Rotary dial pulse receiver

A method of decoding bursts of line current activity produced by rotary dial action of any one of a plurality of telephone handsets wherein each of said handsets does not necessarily produce the same number of bursts of line current activity for a given digit dialed comprising the steps of:

• providing a count of the number of bursts of line current activity produced by a handset in dialing a predetermined test digit at a predetermined location in a sequence of digits dialed;
• selecting from among a plurality of conversion algorithms, and in response to any one of a plurality of possible counts producible by dialing said predetermined test digit from one of said plurality of handsets, a conversion algorithm effective to convert the output count produced by dialing said predetermned test digit from said one handset to the numerical value of said predetermined test digit dialed;
• providing a count of the number of bursts of line current activity produced by dialing from said one handset each other digit in said sequence of digits;
• and
• applying said conversion algorithm to convert the count produced by dialing from said one handset each said other digit in said sequence of digits dialed by said one handset to its respective numerical value.

A method of decoding bursts of line current activity produced by rotary dial action of any one of a plurality of telephone handsets wherein each of said handsets does not necessarily produce the same number of bursts of line current activity for a given digit dialed comprising the steps of:

• detecting each burst of line current activity produced by a handset in dialing a sequence of digits and producing one output pulse for each of said bursts;
• counting said output pulses and producing an output count of the number of output pulses associated with each digit dialed;
• storing a plurality of said output counts associated with said sequence of digits dialed;
• indentifying the output count associated with a test digit of predetermined numerical value in a predetermined location in said sequence of digits dialed;
• selecting from among a plurality of conversion algorithms, and in response to any one of a plurality of possible output counts producible in dialing said predetermined test digit from one of said plurality of handsets, a conversion algorithm effective to convert the output count produced by dialing said test digit from said one handset to its predetermined numerical value;
• and
• applying said conversion algorithm to convert the output count produced by dialing from said one handset each said other digit in said sequence of digits dialed by said one handset to its respective numerical value.

A rotary dial pulse receiver comprising:

• detection means for detecting each burst of line current activity exceeding a threshold voltage, said bursts being of the kind produced by rotary dial action in dialing a sequence of digits from a handset, said sequence including a predetermined test digit at a predetermined location in the sequence of digits dialed;
• counting means connected to the detection means for providing an output count of the number of detected bursts of line current activity associated with each digit dialed;
• and
• conversion means connected to the counting means and arranged to compare said output count associated with the predetermined test digit to the numerical value of said predetermined digit dialed and arranged to use such comparison to select from among a plurality of mathematical formulae one which, when applied to said output count, converts this output count to the numerical value of said test digit, and responsive to the detection of other of said bursts exceeding said threshold voltage and which correspond to other digits in said sequence of digits dialed from the handset for applying said one mathematical formula to convert the output count associated with each other digit to its respective numerical value.

A method of decoding bursts of line current activity produced by rotary dial action in dialing a sequence of digits comprising the steps of:

• counting the number of bursts of line current activity which exceed a threshold voltage, said bursts being of the kind produced by a handset by dialing a predetermined test digit at a predetermined location in a sequence of digits dialed;
• comparing said output count with said predetermined test digit and selecting a mathematical formula effective to convert the counted number of said bursts of line current activity produced by dialing said predetermined test digit to the numerical value of said predetermined test digit dialed;
• counting the number of bursts of line current activity exceeding said threshold voltage produced by dialing each other digit in said sequence of digits;
• and
• applying said mathematical formula to convert the number of bursts of line current activity counted upon dialing each said other digit dialed.