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Mobile Phone Patent Abstract
A telephone dialing apparatus capable of directly downloading electronic
telephone directory from a mobile phone subscriber identity module
(SIM) card to provide a telephone dialing function for different
telephone systems use comprises a SIM card socket, a SIM card reader,
a control unit, a memory unit, a dialing unit, a human-machine interface,
an alarm unit and an information processing unit. The apparatus
allows users free from repeatedly entering the electronic telephone
directory. More than one telephone systems are allowed to utilize
the mobile phone electronic telephone directory to perform dialing
operations.
Mobile Phone Patent Claims
I claim:
1. A telephone dialing apparatus for downloading a telephone directory
from a mobile phone subscriber identity module (SIM) card comprising:
a) a SIM card socket connected to the mobile phone SIM card; b)
a SIM card reader connected to the SIM card socket and having communication
protocols of the mobile phone SIM card, the SIM card reader reads
the telephone directory stored on the mobile phone SIM card; c)
a memory unit connected to the SIM card reader for storing the telephone
directory read by the SIM card reader; d) a dialing unit connected
to the memory unit outputting dialing signals; e) a control unit
connected to the SIM card reader, the SIM card reader, the memory
unit, the dialing unit; f) an information editing unit connected
to the control unit for editing the telephone directory stored in
the memory unit; g) an alarm unit connected to and displaying information
from the control unit, the memory unit and the information editing
unit, the alarm unit generates audible and visual alarms; and h)
a human-machine interface connected to and controlling the control
unit,
wherein the dialing unit is connected to a fixed line telephone
circuit receiving dialing signals from the dialing unit to dial
a phone number from the telephone directory of the mobile phone
SIM card.
2. A telephone dialing apparatus for downloading a telephone directory
from a mobile phone subscriber identity module (SIM) card comprising:
a) a SIM card socket connected to the mobile phone SIM card; b)
a SIM card reader connected to the SIM card socket and having communication
protocols of the mobile phone SIM card, the SIM card reader reads
the telephone directory stored on the mobile phone SIM card; c)
a memory unit connected to the SIM card reader for storing the telephone
directory read by the SIM card reader; d) a dialing unit connected
to the memory unit outputting dialing signals; e) a control unit
connected to the SIM card reader, the SIM card reader, the memory
unit, the dialing unit; f) an information editing unit connected
to the control unit for editing the telephone directory stored in
the memory unit; g) an alarm unit connected to and displaying information
from the control unit, the memory unit and the information editing
unit, the alarm unit generates audible and visual alarms; and h)
a human-machine interface connected to and controlling the control
unit,
wherein the dialing unit is connected to an earphone circuit that
is connected to a mobile phone, the earphone circuit receiving dialing
signals from the dialing unit to dial a phone number.
Mobile Phone Patent Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a telephone dialing apparatus capable
of directly downloading telephone directory from a mobile phone
Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card and particularly a telephone
dialing apparatus that is capable of reading electronic telephone
directory in the mobile phone SIM card to allow different telephone
systems to concurrently utilize the dialing function built in the
mobile phone SIM card and to free users from repeatedly entering
telephone numbers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Mobile phones are very popular around the world nowadays. They
are almost ubiquitous and have become an essential personal article
to many people. In addition to increase communication convenience,
the mobile phones also provide many extra function. All this helps
to accelerate their explosive growth in recent years. The commonly
used additional function include electronic telephone directory,
fast dialing, image and text messaging, and the like. Among them,
electronic telephone directory is the most popular application.
The general telephone or communication systems mostly have fast
dialing features to allow users to enter the frequently used telephone
numbers in advance and then assign simpler corresponding codes.
Users may enter these simpler codes to retrieve the completed telephone
numbers from the memory and automatically perform dialing. It is
a very convenient and useful function. Whereas, many people have
more than one telephone at different locations, such as fixed line
telephones at homes, personal mobile phones and office phones. The
telephone directories at these different locations often do not
coincide with one another. For instance, some telephone numbers
are included in one directory but are absent in another directory.
It is inconvenience when using. Moreover, many people have an earphone
installed in the car to couple with the mobile phone. Users tend
to place the dialing device on the steering wheel or use audio dialing
features to make phone call. The earphone also has a telephone directory
which often does not coincide with the mobile phone SIM card. As
there are many different brands and types of mobile phones and earphones,
and they often have different software which are often not compatible.
It is very difficult to use the interface sockets of different types
of mobile phones to directly download the telephone directory from
the SIM card. As a result, users often have to enter telephone directory
repeatedly. It is a tedious and time consuming job necessitates
improvement.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of aforesaid disadvantages, the present invention aims
at providing a solution to overcome the problem of incompatible
electronic telephone directory between conventional mobile phone
and other telephone systems.
The primary object of the invention is to provide a telephone dialing
apparatus that is capable of directly downloading telephone directory
from a mobile phone SIM card thereby to integrate the mobile phone
and their communication peripherals (or two or more mobile phones)
or fixed lines phones to achieve universal applicability.
The dialing apparatus according to the invention includes mainly
a SIM card socket, a SIM card reader, a control unit, a memory unit,
a dialing unit, a human-machine interface, an alarm unit and an
information editing unit. The apparatus allows users to download
the electronic telephone directory from the mobile phone SIM card
and perform dialing operation. Hence users do not need to repeat
the work of entering and editing telephone numbers.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages
of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following
detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a structural block diagram of the invention adapted for
a fixed line telephone.
FIG. 2 is a processing flow chart for reading data from a mobile
phone SIM card according to the invention.
FIG. 3 is a structural block diagram of the invention adapted for
an earphone.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring to FIG. 1, the apparatus of the invention is to link
a fixed line telephone circuit T, and mainly includes a SIM card
socket 11, a SIM card reader 12, a control unit 13, a memory unit
14, a dialing unit 15, a human-machine interface 16, an alarm unit
17 and an information editing unit 18.
The SIM card socket 11 is to couple with a mobile phone SIM card
and to allow the SIM card reader 12 to read the data stored in the
mobile phone SIM card.
The SIM card reader 12 includes communication protocols for mobile
phones, and through the SIM card socket 11 to read the data stored
in the mobile phone SIM card, and stores the data temporarily in
the memory unit 14.
The control unit 13 is activated by the human-machine interface
16 to monitor and control the operations of various units of the
apparatus.
The memory unit 14 is for temporarily storing telephone numbers,
names, brief codes, and the like.
The dialing unit 15 outputs dialing signals to replace human dialing
operations such as pressing the pushbuttons.
The human-machine interface 16 is a matrix array of pushbuttons,
a dial plate, a touch screen or the like to allow users to activate
the apparatus of the invention.
The alarm unit 17 allows users to view and inspect the operating
conditions of the apparatus, search electronic telephone directory
and browse information. The alarming may be presented in form of
visual display or audio sound.
The information editing unit 18 allows users or the system to edit
the received telephone information in the electronic telephone directory.
The apparatus thus constructed then is linked to a fixed line telephone
circuit (T) (the fixed line telephone circuits are known in the
art and forms no part of the invention, thus will be omitted here).
When in use, users plug the mobile phone SIM card in the SIM socket
11, and proceed the operation according to the processing flow shown
in FIG. 2 to download data from the mobile phone SIM card to the
apparatus of the present invention. The processing include the following
steps:
1. Start.
2. Determine if the user utilizes the human machine interface 16
to activate the apparatus, if negative, repeat step 1; if positive,
activate the control unit 13 which will output a signal requesting
the SIM card reader 12 to read data contained in the mobile phone
SIM card.
3. The SIM card reader 12, after activated by the control unit
13, outputs a test signal through the SIM card socket 11 to determine
what type of system and protocol the mobile phone SIM card belongs.
4. After confirmation, output the protocol codes for reading data
in the mobile phone SIM card.
5. Transmit address codes which represent the storage addresses
of every piece of data, also called transaction flag marks, such
as first transaction, second transaction, etc. for the invention
to download completely every piece of telephone data contained in
the mobile phone SIM card.
6. The SIM card reader 12 reads the data contained in the address
codes from the mobile phone SIM card to the memory unit 14. During
downloading the telephone numbers, the SIM card reader will remove
local long distance identification codes (a pseudo removing, only
when storing in the fixed telephone will the long distance area
code be removed from the original numbers).
7. Determine if all the data in the mobile phone SIM card have
been completely downloaded. If positive, end the processing. If
negative, repeat the step 5.
After the contents of the mobile phone SIM card have been completely
downloaded, the data may be displayed on the alarm unit 17. Users
may utilize the human-machine interface 16 and through the information
editing unit 18 to do inquiry or editing. For dialing a telephone
number, utilize the human-machine interface 16 to activate the dialing
unit 15 which is controlled by the control unit 13, then the currently
displaying telephone numbers on the alarm unit 17 will be switched
to dialing signals, and through the fixed telephone circuit T to
establish telephone connection.
FIG. 3 illustrates a second embodiment of the invention. As mobile
phones become very popular these days, to build mobile communication
capability in the cars is a trendy concept. Many contemporary cars
have equipped with car phones. Or some users have more than one
mobile phone. When to make phone call in the cars, there is no ready
solution to allow different mobile phones to access and use the
telephone directory stored in the mobile phone SIM card. The present
invention offers a solution to attack this problem that is described
in the second embodiment. The apparatus of the second embodiment
consists of a SIM card socket 21, a SIM card reader 22, a control
unit 23, a memory unit 24, a dialing unit 25, a human-machine interface
26, an alarm unit 27 and an information editing unit 28. All these
units are assembled and constructed to couple with an earphone circuit.
The SIM card socket 21 is to couple with a mobile phone SIM card
and to allow the SIM card reader 22 to read the data stored in the
mobile phone SIM card.
The SIM card reader 22 includes communication protocols for mobile
phones, and through the SIM card socket 21 to read the data stored
in the mobile phone SIM card, and stores the data temporarily in
the memory unit 24.
The control unit 23 is activated by the human-machine interface
26 to monitor and control the operations of various units of the
apparatus.
The memory unit 24 is for temporarily storing telephone numbers,
names, brief codes, and the like.
The dialing unit 25 outputs dialing signals to replace human dialing
operations such as pressing the pushbuttons.
The human-machine interface 26 is a matrix array of pushbuttons,
a dial plate, a touch screen or the like to allow users to activate
the apparatus of the invention.
The alarm unit 27 allows users to view and inspect the operating
conditions of the apparatus, search electronic telephone directory
and browse information. The alarming may be presented in form of
visual display or audio sound.
The information editing unit 28 allows users or the system to edit
the received telephone information in the electronic telephone directory.
The earphone circuit 3 of the invention includes an earphone dialing
unit 31, a mobile phone interface unit 32, an audio processing unit
33, a microphone 34 and a speaker 35. The earphone dialing unit
31 allows an external dialing device to input dialing signals. The
mobile phone interlace unit 32 performs signal conversion between
a mobile phone A and the earphone 3, and are linked by a signal
cable 36. The audio processing unit 33 performs audio input and
output processes, such as echoes, noises, signal amplification (or
screening, checking or the like). The microphone 34 is to allow
users to enter voice input. The speaker 35 is to broadcast audio
voice for the earphone.
The construction set forth above allows users to download data
from another mobile phone SIM card to a car phone in the car. It
can also be adapted to the earphone to conform to regulations on
mobile phone utilization in the cars. The operation processes of
the second embodiment are substantially same as those shown in FIG.
2, thus will be omitted here. After downloading of the mobile phone
SIM card data is completed, users may utilize the human-machine
interface 26 and through the information editing unit 28 to do inquiry
or editing. For dialing a telephone number, utilize the human-machine
interface 26 to activate the dialing unit 25 which is controlled
by the control unit 23, then the currently displaying telephone
numbers on the alarm unit 27 will be transformed to signals acceptable
to the earphone 3, and through the earphone dialing unit 31 to output
dialing signals and telephone numbers to proceed dialing operations.
Thus users may have the benefits and conveniences of mobile phone
communication in the cars.
The descriptions set forth above show that the present invention
can effectively resolve the data incompatibility problem of conventional
mobile phone SIM cards. Users need to enter telephone numbers only
once, and through the invention, the phone numbers may be commonly
shared by various telephone systems. It thus offers great improvements
and gives more conveniences to users.
While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been set
forth for the purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed
embodiments of the invention as well as other embodiment thereof
may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended
claims are intended to cover all embodiments which do not depart
from the spirit and scope of the invention. |