Dynamic virtual paging method and apparatus
OwnerDavid E. Gilliland, William M. Storms +1inventors
InventorsDAVID E. GILLILAND, WILLIAM M. STORMS, PAULETTE A. THOMPSON
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Abstract
A caller (11) may communicate a message to a predetermined group of paging devices (141-14m) by entering a virtual Personal Identification Number associated with that group of devices, rather than a single actual device. Upon its receipt, a paging system (10) determines whether the caller-entered PIN constitutes a virtual PIN, and if so, then determines the paging devices within the associated group by accessing a database (28) containing such information. Once the predetermined group of paging devices is identified, the paging system communicates a caller-entered message thereto.
Claims14
A method for communicating a caller-entered message to a predetermined group of paging devices in response to caller-entered Personal Identification Number (PIN), comprising the steps of:
- receiving the caller-entered PIN and message;
- accessing a database in response to the caller-entered PIN to determine whether the caller-entered PIN is a virtual PIN, and if so, then identifying the group of individual paging devices associated with the virtual PIN;
- and
- communicating the caller-entered message to the group of individual paging devices associated with the virtual PIN.
Apparatus for communicating a caller-entered message to a predetermined group of paging devices in response to a caller-entered Personal Identification Number (PIN), comprising:
- means for receiving the caller-entered PIN and message;
- a database containing list of virtual PINs and for each virtual PIN, a list of PINS of associated paging devices;
- means responsive to the caller-entered PIN for accessing the datebase to determine whether the caller-entered PIN is a virtual PIN, and if so, the PINs of the paging devices associated with the caller-entered PIN;
- and
- means for communicating the caller-entered message to the group of individual paging devices associated with the virtual PIN.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.