WO2000019744A1

WO2000019744A1 - Emergency telephone system ring suppressor apparatus and method

Info

Publication number: WO2000019744A1
Application number: PCT/US1999/022351
Authority: WO
Inventors: Andrew Guy Carlisle
Original assignee: Motorola Inc.
Priority date: 1998-09-29
Filing date: 1999-09-28
Publication date: 2000-04-06

Abstract

An apparatus and method of ring suppression in an emergency telephone system (100) includes receiving an incoming telephone call (201). Audible signalling, conventionally associated with receipt of the incoming telephone call, is suppressed (203) if it is determined that the incoming telephone call originated from an emergency response center (209). Preferably, when telephone call is received from the emergency response center (117), then the improved structure communicates the vehicle's position to the emergency response center (117).

Description

EMERGENCY TELEPHONE SYSTEM RING SUPPRESSOR APPARATUS AND METHOD

Field of the Invention

This invention is related to the field of emergency systems that use telephone communication and more particularly to an emergency telephone system ring suppressor apparatus and method.

Background of the Invention

Contemporary vehicles are often equipped with alarm systems, emergency telephone systems and the like. One purpose of these systems is to track the position of the vehicle once the vehicle has been identified as being stolen.

A problem with conventional systems is that audible ringing for incoming telephone calls is not suppressed.

What is needed is an improved approach for handling incoming telephone calls originated from the emergency response center so that the vehicle's occupants are not signaled in case of an emergency telephone call especially when the vehicle position is being tracked in case the vehicle is stolen.

Brief Description of the Drawings

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an emergency telephone system in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a preferred method of the emergency telephone system ring suppressor. Detailed Description of a Preferred Embodiment

An apparatus and method of ring suppression in an emergency telephone system includes receiving an incoming telephone call. Audible signaling conventionally associated with receipt of the incoming telephone call is suppressed if it is determined that the incoming telephone call originated from an emergency response center. Preferably, when telephone call is received from the emergency response center, then communicate the vehicle's position. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an emergency telephone system in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention. A vehicle mounted emergency telephone system 100 includes a controller 101 preferably constructed using a single chip microcontroller such as a Motorola MC68HC05 microcontroller. The Motorola MC68HC05 microcontroller has on-board program memory used to store the portion of the preferred method described later. The MC68HC05 microcontroller also has a built-in electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM). Those skilled in the art will readily recognize that other microcontrollers and hardware logic circuits may be substituted for the MC68HC05 microcontroller.

The controller is connected between a handset 103 and a mobile radiotelephone 105. A Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver 107, and optionally a hands-free speaker 1 1 1 are also operatively coupled to the controller 101. The handset 103 has an audio transducer, here a speaker 109 used to signal ringing as well as communicate a vocal conversation. The handset may also have a separate audio transducer used to signal ringing. Note that the hands-free speaker 11 1 can also be used to signal an incoming call to the vehicle's operator and communicate a vocal conversation as well. The GPS receiver 107 enables the emergency telephone system 100 to keep track of the position of the vehicle. This is important when an emergency occurs because the vehicle's position can be communicated to the emergency response center. Of course other position determinations means can be substituted for the GPS receiver 107. The mobile radiotelephone 105 portion of the emergency telephone system 100 can receive a telephone call initiated from another radiotelephone 113, via a radiotelephone infrastructure site 115, or from an emergency response center 1 17. The mobile radiotelephone 105 will receive a telephone call initiated via the radiotelephone infrastructure site 115 when some one intends to call the vehicle's operator to have a voice conversation. The mobile radiotelephone 105 will receive a telephone call initiated from the emergency response center 1 17 during a special situation, such as when the vehicle is known to be stolen. Telephone calls from the emergency response center 1 17 will typically be data rather than voice calls.

Now that the system hardware has been described, the preferred method will be detailed. FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a preferred method of the emergency telephone system ring suppressor. The method steps described here are encoded into the earlier described controller 101 , introduced in FIG. 1. In a first step 201 , the emergency telephone system 100 waits for an incoming call notification. The incoming call can originate either from the emergency response center 1 13 or another telephone via a cellular infrastructure.

Next, in step 203, the handset 103 is disconnected from the mobile radiotelephone 105. More specifically any audio transducers such as the speaker 109 are disabled, so the handset 103 will not make a ringing sound which would alert an occupant of the vehicle. One scenario where this would be useful is when the vehicle is reported as stolen and the owner wants to track the position of the vehicle by making a silent call and prompting the emergency telephone system 100 top send the vehicle's position as determined by the on-board GPS receiver 107. Then, in step 205 the emergency telephone system 100 checks to see if theft recovery was enabled. The theft recovery option is preprogrammed into the EEPROM memory of the controller 101. If the theft recovery option is not enabled, then the method advances to step 213 to wait for a selected period. Then, in step 215 the handset is reconnected to the mobile radiotelephone 105 and the handset is allowed to ring. In this case either the speaker 109 or the hands-free speaker 11 1 will sound.

If the theft recovery option is enabled, then the method advances to step 207. In step 207 the emergency telephone system 100 answers the incoming telephone call.

Next, in step 209 the controller 101 determines whether or not the incoming telephone call originated from the emergency response center 1 17. If the incoming telephone call originated from the emergency response center 117, then the incoming call is processed in step 217. If the incoming telephone call did not originate from the emergency response center 1 17, then it must be a call originating from the radiotelephone infrastructure site 1 15 and the audio functions of the handset and the hands-free speaker 1 11 are reconnected to the mobile radiotelephone 105 via the controller 101 and a pseudo, or substitute ringing sound is sounded through the speaker 109 and/or the hands-free speaker 11 1. The method then repeats.

An improved approach for handling incoming telephone calls has been detailed. Telephone calls originating from the emergency response center do not audibly ring through and alert the vehicle's occupants in case of an emergency telephone call especially when the vehicle position is being tracked in case the vehicle is stolen.

Claims

What is claimed is:Claims

1. A method of ring suppression in an emergency telephone system comprising the steps of: receiving an incoming telephone call; suppressing audible signaling when the incoming telephone call originated from an emergency response center.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising the step of: communicating vehicle position to the emergency response center when the incoming telephone call originated from an emergency response center.

3. A method in accordance with claim 2 wherein the step of communicating vehicle position comprises a step of: determining vehicle position using a Global Positioning System.

4. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising the step of: generating a pseudo ring when the incoming telephone call does not originate from an emergency response center.

5. A method of ring suppression in an emergency telephone system comprising the steps of: receiving an incoming telephone call; decoupling an audio transducer from a mobile radiotelephone; answering the incoming call when theft recovery is enabled; coupling an audio transducer to the mobile radiotelephone when the incoming call does not originate from an emergency response center; and generating a pseudo ring responsive to the step of coupling.

6. A method in accordance with claim 5 further comprising the steps of: skipping the steps of coupling an audio transducer, and generating a pseudo ring when the incoming call originates from an emergency response center; and then communicating vehicle position to the emergency response center.

7. A method in accordance with claim 6 wherein the step of communicating vehicle position comprises a step of: determining vehicle position using a Global Positioning System.

8. A method in accordance with claim 7 further comprising the step of: generating a pseudo ring when the incoming telephone call does not originate from an emergency response center.

9. An apparatus for ring suppression in an emergency telephone system comprising: a mobile radiotelephone for receiving an incoming telephone call; and an audio transducer coupled to the mobile radiotelephone; and a controller for decoupling the audio transducer from the mobile radiotelephone when the incoming telephone call received by the mobile radiotelephone originated from an emergency response center.

10. An apparatus in accordance with claim 9 wherein the controller further comprises means for communicating vehicle position to the emergency response center when the incoming telephone call originates from an emergency response center.