User`s manual

4,291,198
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GENERAL-PURPOSE ELECTRONIC TELEPHONE
STATION SET
RELATED APPLICATIONS
Ornamental design patent application in the names of
D. W. Hagelbarger and P. S. Kubik, Ser. No. 52,985,
filed on even date herewith, entitled “Design for a Gen—
eral-Purpose Electronic Telephone Set Base," and as
signed to the same assignee as the present application.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to telephone station sets and it
relates, in particular, to general-purpose sets incorporat
ing multimedia input/output facilities for enhancing the
utility of a telephone system for users thereof.
There are known in the art numerous computer-based
services which have much to offer persons who are
capable of accessing those services. However, the
equipment usually available for providing such access is
normally bulky, expensive, and requires considerable
sophistication for use. Furthermore, because of the
aforementioned equipment limitations, the available
computer-based services often are not structured to
provide many services that could be useful to either
ordinary telephone users, or infrequent service users, or
handicapped persons.
Telephone system terminals have been known to
include audio, video, and manual transducing facilities
in one piece of equipment. One example is the J. F.
Tyson U.S. Pat. No. 3,521,008. However, such prior art
does not teach equipment that is useful for convenient
human interaction with computer-based services. It
focuses instead on a normal telephone facility which is
collocated with, but not cooperatively associated with,
video equipment.
Video telephone service is also known as shown, for
example, in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,587,053 to J. J. Horzepa
et al. The latter type of service has limited capability
(only a telephone dialing pad) for communication with
data processing equipment and is otherwise useful for
sending and receiving pictures. However, the video
telephone equipment is bulky and complex, and the
service is not suited for communication by way of nar
row band voice and data signal channels such as the
telephone network channels which span the world at
the present time.
Microprocessor based computer terminals with man
ual input and video output are frequently advertised in
the technical press by a number of manufacturers at the
present time. However, these terminals are so large that
they are unsuitable for locations of the type where one
ordinarily finds only a telephone station set; and they
also lack the audio telephone capability. One current
example of such terminals is the TEC, Inc., Model 70
terminal CRT terminal with function keys.
A pocket directory-calculator in U.S. Pat. No.
4,117,542 to J. Klausner et al. includes a microprocessor
controlled telephone-type keypad, a display, and an
audio signal generating system that is stated to produce
audible multifrequency dialing tones representing a
retrieved telephone number. However, the equipment is
not suited to accessing computer-based services in a
telephone system.
Calculators with different types of limited telephone
system access are known as represented in the U.S. Pat.
No. 4,1 17,542 to Klausner et al. and Macy‘s Superphone
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7700; but they also lack the full textual access to com
puter-based services.
It is further known, as taught in the H. S. McDonald
U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,334, to provide switched computer
based services relating to arranging subscriber call con
nections in a digital switching system. Also the H. G.
Alles U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,258 teaches digital switching
of voice and data signals.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,566,370 to Worthington, Jr., et al.
and 4,130,881 to Haessler et al. show display arrange
ments to facilitate the taking of medical histories by an
automated multiple choice scheme. However, the
equipment is large and does not enable the patient to
make full textual inputs as are usually needed for use of
computer based services generally.
None of the foregoing art provides a telephone user
with a convenient, single instrument having audio and
text transmission and reception facilities such as are
necessary for utilizing a telephone communication net
work to provide subscriber access to computer-based
services.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An illustrative embodiment of the present invention
resolves the aforementioned difficulties of the prior art
by providing a general-purpose electronic telephone
station set which makes the power of computer-based
services readily available to telephone system users.
This general-purpose station set includes audio, video,
and manual transducing facilities cooperatively ar
ranged in a single instrument to enable users to have
program guided access to computer-based services. It
also includes data processing facilities for controlling
interaction among the transducing facilities under the
control of a station set user.
In one embodiment, video-display-linc-associated
keys permit a user to communicate to the processing
facilities desired process branching selections. A full
typewriting keyboard permits alphanumeric text entry
as well as providing the telephone calling, i.e., dialing,
function. Also, the set is so assembled as to render it a
compact unit for convenient desktop or tabletop em
ployment in, e.g., an office or other location not other
wise primarily dedicated to data processing system
terminal use.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
A more complete understanding of the invention and
the various features, objects, and advantages thereof
may be obtained from a consideration of the following
detailed description and the appended claims in con
junction with the attached drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective drawing of one embodiment
of a station set utilizing the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a plan layout illustrating a display and vari
ous pushbutton-type keys in an arrangement which is
useful in the invention as shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a simpli?ed block and line diagram of sta
tion sets of the type in FIG. 1 connected in a telephone
communication system;
FIG. 4 comprises a simplified diagram of circuits
includes in the station set of FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 is a gate level logic diagram of a coupling
circuit in FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 illustrates electric circuit coil orientations for
minimizing electromagnetic cross-coupling between
two parts of the station set without necessitating special
shielding;