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US 5,471,522 AGranted
Telephone line sharing for a personal computer system
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsChris Sells, Russ Hampsten
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for processing an incoming call over a telephone line in a computer system, wherein a telephone manager program passes the telephone line to a telephony application program according to at least one user option, a set of user preferences, and DTMF or calling tones.
Claims32
A method of telephone line sharing in a computer system, comprising the steps of:
- monitoring a telephone line for an indication of a media mode for an incoming call on the telephone line;
- if the indication of the media mode is detected, then passing the incoming call to a telephony application program that corresponds to the media mode and that executes on the computer system;
- if the indication of the media mode is not detected, then determining a user option for handling the incoming call including determining whether a ring stop has occurred, and if occurred due to a parallel telephone pick-up, then monitoring the telephone line for the length of the incoming telephone call for a tone indicating that a telephony application is to be initiated.
A computer system, comprising:
- communication subsystem coupled to a telephone line to monitor the telephone line for an incoming call and an indication of a media mode for the incoming call;
- processor that executes a telephony manager program and a set of telephony application programs, wherein the telephony manager program passes the incoming call to a telephony application program that corresponds to the media mode if the indication of the media mode is detected through the communication subsystem, and wherein the telephony manager program notifies a user that the incoming call is received and then determines a user option or preference for handling the incoming call if the indication of the media mode is not detected including determining whether a ring stop has occurred, and if occurred due to a parallel telephone pick-up, then monitoring the telephone line for the length of the incoming telephone call for a tone indicating that a telephony application is to be initiated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.