REMOTE TERMINAL FOR A VIEWDATA TELEPHONE DIRECTORY SYSTEMDESCRIPTIONThe present invention relates to a remote terminal for a viewdata telephone directory system and a method of dialling a telephone number.
It is known for a viewdata system to provide a telephone directory service by which a user can interactively locate a person's telephone number.
Conventionally, the same telephone line will be required for both the viewdata system and the subsequent dialling of the located telephone number.
Thus, the user must memorise the located number while disconnecting from the viewdata system before the number can be dialled.
In a system disclosed in JP 62-11363, the telephone number of a desired CAPTAIN centre or telephone subscriber is memorised while viewing a menu displayed on a display and the memorised telephone number is then dialled by operating a keypad of a CAPTAIN terminal as needed by a user, with a result that the procedure is somewhat complicated.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a remote terminal for a viewdata telephone directory system including a memory means arranged to store a telephone number selected under user control from data received from a host computer and a telephone dialling means responsive to the memory means to dial a telephone number stored therein.
The memory means may comprise a processing means and a memory wherein the processing means controls the flow of data to and from the memory. The processing means may also control other aspects of the operation of the terminal.
The terminal may be arranged such that a selected telephone number is stored by memory means automatically on selection.
Preferably, the memory means includes an electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM). The memory means may also include a buffer memory for storing a telephone number being dialled during dialling.
Preferably, the terminal includes a plurality of user input keys. The plurality of keys may include cursor keys and the terminal may be responsive to operation of the cursor keys to cause a cursor to move on a display fdr selection of a telephone number. The display may be a television or a dedicated display.
Preferably, the telephone dialling means comprises a modem which is also used for the reception of telephone directory data from a host computer.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of dialling a telephone number comprising the steps of: (a) connecting to a viewdata telephone directory system; (b) selecting a locally displayed telephone number; (c) storing the selected telephone number locally; (d) disconnecting from the viewdata telephone directory system; and (e) automatically dialling the stored number.
Preferably step (b) is performed by moving a cursor on a display.
Preferably step (c) includes requesting retransmission of locally displayed data from the host computer.
Preferably step (e) is performed using a modem also used for step (a).
An embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in whichFigure 1 is a block diagram of a viewdata system which is employed in preferred embodiment of the present invention; andFigure 2A to 2D are flow charts illustrating the operating sequence of the viewdata terminal shown inFigure 1.
Referring to Figure 1, a viewdata remote terminal comprises a microcomputer MP which controls the terminal, a peripheral interface adapter 10 which is connected to a key matrix K1 for the input of user commands to the microprocessor MP, and an electrically programmable ROM 20 which is connected to the microprocessor MP and has a system control program stored therein. The ROM 20 is accessed by the microprocessor MP.The terminal also has an asynchronous communication interface adapter 40 for communicating with a host computer (not shown) through a modem 30 and transferring the data received therefrom to the microprocessor MP, a video system controller 50 which is connected to the microprocessor MP and generates video RAM address and control signals in order to display the received data base contents of the host computer, a video RAM 60 which is connected by a memory address bus line MA-BUS to the video system controller 50 and directly stores the picture information, and an electrically erasable programmableROM (EEPROM) 70 which is connected to the microprocessor MP for storing telephone numbers and other setup conditions under the control of the microprocessor MP and maintains the stored contents even if the power supply is turned off abruptly.
In addition, bi-directional data bus lines D-Bus are provided between the microprocessor MP and each of the circuit blocks and directional address bus lines A-Bus are provided between the microprocessor and circuit blocks.
Referring to Figure 2A which shows a main flow chart illustrating the operation sequence of the present invention, the main operation comprises a process procedure P1, in which the desired telephone number is searched and selected, when it is determined that the terminal is on line, by way of the key scanning, and a process procedure P2, in which the automatic dialling and memorising operations for the selected telephone number are executed when it is determined that the terminal is off line.
Figure 2B shows a flow chart illustrating a telephone number search procedure, Figure 2C shows a flow chart illustrating a procedure executed in the case that the desired telephone number is selected by means of a selecting key during the retrieval of the telephone number, and Figure 2D shows a flow chart illustrating a procedure for memorising the selected telephone number in empty address of the EEPROM.
The procedure P1 comprises a telephone number search routine R1, in which the telephone number is searched when the terminal is on line, set in a telephone number search mode, and the cursor up/down key has been operated, after completely searching the name and address indexes, and a telephone number selecting routine, in which the desired telephone number indicated by the cursor is selected when a select key is operated.
The procedure P2 comprises an automatic dialling routine R3 in which the telephone number is automatically dialled when the terminal is placed off line and put in automatic dial mode after scanning of the keys, and an automatic memorising routine R4 in which the telephone number selected by a user is automatically stored in the EEPROM 70 when the terminal is placed off line and put in memorising mode after scanning of the keys.
The telephone number search routine R1 comprises a stepS21 of increasing or decreasing a cursor counter by 1 in accordance with operation of a cursor key, a stepS22 of upwardly or downward moving the cursor by one row in accordance with the increase or decrease of the cursor counter, a step S23 of determining whether the row moved to, is an empty row or not, and a step S24 of determining whether the row is a final row when the row, moved to, is an empty row. In the routine R1, if the final row is detected at the step S24 then the process returns to the initial step. Alternatively, if the final row is not detected at the step S24, it may be considered that a long data string is displayed for a subscriber over two lines of the display. Then, the process returns to the step S22 so as to move the cursor by one row without increasing or decreasing the cursor counter, so that the step of detecting the empty row is repeatedly executed.
The telephone number selecting routine R2 includes a step S31 of requested data from the host computer and the retransfer of the data corresponding to the selected telephone number, a step S32 of determining the end of the data retransfer, a step S33 of separately memorizing the name and telephone number corresponding to the cursor counter when data retransfer has finished, steps S34 and S35 of placing the terminal off line, after memorizing the name and telephone number, and storing the telephone number in a dial buffer as the terminal goes off line, a step S36 of setting the automatic dialling mode, a step S37 of setting the automatic memorizing mode, and a step S38 of displaying the automatic memory mode on the menu picture screen.
The automatic memory routine R3, which is executed when the terminal is off line and in the automatic dial and memory modes, comprises a step S41 of receiving from a key pad the address where the name and telephone number are to be stored in the EEPROM, a step S42 of not memorizing the name and telephone number in case of the selection of a "0" key of the key pad, and storing the name and the telephone number into the allocated address of the EEPROM corresponding to any other key input of the keypad.
The automatic dialling routine R4 comprises a step S7 of determining that the automatic dialling mode is set while the terminal is off line, a step S8 of determining whether the automatic memory mode is set within the automatic dialling mode, a step S9 of automatially dialling the telephone number when the automatic memory mode is not set, and a step S10 of resetting the automatic dialling mode after the end of the dialling in the automatic dialling mode and returning the process to the initial step.
According to this embodiment of the present invention, the microcomputer MP reads out the program stored in the EEPROM 20 to control the system. The asynchronous communication interface adapter 40 serves to access the data base of the host computer through the modem 30, and the system controller 50 and the video RAM 60 are employed to display the data retrieved from the data base of the host computer The video system controller 50 generates the address and control signals for controlling the video RAM 60 to directly store the picture image information in the video RAM 60.
The key scanning is executed by way of the peripheral interface adapter 10 and various set up conditions including the storage of the telephone number are stored in the EEPROM to prevent the conditions from being erased when the power supply is turned off abruptly.
A more detailed description will now be given with reference to Figures 2A to 2D.
First, when key scanning is executed at the step S1 and the on-line state of the terminal is then determined at the step S2, the procedure P1 is executed so as to establish the search and selection of the desired telephone number.
Alternatively, if the off-line state of the terminal is determined at the step S2, then the procedure P2 is executed to achieve the auto-dialling and memorizing mode on the basis of the mode set.
More specifically, if at the step S2 the on-line state is detected, the step S3 is performed to determine whether the presently set mode is the telephone number retrieval mode Accordingly, if the telephone number retrieval mode is determined, then the microprocessor 16 determines whether the data to be indexed, for example, telephone subscriber name, address and the like is set or not.
After determining that the index is set, the telephone number is retrieved. In this case, a plurality of namesakes may be present in the same picture screen.
For this reason, it should be noted that the cursor can be moved onto a desired line by a user so that the line on which the cursor is positioned is selected by depressing the selecting key on the line selected by the user. When the step S5 is executed to determine whether the cursor up/down key has been operated, the control is advanced to the step S21 in the routine R1 to increase or decrease the cursor counter. That is, when the cursor up key is selected, the cursor counter is increased in value by 1. Alternatively, when the cursor down key is input, the cursor counter is decreased in value by 1.
At the step S22, the cursor is moved to a line on which another name is displayed in accordance with the selection of the cursor up/down key. In other words, the cursor is upwardly moved by one row when the cursor up key is input while it is moved downward by one row when the cursor down key is input.
After the movement of the cursor, the operation of the step S23 is carried out to determine whether or not the cursor is positioned on an empty row.
At step S23, if the cursor is not positioned on an empty row, the process returns to the step S1 so as to execute the previously mentioned steps until a telephone number is selected. If the cursor is positioned on an empty row, then the process advances to the step S24 to determine whether it is a final row.
If the final row is detected, then the desired telephone number is not present in the data base and the process returns to the intial step. Alternatively, if the row is not the final row, it can be considered that data such as the address and name of the telephone subscriber are displayed over two lines on the screen.
Accordingly, the process returns to the step S22. At this step S22, the cursor is moved by 1 row without increasing or decreasing the cursor counter to determine.
If it is determined that the select key has been operated to select the telephone number at the step S6, then the microprocessor 16 requests the retransfer of the picture image from the host computer so as to identify the name and telephone number corresponding to the position of the cursor at the step S31 of the telephone number selecting routine R2. Consequently, at the step S32, the microprocessor 16 awaits the end of the retransfer of the picture image data. If the data retransfer is completed, then the name and telephone number are searched by using the value of the cursor counter. The name and telephone number thus searched are separately stored and then the terminal is placed off line at step S34.
At this time, the cursor counter can be used as an index to the name and telephone number selected using the select key in the data retransferred from the host computer. The telephone number, which is identified for automatical dialling, is stored into the dial buffer at the step S35. Then, the automatic dial mode is set at the step S36 and the automatic memory mode is also set at the step S37.
Subsequently, the menu screen for the automatic memory mode is displayed on the screen at the step S38. The menu screen is defined such that the presently empty address in the EEPROM is firstly displayed, and all the addresses of the EEPROM, including the empty address, and any message stored in the EEPROM are then displayed. A message could comprise "select the address to be used". Alternatively, the message "the automatic memory is unnecessary" could be stored in the address "0", this can be advantageously used when the automatic memorizing operation is not needed by a user.
When the automatic memory is selected by a userr the corresponding address is selected.
Accordingly, if it is determined that the terminal is off-line with the automatic dial and memory mode set, the automatic memory routine R4 is carried out to determine whether any key inputs have been made by the user. If it is unnecessary to store the data, the key "0" is used as described above while, if it is necessary to store the data, the name and telephone number are stored in the specified address corresponding to the key operated by the user, at the step S42. At the step S43 the automatic memory mode is reset and the process returns to the initial step.
If the terminal is set in the automatic dial mode at the step S7 but is not in the automatic memory mode at the step S8, the process proceeds to the step S9 to execute the automatic dialling of the telephone number stored in the dial buffer. When the dialling has finished, the automatic dial mode is reset and the process returns to the initial mode, at the step S10. As described above, according to the present invention, the desired telephone number can be retrieved and automatically dialled. Further, the telephone number can be stored in an EEPROM as needed. Thus the convenience of a viewdata telephone directory system is enhanced.