Patent Application
20070286173
Embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicate similar elements, and in which:
Embodiments of an interactive console for interfacing an analog telephone to digital networks, and a server computer delivering digital network and Internet services to the interactive console are described. In the following description, numerous specific details are introduced to provide a thorough understanding of, and enabling description for, embodiments of the interactive console. One skilled in the relevant art, however, will recognize that these embodiments can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other components, systems, and so on. In other instances, well-known structures or operations are not shown, or are not described in detail, to avoid obscuring aspects of the disclosed embodiments.
In one embodiment, if full voice and data traffic to the analog phone 102 is handled by the interactive console 104, the old connection 103 between the telephone 102 and the PSTN network 110 can be eliminated. If the PSTN network operator requires that some traffic, such as voice traffic use portions of network 110 for operation of telephone 102 by the user, then a connection can be made between IP network 112 and PSTN network 110 for the user, but all physical traffic will still route to the phone 102 through the interactive console 104. In an alternative embodiment, the telephone 102 and interactive console 104 can be directly coupled to the Internet 114. In general, network 112 represents a dedicated IP network that comprises a leased pipe connecting two routers, and network 114 represents the Internet, which is a combination of all such IP networks. Coder/decoder (CODEC) circuits within the network devices encrypt and compress the data for transmission over the networks and adapt the quality of service to the appropriate levels.
The actual configuration of the housing can vary depending on the design parameters, such as size, weight, and shape. The console can be made as flat as possible with a stand for table or floor mounting or with hooks for wall mounting, or it could be like formed as a more cube-shaped device, such as a traditional CRT monitor, or any other similar configuration.
For the embodiment illustrated in
As stated above, the interactive console comprises a housing that integrates and contains a number of different hardware components or circuits that adapt the analog signals of the phone 102 to the digital signals of the IP network 112.
A signal input/output interface 314 receives and sends analog signals to the telephone. These signals are converted and conditioned by the other circuits within the housing to be adapted to the digital signals that are received and sent over the IP network. With reference to
Each of the components within the interactive console 300 performs a specific and separate task regarding the conditioning of the signals between the phone and the network and the interface to the user. The analog telephone adapter 306 connects the analog telephone to a broadband network for voice over IP (VoIP) service. It provides the conversion from analog voice signals to IP packets and vice versa. It also delivers a dial tone and manages telephone call setup. For an embodiment in which the interactive console includes a wireless network interface such as a Bluetooth or WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) interface, the wireless IP adapter 310 interfaces the wireless signals to interact with the IP network. The broadband router component 308 forwards the data packets across the IP network to the other destinations.
In one embodiment, the display panel 302 comprises a touch screen panel that allows the user to input commands or make command selections through the touch screen. The display panel can be optionally configured to display a graphic alpha-numeric keyboard, such as a standard QWERTY keyboard to facilitate text input. Alternatively, it can include a handwriting recognition component to allow the user to input written text or commands directly into the console through the use of a stylus or similar touch tool.
The interactive console can also be fitted with a webcam or similar camera system to capture images of the user or the user's surroundings. If such a device is used in conjunction with other similar devices, such as video enabled Internet phones, then video conferencing features can also be used by the interactive console user. Home surveillance systems can also be cost-effectively implemented when the console system is combined with service intelligence to monitor the area around the console or any area of focus by the camera.
In one embodiment, the interactive console comprises a touch-sensitive display panel that is coupled to a housing that contains a single primary circuit board. The circuit board contains the circuitry necessary to implement the main functional blocks illustrated in
In some applications, the interactive housing can be configured to operate as a stand-alone device without a telephone. In this case, the interactive console is configured to provide basic voice services, such as voice input/output. An optional headset adapter might be provided in the housing to facilitate the connection to an external headset/microphone or handset for voice input. For this embodiment, a ring generator 420 is provided to produce the ring signal for incoming calls.
For the embodiment illustrated in
Certain functions, such as video processing of signals provided by the optional webcam can be implemented through logic included within DSP 410 or other circuitry on the circuit board. Likewise, the handwriting recognition or text conversion program can be implemented through dedicated circuitry or by logic programmed into the DSP. Besides the circuits illustrated in
In one embodiment, the interactive console is coupled through the Internet network to a server computer 108 that provides a variety of services and resources to the user of the telephone. The server computer can be configured to provide access to any number of web servers or web resources, or it can be configured to provide data and/or services to the user itself. In this case, the server is coupled to one or more data storage units, such as data store 120 to store processed data related to any number of services and/or products or resources. Such items can include, but are not limited to, bank account management, travel agency services (airline ticketing, car rentals, hotel reservations), yellow page services, stock market information, event ticketing, bill paying service, messaging services, weather and traffic monitoring, television guide, and so on.
The server computer 108 can be configured to also provide resources that are tailored to specific groups or types of users. For example, a server that is deployed for use by senior citizens might include a variety of services used by this group, such as personal health monitoring, social security interface, emergency messaging and alerts, medication information, home surveillance, and the like.
The server computer can also be deployed in a business environment to provide several various business services. These can include, but are not limited to, voice/video phone capability, contact and messaging management, calendar/docket capability, to-do list functions, smart conferencing, project management and status monitoring, report generation, interactive white board, business yellow pages, and so on.
The interactive console brings Internet intelligence and convenience to end users through the existing telephone networks and the literally hundreds of millions of presently deployed telephone connections. The server component allows all of the computing to be done remotely at hosted servers, thus allowing the locally installed interactive console to be built with minimum processing power, hence at very low or perhaps even no cost to consumers. This two-way interactive console thus provides a new venue for non-PC-savvy general public to not only convert their analog voice data to digital data, but more importantly to gain intelligence and interact with other individuals and businesses from the Internet world.
As illustrated in
In one embodiment, the client-sensitive rendering engine includes or has access to a database that stores all of the various possible client devices. Information relating to the characteristics of many different types of cellular phones, televisions, interactive consoles, and other possible display devices is stored in a self-populating table. This table lists all of the various different client devices, such as by brand and model and specifies the display characteristics for these devices. Upon interfacing with a particular client computer, the server computer will interrogate the list to match the output format to the characteristics of the client computer. A default content output style can be defined in the event that a client device is not of a recognized type. In this case, the text can be output can be displayed as a single line of text with no graphics attached. Rich content files can be processed to remove unsupportable data types. This list can be preprogrammed with all of the known current cellular phone, PDA, interactive console devices, and so on, or it can be populated through a handshake protocol that informs the server of the display parameters (e.g., screen size, graphics support, and so on), and the transmission capabilities of the client. In one embodiment, the interactive console display parameters are hardwired in the DSP circuit directly.
Embodiments of the interactive console described herein may be implemented as functionality programmed into any of a variety of circuitry, including programmable logic devices (“PLDs”), such as field programmable gate arrays (“FPGAs”), programmable array logic (“PAL”) devices, electrically programmable logic and memory devices and standard cell-based devices, as well as application specific integrated circuits. Some other possibilities for implementing aspects of the application integration method include: microcontrollers with memory (such as EEPROM), embedded microprocessors, firmware, software, etc. Furthermore, aspects of the described device may be embodied in microprocessors having software-based circuit emulation, discrete logic (sequential and combinatorial), custom devices, fuzzy (neural) logic, quantum devices, and hybrids of any of the above device types. The underlying device technologies may be provided in a variety of component types, e.g., metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (“MOSFET”) technologies like complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (“CMOS”), bipolar technologies like emitter-coupled logic (“ECL”), polymer technologies (e.g., silicon-conjugated polymer and metal-conjugated polymer-metal structures), mixed analog and digital, and so on.
It should also be noted that the various functions disclosed herein may be described using any number of combinations of hardware, firmware, and/or as data and/or instructions embodied in various machine-readable or computer-readable media, in terms of their behavioral, register transfer, logic component, and/or other characteristics. Computer-readable media in which such formatted data and/or instructions may be embodied include, but are not limited to, non-volatile storage media in various forms (e.g., optical, magnetic or semiconductor storage media) and carrier waves that may be used to transfer such formatted data and/or instructions through wireless, optical, or wired signaling media or any combination thereof. Examples of transfers of such formatted data and/or instructions by carrier waves include, but are not limited to, transfers (uploads, downloads, e-mail, etc.) over the Internet and/or other computer networks via one or more data transfer protocols (e.g., HTTP, FTP, SMTP, and so on).
Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in a sense of “including, but not limited to.” Words using the singular or plural number also include the plural or singular number respectively. Additionally, the words “herein,” “hereunder,” “above,” “below,” and words of similar import refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portions of this application. When the word “or” is used in reference to a list of two or more items, that word covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list and any combination of the items in the list.
The above description of illustrated embodiments of the interactive console is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the embodiments to the precise form or instructions disclosed. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the system are described herein for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the described embodiments, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize.
The elements and acts of the various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments. These and other changes can be made to the interactive console in light of the above detailed description.
In general, in any following claims, the terms used should not be construed to limit the described system to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification and the claims, but should be construed to include all operations or processes that operate under the claims. Accordingly, the described device is not limited by the disclosure, but instead the scope of the recited method is to be determined entirely by the claims.
While certain aspects of the interactive console are presented below in certain claim forms, the inventor contemplates the various aspects of the methodology in any number of claim forms. For example, while only one aspect of the system is recited as embodied in machine-readable medium, other aspects may likewise be embodied in machine-readable medium. Accordingly, the inventor reserves the right to add additional claims after filing the application to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspects of the described systems and methods.
