Two-line telephone controller
Contents
1. UO D UT US005515423A United States Patent ij Patent Number 5 515 423 9 Beck et al 45 Date of Patent May 7 1996 54 TWO LINE TELEPHONE CONTROLLER OTHER PUBLICATIONS 75 Inventors Gregory F Beck Laguna Hills Duane Marcroft DAA Designers Guide Sep 1989 Dougias L Palmer Foothill Ranch 4LS User Manual Version 1 0 Bicom Computer and James A Fontana Mission Viejo Communications Systems 1 5 Alistair Egan Lake Forest Richard D RC96ACL RCI44ACL Modem Designer s Guide Rock Ray Laguna Niguel Lisa Walker well International Digital Communications Division pub Capistrano Beach all of Calif lished 1993 rue Primary Examiner Jason Chan 73 Assignee Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Tokyo Attorney Agent or Firm Fitzpatrick Cella Harper amp Japan Scinto 21 Appl No 160 824 57 ABSTRACT 22 Filed Dec 3 1993 computer controlled communication board which includes data access arrangement which functions as an H04M 11 00 intermediary between multiple telephone lines a data com 52 U S CI 379 93 379 94 379 100 munication device such as a fax modem voice chipset and 58 Field of Search 379 93 94 95 standard telephone handset The data access arrangement 379 96 97 98 99 160 163 156 395 325 has line select switch which switchably connects one of the 375 222. CHIPSET LCD VOICE AND fz be ai 1 See waki S fos 68 alt SPEAKER 12 LOOP CURRENT DETECT LCD Ba i MODEM 2 4 DATA PUMP CONVERTER L Nm 7 52A AUDIOOUT Lao c 57 13 MICROPHONE 1 t 1 i i 1 44 44 67 RING DETECT i 1 1 t i VOICE 100 74 LOCAL MODEM i MODEM OFFHOOK LINE 1 ye RING CONTROLLER MODEM OFFHOOK LINE 2 CURRENT TN 19 DETECT 50 CONTROL 1 PHONE LOGI EPROM BITS 2 384 HANDSET TO LINE 1 225 HANDSET 54 54 HANDSET TO LINE 2 cs 1 BITO LINE SELECT RAM eri 45 1 82 55 7 4 61 i U S Patent 22 TO NETWORK May 7 1996 Sheet 1 of 5 5 515 423 W FIG 1 Q E 2 ui Lu Tq Z W n ay E 5 515 423 Sheet 2 of 5 May 7 1996 U S Patent LASOGNVH 3NOHdal3lL L 5 3NOHdOtdOIN Ov ONILNIOd 8 HOLIMS 194135 INIT ONIGMONI SS320Vv 3OIOA W3QOW XVJ NOLLVOINNANWOD AOVAYALNI W3GON 597114 309WI 53114 Sad LX3 L S3SVSSHI VICGSWILINW NOILIVOINDWWOOD SAONANOAS 532 9 035 NOILONYLSNI 34015 sng YALNdWOO 3OVJU3 ANI JOVJH3 LNI M
3. May 7 1996 U S Patent LASGNVH LINN OL LASGNVH MOOHAAO TR 0 35 9 59 3 LIHM LOATASANIT HO LOATASANIT gt Gt 5 515 423 1 TWO LINE TELEPHONE CONTROLLER BACKGROUND 1 Field of the Invention The present invention concerns a telephonic communica tion apparatus in which a data modem or the like is select ably switchable under computer control to any one of multiple telephone lines More particularly the invention concerns a two by two switching matrix that functions as an intermediary between two standard telephone lines a fax modem voice chipset and a standard telephone handset 2 Description of the Related Art There are many communication control board products adapted for use with computing equipment such as an IBM PC and PC compatible computers These boards perform integrated modem facsimile telephone control functions When connected to an ordinary voice telephone line and to an ordinary telephone handset such communication boards allow a computer to send and receive facsimile transmis sions via a fax modem to send and receive data transmis sions via a data modem and to send and receive voice telephone communications either via a digitized voice file stored on the computer or via the analog telephone handset A single line controller is described in U S application Ser No 08 005 554 filed Jan 19 1993 commonly assigned here
4. former 60 for impedance matching the two wire signal from 2 4 converter 42 to the impedance of an ordinary voice telephone line A line select switch 61 is provided to select one of multiple telephone lines here two lines designated 20 and 21 respectively The line selector switch 61 is operated under control from modem control logic 45 so as to select either of the two lines Each of the telephone lines has connected in series therewith a modem off hook switch specifically modem off hook switch 63 for line 20 and 64 for line 21 Under control from control logic 45 each of those switches may be activated so as to cause the selected line to go off hook with respect to fax modem voice chipset 41 when line select switch 61 has selected that line Ring detect circuits 65 and 66 detect ringing signals on each of lines 20 and 21 respectively In response to a ringing signal each ring detect circuit sets a bit in an unshown computer register indicating which of the lines 20 and 21 is ringing In addition the ring detect signals are ORed together via OR gate 67 and the resultant ORed signal sent to AND gate 68 The resultant ring detect signal is sent to modem controller 50 whereby modem controller 50 can recognize when one of line 20 and 21 is ringing In this regard AND gate 68 is provided so that a ring detect signal is blocked when modem controller 50 is engaged in modem operations Thus when either of lines 20 or 21 is off hook via off h
5. ordinary voice telephone handset 19 FIG 3 is a functional block diagram of communication board 40 As shown in FIG 3 communication board 40 includes a communication device such as the aforemen tioned fax modem voice chipset 41 and a 2 4 converter 42 The 2 4 converter 42 converts a four Wire signal from the fax modem voice chipset 41 into a two wire signal for connection to ordinary voice telephone lines The two wire signal from 2 4 converter 42 is fed to data access arrange ment DAA 44 The data access arrangement under control via control logic 45 from chipset 41 and computing equip ment 10 switchably connects one of multiple telephone lines such as telephone lines 20 and 21 to the chipset via the 2 4 converter 42 Additionally DAA 44 includes handset switches for each telephone line for switchably connecting under control via control logic 45 from chipset 41 and computing equipment 10 one of the telephone lines to telephone handset 19 Preferably and as depicted in FIG 3 the communication board 40 is arranged on a single multiple layer circuit board provided with an edge connector 43 for connection to computer bus 31 as well as suitable RJ 14 connectors for connection to handset 19 and telephone lines 20 and 21 The single board construction allows board 40 to be inserted into the housing of conventional PC type computing equipment Of course while a single board construction is preferred the communication board 40
6. BASE 0 register Outgoing Calls From Handset 19 For outgoing calls on telephone handset 19 then if neither telephone line is in use computing equipment 10 connects telephone handset 19 in reverse preferential order to that of chipset 41 Thus computing equipment 10 first connects telephone handset 19 to line 2 or if line 2 is in use by chipset 41 then to line 1 In the event of an outgoing call from the telephone handset while line 1 or line 2 is in use by chipset 41 it is possible for computing equipment 10 to allow the user to break into the phone call by chipset 41 In this instance computing equipment 10 forces handset switches 70 and 71 into their appropriate state and allows the user to break into the line by lifting the handset In summary for the above situation the preferential order for selecting one of the telephone lines for connection to the data communication device is line 1 followed by line 2 Accordingly the reverse preferential order for selecting one of the telephone lines for connection to the telephone handset is line 2 followed by line 1 What is claimed is 1 Acommunication board operable under computer con trol so as to select a two wire signal from any one of multiple telephone lines said communication board comprising a 2 4 converter having a two wire connection and a four wire connection said four wire connection being connectable to a four wire signal from a data commu nic
7. equipment 10 is provided with a display screen 11 such as a color monitor a speaker 12 and a microphone 13 Com puting equipment 10 further includes a mass storage device such as a computer disk drive 14 for storing data files such as bitmap image data files text data files sound e g PCM or pulse code modulation data files animation data files and digital motion video data files in compressed or uncom pressed format and for storing application program files such as a multimedia message management program that can send and receive the aforementioned types of data files or other information processing program files which contain stored program instruction steps by which computing equip ment 10 manipulates data files presents data in those files to an operator via display screen 11 or speaker 12 or transmits data via telephone lines or network interfaces or the like 5 515 423 3 Keyboard 15 is connected to computing equipment 10 to permit input of text data and to permit operator selection and manipulation of objects displayed on display screen 11 Likewise pointing device 16 such as a mouse or the like is connected to permit selection and manipulation of objects on the display screen Scanner 18 scans documents or other images and provides bitmap images of those documents to computing equipment 10 Network interface line 22 con nects computing equipment 10 to an unshown local area network and printer 24 is provided for output
8. may in fact be comprised by multiple interconnected circuit boards FIG 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the communi cation board of FIG 3 As shown in FIG 4 the fax modem voice chipset 41 includes a modem controller 50 connected via modem bus 51 to a modem data pump 52 Also con nected to modem bus 51 are EPROM 54 and local RAM 55 which serve as memories for programming and processing operations of the modem and which may have a capacity of 128K bytes each An audio path in chipset 41 includes an audio output interface portion 52a of the modem data pump which is connectable to speaker 12 as well as an audio in switch 56 which permits connection to microphone 13 so as to provide the modem data pump 52 with an audio input interface under control of AND device 57 In operation modem controller 50 via commands and data sent from computing equipment 10 on computer bus 31 sets its state and the state of the modem data pump to one of 5 515 423 5 audio in audio out fax modem data modem or voice Then modem controller 50 causes modem data pump either to output audio signals to speaker 12 to input audio signals from microphone 13 or to transmit or receive fax modem or voice information via a four wire connection to 2 4 converter 42 2 4 converter 42 converts the four wire connection from modem data pump 52 into a two wire connection to data access arrangement DAA 44 As further shown in FIG 4 DAA 44 includes a trans
9. said four wire connection connected to a four wire signal from the data communication device and a data access arrange ment having a line select switch interposed between the two wire connection of said 2 4 converter and said multiple telephone lines said line select switch oper able under computer control to switchably select a two wire signal from any one of said multiple tele phone lines so as to electrically connect the selected two wire signal from any one of said multiple tele phone lines to said two wire connection of said 2 4 converter 20 Apparatus according to claim 19 wherein said data communication device is comprised by a fax modem voice chipset 21 Apparatus according to claim 19 further comprising one off hook switch for each of said multiple telephone lines each off hook switch being positioned in series with its respective phone line and being operable under computer control to cause a telephone line which is selected by said line select switch to go off hook 22 Apparatus according to claim 21 further comprising aring detect means for each of said multiple telephone lines wherein in response to ring detection said line select switch is caused to switch to one of said multiple telephone lines 10 15 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 that is ringing and said off hook switch for said one of said multiple telephone lines that is ringing is switched to an off hook position 23 App
10. switches 70 and 71 Manual outgoing dialing and voice communication may then occur For computer controlled outgoing dialing computing equipment 10 first causes modem controller 50 to select the 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 50 60 65 6 desired lines 20 or 21 via line select switch 61 The appro priate one of off hook switches 63 or 64 is then closed and the modem controller 50 causes modem data pump 52 to initiate telephone dialing such as DTMF or pulse dialing over the selected line Handset switches 70 and 71 are set in accordance with the selected line and the user is then instructed to lift the handset from telephone handset 19 As soon as loop current detect LCD signal is detected indi cating the presence of loop current between the tip and ring wires of telephone handset 19 modem controller 50 discon nects both of off hook switches 63 and 64 to permit the user to conduct ordinary voice communication If the user does not lift the handset from telephone handset 19 then the LCD signal will not be detected and when the called party answers the fax modem voice chipset 41 will operate in accordance with its ordinary programming For incoming calls ring detect circuits 65 and 66 detect that one of the telephone lines carries a ringing signal and signals that detection to modem controller 50 via AND gate 68 Computing equipment 10 reads its unshown computer register to determine which line is ringing and cont
11. telephone handset in the case that said telephone handset goes off hook 45 A method according to claim 44 further comprising a step of going off hook for said at least one data communi cation device in the case that loop current is not detected within a predetermined period 46 A method according to claim 45 further comprising a step of going on hook for said at least one data communi cation device in the case that loop current is detected after going off hook for said at least one data communication device 47 A method according to claim 41 further comprising a step of going off hook for the data communication device 48 A method according to claim 47 further comprising a step of blocking ring detect signals in a case where said data communication device is off hook 49 A method according to claim 47 further comprising a step of moving the handset switch to an unselected line in a case where the data communication device is off hook
12. to the ringing line If the user does not lift the handset within a predetermined period such as two rings the data communication device is caused to go off hook A local voice mode is also provided whereby the com munication board can be used for local play out and record ing of audio information This brief summary has been provided so that the nature of the invention may be understood quickly A more com plete understanding of the invention can be obtained by reference to the following detailed description of the pre ferred embodiment thereof in connection with the attached drawings BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 is a perspective view of the outward appearance of an apparatus illustrative of a communication arrangement for personal computing equipment in which the present invention is incorporated FIG 2 is a block diagram of the FIG 1 apparatus FIG 3 is a functional block diagram of a communication board according to the invention FIG 4 is a schematic circuit diagram of the communica tion board shown in FIG 3 FIG 5 is a schematic circuit diagram of the control logic shown in FIG 4 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG 1 is a view showing the outward appearance of a representative embodiment of the invention Shown in FIG l is computing equipment 10 such as an IBM PC or PC compatible computer having an operating system such as a Microsoft Windows operating system The computing
13. 0 is set then line 1 is ringing while if bit 1 is set then line 2 is ringing After determining which line is ringing the handset is moved to the ringing line by setting the appropriate one of handset switches 70 and 71 Then by performing an I O write to bit 4 of the BASE 0 register as shown in the above Table I line select switch 61 is set to the ringing line and by performing an I O write to the BASE 0 register the appropriate one of modem off hook switches 63 and 64 is set to the ringing line The call is then answered via chipset 41 or by the user lifting the handset of telephone handset 19 which action is detected by modem controller 50 through the loop current detect LCD signal as described hereinabove Specific operations taking into consideration the current state of the telephone handset and the fax modem voice chipset are described as follows incoming Call On Line 1 If neither the fax modem voice chipset 41 nor telephone handset 19 is in use then computing equipment 10 connects both chipset 41 and telephone handset 19 to line 1 as described hereinabove If chipset 41 is not in use but line 2 is in use by telephone handset 19 then computing equipment 10 connects chipset 41 to line 1 5 515 423 9 If chipset 41 is currently conducting communications on line 2 and telephone handset 19 is not in use then com puting equipment 10 moves telephone handset 19 to line 1 for attended voice operation Alternative
14. 2 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 line 1 ringing line 2 ringing FIG 5 is a detailed schematic diagram of control logic 45 As shown in FIG 5 control logic 45 accepts the off hook signal OH from modem controller 50 and combines it using OR and AND gate logic circuitry with control bits 2 3 and 4 from BASE 0 register so as to obtain the line select signal for line select switch 61 the modem off hook signals for off hook switches 63 and 64 and the handset signals for handset switches 70 and 71 The logic circuitry implements the following boolean equations LINE SELECT BIT4 OFFHOOK LINE 1 OH BIT4 BIT2 BIT4 OFFHOOK LINE 2 OH BIT4 BIT2 BIT4 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 65 8 HANDSET TO LINE 1 BIT3 HANDSET TO LINE2 BIT3 More simply as shown in Table I above bit 3 controls handset switches 70 and 71 and bit 4 controls line select switch 61 As for off hook switches 63 and 64 off hook switch 63 corresponding to line 1 is closed if modem controller 50 signals to go off hook by raising off hook signal OH and if line 1 is selected bit 4 0 and also if line 2 is selected i e bit 4 1 and bit 2 is set to force busy on unselected lines Likewise off hook switch 64 corresponding to line 2 is closed if modem controller 50 signals to go off hook by raising off hook signal OH and if line 2 is selected bit 4 1 and also if line 1 is selected i e bit 4 0 and bit 2 is set to for
15. 2 multiple telephone lines to the data communication device via a single transformer and associated 2 4 converter Off 56 References Cited hook switches are provided for each telephone line so that the data communication device can cause the selected tele U S PATENT DOCUMENTS phone line to go off hook Likewise ring detectors are 3 771 134 11 1973 Huettner et al 395 325 provided for each telephone line so that the data communi 3 920 928 11 1975 379 163 cation device can detect which of those lines is ringing 4 578 537 3 1986 Faggin et al 379 93 Telephone handset switches may be provided for each 4 640 989 2 1987 Riner etal 379 94 telephone line so that the telephone handset may be swit 2 d M chably connected to any one of the multiple telephone lines 924 inpar 5 056 132 10 1991 Coleman et al 379 95 The ma Pe on n 5 056 133 10 1991 lida 2 37008 RES appear BUSY S OF 1t may De 5 131 026 7 1992 Park s 379 100 configured in a voice local mode in which the telephone 5 142 567 8 1992 Watanabe 379 100 handset may be used for play out and recording of audio 5 151 972 9 1992 Lorenz et al 379 93 information 5 224 155 6 1993 Satomi et al 379 100 5 283 819 2 1994 Glick et al 379 03 49 Claims 5 Drawing Sheets 31 COMPUTER BUS 43 1 1 1 t 1 FAX 1 76 MODEM AND VOICE
16. YOMLAN AV 1dSIG 9E H3NNVOS OLL NIV 08 5 515 423 Sheet 3 of 5 May 7 1996 U S Patent 9l ol el Ot uaxxvads QHVO8 NOILVOINNWNWNOO I I Lo 2i 3NOHd3131 WW us Bog 13SdlHO 1 H31H3AN W3GOW XV3 HEINT SSAOOV viva ISO Wade 3NOHd318a1 Oc Lv 21901 10HLNOO 1 ad 13SGNVH Le 3NOHdH IAL E sna d3lndWoo 61 5 515 423 Sheet 4 of 5 May 7 1996 U S Patent SANIT WACOW doo pe eg wa Yla FGOW WOOT IT uayvaas Tr 19313 i l i a SNIH HO 89 E oes ut i d21 LASdIHO EE apre pee 197 9 10313059NlH i X N3QON 103130 EL 97 1 At d GL ONIH sem Ww 29 I E EL 1 96 An Rh ee 4 SRN 7 S 1L At JH i HALYAANOD dWNd Viva i viz W3aow NE I ET L9 I Sb 109195 I a 3NITOLI3SONVH S1I8 LASGNVH OL L3SONYH 21901 3NOHd TOHINOO i JSN3S I vA L IN3OON ME ee sna u31ndwoo V Te 5 515 423 Sheet 5 of 5
17. aid multiple telephone lines as an second selected signal for connection to said telephone handset wherein said handset line selecting step selects one of said multiple telephone lines in a second preferential order which determines which of said multiple tele phone lines said second selected signal is selected from said second preferential order being in reversed order from said first preferential order 5 515 423 13 34 A method according to claim 33 further comprising a step of conducting data communication by said communi cation device over the selected one of said multiple tele phone lines 35 A method according to claim 34 wherein said step of conducting data communication is preceded by a step of closing an off hook switch 36 A method according to claim 34 further comprising a step of connecting said telephone handset to an unused one of said multiple telephone lines in accordance with said second preferential order 37 A method according to claim 34 further comprising a step of forcing busy on unused ones of said multiple telephone lines 38 A method according to claim 37 further comprising a step of connecting a low resistance resistor across tip and ring wires of unused ones of said multiple telephone lines 39 A method according to claim 33 wherein said data communication line selecting step includes a step of switch ing a line select switch so as to connect a two wire data access arrangement to a four wir
18. and use of a computerized address list may instruct the computer to cause a selected telephone line to go off hook a selected telephone number to be dialed and indicate to the operator that the called party has answered Incoming calls may also be handled by the computer and a telephone usage log may be maintained FIG 2 is a detailed block diagram showing the internal construction of computing equipment 10 As shown in FIG 2 computing equipment 10 includes central processing unit CPU 30 such as an 80386 or a reduced instruction set computer RISC interfaced to computer bus 31 Also inter faced to computer bus 31 is scanner interface 32 for inter facing to scanner 18 display interface 34 for interfacing to display 11 network interface 35 for interfacing to network line 22 printer interface 36 for interfacing to printer 24 keyboard interface 37 for interfacing to keyboard 15 and pointing interface 38 for interfacing to pointing device 16 Read only memory ROM 101 interfaces with computer bus 31 so as to provide CPU 30 with specialized and invariant functions such as start up programs or BIOS programs Main memory 110 which includes random access memory RAM provides CPU 30 with memory storage both for data and application programs as required In particular when executing stored program instruction sequences such as multimedia message management pro grams CPU 30 normally loads those instruction sequences from disk 14 or othe
19. ans for blocking ring detect signal in the case where the data communication device is engaged in data communication 10 A communication board according to claim 7 further comprising force busy means connected between said off hook switches and said line select switch said force busy means operating in dependence on which of said multiple telephone lines is selected by said line select switch so as to force a telephone busy condition on unselected ones of said multiple telephone lines 1l A communication board according to claim 10 wherein said force busy means is comprised by a relay and wherein the telephone busy condition is forced on unse 5 515 423 lected ones of said multiple telephone lines whose off hook switches are actuated 12 A communication board according to claim 5 further comprising one handset switch for each of said multiple telephone lines each said handset switch for switching its respective telephone line to a telephone handset interface 13 A communication board according to claim 12 further comprising a loop current detector for detecting loop current at said telephone handset interface 14 A communication board according to claim 13 wherein said data communication device includes an audio input interface said audio input interface being selectively blocked in accordance with loop current detection 15 A communication board according to claim 13 wherein said telephone handset interface is conn
20. aratus according to claim 22 further comprising means for blocking ring detect signal in the case where the communication device is engaged in data communication 24 Apparatus according to claim 21 further comprising force busy means connected between said off hook switches and said line select switch said force busy means operating in dependence on which of said multiple telephone lines is selected by said line select switch so as to force a telephone busy condition on unselected ones of said multiple telephone lines 25 Apparatus according to claim 24 wherein said force busy means is comprised by a relay and wherein the telephone busy condition is forced on unselected ones of said multiple telephone lines whose off hook switches are actuated 26 Apparatus according to claim 19 further comprising one handset switch for each of said multiple telephone lines each said handset switch for switching its respective tele phone line to a telephone handset interface 27 Apparatus according to claim 26 further comprising a loop current detector for detecting loop current to said telephone handset interface 28 Apparatus according to claim 27 wherein said data communication device includes an audio input interface said audio input interface being selectively blocked in accordance with loop current detection 29 Apparatus according to claim 27 wherein said tele phone handset interface is connected to one of said multiple telephone lin
21. ation device and 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 35 60 65 10 a data access arrangement having a line select switch interposed between the two wire connection of said 2 4 converter and said multiple telephone lines said data access arrangement operable under computer control to switchably select the two wire signal from any one of said multiple telephone lines so as to electrically con nect the selected two wire signal from any of said multiple telephone lines to said two wire connection of said 2 4 converter 2 A communication board according to claim 1 wherein said data access arrangement includes a transformer inter posed between said line select switch and said two wire connection of said 2 4 converter said transformer providing impedance matching between the selected two wire signal from any of said multiple telephone lines and the two wire connection of said 2 4 converter 3 A communication board according to claim 1 wherein said communication device is comprised by a fax modem voice chipset 4 A communication board according to claim 1 further comprising force busy means which operates in dependence on which of said multiple telephone lines is selected by said line select switch so as to force a telephone busy condition on unselected ones of said multiple telephone lines 5 A communication board operable under computer con trol said communication board comprising a data access arrangement for acces
22. ce busy on unselected lines In operation and in response to an incoming call on any of the phone lines the system preferentially activates the data communication device here the modem fax voice chipset while activating the handset when the communica tion device is busy In addition the communication device is protected from unwanted interruptions while allowing a user manually to respond to incoming phones via the telephone handset 19 It is also possible to block incoming calls by forcing unused lines to a busy state Such functionality is preferred in an unattended state where a user is unable to respond manually to incoming telephone calls while the communication device is in use The reason why such functionality is desirable is because a caller calling an unattended station may become aggravated at an unan swered telephone line and will be less aggravated if a busy signal is instead obtained In addition automatic message dialing systems such as remote facsimile machines ordi narily have re try modes for message dialing and those re try modes are activated only if a busy signal is obtained Of course it is possible to replace telephone handset 19 with an ordinary voice telephone answering machine to accom modate unattended operation In general after detecting a ring detect signal computing equipment 10 performs an I O read of its BASE 2 register to determine which line is ringing As shown in the above Table if bit
23. e data communication device via a 2 4 converter 40 A method according to claim 33 wherein said hand set line selecting step includes the step of selectively switching a respective one of plural handset select switches 41 A control method for controlling telephonic commu nications between multiple telephone lines and at least one telephone handset and at least one data communication device said control method comprising the steps of detecting a ring signal on one of said multiple telephone lines determining which of said multiple telephone lines is a ringing telephone line connecting a handset switch to said ringing telephone line 5 10 15 20 25 30 14 moving a line select switch for said at least one data communication device to said ringing telephone line transmitting a two wire signal from said ringing telephone line from said line select switch to a two wire connec tion of a 2 4 converter and transmitting a four wire signal from a four wire connec tion of said 2 4 converter to said at least one data communication device 42 Amethod according to claim 41 wherein the detecting step includes a step of writing a bit indicative of said ringing telephone line to a computer register 43 A method according to claim 42 wherein the deter mining step includes a step of reading bits in said computer register 44 A method according to claim 41 further comprising a step of detecting loop current in the
24. ected to one of said multiple telephone lines in response to loop current detection 16 A communication board according to claim 5 further comprising a transformer interposed between said 2 4 con verter and said line select switch said transformer for matching impedance from said 2 4 converter to that of said multiple telephone lines 17 A communication board according to claim 5 further comprising a voice relay for disconnecting all of said multiple telephone lines from said data access arrangement 18 A communication board according to claim 5 further comprising a first microphone connectable to the data com munication device a telephone handset which includes a second microphone and which is also connectable to the data communication device and a loop current detector for detecting loop current at said telephone handset wherein only one of the first and second microphones are operable in accordance with loop current detection 19 A telephone communication apparatus comprising computing equipment programmed to send and to receive telephone communication over any one of multiple telephone lines using a data communication device and a communication board connected to said computing equipment and responsive to program control from said computing equipment so as to select any one of said multiple telephone lines said communication board being comprised by a 2 4 converter having a two wire connection and a four wire connection
25. es in response to loop current detection 30 Apparatus according to claim 19 further comprising a transformer interposed between said 2 4 converter and said line select switch said transformer for matching impedance from said 2 4 converter to that of said multiple telephone lines 31 Apparatus according to claim 19 further comprising a voice relay for disconnecting all of said multiple telephone lines from said data access arrangement 32 Apparatus according to claim 19 further comprising a first microphone connectable to the data communication device a telephone handset which includes a second micro phone and which is also connectable to the data communi cation device and a loop current detector for detecting loop current at said telephone handset wherein only one of the first and second microphones are operable in accordance with loop current detection 33 A contro method for controlling telephonic commu nications between multiple telephone lines and at least one telephone handset and at least one data communication device said control method comprising the steps of data communication line selecting step of selecting one of said multiple telephone lines as a first selected signal for connection to said data communication device in a first preferential order which determines which of said multiple telephone lines said first selected signal is selected from and a handset line selecting step of selecting another one of s
26. gnal from control logic 45 and operates to connect the unused telephone line to resistor R1 Force busy is obtained by closing the off hook switch for the unselected telephone lines thereby connecting the telephone line to resistor 1 which has a value e g 100 low enough to indicate to the telephone central office that the unused telephone line is busy As an operational example if line select switch 61 is set to select line 1 then because of inverter 77 force busy relay 76 connects resistor R1 to line 2 force busy on line 2 control logic 45 causes modem off hook switch 64 corresponding to line 2 to close The telephone central office sees resistor R1 and interprets that resistor as an indication that line 2 is busy Thus callers calling into line 2 will receive a busy signal even though no physical telephone equipment e g telephone handset 19 or chipset 41 is connected to line 2 As mentioned above control of the communication board is accomplished through bit settings in an unshown com puter register The following tables I and II show those bit settings TABLE I I O WRITE TO CONFIGURATION REGISTER BASE 0 comm port setting 0 don t force busy on unselected lines 1 force busy on unselected lines 0 handset to line 1 1 handset to line 2 0 line select to line 1 1 line select to line 2 IRQ setting TABLE II READ CONFIGURATION REGISTER 2 BASE
27. ice local mode In the voice local mode voice relay 75 is activated to disconnect DAA 44 from all telephone lines and to connect the DAA to V voltage supply In the voice local mode the communication board can be used to play out sound over either speaker 12 or the speaker in telephone handset 19 or to record sound either from micro phone 13 or from the microphone in telephone handset 19 More specifically when the voice local mode is desired a voice local mode signal is sent from modem controller 50 to voice relay 75 thereby disconnecting DAA 44 from all telephone lines and reconnecting it to V Thereafter sound from modem data pump 52 may be heard over speaker 12 or the speaker in telephone handset 19 At the same time sound may be recorded from either microphone 13 or from the microphone in telephone handset 19 In this regard using loop current detect signal LCD AND gate 57 will block recordal of sound from microphone 13 in the case that the handset has been lifted from the telephone handset 19 thereby preventing sound from being recorded from both the telephone handset and microphone 13 at the same time 5 515 423 7 Relay 76 operates to force a busy signal on unselected ones of the multiple telephone lines Thus as shown in FIG 4 relay 76 is connected to each of the telephone lines between the line select switch 61 and off hook switches 63 and 64 The relay 76 is actuated through inverter 77 by the line select si
28. ly by setting bit 2 of BASE 0 which causes unselected lines to appear busy to the telephone central office it is possible to force busy on line 1 for unattended operation If both the modem and the phone handset are conducting communication on line 2 then line 1 is forced busy by setting bit 2 as described above Incoming Call On Line 2 If neither chipset 41 and telephone handset 19 are in use computing equipment 10 connects both chipset 41 and telephone handset 19 to line 2 If chipset 41 is conducting communication on line 1 and telephone handset 19 is not in use then computing equip ment 10 connects telephone handset to line 2 for attended operation Alternatively it is possible to force busy on line 2 by setting bit to of BASE 0 register for unattended operation chipset 41 is not in use but telephone handset 19 is in use with line 1 then computing equipment 10 connects chipset 41 to line 2 If both chipset 41 and telephone handset 19 are conduct ing communication on line 1 then line 2 is forced busy by setting bit 2 of BASE 0 register Outgoing Calls From Chipset 41 For an outgoing call by chipset 41 then computing equipment 10 preferentially connects chipset 41 to the first available line first line 1 or if line 1 is in use then to line 2 Alternatively it is possible for computing equipment 10 to override this automatic selection by appropriate writes to bits in the
29. ook switches 63 and 64 an off hook signal OH is generated by modem controller 50 The OH signal blocks a ring detect signal in the event that either line is off hook thereby preventing modem controller 50 from being inter rupted from its modem operations when one of the lines is off hook and engaged in modem operations The DAA further includes for each telephone line a handset switch 70 and 71 for connecting lines 20 and 21 respectively to telephone handset 19 via handset interface 100 The handset switches 70 and 71 are operated under control of control logic 45 via handset to line 1 and handset to line 2 control signals These signals are set such that only one telephone line is connected to telephone handset 19 at any one time and preferably they are set such that if data communications are being conducted on one telephone line the handset is not connected to that line A loop current detect device 74 is positioned between the ring and tip wires of telephone handset 19 so as to sense a loop current when the handset in telephone handset 19 is lifted If a loop current is detected then loop current detect device 74 sends a loop current detect LCD signal to modem controller 50 and to AND gate 57 Telephone handset 19 is operable in either a manual mode or a computer controlled mode In the manual mode when telephone handset 19 is lifted it is connected to one of telephone lines 20 or 21 in accordance with the setting of handset
30. r program storage media to main memory 110 and executes those stored program instruction sequences out of the main memory A communication board 40 which includes a data com munication device is connected to computer bus 31 so as to 10 15 20 50 55 60 65 4 provide computing equipment 10 with access to and control over multiple telephone lines and an ordinary telephone handset The communication board device on 40 preferably includes a combined fax modem voice chipset such as the type described in the RC96ACL RCI44ACL Modem Designer s Guide Rockwell International Digital Commu nications Division published 1993 the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference Such a fax modem voice chipset provides a facsimile modem for automatic facsimile transmission and reception a data modem for automatic data transmission and reception and a digital voice communication capability for digitizing incoming voice communications and storing the digitized voice in a computer file and or converting a digitized voice in com puter files into analog form for play out over voice telephone lines The communication board 40 further includes a data access arrangement DAA which includes a line select switch for selecting any one of multiple telephone lines for connection to the fax modem voice chipset The DAA fur ther includes the capability for connecting to external speaker 12 or microphone 13 as well as for connecting to
31. rol logic 45 then switches line select switch 61 to the appropriate line In addition control logic 45 sets handset select switches 70 or 71 to the ringing line If after a predetermined period such as two rings the LCD signal is not detected indicating that the user has not lifted the handset then control logic 45 causes the ringing line to go off hook by setting modem off hook switches 63 or 64 as appropriate The fax modem voice chipset then operates in accordance with its pre programmed instructions Ordinarily computing equipment 10 is programmed such that if the LCD signal is detected by the user lifting the handset from telephone handset 19 off hook switches 63 and 64 are both disconnected leaving the user in ordinary voice communication with the calling party As mentioned above if the fax modem voice chipset 41 is engaged in data communications via one of telephone lines 20 or 21 then the ring detect signal to chipset 41 is blocked via AND gate 68 because of the existence of the OH signal Because the ring detect signal is blocked chipset 41 will not be interrupted in its fax or modem or voice communications At the same time because handset switches 70 and 71 are ordinarily set to the unused telephone line any incoming calls on that line will activate the ringer in telephone handset 19 thus alerting the user aurally to the presence of such a ringing signal DAA 44 further includes a voice relay 75 for setting DAA 44 to a vo
32. sing multiple tele phone lines each of which includes a tip and ring wire said data access arrangement including a line select switch which switchably connects the tip and ring wires of a selectable one of said multiple telephone lines to a two wire output of said data access arrangement and a 2 4 converter for converting the two wire output from said data access arrangement to four wire communica tion so as to permit interface between a four wire data communication device and the selectable one of the multiple telephone lines 6 A communication board according to claim 5 wherein said data communication device is comprised by a fax modem voice chipset 7 A communication board according to claim 5 further comprising an off hook switch for each of said multiple telephone lines each off hook switch being positioned in series with its respective phone line and being operable under computer control to cause a telephone line which is selected by said line select switch to go off hook 8 A communication board according to claim 7 further comprising a ring detect means for each of said multiple telephone lines wherein in response to ring detection said line select switch is caused to switch to one of said multiple telephone lines that is ringing and said off hook switch for said one of said multiple telephone lines that is ringing is switched to an off hook position 9 A communication board according to claim 8 further comprising me
33. ting informa tion processed by computing equipment 10 An unshown communication board which is described in considerable detail below connects computing equipment 10 to an ordinary telephone handset 19 as well as to a multiple telephone lines here two telephone lines 20 and 21 In accordance with operator instructions stored applica tion programs are activated and permit processing and manipulation of data For example any of a variety of application programs such as a multimedia message man agement program a word processing program an image editing program spreadsheet programs and similar infor mation processing programs may be provided for operator selection and use Thus a word processing program may be activated to permit an operator to create view manipulate and print documents and to send or receive documents via a communication board and one of the multiple telephone lines Likewise a multimedia message management pro gram may be activated to permit an operator to create manipulate and view multimedia documents which contain a variety of objects such as text objects bitmap objects computer graphic objects sound objects and motion video objects and to send and to receive such multimedia docu ments via the communication board on one of the multiple telephone lines The multimedia message management pro gram may also be provided with telephone handset control capabilities with which an operator through manipulation
34. trol both fax modem voice communications as well as to control an ordinary telephone handset and at the same time allow simultaneous use of those devices More particularly a communication board according to the invention includes a data access arrangement having a line select switch which switchably connects one of multiple telephone lines to a data communication device such as connecting one of multiple telephone lines to a fax modem voice chipset via a single transformer and associated 2 4 converter Off hook switches controllable by the data com 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 munication device are provided for each telephone line so that the data communication device can cause the selected telephone line to go off hook Likewise ring detectors are provided for each telephone line so that the data communi cation device can detect which one of those lines is ringing Telephone handset switches may be provided for each telephone line so that a telephone handset may be switchably connected to a selected one of the telephone lines The handset switches are preferably controlled such that the telephone handset is not connected to the telephone line currently engaged in data communication In operation a ringing signal on one of the multiple telephone lines is detected and a determination is made as to which line is ringing The line select switch and the telephone handset switch are switched
35. with the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference Computer users today ordinarily have more than one telephone line available to them They use these multiple telephone lines to permit the computer to transmit fax modem voice messages over one telephone line at the same time as an ordinary voice conversation is conducted on a telephone handset over a second telephone line But because conventional communication boards which support only one telephone line require connection to the telephone handset this flexibility is lost This is particularly the case in situations where a user desires the computer to control operations of the ordinary telephone handset such as by automatic dialing from the computer or automatically main taining telephone usage statistics SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the invention to address the foregoing difficulties through the provision of a two line telephone controller In one aspect the invention provides a data access arrangement for a computer controllable communication board in which the data access arrangement functions as an intermediary between two standard telephone lines a fax modem voice chipset and a standard telephone handset Under computer control the data access arrangement swit chably connects any of multiple telephone lines to an ordinary telephone handset or to a fax modem voice chipset With this arrangement a computer user can utilize the computer to con
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search