions as well as having a simple design

being able to satisfy their propensities and preferences and also

choose a product conformable with their personality without being

inclined only to its function. Companies who manufacture the product

also try to produce various products capable of meeting such

consumer's tendency. Similarly, in the field of a telephone industry, telephone systems having various kinds of designs and functions to

meet the consumer's demand are manufactured and merchandised on

the market

Figure 1 shows schematically a conventional telephone system

As shown, the conventional telephone system comprises a local line

connecting unit 1 including a ring terminal (RING) and tip terminal

(TIP), a ring signal generating unit 2, a hook switching unit 3, a

rectifying unit 4, a keypad portion 5, a dialing unit 6 and a

transmitting/receiving unit 7

In the conventional telephone having such construction, when a

ring signal is transmitted from a telephone station and a telephone

call is arrived at, the ring signal is inputted to a ring signal

generating unit 20 via ring and tip terminals in the local line

connecting unit 1 , thereby enabling ringing

At this time, if picking up the telephone receiver, the hook

switching unit 3 turns on and then electrical signal corresponding to a

caller's voice signal is transmitted to the rectifying unit 4 via the hook

switching unit 3 to be rectified and thereafter inputted to the

transmitting/receiving unit 7 in response to receive the signal, the

transmitting/receiving unit 7 converts the signal to a voice signal and outputs the converted signal to the telephone receiver, thereby

enabling a telephone conversation. Thereafter, when putting the

telephone receiver on the hook switching unit 3, the telephone

conversation is ended.

When calling the telephone by dialing the number keys on the

keypad portion 5, the dialing unit 6 generates pulses corresponding to

the dialed number keys and transmits them to a telephone station via

the rectifying unit 4, hook switching unit 3 and local line connecting

portion 1 , thereby enabling the telephone conversation. Thereafter, the

telephone conversation is ended by putting the telephone receiver on

the hook switching unit 3.

Fig. 2 is schematic perspective views showing two conventional

telephone configurations. In Fig. 2, there are depicted a mouse for

computer having telephone function added thereto and a small

telephone having a size of the extent to go into an adult's hand.

Hereafter, such telephone function-added mouse is called a

"tel-mouse" telephone and the small telephone is called a "saojung"

telephone in which the term "saojung" indicates a trademark name of

a telephone manufactured and marketed by a Korean company.

As shown in Fig. 2, "tel-mouse" telephone comprises a number pad composed of number keys, * key, # key, redial key and hook

key, transmitting and receiving units, a microphone, a speaker, an

earphone/microphone and the like on a mouse used in a conventional

computer In case of this tel-mouse telephone, if pressing a hook key

for the telephone to be in a call state and then dialing telephone

numbers by pressing number keys, a caller can perform a telephone

call in accordance with operation of circuit diagram constructed as

shown in Fig 1 As a result, the tel-mouse can be used combinedly

as a telephone and as a mouse for computer

Also, the "saojung" telephone comprises a number pad composed

of number keys cable of dialing telephone numbers, ^* key, # key,

redial key and hook key, earphone/microphone terminal,

earphone/microphone and the like In case of this saojung telephone,

if pressing a hook key for the telephone to be in a call state and

then dialing telephone numbers by pressing number keys, a caller

can perform a telephone call in accordance with operation of circuit

diagram constructed as shown in Fig 1 Herein, as a

transmitting/receiving unit, an earphone/microphone is used which is

adopted to be inserted into an earphone/microphone terminal formed

on a predetermined area of the telephone However, such conventional telephones have the following

problems:

Namely, in case of a general telephone, there is required a place

where the body of the telephone should be installed and it can

perform a call in only limited space. In case of the "tel-mouse"

telephone, a problem in dialing occurs when pressing erroneously a

key button installed on such small mouse and a place to use it is

limited because it is conventionally connected to a serial cable. Also,

in case of the "saojung" telephone, there may occur a problem that it

is difficult to obtain a correct dialing by the key button, beside

problems occurred in the general telephone.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention is made in order to solve the

above problems, and the object of the present invention is to provide

a remote control telephone system which comprises a base unit of a

compact structure installed in a housing article and which can be

made of a small size and a ornament good by dialing by means of a

separate remote dialing unit and prevent an erroneous operation due

to a wrong pressing of key buttons and is adopted to be used conveniently without restriction of a installing or calling place.

In order to the above object, the remote control telephone system

according to the present invention is characterized in that the

telephone system comprises: a remote dialing unit composed of a key

pad unit capable of dialing telephone numbers and a signal

transmitting portion for transmitting key cord signals corresponding to

keys selected by caller's key pad manipulation; a base unit

comprising a signal receiving portion for receiving the key cord

signals transmitted from the signal transmitting portion of the remote

dialing unit, a microprocessor for generating dialing pulses in

accordance with the key cord signals, transmitting them to a

telephone station and, when a dialing signal is inputted from the

telephone station, enabling a bell or melody to sound by means of a

speaker by generating a ring signal, an earphone/microphone terminal

connected to the microprocessor for inputting and outputting a voice

signal and a power source for supplying a power; and an

earphone/microphone being connected at its one end via a cable to

the earphone/microphone terminal on the base unit and having

transmitter/receiver functions for performing a call by inputting and

outputting a voice signal between the earphone/microphone and the microprocessor.

Said base unit may be housed detachably into the housing

article and said cable be housed into the base unit or

earphone/microphone via a tension means of the housing article .

In addition, it is desirable to connect the microprocessor to a

driving unit or an operating switching unit for operating or moving a

light lamp or housing article so that in the event that a dialing signal

from the telephone station is received, the received fact may be

informed aurally by generating a bell or melody sound and at the

same time, the arrival of a telephone call may be informed visually

through a motion or activation of the housing article.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Now, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be

described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a schematical block diagram showing a conventional

telephone construction;

Fig. 2 is schematic perspective views showing two conventional

telephone configurations;

Fig. 3 is a schematical block diagram showing a construction of remote control telephone system according to the present invention;

and

Fig. 4 is a schematic view of an example appling the remote

control telephone system according to the present invention to a

personal computer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Fig. 3 is a schematical block diagram showing a construction of

a remote control telephone system according to the present invention

and Fig. 4 is a schematic view of an example appling the remote

control telephone system according to the present invention to a

computer.

As shown in Fig. 3, the remote control according to the present

invention comprises a remote dialing unit 10, a base unit 20,

earphone/microphone 30 and a housing article 40.

The remote dialing unit 10 is composed of a key pad unit 11

including a number key capable of dialing telephone numbers, * key,

# key, hook switching key, redialing key and the like and a signal

transmitting portion 12 for transmitting key cord signals corresponding

to keys selected by a manipulation of the key pad 11 in an infrared ray signal. A power supplying means such as a battery can be

installed in the remote dialing unit 10.

The base unit 20 is composed of a signal receiving portion 21

for receiving key cord signals transmitted in an infrared ray from the

signal transmitting portion 12, a microprocessor 22 for generating

dialing pulses in accordance with key cord signals inputted from the

signal receiving portion 21 , transmitting them to a telephone station

and when a dialing signal is inputted from the telephone station,

enabling a bell or melody to sound by generating a ring signal by

means of a speaker SP and an earphone/microphone terminal 23

connected to the microprocessor 22 for inputting and outputting a

voice signal and a power source 24 for supplying a power. Also, the

microprocessor 22 is composed to have functions for controlling ring

signal generating unit 2, rectifying unit 4, dialing unit 6 and

transmitting and receiving unit 7 as in the conventional telephone

system as shown in Fig. 1.

The earphone/microphone 30 is connected at its one end via a

cable 31 to the earphone/microphone terminal 23 on the base unit 20

and functions as a transmitter/receiver for performing a call by

inputting and outputting a voice signal between the earphone/microphone 30 and the microprocessor 22.

The housing article 40 is applied to various kinds of dolls

(including human's shape as well as animal's shape, toys and

computer. It is desirable to compose for the base unit 20 to be

housed detachably into the housing article 40. In Fig. 4, there

depicted a state where the housing article 40 is mounted on a hard

disk driver or floppy disk driver mounting portion 51 in similar to

mount the floppy disk driver.

In addition, the microprocessor 22 may be connected to a

driving unit 26 or an operating switching unit 27 for operating or

moving a light lamp 25 or housing article 40 in order that when a

telephone call is arrived at, the fact may be informed visually through

a motion or activation of the housing article 40.

Also, the power supplying means 24 may be made of a battery

or composed to have a power supplied from an external AC power

supply AC. The cable 31 may be housed flexibly to the base unit 20

or earphone/microphone 30 by means of tension means to have a

predetermined length.

Now, an operation of the remote control telephone system having

the above configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the

accompanying drawings.

When a caller switches a hook switching key to a calling state

and then presses a number key for calling the telephone, as shown

in Fig. 3, the signal transmitting unit 12 transmits key cord signals

corresponding to number keys selected by the caller's manipulation of

the key pad unit 11 in an infrared ray signal to a signal receiving

unit 21.

Then, the signal receiving portion 21 sends the received key cord

signals to microprocessor 22. In response to receive the key cord

signals, the microprocessor 22 generates dialing pulses and transmits

them to the telephone station. Accordingly, a voice signal is inputted

and outputted between an earphon/microphone 30 and the

microprocessor 22 via a cable 31 , one end of which is connected to

a earphone/microphone terminal 23, thereby enabling a telephone

conversation.

Also, in case that there arrived a telephone call in accordance

with transmission of a ring signal from the telephone station, this ring

signal is applied to the microprocessor 22 as shown in Fig. 3 and

then the microprocessor 22 sends the received ring signal to the speaker SP, which sounds a bell or melody sound. Herein, a driving

unit 26 or an operating switching unit 27 for operating or moving a

light lamp 25 or housing article 40 may additionally be composed to

be connected to the microprocessor 22, in order that in synchronous

with sounding of bell or melody, an arrival of a telephone call may

be informed visually through a motion or activation of the housing

article 40.

Also, after recognizing the arrival of telephone call through a bell

or melody sound outputted from the speaker SP, a flickering of a

light lamp 25 or an action or motion of the housing article, the caller

wearing the ear/micro-phone 30 on his head presses the hook

switching key installed on the keypad portion 11 of the remote dialing

unit 10 for the telephone to be in a conversation mode. Accordingly,

a voice signal is inputted and outputted between an

earphone/microphone 30 and the microprocessor 22 via a cable 31 ,

one end of which is connected to an earphone/microphone 23,

thereby enabling a telephone conversation.

Such operations as the above bell or melody sound, light lamp's

flickering or the housing article's action or motion can be stopped by

the caller's pressing of the hook switching key installed on the keypad portion 11 of the remote control dialing unit 10.

Microprocessor 22 on the base unit 20 has functions for

controlling ring signal generating unit 2, rectifying unit 4, dialing unit 6

and transmitting and receiving unit 7 as in the conventional telephone

system, as shown in Fig. 1. It should be noted that the base unit 20

can be configured to be detachably housed into the housing article

40.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic view of an example appling the remote

control telephone system according to the present invention to a

personal computer.

Referring to Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, when a caller tries to dial the

telephone, he wears earphone/microphone 30 having a function of

transmitting/receiving unit, allows the signal transmitting portion 12 of

the remote dialing unit 10 to turn toward the signal receiving portion

21 of the base unit housed into the housing article such as, for

example, a doll, a toy, a personal computer and the like, and

thereafter press number keys on the keypad of the remote dialing

unit 10. The key cord signals corresponding to the number keys

pressed by the caller are transmitted to signal receiving portion 21 as

an infrared ray signal or RF signal. The signal receiving portion 21

Claims

inputs the received key cord signals to the microprocessor 22 asshown in Fig. 3, and in turn, the microprocessor 22 generates adialing pulse to be transmitted to the telephone station, therebyenabling a telephone conversation.Meanwhile, when a telephone call is arrived at, a bell or melodysounds from the speaker SP in the housing article 40 having a baseunit 20 housed therein, and at the same time, a light lamp 25 flickerstogether with operating of the housing article 40. Then, a call receiverwho recognized the arrival of the telephone call puts theearphone/microphone 30 on his head and presses a hook switchingkey in the remote dialing unit 10 for a call mode to be enabled.Accordingly, there is established a telephone call.In Fig. 4, even though the present invention is applied to acomputer as the housing article 40, it is applied to various kinds ofdolls including human's shape as well as animal's shape. Of course,toys are the same.Also, the cable 31 connected to the earphone/microphone 30 canbe housed flexibly to the base unit 20 or earphone/microphone 30 bymeans of tension means including a conventional spring-typeautomatic winding apparatus. The operating or moving of the housing article 40 is made by anactivation of the operating switching unit 27 connected to themicroprocessor 22, and in accordance with operation of the drivingmeans such as a motor connected to a rear end of the operatingswitching unit 27, the call receiver can identify visually the operationand know the arrival of the telephone call. Also, the lamp 25 can beinstalled to a predetermined position so that the call receiver mayidentify visually a flickering of the lamp.According to the configuration and acting of the remote controltelephone system of the present invention described above, thetelephone system can be made of a small size, prevent an erroneousoperation due to a wrong pressing of key buttons and usedconveniently without restriction of a installing or calling place. Also,the telephone system can be used as an ornament in house.While the invention has been particularly shown and describedwith reference to preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understoodby those skilled in the art that various modifications, changes andapplications can be made without departing from the spirit and scopeof the invention. What is claimed is:

1. A remote control telephone system comprising:

a remote dialing unit 10 composed of a key pad unit 11 capable

of dialing telephone numbers and a signal transmitting portion 12 for

transmitting key cord signals corresponding to keys selected by

caller's key pad manipulation;

a base unit comprising a signal receiving portion 21 for receiving

the key cord signals transmitted from the signal transmitting portion

12 of the remote dialing unit 10, a microprocessor 22 for generating

dialing pulses in accordance with the key cord signals, transmitting

them to a telephone station and, when a dialing signal is inputted

from the telephone station, enabling a bell or melody to sound by

means of a speaker SP by generating a ring signal, an

earphone/microphone terminal 23 connected to the microprocessor 22

for inputting and outputting a voice signal and a power source 24 for

supplying a power; and

an earphone/microphone 30 being connected at its one end via a

cable to the earphone/microphone terminal 23 on the base unit 20

and having transmitter/receiver functions for performing a call by

2. A remote control telephone system according to claim 1 wherein:

said base unit 20 is housed detachably into the housing

article 40;

said cable 31 is housed into the base unit 20 or

earphone/microphone 30 via a tension means; and

said microprocessor 22 is connected to a driving unit 26 or an

operating switching unit 27 for operating or moving a light lamp 25 or

the housing article 40 so that, in the event that a dialing signal from

the telephone station is received, the received fact may be informed

aurally by generating a bell or melody sound and at the same time,

the arrival of a telephone call may be informed visually through a

motion or activation of the housing article 40.