WO2003025875A1 - Terminal, server, method and accessory for remote distribution of information services - Google Patents

Abstract

A terminal (1) is presented for remote distribution of information services through a public telephone network (2) and a server (3), the telephone network being of such kind which is capable of conveying A-number information (CID) containing the telephone number (4) of the caller. The terminal has a telephone connection contact (5) for connecting the terminal to a telephone socket (6) belonging to the public telephone network (2); a communication unit (7) capable of two-way analogue transmission of signals containing digital data to and from the server (3) through the public telephone network; input means (8); output means (9); and a controller (10). The controller is adapted to establish, through the communication unit, a call connection to the server, wherein the terminal in connection herewith is identified to the server by the A-number information which is associated with said telephone socket. Once telephone connection has been established to the server, the controller is adapted to send data, through the communication unit, originating from said input means to the server, and also to receive data, through the communication unit, from the server to be supplied to said output means.

Description

TERMINAL, SERVER, METHOD AND ACCESSORY FOR REMOTE DISTRIBUTION OF INFORMATION SERVICES

Technical field

The present invention relates to remote distribution of information services between a terminal and a server via a public telephone network, where the telephone network is of a kind which is capable of providing A-number information concerning the telephone number of the caller.

Background art In response to leaving the industrial society behind and entering into a knowledge or information society, exchange of information-based services has become increasingly important. This is the case in our homes, where we exchange large amounts of information with our environment. To this end, conventional equipment is of course used, such as television, radio, a computer connected to the Internet, a mobile telephone or a stationary telephone. The "intelligent home" has become a popular vision for the future and means, in short, that various pieces of technical equipment in the home are connected to each other and to the outside world through broadband connection to the Internet via, for instance, ISDN, ADSL, optical cable, cable TV or electricity supply network. As viewed from the situation of today it is, however, a fact that mechanical home equipment in general lacks components and interfaces for interconnection according to such a concept. Replacing, for this reason, the majority of the existing home equipment with new devices would of course imply a very high once-for-all cost, which would make most individuals hesitate. A more likely scenario is instead that the home equipment is replaced in a normal way, i.e. because of wear and tear, etc., wherein our homes and the equipment comprised therein potentially, after some years, may constitute something called intelligent homes.

However, individuals and consumers have already today a need for access to information-based services from the home. One example is remote reading and reporting of consumption readings for electricity, heat, gas or water meters. The subscriber may today accomplish this by visually examining the meter reading and report- ing it through the keypad of a telephone. Alternatively, a remote monitor is used, which is installed in the home and is disclosed in for instance WO 97/47126. In this patent publication the remote monitor is connected between the telephone network and the ordinary telephone equipment, wherein the remote monitor will be called by a server when reading is to be performed. The remote monitor uses the A-number information ("Caller ID, CID") of the server so as to verify that the server is authorized to command meter reading. Another example is remote alarm of an alarm condition which has been detected by alarm equipment (burglar alarm, safety alarm, fire alarm, etc.) installed in the home. Certain alarm equipments are already today connected to a manned alarm central through the public switched telephone network. However, many consumers want to be personally informed as soon as an alarm condition has been detected by the alarm equipment. Today, available on the market are alarm systems, with which the owner may be informed of a detected alarm condition through an SMS message to a mobile telephone or a text message to a pager. However, such alarm equipment requires installation of a wireless transmitter for GSM, for instance, in connection with the alarm equipment in the home. As a result, an additional expense is brought about for the additional equipment.

An example of an alarm equipment with an SMS transmitter is disclosed in WO 98/16412. Whenever physical damage is made to the monitored object, in this case a car, the SMS transmitter will transmit a pre-programmed message to a central server for SMS alarms. Then, the central server will in turn send an alarm message to the car owner in the form of an SMS message or a Minicall- based text message. Thus, the alarm message may be presented on the display of the car owner's mobile telephone or Minicall receiver.

Summary of the invention

An object of the present invention is to provide access to a plurality of information-based services, rather dissimilar from each other, of for instance the types described above at a low cost and with minimal requirements as regards modification of existing equipment in the home, etc. A pronounced object of the invention is that it shall be able to serve a very large number of consumers without placing any particular requirements as regards access to advanced broadband services, etc.

The objects of the invention are achieved by a multi-service terminal, a server, a method of remote distribution of information services, an accessory for such a terminal, and a method of reporting consumption meter readings in accordance with the appended independent patent claims.

Thus, a first aspect of the invention is a terminal for remote distribution of information services through a public telephone network and a server, where the tele- phone network is preferably a conventional PSTN ("Public Switched Telephone Network") and is capable of conveying A-number information concerning the telephone number of the caller. The terminal has a telephone connection contact for connecting the terminal to a telephone socket belonging to this public telephone network. The terminal is provided with a communication unit capable of two-way analogue transmission of signals containing digital data to and from the server through the public telephone network. Moreover, the terminal has input means, output means and a controller. The latter is adapted to establish, through the communication unit, a call connection to the server, wherein the terminal in connection herewith will be identified to the server through the A-number information associated with said telephone socket. Once the call connection has been established with the server, the controller is adapted to send data, through the communication unit, originating from said input means to the server, as well as to receive data from the server to be supplied to said output means.

The two-way analogue transmission of signals between the terminal and the server may be performed by DTMF signalling ("Dual Tone Multi Frequency") .

The input means of the terminal may comprise an interface for connection of external equipment to the terminal, thereby allowing distribution of data between the external equipment and the server. The external equipment may be comprised by alarm equipment, wherein the information services will comprise distribution of at least either status data from the alarm equipment to the server or control data form the server to the alarm equipment. Status data may for instance represent a de- tected alarm condition, such as that a door switch has detected the opening of a door, that a smoke detector has indicated alarm, etc.

The input means preferably comprises a set of keys, whereas the output means may comprise a set of light indicators such as light emitting diodes, a loudspeaker and/or a display. A conventional telephone keypad may advantageously be comprised in the set of keys.

Advantageously, the information services may comprise transmission of for instance SMS or MMS messages to a mobile telephone network such as GSM or UMTS from the terminal to another telephone network, or transmission of for instance electronic mail to a data network such as Internet, through the public telephone network and the server. The controller may be adapted to command transmission of a specific message among a plurality of messages prestored in the server, wherein the specific message is selected through data which has been entered through the input means. In embodiments that involve alarm equipment the selection of the specific message may advantageously be determined by an alarm code received from the alarm equipment. In embodiments that involve a set of keys the selection of the specific message may be made by a character code entered through the keys.

The information services may also comprise speech services such as voice mail, including visual notification followed by acoustic replay, through the output means of the terminal, of spoken messages destined to the terminal in question and stored on the server.

A second aspect of the invention is a server for remote distribution of information services via a public telephone network and a terminal as set out above. The server has means for establishing a call connection to the terminal through the public telephone network; means for identifying the terminal, in connection with the call connection, through the terminal ' s A-number information which is received over the public telephone network; means for storing a set of terminal-specific information; and means for distributing said information services through two-way analogue transmission of signals containing digital data, said data being dependent on the terminal-specific information and being sent via the public telephone network from the terminal to the server as well as from the server to the terminal.

A third aspect of the invention is a method of remote distribution of information services between a terminal and a server through a public telephone network as set out above. According to the method a call connection is established between the server and the terminal, wherein the server identifies the terminal through its A-number information and retrieves a set of terminal-specific information. Said information services are distributed through two-way analogue transmission of signals containing digital data, said data being dependent on the terminal-specific information and being sent from the terminal to the server as well as from the server to the terminal .

Advantageously, the method is used so as to detect, through alarm equipment connected to the terminal, that a person enters into a place, to inform the server of the detected entrance, to receive a code entered through the terminal by the person, to transmit the entered code to the server and to compare, in the server, the entered code with a prestored deactivation code which is associated with the terminal through said A-number information. In case this comparison results in a match, control data is sent from the server to the terminal, indicating that the alarm equipment is to be deactivated, wherein the terminal will forward this control data to the alarm equipment. Otherwise, in case no match has been determined within a predetermined time period, the server commands an alarm by transmitting, to the terminal, control data indicating that the alarm equipment is to generate a visual and/or acoustic alarm signal, wherein the terminal will forward this control data to the alarm equipment .

A fourth aspect of the invention is an accessory device for a terminal according to the first aspect . The accessory device has a first interface for communication between the accessory device and the terminal; a second interface for communication between the accessory device and a remote consumption meter reader; a display; and a controller. The controller is adapted to receive, through the second interface, a meter reading value representing a consumption meter reading provided by the remote consumption meter reader; to present, on the display, a visual representation of the meter reading value; and to transmit, through the first interface and the terminal, said meter reading value to a server over a public telephone network.

A fifth aspect of the invention is a method of reporting consumption meter readings, comprising the steps of obtaining a meter reading value for a local consumption meter, said local consumption meter being located at a first position within a local area; transmitting said meter reading value from said first position to a second position within said local area, said second position being separate from said first position; providing a visual representation of said meter reading value at said second position; and transmitting said meter reading value over a public telephone network to a remote server.

The local area is preferably a home. Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed disclosure of preferred embodiments, from the appended dependent claims as well as from the accompanying drawings . The term "A-number information" relates to the telephone number of a caller when a call is established. There are a number of similar names for this feature, such as CID ("Caller Identity") or CLID ("Caller Line Identity"), which are all to be included in the term A-number and A-number information, respectively, which will be used consistently in this document.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The invention will be described in more detail in the following, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, which for an exemplifying purpose show presently preferred embodiments of the invention. Fig 1 is a schematic overview of a multi-service terminal and a multi-service server according to the invention, being connected to each other over a public telephone network and by means of which the method according to the present invention may be performed.

Fig 2 is a block diagram of the main components of the terminal .

Fig 3 is a schematic front view of the terminal of fig 2. Fig 4 illustrates the terminal according to fig 2 and 3 as a rear side view.

Fig 5 is a schematic block diagram of the main components of the server according to fig 1.

Fig 6 is a schematic overview of a remote meter reader accessory for the terminal shown in the preceding drawings, wherein fig 6 illustrates the accessory together with the terminal as well as a consumption meter and a meter reader located at the consumption meter.

Fig 7 is a schematic block diagram of the main components of the remote meter reader accessory of fig 6.

Fig 8 is a flowchart diagram which illustrates the operation of the meter reader to regularly read the consumption meter's counter and transmit it to the remote meter reader accessory. Fig 9 is a flowchart diagram which illustrates the main operating procedure of the remote meter reader accessory to poll for data or instructions from the meter reader as well as the server shown in figs 1 and 5.

Fig 10 is a flowchart diagram which illustrates the operation of the remote meter reader accessory to receive meter readings from the meter reader and present updated consumption information on a local display to a user (i.e. consumer) .

Fig 11 is a flowchart diagram which illustrates the operation of the remote meter reader accessory to receive a request for report of meter readings to the server. Fig 12 is a flowchart diagram which illustrates the operation of the remote meter reader accessory to receive new consumption price information from the server and present updated consumption information on the local display to the user.

Detailed Disclosure of Embodiments

As shown in fig 1, a multi-service terminal 1 is connected to a multi-service server 3 over a public telephone network 2, which preferably is constituted by any existing switched, wired telephone network (PSTN; "Public Switched Telephone Network") . In more detail, the terminal 1 is connected to the telephone network 2 through a telephone connection contact 5 and a telephone socket 6, which in turn in a conventional manner is electrically connected to a telephone station 30 within the public telephone network 2. Further, the terminal 1 has a communication unit 7, input means 8, output means 9, a controller 10 and an interface 11 for connection of external equipment 12 to the terminal 1.

In a corresponding manner, the multi-service server 3 is provided with an interface not shown in fig 1 for connection to the public telephone network 2. Additionally, the server 3 comprises a database 22 for storing of a plurality of subscriber records 23, each of which is associated with a respective terminal 1. A very large number of instances of the terminal 1 are intended to be operatively connected to the server 3 over the public telephone network 2, whereas the server is preferably only provided as a single instance or a few instances. Each individual terminal 1 is identified and distinguished through the A-number information (CID) 4 associated with the telephone socket 6 in question, to which the terminal 1 is connected. As previously mentioned, the A-number information 4 simply represents the telephone number, including area code, of the home or other place in which the terminal 1 is installed. In the manner described below the terminal 1 will be identified by the server 3 through said A-number information 4, which in turn will be used as a key field in the database 22 so as to uniquely identify one and only one of the subscriber records 23. Each terminal contained in the system thus, conclusively, has its own subscriber record 23 in the database 22, wherein this subscriber record is identified through the A-number information (the telephone number) of the terminal in question. The multi-service server 3 is, in the preferred embodiment of fig 1, connected to a mobile telephone network 18 such as GSM, UMTS, etc. The multi-service server 3 is also connected to a wide-area data network 19 such as Internet, etc. By the arrangement described above an individual at home, or another kind of user, may be offered access to a plurality of different information-based services without requiring any larger effort than to acquire a simple and inexpensive terminal 1 and to connect this through an utterly simple action to an existing telephone socket 6 belonging to the public telephone network 2. These information-based services may advantageously include transmission of alarm status information from an external alarm equipment 12 to the server 3 (cf . 24 in fig 1) and transmission of alarm control data (25) from the server 3 to the alarm equipment 12. These services will be described further below.

The information-based services may also include notification (26) of messages and other information from various commercial actors and public services through the server 3 to the terminal 1. The terminal 1 and the server 3 may also be used for notification and replay (27) of voice messages 23c deposited in the database 22. Furthermore, the terminal 1 may be used as a tool for message transmission (28) of SMS or electronic mail messages 16, 17 to a mobile telephone 20 or a computer 21 connected to the Internet . Fig 2 illustrates how the terminal 1 may be implemented so as to allow the aforementioned information- based services. The communication unit 7 has as its task to interpret information which arrives from the server over the public telephone network 2 and, correspondingly, to transmit information from the terminal 1 over the telephone network 2 to the server 3. In the preferred embodiment the terminal 1 and the server 3 communicate through DTMF signalling ("Dual Tone Multi Frequency") . Advantageously, the communication unit 7 may be realized as a DTMF transceiver called MT8880C from Mitel under control of an appropriate microprocessor such as 68HC11 from Motorola Inc. DTMF signalling is well known per se and is based on a low frequency combined with a high frequency for encoding of different numbers and characters. Thus, the number "1" is encoded by the low frequency 697 Hz and the high frequency 1209 Hz, whereas the number "9" is encoded by 852 Hz combined with 1477 Hz. The communication unit 7 converts between DTMF tones at the telephone network side and binary data or

ASCII characters towards the controller 10.

The controller 10 represents the central intelligence of the terminal 1 and is responsible for its different functions. The controller 10 is advantageously realized by any commercially available microprocessor, such as aforementioned 68HC11 from Motorola. Any existing alarm equipment 12 is operatively connected to the controller 10 through the interface 11. The interface 11 of the alarm equipment 12 comprises an alarm input 11a (fig 4) having a number of channels, each of which is connected to a respective switch, sensor, meter, etc., in the alarm equipment 12. Thus, by means of the interface 11 the controller 10 continuously monitors all alarm channels so as to immediately register an alarm condition detected by the alarm equipment.

Further, the controller 10 is connected to an electronic memory 33, a power amplifier 32, a key reader 34 and a display driver 35. The memory 33 may constitute work memory and permanent memory for the controller 10 and is preferably implemented by any commercially available RAM, SRAM, DRAM, SDRAM, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM or flash memory, or any combination thereof .

The power amplifier 32 is connected to a speaker 14. These means are used so as to acoustically present any voice messages 23c which have been recorded by another party, are deposited in the database 22 of the server and are destined to the subscriber of the terminal. The power amplifier 32 is switched on and off by the controller 10, whereas the acoustic signal itself is received from the telephone connection contact 5 via appropriate level conversion. The power amplifier 32 may furthermore be used together with the loudspeaker 14 and a microphone not shown in the drawings for using the terminal 1 as a conventional speaker telephone.

The key reader 34 has as its task to continuously listen to a set of keys 13, which are shown in more detail in fig 3 as different key groups 13a-13f, and to forward information concerning a depressed key to the controller 10.

The display driver 35 has as its task to conventionally drive a display 15 for presentation of information received from the controller 10. The display 15 is advantageously realized by any commercially available kind of LCD display.

The user interface of the terminal 1 is shown in more detail in fig 3. As appears from this drawing, the terminal 1 comprises an apparatus housing la, having on its front surface a number of different keys 13a- 13f, a number of different light emitting diodes 13a' -13e', the loudspeaker 14 and the display 15. A first key set 13a essentially constitutes a conventional telephone keypad, including numerical keys 0-9 and keys for * and #. These keys 13a may be used in case the terminal 1 is utilized as a speaker telephone by way of the loudspeaker and the power amplifier 32 (fig 2) , but above all they are used as means for input for some of the information-based services. Moreover, the keys 13a are used as pre-programmed functional keys to initiate some of the services from different commercial actors or public authorities. For instance the numerical keys 1, 2 and 3 may thus represent different services from a first commercial actor, such as a power supplier, whereas keys 4, 5 and 6 are dedicated to different local government services, etc. A second set of keys 13b is designed for controlling the alarm equipment 12, whereas a third set of keys 13c is designed for the message transmission service 28. A fourth set of keys 13d may be designed for a service provided by the telephone operator in question for pre- sentation of A-number on the display 15. A fifth set of keys 13e may, in combination with a light emitting diode 13e', be designed for said voicemail service 27, whereas a sixth set of keys 13f may be designed to be used for initiating an off-hook operation and an on-hook operation, respectively, when the terminal 1 is used as a speaker telephone by means of the speaker 14 and a microphone not shown in the drawing. The volume of the sound emitted by the loudspeaker 14 may be controlled through volume adjustment buttons 14'. At the rear surface of the apparatus housing la there are provided, as appears from fig 4, the telephone connection contact 5 for connection to the telephone socket 6 of the public telephone network 2, as well as a current input 36, having as its task to supply power to the different components within the terminal 1 through an adapter or transformer connected to the mains supply. Alternatively, power may be supplied to the terminal 1 from one or several batteries . Apart from said alarm input 11a there is also a connection 37, through which external telephone equipment such as a telephone, a telefax machine, etc., may be connected in cascade with the terminal 1 to the telephone network 2. An accessory input 38 may be used for connecting various other equipment, such as for instance an OCR pen (suitable in case the terminal 1 is used for bank services such as paying bills) . The server 3 may be based upon any commercially available computer equipment and comprises, according to the embodiment shown in fig 5, a central processor (CPU) 50, internal memory (RAM) 52, read-only memory (ROM) 53, permanent storage memory (such as a hard disk) 54, an SMS transceiver 55 and a network card 56 for connecting to the Internet 19. Advantageously, the database 22 is stored in the permanent storage memory 54. The latter will also contain software, which when executed by the central processor 50 is adapted to perform the different information-based services according to the invention. Additionally, the server 3 comprises a communication unit 51, through which the server is connected to the public telephone network 2. One task for the communication unit 51 is to communicate with an individual ter- minal 1 over the telephone network 2. In the preferred embodiment the communication unit 51 is consequently adapted for DTMF signalling, wherein essentially the same components may be used as for the communication unit 7 of the terminal 1. A few different information-based services provided by the terminal 1 and server 3 will now be described, starting with the alarm equipment 12. This equipment is assumed to be provided with a number of conventional switches, sensors and meters, including a magnetic or optical front door switch. When the user opens the front door of his/her home, this is detected in a conventional manner by the door switch, which reports the detected alarm status to the terminal 1 through one of the channels on the alarm input 11a. The alarm interface 11 forwards the received alarm status information to the controller 10 and, more specifically, identifies the channel in question, and consequently the switch/sensor/ meter in question, by an alarm code consisting of one character or a plurality of characters. Thus, "01" may for instance represent a smoke detector, "02" said outer door switch, "03" an IR motion detector, "04" an attack alarm, etc.

Now, the controller 10 initiates a call connection to the server through the communication unit 7 and over the public telephone network 2. The connection is handled by the telephone station 30, which initially will trans- mit a CID signal, containing the A-number information 4 of the terminal in the form of a sequence of DTMF characters, to the server 3 in a manner known per se . In the Swedish telephone network a CID signal consists of a leading "A" , followed by the telephone number of the caller (i.e. the A-number) and a trailing "C" . Each character of the CID signal has a duration of about 70 ms . Thus, the CID signal may for instance have the following contents: "A040123456C" , where "040123456" is the telephone number of the socket 6 which the ter- minal 1 is connected to.

The central processor 50 of the server 3 receives, through the communication unit 51, and decodes the CID signal from the telephone station 30. The A-number of the terminal 1 comprised in the CID signal is used as a search key for retrieving the subscriber record 23 from the database 22, which is associated with the terminal 1. Once the call connection between the terminal 1 and the server 3 has been established, the terminal 1 will send a DTMF sequence containing the registered alarm code, followed by a trailing ^»*^»■. The server 3 will receive the DTMF sequence, for instance "02*", and will decide that there is an alarm situation. The subscriber record 23 contains a set of prestored subscriber-specific parameters or rules 23a, which, inter alia, define the measures to be taken upon different alarm situations.

These parameters may define that in case of an alarm code "01", the server 3 is to contact the fire authorities involved but also send a message 23b, which is prestored in the database 22, as an SMS message 16 or, possibly, an email message 17 having a predefined receiver address. This prestored message 23b may for instance look like " [01] Fire alarm triggered! " . Alternatively, or in combination, the parameters 23a may define that the server 3 upon alarm code "01", "03" or "04" is to perform a group call to for instance neighbours or friends over the telephone network 2. In such a case also the police authorities may be called at alarm code "04", whereas a security company is called at alarm code "03". Obviously, the examples above are merely simplified ones, and the opportunities are very many in reality.

At alarm code "02", i.e. detection of an opened front door, the server 3 may be arranged to replay, through the communication unit 51 and the terminal's speaker 14, a message of the type "[BEEP BEEP] The alarm is activated and will be released in 45 seconds. Press the OFF button and enter your code" . Here, the subscriber has the opportunity to enter for instance a four-digit alarm deactivation code through the keys 13a, said code previously having been programmed by the subscriber and being stored in the subscriber record 23. Entered digits are transmitted as DTMF signals from the terminal 1 to the server 3 in a manner well known per se . If the correct code is entered within the prescribed time frame, the server 3 will transmit a DTMF sequence to the terminal 1, containing alarm control data for the alarm equipment 12 (cf . 25 in fig 1) . The controller 10 will command the interface 11 to supply a deactivation control signal to the alarm equipment 12. If, on the other hand, the alarm equipment 12 does not receive any such deactivation control signal within the prescribed time frame (either because the correct code has not been entered, or because a burglar has manipulated the alarm equipment or the terminal 1) , the alarm will be released acoustically or visually in a conventional manner. Simultaneously, the server 3 will take such contact actions as have been described above for other alarm codes .

The subscriber has the opportunity to change the prestored parameters 23a and the messages 23b at his/her own discretion. For instance, the subscriber may connect to a website provided for this purpose by the holder of the server or the supplier of the service, where the subscriber upon login for instance may change the rules for handling different alarm situations, add new prestored messages, define or change his/her alarm deactivation code, etc.

Alternatively, the above may be performed directly through the interface of the terminal 1; the subscriber will use the "PRG" button among the alarm keys 13b, wherein the terminal 1 will connect to the server 3 and the latter will initiate a voice service, where the subscriber may enter the desired information through the keys 13a under guidance from a recorded or computer- generated voice.

Another presently preferred service provided by the invention is the message transmission 28. This service is initiated by the subscriber pressing the button labelled "SMS MENU" among the keys 13c on the terminal 1. Then, the display will present a list of self-defined text messages 23b stored in the subscriber record 23 at the server 3. A copy of the collection of messages is advantageously stored in memory 33, so that all text will not have to be transferred from the server 3 to the terminal 1 each time a message is to be sent. As for the alarm rules above, the subscriber may modify and add on to the SMS messages stored in the server 3 at his/her own desire. The copies stored in memory 33 may then be updated appropriately, for instance by the server 3 sending an updating signal to the terminal 1 and then the parts that have changed or been added.

The SMS messages may for instance look like: "[31] Happy birthday! Regards, Charlie" "[32] Call me at 040123456 or 0701234567! /Charlie" Through the scroll buttons among the keys 13c the subscriber may select a message and then confirm the action through the button "SEND SMS". Then, the display 15 will present a request to enter desired receiver number through the keypad 13a. Another press on the button "SEND SMS" will effect the order. The entered message code will be sent together with the entered receiver number as a DTMF sequence, for instance

"31C0709876543*" , to the server 3, which will decode the DTMF sequence, fetch the plain text for SMS code "31" and generate an SMS message containing, in this case, "Happy birthday! Regards, Charlie". Then, the generated SMS message will be sent through the SMS transceiver 55 to the mobile telephone network 18. The SMS message 16 is thus distributed to the receiving mobile telephone 20.

The description above may alternatively be applied to email messages 17 to a computer 21 on the Internet 19. Still another presently preferred service provided by the invention is the voicemail service 27. In this regard the server 3 will function as a voicemail central, where other parties may leave messages addressed to the subscriber of the terminal 1. Spoken voice messages 23c are deposited in the database 22 and are associated with the subscriber record 23, as appears from fig 1. The received message is then indicated to the subscriber by the server 3 sending a certain CID signal to the terminal 1. In the Swedish telephone network, this may conveniently be performed according to the protocol 8211-A331 Uen

Rev B. The controller 10 decodes the CID signal received through the communication unit 7 and then controls the light emitting diode 13e' to turn on. By pressing the button labelled "VOICEMAIL" among the keys 13e, a voicemail service is initiated at the server 3, wherein the subscriber may listen to, delete and scroll between spoken messages 23c through the different keys 13e. Yet another presently preferred service provided by the invention is the notification service 26. This is similar to the voicemail service 27 but relates to other kinds of notifications. One example may be that it is time to read off the electricity, heat, gas and/or water meter, wherein the server 3 in similarity with the above will send a certain CID signal to the terminal 1, which will turn on any of the light emitting diodes 13a'. By pressing the corresponding button among the keys 13a, a voicemail service provided by the electricity, heat, gas and/or water supplier is initiated, wherein a spoken or computer-generated voice will ask the subscriber to enter the observed meter reading through the keypad 13a. Another example is direct marketing from local or regional tradesmen, or information from organizations of interests, local governments or the society. Yet another example is notification of invoices as well as payment of these. Bank services are still another opportunity, potentially in combination with an OCR pen con- nected to the accessory connection 37 for scanning of OCR text on bills.

With reference to figs 6-12 an embodiment for remote meter reading and reporting will now be described. Unlike the manual meter reading and reporting procedure suggested above - where the user is alerted by the notification service 26 to manually read off the meter counter and report it by manual input on the terminal ' s keypad 13a - the embodiment of figs 6-12 is designed to operate automatically and reliably, without requiring any action from the user (consumer) but still providing accurate and regular feedback to the user as regards his/her consumption of power, gas, water or heat. Moreover, this embodiment also provides automatic reporting of consumption to the server 3. As seen in figs 6 and 7, a remote meter reader accessory 60 is connected to the terminal 1 through an interface 95 in the accessory, an interconnection 64 between accessory 60 and terminal 1, and the accessory input 38 (fig 4) and interface 11 of the terminal 1. The interconnection 64 between accessory and terminal may be serial, wherein the interconnection is a serial cable and the interfaces 11, 95 are for instance RS232 compatible. However, the details of the interconnection between terminal and accessory are not central to this embodiment and may, therefore, be realized in various ways which are well known to the skilled person. The terminal 1 and accessory 60 are assumed to be positioned essentially side-by-side at an appropriate location in a home - preferably close to an available telephone socket 5. At another location in the home, probably distant from the location of the terminal 1 and accessory 60, a conventional consumption meter 70 is installed. In the following, the consumption meter 70 is described as an electricity meter, but it could just as well be another kind of consumption meter, including but not limited to gas meter, water meter or heat meter. The consumption meter 70 has an analogue or digital counter mechanism 71, showing to an observer an accumulated value of electricity consumption. In the example shown in fig 6, the electricity consumption is given in 6 integer digits and 1 decimal digit - "004371.8" is the momentary reading of the counter mechanism 71.

A meter reader 80 is attached to, or included in, the consumption meter 70. In the example used, the meter reader 80 operates by optical image processing, as will be described in the following, but the meter reader 80 itself is no central part of the embodiment and may alternatively be realized by any of a plurality of existing meter readers, preferably operating by magnetic pulses, optical pulses or direct galvanic detection of the movements of either the counter mechanism 71 itself or another rotary member which is comprised in the consumption meter 70 and rotates in response to electric power consumption. Such alternative realizations may use an existing protocol, such as SO, for providing an output of an internal pulse counter in accordance with a defined electric standard. As seen in fig 6, the meter reader 80 comprises a CPU 81, a digital image sensor 82, a memory 83, a realtime clock 84 and an RF transceiver 85, which are all included in an appropriate housing and all of which may be realized by any of a plurality of existing components. For instance, the memory 83 may comprise a programmable, non-volatile read-only memory for storing program code and operating system for the CPU 81, as well as a random access memory to serve as work memory for the CPU 81. The read-only memory may amount to 8 x 64 KB, whereas the random access memory may amount to 3 x 64 KB + 1 x 32 KB, but other capacities are of course possible. Some of the memory 83 may be implemented by internal memory in the CPU 81.

The CPU may be chosen from a variety of commercially available microprocessors but is advantageously a 16-bit microprocessor designed particularly for miniaturized applications. The RF transceiver 85 may also be selected among commercially available devices. Its operating frequency is preferably selected in consideration of local and/or national regulations. The RF transceiver may use an embedded or external antenna, or it may alternatively use the power lines of the local electricity network as antenna. The latter case requires galvanic connection of the meter reader 80 to the consumption meter 70, wherein this connection may also serve as a power source to the meter reader 80 and may moreover allow the meter reader 80 to report mains power failures to the server 3 through the accessory 60. In any event, however, the meter reader 80 is preferably provided with a battery so as to guarantee safe operation of the meter reader 80 even in case of a power failure. The housing of the meter reader 80 has a transparent window or is otherwise adapted to provide a free and clear field of vision for the image sensor 82. The meter reader 80 is positioned appropriately on the outside of the consumption meter 70 so as to allow the image sensor 82 to capture images of the counter mechanism 71. The meter reader 80 may have a second window, opposite the first one, or otherwise be adapted to allow a user or service person to observe the counter mechanism 71 of the consumption meter 70 through the meter reader 80.

Thanks to the provisions described above, the meter reader 80 may conveniently be installed onto the exterior surface of the consumption meter 70 without any need for complex manipulation of the consumption meter 70. The operation of the meter reader 80 is illustrated in fig 8. In a first step 101, a digital image of the counter mechanism 71 is captured by the image sensor 82. The captured image may for instance be a JPEG, GIF, TIFF or bit-map image and is supplied to the CPU 81. In step 102, the CPU 81 processes the captured image and performs optical character recognition (OCR) of the contents of the image so as to derive a digital value of the reading of the counter mechanism 71 at the moment when the image was captured. Software for performing this step may be stored in the memory 83 to be loaded into and executed by the CPU 81.

The result of each iteration of step 102, i.e. the digital meter reading value, may be stored temporarily in memory 83, if desired together with a respective time stamp given by a momentary time value of the real-time clock 84, representing the exact time when the respective image was captured. Preferably, a plurality of such digital meter reading values (and corresponding time stamps, if applicable) are stored in memory 83 in a first-in-first-out manner.

If, in step 103, it is decided that the optical character recognition of the captured image was not successful, the control is returned to step 101 so as to captured a new image and derive a digital meter reading value. Otherwise, in case the optical character recognition of step 102 was in fact successful, the digital meter reading value is transmitted in an RF signal 86 to the remote meter reader accessory 60. If applicable, the corresponding time stamp is transmitted together with the digital meter reading value. The transmitted values may for instance be represented as ASCII characters, and a simple transmission sequence may be: "*004371#" for a case where no time stamp is desired. Here, "*" and "#" are start and end control characters, respectively, whereas "004371" represents the integer portion of the counter mechanism's momentary reading in fig 6. In case a time stamp is included, the transmission sequence may look like "*004371221400#" , indicating that the image of the counter mechanism 71 was captured at 22:14:00.

Preferably, the loop illustrated in fig 8 is performed on a regular basis, so that a fresh digital meter reading value is obtained and delivered to the remote meter reader accessory 60 once every hour. Other intervals are of course possible. Moreover, more than one digital meter reading value/time stamp may be retrieved from memory 83 to be transmitted at the same time, for instance if the RF communication 86 between meter reader 80 and accessory 60 has been down for some reason.

It may be appropriate to provide for various security and verification measures for the RF communication 86, such as hand-shaking or encryption, as is readily realized by a skilled person.

Fig 9 illustrates the main operating procedure of the remote meter reader accessory 60. There are three main tasks for the accessory 60 : to receive and handle incoming digital meter reading values from the meter reader 80 (described in more detail in fig 10) , to report stored digital meter reading values upon request by the server 3 (fig 11) , and to receive and handle updated consumption price information from the server 3 (fig 12) . These three tasks are represented by respective steps 110, 112 and 114 in fig 9. Fig 7 illustrates an exemplifying realization of the remote meter reader accessory 60 to be able to perform the tasks set out above. The accessory 60 has a controller 90, a display 61 with an associated display driver 92, a set of keys 63 with an associated keyboard driver 93, a memory 94, and an RF transceiver 96 for handling the RF communication 86 between accessory 60 and meter reader 80. As already mentioned, the accessory 60 also has an interface 95 for connecting the accessory 60 to the terminal 1. All of these components may be selected among various commercially available products, as is easily understood by the skilled person. Of course, the RF transceiver 96 must be selected in accordance with the type used for the RF transceiver 85 in the meter reader 80. The controller 90 is preferably implemented by any appropriate CPU or other type of microprocessor. The memory 94 preferably contains software for performing the tasks referred to above, wherein the software will be loaded into and executed by the controller in a manner known per se . The accessory 60 may receive supply power from the terminal 1 through the accessory input 38, or it may be provided with a separate power source, such as a battery.

Referring now to fig 10, the operation of the accessory 60 to receive and handle incoming digital meter reading values from the meter reader 80 is as follows. In a first step 120 a digital meter reading value is received in the RF signal 86 from the meter reader 80. As previously mentioned, more than one value may be received in the same session, and corresponding time stamp (s) may be received together with the digital meter reading value (s) . In a step 121, the received digital meter reading value is stored in memory 94, together with the time stamp if any. As seen in fig 6, the accessory 60 is advantageously adapted to present on its display 61 a first diagram 62a of historic consumption as well as a second diagram 62b of estimated consumption, both of which are based on previously received digital meter reading values from the meter reader 80. Thus, a step 122 is preferably performed upon step 121 so as calculate a new estimated consumption, reflecting the new digital meter reading value. In a following step 123, the historic and estimated consumption diagrams 62a, 62b are updated on the display 61.

The historic consumption diagram 62a may illustrate how the consumption of electric power has varied during the last hour(s), day(s), week(s) or month(s). Correspondingly, the estimated consumption diagram 62b may give the user a vision of the expected consumption of electric power for the upcoming hour(s), day(s), week(s) or month (s) . The user may toggle between different views by using the keys 63. Referring now to fig 11, the operation of the accessory 60 to report stored digital meter reading values upon request by the server 3 is as follows. In a first step 130, the accessory 60 receives from the server 3 a request for meter reading report. This request is submitted by the server 3 through the PSTN 2 to the terminal 1 in a manner which is essentially equivalent to the notification service 26 described in previous sections of this document. Thus, the request is preferably made through DTMF signalling from the server 3 to the terminal 1. Upon receipt of the request, the controller 10 of terminal 1 will alert the controller 90 of the accessory 60 through the interfaces 11, 95 and interconnection 64. The request may include a specification of whether just the most recent meter reading or several subsequent meter readings are requested. In addition or alternatively, the server 3 may request report of estimated power consumption. In a step 131, the controller 90 reads the requested meter reading (s) from memory 94. If time stamps have been provided by the meter reader 80, the corresponding time stamps are also read from memory 94. Then, in a step 132 the controller 90 commands the controller 10 of the terminal 1 to generate a sequence of DTMF signals, including the digital meter reading value (s) and time stamp (s) in question. The sequence of DTMF signals are then transmitted by the terminal 1 to the server 3 after having established a call connection essentially as with the alarm and SMS transmission services described in previous sections of this document. The identity of the user is given by the A-number information, and each reported meter reading may be stored in the subscriber record 23 for further processing at a later stage.

This solution is advantageous particularly if the power company that provides electricity to the user in question is also the holder of the server 3. Otherwise, if the server 3 is held by another party, the subscriber record 23 may contain data to identify a particular power company to which the reported meter readings are to be forwarded.

The power company may use the reported meter readings for debiting, resource planning, electricity network monitoring, etc. In addition, the power company may also provide information of price updates to the user through the server 3, terminal 1 and accessory 60, as will be described in the following with reference to fig 12. In a first step 140, the controller 90 of the accessory 60 receives a notification of a price update from the server 3 through the PSTN 2 and terminal 1. This notification may be communicated in essentially the same manner as the request for meter reading report described in conjunction with fig 11. A new price per consumed unit, expressed e.g. in EUR/kWh, is thus received by the controller 90 and stored in memory 94 in a step 141. Advantageously, the historic and estimated consumption diagrams 62a, 62b on the display 61 contain not only data related to the consumption in kWh but also in monetary terms such as EUR. Thus, the monetary part of the consumption from now on, i.e. the estimated consumption, may be recalculated in a step 142 to reflect the price update. Following this, the display 61 may be updated in a step 143, both as regards the estimated consumption diagram 62b and a current energy price indicated as, e.g., a value in EUR/kWh. In addition, the price update may be indicated by an indicator lamp on the accessory 60 or terminal 1. It may even be combined with a notification of the type previously described, where a lamp next to a particular key indicates that a vocal information message is available upon pressing the key. In case no time stamps are provided by the meter reader 80, the server 3 may create and store such time stamps upon receiving the meter readings from the accessory 60. As an alternative to RF communication 86 between the meter reader 80 and the remote meter reader accessory 60, these units may communicate over the local electricity network. In such a case, the RF transceiver 85 and 96 will be replaced by other devices capable of data communication over the local electricity network, for instance in the form of a 100 kHz PLC ("Power Line Communication" ) signal .

Instead of having a physically separate accessory 60, the functionality thereof may be included in and performed by the terminal 1, which of course then will have to be provided with the necessary equipment, such as the RF transceiver 96.

The invention has been described above in the form of a few presently preferred embodiments. However, the invention is in no way limited to these but accommodates various other alternatives, as defined by the scope of protection of the appended patent claims and as is further easily realized by a man skilled in the art.

In case alarm equipment is connected to the terminal 1 this does not necessarily have to be done over a wire connection but may instead be done through wireless connection, for instance as a Bluetooth link.

The disclosed embodiments use DTMF signalling for communication between terminal and server via the public telephone network. However, other generally known methods of signalling - such as FSK ("Frequency Shift Keying") signalling - over a public telephone network may alternatively be used within the present invention.

Claims

1. A terminal (1) for remote distribution of infor- mation services through a public telephone network (2) and a server (3) , the telephone network being of such a kind that is capable of conveying A-number information (CID) including the telephone number (4) of the caller, characterized by: a telephone connection contact (5) for connecting the terminal to a telephone socket (6) belonging to the public telephone network (2); a communication unit (7) capable of two-way analogue transmission of signals containing digital data to and from the server (3) through the public telephone network; input means (8) ; output means (9) ; and a controller (10) ; wherein the controller is adapted to establish, through the communication unit, a call connection to the server, the terminal in connection herewith being identified to the server through the A-number information which is associated with said telephone socket; wherein the controller is adapted, once the call connection to the server has been established, to send data through the communication unit originating from said input means to the server; and wherein the controller is adapted to receive, through the communication unit, data from the server to be provided to said output means.

2. A terminal according to claim 1, wherein the two-way analogue transmission of signals includes DTMF signalling ("Dual Tone Multi Frequency").

3. A terminal according to any preceding claim, wherein said input means (8) comprises an interface (11) for connection of external equipment (12) to the terminal, said information services including distribution of data between said external equipment and the server (3) .

4. A terminal according to claim 3 , wherein said external equipment (12) is alarm equipment and wherein said information services include distribution of at least either status data from the alarm equipment to the server (3) or control data from the server to the alarm equipment.

5. A terminal according to any preceding claim, wherein the input means (8) comprises a set of keys (13) .

6. A terminal according to any preceding claim, wherein the output means (9) comprises at least one of the following: a set of light indicators (13a', 13e') such as light emitting diodes, a loudspeaker (14) or a display (15) .

7. A terminal according to any preceding claim, wherein said information services include transmission of messages (16, 17) from the terminal to another telephone network (18) or a data network (19) through the public telephone network (2) and the server (3) .

8. A terminal according to claim 7, wherein said information services include transmission of SMS or MMS messages (16) to a mobile telephone network (18) such as GSM and UMTS, respectively.

9. A terminal according to claim 7, wherein said information services include transmission of electronic mail messages (17) to the Internet (19) .

10. A terminal according to any of claims 7-9, wherein the controller (10) commands transmission of a specific message among a plurality of messages prestored in the server and wherein the specific message is selected by data which has been entered through said input means (8) .

11. A terminal according to claim 10 and connected to alarm equipment according to claim 4, wherein the data entered through said input means (8) is constituted by an alarm code (24) from the alarm equipment (12) .

12. A terminal according to claim 10 and comprising a set of keys according to claim 5, wherein the data entered through said input means (8) is constituted by a character code entered through the keys (13)

13. A terminal according to any preceding claim, wherein said information services include voice services

(27) .

14. A terminal according to claim 13, wherein said voice services include visual notification followed by acoustic replay, through said output means (9) on the terminal, of spoken voice messages which are destined to the terminal in question and are stored on the server (3) .

15. A terminal according to any preceding claim and comprising a set of keys according to claim 5, wherein a conventional telephone keypad (13a) is comprised among said keys (13) .

16. A server (3) for remote distribution of information services through a public telephone network (2) and a terminal (1) , the telephone network being of such a kind which is capable of conveying A-number information (CID) containing the telephone number (4) of the caller, characterized by: means (51) for establishing a call connection to the terminal (1) through the public telephone network (2) ; means (50) for identifying the terminal, in connection with the call connection, through its A-number in- formation, as received through the public telephone network; means (22) for storing a set of terminal-specific information (23) ; and means (50) for distributing said information ser- vices through two-way analogue transmission of signals

(24-28) containing digital data, said data being dependent on the terminal -specific information and being sent through the public telephone network from the terminal to the server as well as from the server to the terminal .

17. A method for remote distribution of information services between a terminal (1) and a server (3) through a public telephone network (2) , the telephone network being of such a kind which is capable of conveying A-number information (CID) containing the telephone number (4) of the caller, characterized by the steps of: establishing a call connection between the server (3) and the terminal (1) ; identifying, in the server, the terminal through its A-number information (4) ; retrieving, in the server, a set of terminal- specific information (23) ; and distributing said information services through two- way analogue transmission of signals (24-28) containing digital data, said data being dependent on said terminal- specific information and being sent from the terminal to the server as well as from the server to the terminal .

18. A method according to claim 17, wherein the two- way analogue transmission of signals (24-28) includes

DTMF signalling ("Dual Tone Multi Frequency").

19. A method according to claim 17 or 18, comprising the further step of connecting external equipment (12) to the terminal, wherein said information services include distribution of data (24, 25) between said external equipment (12) and the server (3) .

20. A method according to claim 19, wherein said external equipment (12) is alarm equipment and wherein said information services include distribution of at least either status data (24) from the alarm equipment (12) to the server (3) or control data (25) from the server to the alarm equipment .

21. A method according to any of claims 17-20, wherein said information services include transmission (28) of messages (16, 17) from the terminal (1) to another telephone network (18) or a data network (19) through the public telephone network (2) and the server (3) .

22. A method according to claim 21, wherein said information services include transmission of SMS or MMS messages (16) to a mobile telephone network (18) such as GSM and UMTS, respectively.

23. A method according to claim 21, wherein said information services include transmission of electronic mail messages (17) to the Internet (19) .

24. A method according to any of claims 21-23, comprising the further steps of selecting and sending a specific message among a plurality of messages prestored in the server, wherein the specific message is selected by data which has been received through the terminal (1) .

25. A method according to claims 20 and 24, wherein the data received through the terminal (1) is constituted by an alarm code (24) from the alarm equipment (12) .

26. A method according to claim 24, where the terminal (1) comprises a set of keys (13) , wherein the data received through the terminal is constituted by a character code entered through the keys .

27. A method according to any of claims 17-26, wherein said information services include voice services (27) .

28. A method according to claim 27, wherein said voice services (27) include visual indication followed by acoustic replay on the terminal (1) of spoken voice messages (23c) , which are destined to the terminal in question and are stored on the server (3) .

29. A method according to claim 20, further comprising the steps of: detecting, by said alarm equipment (12) , that a person enters a place; informing the server (3) of the detected entrance in the form of said status data; receiving a code entered through the terminal by the person; transmitting the entered code to the server; comparing, in the server, the entered code with a prestored deactivation code which is associated with the terminal through said A-number information (4) ; in case the aforesaid comparison results in a match, transmitting control data from the server to the terminal, indicating that the alarm equipment is to be deacti- vated, and forwarding this control data from the terminal to the alarm equipment; and in case no match has been determined within a predetermined time frame, commanding alarm from the server.

30. A method according to claim 29, wherein the step of commanding alarm from the server comprises : transmission to the terminal (1) of control data (25) , indicating that the alarm equipment (12) is to generate a visual and/or acoustic alarm signal, and forwarding this control data from the terminal to the alarm equipment.

31. An accessory device (60) for a terminal (1) as defined in any one of claims 1-15, characterized by: a first interface (95) for communication between the accessory device (60) and the terminal (1) ; a second interface (96) for communication between the accessory device and a remote consumption meter reader (80) ; a display (61) ; and a controller (90) , said controller being adapted to receive, through said second interface, a meter reading value representing a consumption meter reading (71) provided by said remote consumption meter reader; to present, on said display, a visual representation (62a, 62b) of said meter reading value; and to transmit, through said first interface and said terminal, said meter reading value to a server (3) over a public telephone network (2) .

32. An accessory device as in claim 31, further comprising a memory (94) , wherein the controller (90) is adapted to store said meter reading value in said memory upon receipt from said remote consumption meter reader (80) .

33. An accessory device as in claim 31 or 32, wherein the controller (90) is adapted to wait for a request for meter reading report from said server (3) prior to transmitting said meter reading value to said server.

34. An accessory device as in claim 32, wherein said controller (90) is adapted to store a plurality of meter reading values in said memory as received from said remote consumption meter reader (80) , and wherein the visual representation on said display (61) includes historic consumption information (62a) .

35. An accessory device as in claim 34, wherein said controller (90) is furthermore adapted to derive estimated consumption information based on said stored plurality of meter reading values, and wherein the visual representation on said display (61) includes said estimated consumption information (62b) .

36. An accessory device as in any one of claims 31- 35, wherein the controller (90) is adapted to receive consumption price information from said server (3) over said public telephone network (2) and in response include said consumption price information in the visual representation on said display (61) .

37. An accessory device as in any one of claims 31- 36, wherein the second interface (96) is a radio interface.

38. An accessory device as in any of claims 31-37, wherein the meter reading value concerns an electricity meter reading, gas meter reading, water meter reading or heat meter reading.

39. A method of reporting consumption meter readings, comprising the steps of obtaining a meter reading value for a local consumption meter (70) , said local consumption meter being located at a first position (70, 80) within a local area; transmitting said meter reading value from said first position to a second position (60) within said local area, said second position being separate from said first position; providing a visual representation (62a, 62b) of said meter reading value at said second position; and transmitting said meter reading value over a public telephone network (2) to a remote server (3) .

40. A method as in claim 39, comprising the additional step of receiving a request for meter reading report from said server (3) , wherein said step of transmitting said meter reading value to said remote server is performed after said step of receiving a request for meter reading report.

41. A method as in claim 40, wherein said visual representation (62a, 62b) includes a plurality of meter reading values for said local consumption meter (70) .

42. A method as in claim 41, wherein said visual representation (62a, 62b) includes historic consumption information based on said plurality of meter reading values .

43. A method as in claim 41, comprising the additional step of determining estimated consumption information based on said plurality of meter reading values, wherein said visual representation (62a, 62b) includes said estimated consumption information.

44. A method as in any one of claim 39-43, comprising the additional steps of receiving consumption price information from said server (3) over said public telephone network (2) and in response including said consumption price information in the visual representation (62a, 62b) .

45. A method as in any one of claim 39-44, wherein said local consumption meter (70) is an electricity meter, gas meter, water meter or heat meter.

46. A method as in any one of claim 39-45, wherein said local area is a home.