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US 6,445,789 B1Granted
Telephone having hand-set to be used also as voice input/output device for personal computer
AssigneeNEC Corporation
InventorsKazushige Hirano, Hiroshi Kamezawa
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A telephone includes a telephone circuit, a connector, and a switch. The connector is capable of being connected to a voice input/output interface in a network for a computer. The switch makes a selection as to whether a hand-set having a microphone and a loudspeaker is to be connected to the connector or to the telephone circuit. In this telephone, a hand-set accessory therefor can also be connected, as a voice input/output device for the personal computer, to the voice input/output interface for the computer network.
Claims7
A telephone, comprising:
- a telephone handset including a microphone and a loudspeaker;
- a telephone circuit for conventional two-way telecommunication over a public telephone network;
- a first connector that establishes a first two-way communication path between the telephone circuit and the public telephone network;
- a second connector that establishes a second two-way communication path comprised of:
- a signal path between the handset microphone and an audio input circuit of a computer which is separate from the telephone;
- and
- a signal path between the handset loudspeaker and an audio output circuit of the computer;
- and
- a selector operable by a user for alternatively enabling the first or the second communication path,
- whereby the telephone handset alternatively operates as an audio interface for conventional telecommunication or for audio telecommunication though the computer network connection established by the computer.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.