WO2000035167A1

WO2000035167A1 - Telecommunication method and apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2000035167A1
Application number: PCT/AU1999/001084
Authority: WO
Inventors: Keith Benson
Original assignee: Keith Benson
Priority date: 1998-12-07
Filing date: 1999-12-07
Publication date: 2000-06-15
Also published as: AUPP757198A0

Abstract

A telephone communication arrangement which includes the steps of effecting a transmission of a telephone call to a destination (13, 16) that allows for the caller number to be identified but which does not otherwise answer the call thereby not raising a charge from a telephone network provider. The destination (13, 16) has means to effect an interpretation of the source (5) and the call numbers sought and effects an output in accord with a selected interpretation of the pattern and selection of the destination of such incoming calls.

Description

TELECOMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS

This invention relates to a method of telecommunication and an apparatus for effecting communication through telecommunication networks.

This invention relates to telecommunication by use of telephone networks where the facilities provided to the public for use of such devices and network are the subject of regulation and where charges are made when communication is established.

It is currently known that an identification number of the device calling another device can be identified by the called device so that a choice can be made as to whether the call will be accepted or not.

A further aspect is that there is no charge made to the called device until that call is answered.

This proposal uses such a feature to effect communication.

In one form the invention can be said to reside in a communication arrangement including a telephone network with telephones and/or equivalent terminals connected through the network to effect communication between said telephones and other terminals by effecting an input of a telephone number at a first telephone or other terminal, effecting a routing of the call through the network to a recipient telephone or other terminal identified by the call number and effecting a two way connection between the two telephones or other terminals upon the call being answered by the recipient, characterised in that there is, at a call recipient telephone or other terminal, means to identify the calling telephone and effect a storage of information of the fact of the call before an answer of the call is effected and further, store in a memory which, of a selected number of call locations a first and subsequent calls from the same or other selected source are received, and effecting an output signal which is determined by an identifiable sequence detected of input calls being received from the selected source or sources of the calls. An advantage of such an arrangement is that the discretionary data can be detected and acted upon regardless of whether the call through the network is answered or not and therefore charged for or not.

In a further form, the invention can be said to reside in a method of effecting communication which includes a telephone network with telephones and equivalent terminals connected through the network to effect communication between said telephones and other terminals by effecting an input of a telephone number at a first telephone or other terminal, effecting a routing of the call through the network to a recipient telephone or other terminal identified by the call number and effecting a two way connection between the two telephones or other terminals upon the call being answered by the recipient, characterised in that there is, at a call recipient telephone or other terminal, the steps of identifying the calling telephone and effecting a storage of information of the fact of the call before an answer of the call is effected and storing in a memory which, of a selected number of call locations a first and subsequent calls from the same or other selected source are received, and effecting an output signal which signal is determined by an identifiable sequence detected of input calls being received from the selected source or sources of the calls.

In preference then, it is proposed that there be provided a receiving device for receiving telephonic communications through a telephone network where information of a calling line identification can be interpreted and there are means to effect an output based upon this interpretation.

In preference, a telephone receiving arrangement includes means to establish a caller line identification whether or not there is an acceptance or answer of the call, and there are then means to effect an output in response to such detected information.

In a further preferred arrangement there is a transfer centre where incoming messages are translated into one or more outgoing telephone calls to the receiver where the receipt of such call or calls is then able to be interpreted and an appropriate output effected in accord with a selected translation. The transfer centre can, in one preferred case, have a plurality of telephone numbers which are appropriately obtained from the telephone network company according to conventional procedures. However, the transfer centre includes computer hardware and software arranged to take any incoming request and then, in accord with a selected pattern, effect a call or calls to the receiver using each of selected originating call numbers in turn as required so that each originating call number or combination of call numbers used is selected to effect one or more elements of a message.

The transfer centre, in preference, is able to receive messages in any form but one of these is by way of an input from a further transfer centre.

in preference, there can be a look-up table in the transfer centre which, in a preferred case, is specific to a selected single end receiver which then is uniquely coded to translate the incoming call identification numbers and provides an appropriate translation for these so that any of the selected messages or information or details can then be provided.

In preference, such a look-up table can comprise indicia such as each of the letters of the alphabet for each incoming number and each of the numbers 0 to 9.

Accordingly, there can, by repeated calls to the number which are not answered, be provided a sequence of letters and/or numbers which can then be held to effect a message.

In an alternate preferred arrangement, there can be a full message stored within the receiving equipment which is simply output upon an appropriate calling identification signal being received.

For instance, such a message might simply say "call the office urgently".

An advantage of the arrangement is that such a message can be received and interpreted without the additional costs associated with the more conventional memory bank style of device which is maintained within a telephone exchange and which requires ongoing upkeep and costs. Further, the system will allow communications to occur that can be uniquely coded for individual users so that security can be maintained.

Further aspects of the invention can be gained by referring to the following description and to attached claims appended to this specification.

For a better understanding of this invention this will now be described with reference to embodiments which shall be described with the assistance of drawings wherein

Figure 1 is a block drawing of functional units in a first embodiment; and Figure 2 is a block drawing of functional units in a second embodiment.

In a first embodiment, there is provided in connection with a telephone network 1 , a mobile telephone 2 of a type which includes a microphone 3, a speaker 4, a subscriber identification holder 5 for connection to the network 1 , a keyboard 7 and a display 8. There is provided in addition to these conventional components, a micro-processor 8 with memory and a controlling program included on a smart card 9, which is connected in an electronic fashion to a data input and output socket shown schematically at 10 of the mobile telephone 2.

Such additional equipment 8 including software and hardware is attached to such a mobile phone 2 without interfering with the existing telephone other than to additionally read or effect a controlled calling to selected numbers in sequence electronic data received or transmitted by the phone.

On the receiving side of the network is a transfer unit 12 which is connected to a telephone 13. The network is connected to the transfer unit 12 in such a way that it is able to receive calls from at least two called numbers and in this case there are three numbers (1 , 2 and 3) shown connected schematically at 14 without however answering any of the calls in a way to effect a charge from the network supplier.

The transfer unit 12 then includes means to detect any incoming data stream which is identifiable as a calling line identification. When such a call is received and detected, the transfer unit directs such information to a look-up table which is held in a removable memory unit 15 (a smart card) with the information held within this memory being used to effect a translation of the coded input. This is then transmitted to a further terminal which can be a simple display although in this case this is the telephone 13 where the telephone 13 is used as an output to deliver an interpreted audio message.

In an alternate embodiment the receiving terminal is a mobile phone shown at 16.

Accordingly this additional equipment in this case includes a removable card (as a smart card or other memory device) with appropriate stored memory which can hold a unique lookup table for that user which can be inserted into a reading device making the telephone into a unique device with a one off code for transmission of data in one example.

A further advantage of this arrangement is that the then unanswered call is not charged by the network to either the caller or the receiver and further, any additional equipment (transfer unit) is able to be simply purchased or owned by the receiver without thereby imposing costs from any network provider.

In a further embodiment shown schematically in Figure 2 there is a first conventional telephone 20 which includes conventional elements with an input directed into a transfer center 21 which is arranged to receive a message to be sent from the first telephone 20, and includes a computer arranged to translate the message to be sent as a series of directions appropriate to a selected look up table code. There is then effected a transmission of the message by effecting a calling of a set of telephone numbers, all of which are transmitted through a network system 22 which are then directed to be received by a second transfer centre 23 which firstly identifies a common or acceptable source of each call, then stores the received fact of the call and its number and the called number, and for each call its respective order of receipt. This unit 23 however does not send any return signal that then accepts the call and effects a charging of the call to the sender of the call. Hence the calling is without incurred charging. The second transfer centre 23 then is arranged to decode the received inputs by referring to a further look up table and then effecting an output on a display unit 24 in accordance with the decoded information.

Such an output can be the effecting of a transmission of a message to a further receiver or it can be simply an output on a display screen which is the case shown.

The code can be chosen from any of a number of schemes but may be as simple as a direct conversion of a single number for a letter of the alphabet. However there are any number of more condensed code systems. For instance, the system can be a use of simply two numbers which are then repeated in the manner of standard digital numbering so that one called number is a logic zero and the other a logic one. Even this is relatively cumbersome and an increase in the number of called numbers available puts up the compression available significantly.

If three numbers are used then there can be nine simple combinations without taking into account repeated numbers and so on. The use of chosen periods of delay between numbers called can also be used. It is also implicit that a message sent will need to establish a start point and a finish point and this can be either by a selected time available or by a limit between successive calls for a single message or by using a called number to identify such information that is one number called is a start and it or another number when called is a finish.

The use of source identified unanswered calls to any one of a plurality of receiving numbers at a common location allows for powerfully coded signals to be transferred without incurring costs in the transmission and also allows for a high degree of security in a coded sequence. Further, the transmissions are not generally subject to recordal because a telephone company providing a network is not interested in not answered calls and therefore there is on offer an even higher degree of security for this for those who wish to transfer information very secretly indeed. As such then there will be seen to be a communication arrangement including a telephone network with telephones and equivalent terminals which can include computers and modems connected through the network to effect communication between said telephones and other terminals by effecting an input of a telephone number at a first telephone or other terminal, effecting a routing of the call through the network to a recipient telephone or other terminal identified by the call number and effecting a two way connection between the two telephones or other terminals upon the call being answered by the recipient.

With such a system, there are, at a call recipient telephone or other terminal, a computer programmed to identify the calling telephone and effect a storage of information of the fact of the call before an answer of the call is effected. Further, the program will store in a memory which of a selected number of call locations a first and subsequent calls from the same source are received, and then display an output signal which is determined by the identifiable sequence detected of the input calls being received from the selected source or sources of the calls.

While reference has been made to a number to be called for a telephone connection to be established, this can be a numeric or alphabetic identification.

Further, while the coded message can be interpreted to be an alpha numeric message, this need not necessarily be the case and the output can be graphic or some logo in combination with the alpha numeric output. Further however, the output could be a signature in graphic form.

In a further instance, while reference has been made to telephones, the terminals could be a computer or the input of or output from a web page.

Claims

1. A communication arrangement including a telephone network with telephones and equivalent terminals connected through the network to effect communication between said telephones and other terminals by effecting an input of a telephone number at a first telephone or other terminal, effecting a routing of the call through the network to a recipient telephone or other terminal identified by the call number and effecting a two way connection between the two telephones or other terminals upon the call being answered by the recipient, characterised in that there is, at a call recipient telephone or other terminal, means to identify the calling telephone and effect a storage of information of the fact of the call before an answer of the call is effected and further, store in a memory which of a selected number of call locations a first and subsequent calls from the same source are received, and effecting an output signal which is determined by the identifiable sequence detected of the input calls being received from the selected source or sources of the calls.

2. A communication arrangement as in claim 1 further characterised in that there is a transfer centre where incoming messages are translated into one or more outgoing telephone calls to the receiver where the receipt of such call or calls is then interpreted and an appropriate output effected.

3. A method of effecting communication which includes a telephone network with telephones and equivalent terminals connected through the network to effect communication between said telephones and other terminals by effecting an input of a telephone number at a first telephone or other terminal, effecting a routing of the call through the network to a recipient telephone or other terminal identified by the call number and effecting a two way connection between the two telephones or other terminals upon the call being answered by the recipient, characterised in that there is, at a call recipient telephone or other terminal, the steps of identifying the calling telephone and effecting a storage of information of the fact of the call before an answer of the call is effected and storing in a memory which, of a selected number of call locations a first and subsequent calls from the same or other selected source are received, and effecting an output signal which signal is determined by an identifiable sequence detected of input calls being received from the selected source or sources of the calls.

4. A transfer centre being adapted to be connected to a telephone network provider to receive any of selected calls, the transfer centre including electronic means arranged to receive and record any incoming call and its message and then in accord with a selected pattern, effect a call or calls to a transfer unit connected to the network to receive calls from at least two separate called numbers, and using each of selected originating call numbers and its order with respect to other of the call numbers to effect a translation so that effected an output of the message.

5. A communication arrangement as in claim 2 further characterised in that there is a look-up table in the transfer centre which is specific to a selected single end receiver which then is uniquely coded to translate the incoming call identification numbers and provides an appropriate translation for these.

6. A mobile phone to be used in connection with the communication arrangement described which is the receiving device and which in addition to holding conventional components has connected in an electronic fashion, a micro-processor with memory and a controlling program and is adapted to receive the incoming call from one or more network providers with at least two to be accessible called numbers and the calling number being identifiable, and effect a recordal of the calling number without an answering of the call to effect a charge and recording and effecting a translation of any such incoming messages.

7. A mobile phone as in the immediately preceding claim further characterised in that it is adapted such that when such a call is received and detected, the micro-processor with memory and a controlling program directs such information to a look-up table held within memory within any additional equipment and in response to such a look-up table, will effect a further output.

8. A mobile telephone as in the immediately preceding claim further characterised in that the look-up table is accessible as a removable memory device and the mobile phone includes a reader for such a memory device.

9. A communication arrangement substantially as described in the specification with reference to and as illustrated by any one or more of the accompanying drawings.