The present invention is directed generally to telephony devices, and more particular, to telephony devices having integrated messaging capabilities.
As the telecommunications industry has grown, the number and different types of telephony devices has also dramatically increased. The use of telephony devices in mobile and cordless environments has also increased accordingly. There has also been an increased need and interest in providing reliable and easy to use peripheral devices such as answering machines, caller ID boxes, and the like.
Digital answering machines have gained wide spread use by the telecommunications consumers. A typical digital answering machine is formed as a stand alone device which is coupled between a telephone and the subscriber line of the telephone in order to intercept and answer an incoming call under predefined conditions. The answering machine also provides the capability of storing messages from the calling party for later retrieval.
Various approaches have been taken to integrate the functionality of an answering machine within a telephone. For example, the basic components of the digital answering machine have been incorporated into a telephone. Such systems typically include a digital voice memory for storing messages, including broadcast messages and received messages, and a digital signal processor (DSP) dedicated to answering machine functions such as compression of the messages, storage and retrieval. Another approach for integrating answering machine functions within an existing telephone is to provide an answering service remote from the telephone. This type of service routes unanswered calls to the remote answering service where messages are stored for access over the subscriber line.
As the telecommunications industry continues to grow, there remains an interest in providing increased accessibility to the various telephony functions including answering functions. It is also desirable, however, to reduce the overall costs of the various telephony devices. Thus, there is generally a tension between a desire to provide added functionality while meeting the demands of lower costs.
Generally, the present invention relates to communication devices having integrated messaging capabilities. In one particular embodiment, a communication device is provided which operates in a communication mode and a message mode. The communication device includes a speaker, a receiver provided to receive signals of a call received from a calling party and a memory arrangement for storing messages. A processor is coupled to the memory arrangement and is configured to code and decode signals in accordance with a cordless communication compression scheme used for cordless communication when in the communication mode. The processor is further configured to code signals received from the calling party, using the wireless communication compression scheme, for storage in the memory arrangement as a message when in the message mode.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a cordless telephone system having message recording capabilities is provided. The cordless phone includes a base station coupled to a switched telephone network. The base station includes a base station processing unit configured to receive signals from the switched telephone network and to code and decode the signals in accordance with a wireless transmission compression scheme. The base station further includes a transmitter/receiver coupled to the processing unit to transmit/receive coded signals. The cordless phone further includes a handset having a transmitter/receiver configured to transmit/receive coded signals for wireless communication with the base station, and a handset processing unit, coupled to the transmitter/receiver, configured to code and decode signals transmitted to and received from the base station. A memory arrangement is provided within the base station or the handset and is coupled respectively to either the base station processing unit or the handset processing unit. The memory arrangement is used to store messages which are coded by the respective one of the base station processing unit and the handset processing unit using the wireless transmission compression scheme.
One embodiment of the invention provides messaging functions within a cordless phone system. In operation, the base station receives a call from a calling party. The cordless phone retrieves a broadcast message from a memory arrangement of the cordless phone in response to initiation of a message mode. The broadcast message is transmitted from the base station to the calling party. A message from the calling party is received at the base station and coded using a cordless transmission compression scheme used for cordless communication between the base station and the handset. The coded message from the calling party is stored in the memory arrangement of the cordless phone.
In one particular embodiment, data transmitted between the base station and the handset are coded using adaptive differential pulse code modulation (ADPCM). In a further embodiment, the messages stored in the memory arrangement are also coded using ADPCM.
The above summary of the present invention is not intended to describe each illustrated embodiment or every implementation of the present invention. The figures and the detailed description which follow more particularly exemplify these embodiments.