Telephony apparatus
AssigneeMiller Asset, LLC.
InventorLARRY MILLER
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and methods through which incoming calls to and/or outgoing calls from a telephone can be controlled. The present invention utilizes an authorized caller list to determine whether an incoming call should be connected, and a similar list to determine whether an outgoing call should be connected. The present invention can also facilitate the use of new telephone user interfaces, including by iterating through telephone numbers associated with a contact, until communications with the contact are established.
Claims18
A telephone comprising:
- an interface on the phone that is capable of being directly programmed to receive a first administrator identifier and authorized contact information;
- a storage device that is capable of storing the authorized contact information and a predetermined administrator identifier that is pre-associated with the telephone;
- and
- a processor that is capable of comparing the first administrator identifier to the predetermined administrator identifier, and if the first administrator identifier matches the predetermined administrator identifier then restricting outgoing calls only to authorized contacts specified in the authorized contact information.
A telephone comprising:
- an interface that is capable of being directly programmed with a first administrator identifier and telephone numbers;
- a storage device that is capable of storing the telephone numbers and a predetermined administrator identifier that is pre-associated with the telephone;
- and
- a processor that is capable of
- comparing the first administrator identifier to the predetermined administrator identifier, and
- if the first administrator identifier matches the predetermined administrator identifier then
- storing the programmed telephone numbers, and,
- restricting outgoing calls from the telephone to only the stored telephone numbers.
A method of restricting the calling and reception capabilities of a telephone, comprising:
- receiving a first administrator identifier;
- receiving authorized contacts;
- comparing the first administrator identifier to a predetermined administrator identifier that is pre-associated with the telephone;
- and
- if the first administrator identifier matches a predetermined administrator identifier then storing the authorized contacts and restricting outgoing calls only to the authorized contacts.
A cell phone for restricting the calling capabilities of the cell phone, the improvement comprising:
- software capable of receiving a first administrator identifier, receiving authorized contact information, comparing the first administrator identifier to a predetermined administrator identifier that is pre-associated with the telephone, and if the first administrator identifier matches a predetermined administrator identifier then storing the authorized contact information and restricting outgoing calls only to the authorized contacts associated with the authorized contact information.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.