CA2265301A1 - Adsi cpe as a pc user interface - Google Patents

Abstract

A computer interface that allows an ADSI CPE to act as a user interface to an application program running on a PC. The invention is embodied in a PC
telephone interface card that is connected between an ADSI
CPE and a PC application. Communication is in accordance with the ADSI protocol, which allows for the display of character strings on the ADSI display screen, the downloading of scripts to the ADSI CPE, and the programming of softkeys on the ADSI CPE. The telephone interface converts DTMF tones received from the ADSI
CPE to corresponding characters and sends these characters to the application program, and converts DTMF and FSK characters received from the application program to corresponding tones to transmit to the ADSI CPE. The interface can be connected to a network for computer or IP telephony functionality.

Description

ADSI CPE AS A PC USER INTERFACE
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of com-puter user interfaces, and more particularly to using an Analog Display Services Interface Type III telephone instrument as a computer user interface.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Analog Display Services Interface (ADSI) is an ad vanced call management telecommunications protocol pub lished by Bellcore in December, 1993 that enables alternate voice and data services over the existing analog telephone network. The ADSI protocol defines the interactions between a user of an ADSI compatible Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), and network switches and servers. ADSI uses Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) and Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) signaling and modulation technology.
ADSI typically works in concert with specially de-signed advanced call management telephone stations having an integrated display screen, six programmable softkeys and a microprocessor. When the user presses a softkey, the ADSI-compatible telephone initiates a resident action, such as "scroll down," or transmits a DTMF signal assigned to the softkey.
The ADSI protocol has two modes of operation. The first is Server Display Control, in which interactions between the ADSI CPE and a server are governed by a script that is downloaded by the server and is resident and active on the CPE for the life of the ADSI session.
The script defines the format and content of informa-tion that is displayed on the screen, defines the labels and operation of the softkeys, and the responses to user and network data and events. This mode of operation is typically used to interact with commercial service providers such as banks, brokerage houses and airline flight schedule services.
The second mode of operation is Feature Download, in which the interaction comprises downloading a script to the ADSI CPE for storage and later use. This mode is used to download semi-permanent scripts, such as those from a telephone service provider that enable a subscriber to access telephone service offerings.
The object of the present invention is to use an advanced call management telephone and associated pro-tocol, such as an ADSI CPE and protocol, as a user in-terface to a computer application.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The preferred embodiment of the present invention is a computer interface that allows an ADSI CPE to act as a user interface to an application program running on a PC. The invention is embodied in a PC telephone interface card that is connected between an ADSI CPE
and a PC application. Communication between the CPE
and the application is in accordance with the ADSI
protocol, which allows for the display of character strings on the ADSI display screen, the downloading of scripts to the ADSI CPE, and the programming of softkeys on the ADSI CPE to send DTMF messages to the application. The telephone interface converts DTMF
tones received from the ADSI CPE to corresponding characters for use by the application program, and converts DTMF and FSK characters received from the application program to corresponding tones to transmit to the ADSI CPE.
The telephone interface may also be connected to the telephone network so as to allow for full telephony functionality of the ADSI CPE.
Depending on the application, data sent to the CPE
by the telephone interface is generated completely by the application, is received from the network, inter-preted by the application and then passed to the CPE, or is passed directly from the network to the CPE.
Data sent by the ADSI CPE may be intercepted by the application, or passed directly to the network.
Several examples of how the present invention could be implemented are as follows. At a certain time each day, for example when the user needs to wake up for work, the application could access the Internet, download the latest news and weather information, ring the ADSI telephone two times, then download the news and weather information to the ADSI telephone for dis-play on the ADSI display screen.
A user could enter a distinctive keypad sequence on the ADSI phone to initiate an Internet phone call.
The PC would then connect to the Internet and launch the Internet phone call software. Internet call progress status could be communicated to the user on the ADSI display screen, e.g., the user would be prompted to dial a number and informed when a connec-tion has been established.
The ADSI CPE could provide access to database in-formation residing on the PC. A custom script could be downloaded to the CPE that defines the softkeys to per-form various database functions. For example, a per-sonal address database could be accessed, or a recipe database could be accessed from an ADSI phone located in the user's kitchen.
A custom script could be generated by, for exam-ple, an ADSI script generating tool on the PC, and then downloaded to the ADSI CPE. The script would allow the ADSI user to interact with an Interactive Voice Re-sponse (IVR) based system by taking advantage of the capabilities of the ADSI CPE, even though the IVR based system is not an ADSI compliant server.
Based on the telephone number dialed, an associ-ated application on the PC could be initiated. For example, if an ADSI user phones his bank, the user's personal finance software residing on the PC could be launched automatically.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that im-plementation of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments discussed above, and that other imple-mentations are limited only by the imagination of the computer or telephony engineer.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of the computer system in which the present invention operates.
Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of the telephone in-s terface of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Fig. 1 shows a general block diagram of computer system 1 of the preferred embodiment in which the present invention operates. Computer system 1 is a general purpose PC. Computer system 1 comprises proc-essor 4, memory 5 comprising random access and read only memory for storing static and dynamic information and program instructions for processor 4, display screen 2, keyboard/mouse 3 for communicating commands and data to processor 4, and data storage 6 for storing data and program instructions. Telephone interface 7 that allows an application program to interact with an ADSI CPE is also installed in computer system 1. All of the aforementioned computer system components in-cluding telephone interface 7 are connected to system bus 8. Telephone interface 7 is further connected to the ADSI CPE over connection 9, and to system bus 8 over connection 10. Telephone interface 7 may be further connected to the telephone network over connec-tion 11.
Computer system 1 supports at least one applica-tion designed to interact with the ADSI CPE through telephone interface 7. Data and program instructions for the application program reside in data storage 6 and memory 5 and, among other things, control the op-eration of telephone interface 7. Telephone interface 7 supports communication between the computer applica-tion on computer system 1 and the ADSI telephone, and may also control communications between the ADSI

telephone and the telephone network. Telephone inter-face 7 exchanges control and data information with other computer system 1 components via system bus 8.
Fig. 2 shows a general block diagram of telephone interface 7 of the present invention. Active handset interface 20 connects telephone interface 7 to the ADSI
telephone on line 9 such that to the ADSI telephone, telephone interface 7 appears to be a telephone net-work. Handset interface 20 includes circuitry to simu-late a telephone line, including line voltage, ringing voltage, a current source to provide power to the ADSI
telephone, and hybrid circuitry to isolate the transmit and receive signals exchanged with the ADSI telephone.
Handset interface 20 passes analog telephone signals between the ADSI telephone and other circuit components of telephone interface 7.
Coder/decoder CODEC 21 connects handset interface to digital signal processor DSP 22. The CODEC 21 converts analog signals received from handset interface 20 20 to digital signals and passes the digital signals to DSP 22, and also converts digital signals received from DSP 22 to analog signals and passes the analog signals to handset interface 20.
Programmable digital signal processor DSP 22 in-tercepts DTMF tones generated by the ADSI telephone and passes data messages indicating the intercepted tones to computer system 1. DSP 22 also generates DTMF and FSK tones to send to the ADSI telephone at the request of application programs executing on computer system 1.
DSP 22 exchanges control and data messages with appli-cation program logic residing on computer system 1 via system bus 8 over connection 10. Typically, the opera-tion of handset interface 20 is controlled by DSP 22.

DTMF and FSK data exchanged between telephone in-terface 7 and the ADSI telephone are in accordance with the ADSI protocol, as described in standards publica-tions SR-INS-002461, "Customer Premises Equipment Com-patibility Considerations for the Analog Display Serv-ices Interface," Issue 1, Bul. 3, Bellcore, December 1993, and TR-NWT-001273, "Generic Requirements for an SPCS to Customer Premises Equipment Data Interface for Analog Display Services," Issue 1, Rev. 2, Bellcore, June 1995.
In an alternative embodiment, an additional path is provided in telephone interface 7 that connects DSP
22 to the telephone network. This arrangement can con-nect the ADSI telephone to the telephone network through DSP 22 and allows for computer telephony and IP
telephony applications. As shown in Fig. 2, this is accomplished through data access arrangement DAA 23 and CODEC 24. Not shown is an I/O relay or circuit of equivalent functionality that shunts line 9 to line 11 to allow direct connection of the ADSI telephone to the network when, for example, computer system 1 is powered down.
DAA 23 contains the circuitry necessary to control the electrical parameters of line 10 in the appropriate manner, dependent upon the status of a phone call call, such that telephone interface 7 appears to the tele-phone network to be a telephone instrument. Through control of these electrical parameters, which include the d.c. loop current and the line impedance, DAA 23, goes "off-hook" when ringing voltage is detected, and goes "on-hook" when a call is complete. When DAA 23 goes off-hook, analog telephone signals are passed by DAA 23 between the network and other circuit components of telephone interface 7. Typically, the operation of DAA 23 is controlled by DSP 22.

Coder/decoder CODEC 24 connects DAA 23 to digital signal processor DSP 22. CODEC 24 converts analog sig-nals received from DAA 23 to digital signals and passes the digital signals to DSP 22, and also converts digi-tal signals received from DSP 22 to analog signals and passes the analog signals to DAA 23.
The operation and use of digital signal proces-sors, active handset interfaces, CODECs and data access arrangements is well known to those skilled in the art.
Any suitable combination of discrete or integrated com-ponents that is compatible with the system as a whole and has the desired features and functionality can be used. In addition, software and application libraries, including application program interfaces for many pro-gramming languages, are typically available for most digital signal processors. Typically, telephone inter-face 7 resides on an interface card that occupies a backplane slot in the PC.
In operation, the ADSI telephone on line 9 acts as a user interface to interact through telephone inter-face 7 with an application program executing on com-puter system 1. An application program interface (API) that is compatible with computer system 1, the program-ming language of the application program and DSP 22 is used to pass control and data messages between DSP 22 and the application program. In accordance with the ADSI protocol, information can be passed to the ADSI
telephone by the computer application while the tele-phone is in either an on-hook or off-hook state, and information can be passed to the computer application by the ADSI telephone while the telephone is in an off-hook state. With appropriately loaded software, DSP 22 interprets DTMF tones that are generated by the ADSI
telephone and passes data messages with the correspond-ing keypad digit to the application using the API. DSP
22 also receives DTMF or FSK character strings from the application and sends the corresponding tones to the ADSI telephone.
The connection to the telephone network over line 11 allows the application designer to include computer-and IP-telephony functionality into the application program. In general, the application would intercept data exchanged between the ADSI CPE and the network via DSP 22, and either act in response to the data or simply pass the data.
To one skilled in the art, the construction and programming required to implement the present invention in an application such as those listed above can easily be accomplished without undue experimentation.
While a preferred embodiment of a system for an ADSI CPE to act as a user interface to an application program running on a PC has been particularly shown and described, it is not intended to be exhaustive nor to limit the invention to the embodiment disclosed. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modi-fications can be made to the present invention without departing from the scope and spirit thereof. For exam-ple, while telephone interface 7 is shown as discrete components, any combination of discrete and integrated components that satisfy functionality and compatibility requirements can be used, including a completely inte-grated system such as, for example, one of the Mwave multimedia systems by IBM Corp. Also, while in the preferred embodiment computer system 1 is a general purpose PC, any suitable computing system can be used.
Also, while the ADSI protocol is particularly shown, the invention can be adapted for any advanced call management protocol and associated screen-based tele-phone instrument. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims appended hereto and their equivalents.
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Claims (7)

1. In a computer having an application program executing on the computer, an interface for use with an advanced call management telephone that operates in accordance with a telephony protocol, said interface operated to exchange messages in accordance with said protocol between said telephone and said application program, whereby information transmitted by said application program is displayed on said telephone display screen and data in response to manual input on said telephone is transmitted from said telephone to said application program.

2. An interface according to claim 1, further comprising:
signal processing means operated to exchange said messages with said application program; and an active handset interface connected to said signal processing means and operated to exchange said messages between said signal processing means and said telephone.

3. An interface according to claim 1, wherein said telephony protocol is the Analog Display Services Interface protocol.

4. In a computer having an application program executing on the computer, an interface for use with an advanced call management telephone and a telephone network, said telephone and said network operating in accordance with a telephony protocol, said interface connected to said telephone and said network and operated to exchange first messages in accordance with said protocol between said application program and said telephone, and operated to exchange second messages in accordance with said protocol between said application program and said network, whereby information transmitted by said application program to said telephone is displayed on said telephone display screen and data in response to manual input on said telephone is transmitted from said telephone to said application program.

5. An interface according to claim 4, further comprising:
signal processing means operated to exchange said first and second messages with said application program;
an active handset interface connected to said signal processing means and operated to exchange said first messages between said signal processing means and said advanced call management telephone; and a data access arrangement connected to said signal processing means and operated to exchange said second messages between said signal processing means and said network.

6. An interface according to claim 4, wherein said telephony protocol is the Analog Display Services Interface protocol.

7. Each and every novel feature or novel combination of features herein disclosed.