Unlted States Patent
`Pinard et al.
`
`[19]
`
`[11] Patent Number:
`[45] Date of Patent:
`
`5,533,110
`Jul. 2, 1996
`
`llllll llllllll 11 lllll |l||| lllll ||||| lllll lllll lllll lllll llllll Ill lllll ||||
`US005533110A
`
`[541 HUMAN MACHINE INTERFACE FOR
`TELEPHONE FEATURE INVOCATION
`
`Assistant Examiner—Se0tt Wolinsky
`Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Char1es E. Wands
`
`[75]
`
`Inventors: Deborah L. Pinard; Eliana M. O.
`Peres; Ronald A. Evans, all of Kanata,
`Canada
`
`[73] Assignee: Mitel Corporation, Canada
`
`N0“ 29: 1994
`
`[21] App1_ No; 346,690
`.
`Fflcdi
`[221
`Int Cl 5
`[51]
`[Si US' Ci
`
`""""""""""""""
`
`H04M 3/42
`379/96_
`_
`379/112’ 379/393
`[58] Field of Search ..................................... 379/201, 202,
`379/204, 203, 205, 112, 96, 393; 370/51
`1101
`
`[561
`
`Refeeeneee Cited
`LIS. PATENT DOCUMENTS
`3/1993 Baumganncr ct al.
`................... 370/62
`4/1995 Hirayama et ul.
`.................... .. 345/120
`
`5,195,086
`5,406,307
`
`[57]
`
`ABSTRACT
`
`A method of providing a visual indication to a first com-
`munication connection (CC) subscriber of the status of a
`telephone CC comprising the steps of providing ah icon on
`a display that represents the first CC subscriber, providing a
`call setup icon on a display representing a command to set
`up a CC, dragging the icon representing the first CC sub-
`scriber to the call setup icon, automatically displaying a
`directory of subscribers, dragging an identity of a second CC
`subscriber from the directory to the call setup icon, estab-
`lishing a CC between communication apparatus used by the
`first subscriber and communication apparatus used by the
`Second CC Subsm-be, Via sabscribefs lines, changing the
`identity of the calls setup icon to a call icon, displaying an
`icon representing the second CC subscriber in the call icon,
`§§fi§§péacy‘§fb§c‘$i”Zr§331 2°23 §i°§;oZ?§§§21.323531 ESSEX
`sented and are visually discernible by the first CC subscriber
`in the call icon.
`
`Primary Examiner—.lefl"e1'y 1-lofsass
`
`19 Claims, 8 Drawing Sheets
`
`Page 1 of 14
`
`Verizon Exhibit 1020
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent
`
`Jul. 2, 1996
`
`Sheet 1 of 8
`
`5,533,110
`
` PERSONAL
`COMPUTER
`
`PHONE
`APPLIC.
`
`
`
`TELEPHONY
`SERVER
`
`TELEPHONY INTERFACE
`CIRCUITS
`
`CONFERENCE DSP
`
`CIRCUIT
`
`
`
`Page 2 of 14
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent
`
`Jul. 2, 1996
`
`Sheet 2 of 3
`
`5,533,110
`
`A5
`
`//
`
` CALL SETUP
`
`FIG. 3
`
`DRAG /\
`
`
`
`CALL SETUP
`
`24
`
`FIG. 4
`
`Page 3 of 14
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`

`
`U.S. Patent
`
`Jul. 2, 1996
`
`Sheet 3 of 8
`
`5,533,110
`
`23
`
`//
`
`‘V’
`'A EJEBBIE
`\
`
`JOHN
`
`CALL SETUP
`
`FIG. 6
`
`Page 4 of 14
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent
`
`Jul. 2, 1996
`
`Sheet 4 of 8
`
`5,533,110
`
`
`
`CALL SETUP
`
`FIG. 7
`
`/i
`‘DEBBIE/’ ELIANA
`
`.4» DRAG
`
`E
`TOM
`
`AREA
`
`SIDEBAR
`
`FIG. 7A
`
`Page 5 of 14
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent
`
`Jul. 2, 1996
`
`Sheet 5 of 3
`
`5,533,110
`
`FIG. 9
`
`CONFERENCE
`
`E
`
`FIG. IO
`
`Page 6 of 14
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent
`
`Jul. 2, 1996
`
`Sheet 6 of 8
`
`5,533,110
`
`CONFERENCE
`
`BASKET
`
`FIG.
`
`I
`
`I
`
`DEBBIE MA
`
`
`
`CALL SETUP
`
`FIG. I2
`
`Page 7 of 14
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`

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`U.S. Patent
`
`Jul. 2, 1996
`
`Sheet 7 of 8
`
`5,533,110
`
`DEBBIE MARY
`
`FIG. I3
`
`DEBBIE
`
`CALLING DEBBIE
`
`FIG. I4
`
`Page 8 of 14
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`

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`U.S. Patent
`
`Jul. 2, 1996
`
`Sheet 8 of 8
`
`5,533,110
`
`49
`
` 50
`
`/3
`
`CALL SETUP
`
`
`
`Q
`
`C
`
`.105 0533::
`
`FIG. I5
`
`CALLING JOHN
`
`FIG. I6
`
`Page 9 of 14
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`

`
`1
`HUMAN MACHINE INTERFACE FOR
`TELEPHONE FEATURE INVOCATION
`
`FIELD OF THE INVENTION
`
`5,533,110
`
`2
`
`user during the progress of a call is connected. U.S. patent
`applications describing such systems, entitled LOCAL
`AREA COMMUNICATIONS SERVER SYSTEM, filed on
`October, 1994, invented by Deborah Pinard, Harold Sit and
`Tony Niro, and entitled ADAPTIVE COMMUNICATION
`SYSTEM, filed on Jun.
`l0th, I994, invented by Deborah
`Pinard, Thomas Gray and Eliana Peres and assigned to Mitel
`Corporation are incorporated herein by reference.
`The personal computer in conjunction with the server
`provides to the user a human machine interface (HMI)
`displayed on the display of the computer. Any commercial
`telephony software application program (application) to
`provide the telephony service by the server may be used. The
`server can be provided with a line circuit with a DTMF
`generator that can dial numbers and respond to incoming
`telephone calls under control of the application, whereupon
`a telephone connection is made between the local and a
`distant telephone via the server, a PABX andlor a central
`switching ofiice. Computers which contain such application,
`a DTMF generator etc. and a telephone set were sold during
`the early l980’s under the trade mark Kontac by Mitel
`Corporation.
`In addition modems that could dial and answer calls under
`control of a controlling programs and thus provide the
`aforenoted facility were sold by Hayes Corporation. Many
`compatible modems exist, such as those sold by Dell Com-
`puter Corporation and others.
`Application programs that could drive the modems to dial
`and answer calls and which can be used with telephone
`equipment such as handsets have been known for a long
`time, such as Microsoft Works (under DOS and Windows),
`Delrina Winfax Pro, and others.
`Due to the large proliferation of hardware and software to
`dial up and answer calls to other parties, it is considered to
`be needlessly burdening and redundant to provide a detailed
`description thereof, and they are believed to be known to
`persons skilled in the art.
`In addition the ability to dial out and make and receive
`calls via a LAN is described in the aforenoted two patent
`applications, and reference is directed to the detail in those
`patent applications. Once the present invention is under-
`stood, it will be also understood that it is not restricted for
`use with those systems, but can be used with any system in
`which a telephony application on a personal computer or
`personal computer in conjunction with a server operates.
`In accordance with an embodiment of the present inven-
`tion, icons representing a subscriber’s line associated with a
`local subscriber, the status of the line and associated with
`particular other subscribers to which calls are made or
`received are displayed in a manner that provides full infor-
`mation as to their status and the status of any call in progress,
`whether on line or being held, and whether it is a conference
`call or not. The state of the call can be changed merely by
`dragging icons to particular locations on the display. This
`provides for the first time an indication to the user which is
`unambiguous, and allows changing of the status of lines
`associated with parties to the call with certainty.
`In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a
`method of providing a visual indication to a first commu-
`nication connection (CC) subscriber of the status of a CC is
`comprised of providing an icon on a display that represents
`the first CC subscriber, providing a call setup icon on a
`display representing a command to set up a CC, dragging the
`icon representing the first CC subscriber to the call setup
`icon, displaying a directory of subscribers, dragging an
`identity of a second CC subscriber from the directory to the
`
`This invention relates to the field of telephony, and in
`particular to a method of indicating the status of various
`calls, to a user.
`
`BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
`
`Feature telephone sets (sets which can provide a display
`of status of calls and special functions associated with a call,
`such as a hold status) can provide only limited indication to
`a user as to the status of calls. For example, a set used in a
`key telephone system may have several lines that it may use.
`When one of the lines is busy, a light located adjacent a push
`button associated with the line lights up. However there is no
`indication that a call is actually in progress or who are the
`parties to the call, but merely that a line is in use.
`If a caller has placed a call on one line on hold, and has
`made one or more other calls on other lines which have also
`been placed on hold, lights associated with each of the lines
`may flash as arerninder that a line is on hold. However there
`is no indication which subscriber is on hold on any particular
`line. It is often difficult to remember which call on hold
`belongs to which party. In such cases the user may retrieve
`a call from hold and address the party by the wrong name,
`thinking that it is a party relating to another call on hold.
`When a conference call is to be made and several con-
`ferees are placed on hold, and the local user wishes to have
`a private conversation with one or more of the conferees but
`to exclude others, mistakes can be made when taking
`subscribers off hold and into the private conversation with
`sometimes embarrasing or costly results if the local user is
`unaware that an undesired other party can hear the private
`conversation.
`
`The above problem results because it is often difficult to
`remember which conferee is associated with a particular
`line. When a conferee is to be dropped from conference call,
`it is easy to make a mistake and to drop the wrong conferee
`line from the conference.
`
`feature telephones and certain PBXs and key
`Special
`telephone systems can provide means that attempt to help
`the user that has callers are on hold somewhat by reminding
`the user that calls are on hold, by ringing the user’s tele-
`phone after a certain time period following an incoming call
`being placed on hold. However this does not solve the
`problem of the user not knowing which party is on which
`held line, and therefore which line should be dropped from
`a conference or retreived from hold.
`
`SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
`
`The present invention is a method of providing informa-
`tion to a user unambiguously as to which persons are parties
`to a call. It also provides a method for calls to be made
`between parties, to be placed on hold, to be dropped from
`hold, to be conferenced or to be dropped from a conference
`with clear indication to the user which of the parties to any
`call are being dealt with. In addition, no special feature
`telephone is required;
`the invention can be implemented
`with any ordinary telephone set.
`The invention is preferably implemented by, but is not
`restricted to, a telephony server to which the user’s tele-
`phone is connected. The server is connected to a local area
`network (LAN), to which a personal computer used by the
`
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`3
`call setup icon, establishing a CC between communication
`apparatus used by the first subscriber and communication
`apparatus used by the second CC subscriber via subscriber’ s
`lines, changing the identity of the calls setup icon to a call
`icon, displaying an icon representing the second CC sub-
`scriber in the call icon, and displaying a new call setup icon,
`whereby icons representing CC subscribers of a call
`in
`progress are both represented and are visually discernible by
`the first CC subscriber in the call icon.
`
`In accordance with another embodiment, a method of
`providing a visual indication of the status of a communica-
`tion connection is comprised of displaying parties to a call
`in progress as icons contained within the periphery of
`another icon representing a call in progress.
`The ability to display icons on a computer display and to
`invoke commands by dragging an icon to another has long
`been known. For example, the icon of a file could be dragged
`to an icon of a wastebasket to delete the file on the Xerox
`Star computer, in the early 1980s. The same idea is used on
`the Apple Macintosh computer. Both computers provided
`the ability to store files in subdirectories, shown as file
`folders, by dragging the icon of a file to an icon of a file
`folder. Software for creating, icons and the resulting com-
`mands to provide a human-machine interface (I-IMI) is sold
`commercially by Microsoft Corp. under the name Visual
`Basic, and by Park Place Software Corp. under the name
`Smalltalk. It is therefore assumed that a designer skilled in
`the art can create icons and cause commands to be sent to an
`underlying application program by dragging an icon having
`one meaning to an icon having another, and that a teaching
`of how to do this and send commands to the application
`software driving a modem or to an agent controlling the
`set—up, take down or modification of a call e.g. establish or
`take down a conference call, place a call on hold, etc., would
`be within the expected skill of a person skilled in the art.
`However even with those tools available,
`it has not
`previsouly been possible to display to telephony users in an
`unambiguous and easy to visualize way, the parties to and
`status of a call, calls on hold, conference calls, etc.
`
`BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE DRAWINGS
`
`A better understanding of the invention will be obtained
`by reading the description of the invention below, with
`reference to the following drawings, in which:
`FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system on which the
`invention may be operated, and
`FIGS. 2-16 are diagrams of a display on a personal
`computer illustrating steps in the method of the invention.
`
`DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
`INVENTION
`
`FIG. 1 illustrates in block diagram a system on which the
`present invention can be operated. A personal computer 1 is
`connected to a local area network (LAN) 3,
`to which a
`telephony server Sis also connected. Atelephone set 7, to be
`used by the user of the personal computer 1 is connected to
`the telephony server 5 via a telephony interface circuit 8.
`The server contains telephone interface circuits 8, con-
`ference digital signal processing circuits 9, dialing circuits,
`trunk circuits, etc., as described in the aforenoted patent
`applications assigned to Mitel Corporation. The server also
`contains agents such as device agent 10 and other elements
`as described in the aforenoted patent applications, in order
`to process calls.
`
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`The personal computer contains a telephone application
`software program which controls the telephone set 7 via
`device agents in the server, communicating via the LAN.
`The application software program can be for example the
`communications accessory in the Windows 3.1 program sold
`by Microsoft Corporation or the dialing module in the
`Winfax Pro program sold by Delrina Corporation. The icons
`can be created using the aforenoted HMI creation software
`programs.
`Turning now to FIG. 2, a display 11 of the personal
`computer 1 is illustrated. An icon 13 representing a local
`user of telephone set 7 is created by the application software,
`is displayed with the name of the user, shown as Debbie. The
`icon could be, as shown, a stick figure, a business card, a
`miniature image of the face of the user, or any design which
`will clearly designate the local user.
`The application software also provides a call setup icon
`15. The meaning of the icon 15 is the establishing of a call
`In the first step of the method, as the user drags her icon (e.g.
`by using a cursor moved and invoked by mouse, not shown)
`to the call setup icon 15. This tells the application software
`that an outgoing call is to be made.
`As a result, as shown in FIG. 3 the application software
`displays a subscriber directory 17 on the display 11, which
`had been stored in a memory of the personal computer if it
`is a personal directory that is the default directory, or which
`had been stored in a memory of the server if that is the
`default directory. The directory can be formed of alphanu-
`meric characters, designating the names of persons listed in
`the directory (as shown), or the names and telephone num-
`bers, or images of the faces of the persons listed in the
`directory, or combinations of the above.
`The call setup icon could also have “radio buttons" or the
`equivalent displayed which allow the user to designate
`whether the call is a voice only call or a videotelephone call,
`which will indicate to the application software the required
`channel bandwidth for the call, and the peripheral hardware
`required, e.g. a video interface to a local camera.
`The user can then drag the icon or the name of the person
`to be called into the call setup icon, or type the name or
`number of the person to be called into a dialog box 19 in the
`call setup icon 15, and envokes the command by keying the
`return key on the personal computer keyboard.
`The application software program then creates an icon 21
`representing the party to be called (i.e. John) and places it
`with his name in the call setup icon. It looks up the directory
`number of John from directory (if it had not been typed in
`by the local subscriber), and causes the server to dial John’s
`telephone number. As soon as John answers the call, the
`application software program changes the call setup icon to
`a call icon designated as 23, and establishes a new call setup
`icon 2A spaced from the icon 23.
`It is important that the icon 23 should have a defined
`boundary in order to provide the user with an indication that
`a call is in progress between the parties represented by the
`icons 13 and 21. For example, the call icon 23 can be a black
`or colored oval over a transparent background. Rather than
`the stick men shown, drawn pictures of a female and a male
`figure could be displayed. Drawn or scanned images of the
`faces of the parties to the call could be shown.
`When the call is terminated, the user Debbie merely hangs
`up. The application software program senses this and deletes
`the John icon 21 from the call icon 23, deletes the call icon
`and allows the Debbie icon 13 to remain shown on the
`display. For the purposes of good housekeeping, both the
`Debbie icon 13 and the call setup icon 24 can be moved to
`an unobtrusive place on the display, such as shown in FIG.
`2.
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`In case the local user wishes to forcibly terminate the call,
`she can drag the John icon to an icon of a trash basket 26,
`which will be sensed by the application software program as
`a command to terminate the call in progress.
`Assume now that another party is to be added to the call
`in order to conference that party with Debbie and John. In
`this case the Debbie icon 13 should be dragged to the call
`setup icon 24, as shown in FIG. 4. Now the application
`software program, sensing this occurence while a call is in
`progress, places the line connected to the user John on hold
`(retaining the icon in the call icon), and changes the Debbie
`icon in the call icon 23 into ghost form, 13A, as shown in
`FIG. 5. It provides both dial tone to the user Debbie and
`displays a directory 17 and dialog box 19 in the call setup
`box.
`
`In a similar manner as described above, a directory
`number is selected or keyed into the dialog box, and the
`server establishes a call to a third party (e.g. Mary). It places
`a Mary icon 28 into the call setup icon and changes the call
`setup icon to a call icon 29 when the connection between
`Debbie and Mary has been established, again establishing a
`new call setup icon 30, as shown in FIG. 6.
`Now what the local user Debbie sees on the screen is a call
`in progress between her and Mary, by noting the Debbie and
`Mary icons 13 and 29 in the call icon 29. She also sees a
`ghost 13A of her icon (indicating inactive) in the same call
`icon as John 23, which indicates that John’s line is on hold.
`If desired, the John icon can be made to flash or change
`colors at some frequency (which could increase, if desired,
`with increase in time).
`Now there are clearly two calls in progress, with the
`parties and the states of the calls clearly indicated with no
`ambiguity to Debbie on the display of her personal com-
`puter, in contrast to prior art feature phones, telephones with
`displays and other HMIs.
`
`Now to conference all parties, the user Debbie merely
`drags the John icon to the call icon 29. As a result the call
`icon 23 is made to disappear by the application software
`program, resulting in the three icons representing the three
`subscribers that are party to the conference in the icon 29.
`The application software program changes the call icon 29
`to a conference icon 32, as shown in FIG. 7. The application
`software program conferences John’s line in with those of
`Debbie and Mary.
`Alternatively, with reference to FIG. 6, the user Debbie
`could drag her icon back to the call icon 23. Her icon in the
`call icon 29 should be changed to a ghost and Mary’s line
`placed on hold. The ghost Debbie icon 13A in icon 23 should
`be changed to a real
`icon 13, and the communication
`connection with John’s line reestablished.
`
`In this manner, the user Debbie can drag her icon between
`call icons 23 and 29, speaking to each of John and Mary in
`privacy while the other party is placed on hold. The actual
`talking path connection is represented by the call icon in
`which her icon is real, and the call in which the other party
`is placed on hold represents the user Debbie with a ghost
`icon. Thus Debbie can easily conference the parties or speak
`with either in privacy, with no ambiguity which parties are
`in the conference, which are on hold and which party is
`speaking to which.
`As shown in FIG. 7A, a sidebar area 33 of the conference
`icon can be used as a separate conference region. The user
`Debbie can drag any of the icons representing the conferees
`in to the sidebar area, and the application software program
`is thus instructed to establish a private connection between
`the parties (e.g. Debbie and Mary as shown), leaving the
`
`remaining party John on hold. Debbie can now drag any of
`the icons between the sidebar area and the main part of the
`conference icon, placing any of the parties into a private
`conversation or into a conference, with the remaining parties
`on hold.
`
`Assume now that during a conference (or call between
`two parties) an incoming call arrives. The application soft-
`ware program causes a call waiting icon 34 with the icon 35
`and name (Jim) of the calling party displayed in icon 35, as
`shown in FIG. 7.
`
`I0
`
`Now the user Debbie can drag her icon 13 into the call
`waiting icon 34, as shown in FIG. 8. The result is shown in
`FIG. 9. The application software program connects Debbie’s
`line with Jim's line, allowing her to answer the incoming
`call, and breaking Debbie’s line from the conference. Deb~
`bie’s icon is changed to a ghost icon 13A in conference icon
`32, and the call waiting icon 34 is changed to a call icon 37.
`The facts that John and Mary still are talking via the
`conference connection and that Debbie and Jim are talking
`via a call connection are clearly and unambiguously dis-
`played on the display 11.
`Assuming that the call between Debbie and Jim has been
`completed, the user Debbie then drags her icon from call
`icon 37 to conference icon 32., as shown in FIG. 9. The
`result is shown in FIG. 10, with Debbie’s icon now appear-
`ing in real form in the conference icon 32. The application
`software program as a result of the drag reconnects her to the
`conference.
`
`The Jim icon remains in the call icon 37, and the Debbie
`icon is shown in ghost 13A in call icon 37. To terminate the
`call to Jim, Debbie drags his icon from call icon 37 to the
`waste basket icon 26, as shown in FIG. 11. Indeed, any of the
`icons in the conference icon 32 can be dragged to the waste
`basket 26 to terminate the party associated with the dragged
`icon from the conference.
`
`The application software program can produce a hard
`hold icon 39, as shown in FIG. 12. The parties Debbie (icon
`13) and Mary (icon 28) are shown in call icon 29, indicating
`a call in progress between these parties.
`To place Mary on hard hold, Debbie drags Mary’s icon 28
`to the hard hold icon 39. It may be seen that several other
`icons are contained in the hard hold icon 39, indicating that
`several callers have been placed on hold. Each icon, being
`accompanied by the name of a person and/or an easily
`recognized representation thereof, is clearly recognizeable
`by the user Debbie. The icons 41 are thus identified by
`person designation to the user Debbie, and she is not given
`an indication of what lines they are on (the coupling of the
`two being handled by the application software program. This
`is in contrast to the prior art feature phone indications which
`provides a flashing light, or the equivalent, to indicate that
`a particular line is on hold.
`Debbie can easily drag any of the icons into the call icon
`29 to take the associated line off hold and speak to the person
`represented by the icon. Due to the clear status and party
`representations,
`this can be done without ambiguity,
`in
`contrast to the prior art.
`After a programmable time period, any of the icons in the
`hard hold can be caused to flash and/or change color at an
`even rate or at a rate dependent on time the associated line
`has been held, by the application software program.
`If a call is in progress and the user Debbie wishes to send
`a file, which may be a fax file, a data file which may be a
`graphic, to Mary, the icon 43 for the file is displayed on the
`display 11. Ifit is to be sent only to one party to the call, e.g.
`Mary, it is dragged over the Mary icon 28, as shown in FIG.
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`13. If it is to be sent to all of the parties to a conference call,
`the file icon 43 is simply brought into the call icon 29. The
`application software program then causes the file to be
`transmitted to all parties. The file itself can be displayed on
`a window of the display 11, if desired by Debbie (or any
`receiving party), in a manner similar to the retrieval of data
`files from any file supplier, such as Compuserve, Dialog
`Information Services, Internet nodes, etc.
`With reference now to FIG. 14, this illustrates the case in
`which Debbie’s telephone is idle, and an incoming call is
`being received. The application software program places a
`Calling Debbie icon 45 on the display 11, with the name of
`the calling party (Joe) and his icon 47. In case the call was
`a call
`transfer from another dialed number,
`the icon 45
`would state the name of the party being called, as supplied
`from a central oflice, PABX, rather than Debbie (e.g. calling
`Bob). A signal indicating the name of the calling party (Joe)
`is provided to the application software program, which looks
`up his name from the aforenoted directory, or otherwise
`obtains it from the central oflice or PABX. Preferably the
`application software program causes ringing or some other
`alerting sound to be emitted from a loudspeaker of the
`personal computer 1.
`To answer the call, Debbie drags her icon 13 to the calling
`Debbie icon 45 or picks up the handset, as shown in FIG. 14.
`The application software program establishes a call connec-
`tion between the two lines, changes the calling Debbie icon
`45 to a call icon 49, and establishes a call setup icon 50, as
`shown in FIG. 15.
`
`FIG. 16 illustrates a calling icon appearing on Debbie’s
`line, in this case a calling John icon 51. In this case Debbie’s
`line has an appearance of John’s number. The calling icon
`can have a delayed interval before it is presented on the
`display, to allow John to answer his telephone at some other
`appearance before it appears for Debbie (or John if he is
`visiting Debbie) to answer the call by dragging Debbie’s
`icon 13 to the calling John icon 51.
`It should be noted that the calling Debbie icon need not be
`the rectangular icon illustrated in FIG. 14, but can be any
`fanciful representation, such as the depiction of a person
`knocking at a door, pointing to a ringing telephone, etc.
`Indeed any of the icons indicated in this specification can be
`represented in other ways than the particular ones shown.
`The above has described certain of the basic calling
`features of a modern telephone system, wherein all ambi-
`guity of the status of and who are the parties to various calls
`that can can be controlled and/or answered by the user
`Debbie is substantially eliminated. Using similar principles,
`a person skilled in the art will now be able to provide
`unambiguous other features, such as call pickup, redial,
`speed call, callback, etc.
`A person understanding this invention may now conceive
`of alternative structures and embodiments or variations of
`the above. All of those which fall within the scope of the
`claims appended hereto are considered to be part of the
`present invention.
`We claim:
`
`1. A method of providing a visual indication to a first
`communication connection (CC) subscriber of the status of
`a telephone CC, comprising the steps of:
`(a) providing an icon on a display that represents the first
`CC subscriber,
`
`(b) providing a call setup icon on a display representing
`a command to set up a CC,
`(c) dragging the icon representing the first CC subscriber
`to the call setup icon,
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`(cl) automatically displaying a directory of subscribers,
`(e) dragging an identity of a second CC subscriber from
`the directory to the call setup icon,
`(D establishing a CC between communication apparatus
`used by the first subscriber and communication appa-
`ratus used by the second CC subscriber via subscriber’s
`lines,
`(g) changing the identity of the calls setup icon to a call
`icon,
`(h) displaying an icon representing the second CC sub-
`scriber in the call icon, and
`(i) displaying a new call setup icon,
`whereby icons representing CC subscribers of a call in
`progress are both represented and are visually discem-
`ible by the first CC subscriber in the call icon.
`2. A method as defined in claim 1 including displaying a
`terminate icon on the display, dragging at least one of the
`icons of the CC subscribers of a call
`in progress to the
`terminate icon, dropping the call in progress and providing
`said icon on the display that represents the first CC sub-
`scriber in preparation for the establishing of another call.
`3. A method as defined in claim 1 in which the CC is a
`telephone link.
`4. A method as defined in claim 1 in which the CC is a
`video and telephone link.
`5. A method as defined in claim 1, including displaying an
`icon representing a file on a display, dragging the file to the
`icon representing the second CC subscriber and transmitting
`the file to the second CC subscriber.
`
`6. A method as defined in claim 5 including displaying the
`content of the file on the display of the first CC subscriber.
`7. A method as defined in claim 5 in which the file
`represents a facsimile file.
`8. A method as defined in claim 1 in which the call icon
`includes a peripheral displayed line surrounding the icons
`representing the CC subscribers of the call in progress.
`9. A method as defined in claim 8 including:
`(i) displaying an I.C. icon representing the identity of a
`calling party of an iconing call on the display,
`(ii) dragging the icon representing the first CC subscriber
`to the l.C. icon,
`
`(iii) establishing a second call icon surrounding the icons;
`of the first and calling parties,
`(iv) placing the CC line used by the second CC subscriber
`on hold,
`(v) changing the icon representing the first subscriber to
`a ghost icon in the first call icon,
`(vi) establishing a CC between the communication appa-
`ratus used by the first subscriber and communication
`apparatus used by the calling party,
`whereby icons representing CC subscribers of a second
`call in progress are both represented in the second call
`icon, and the icon representing the second CC sub-
`scriber with a ghost icon of the first CC subscriber
`denoting the second CC subscriber being on hold are
`both visually represented in the first call icon.
`10. A method as defined in claim 9 including flashing or
`changing color the icon representing the calling party prior
`to step (ii), and terminating the flashing or changing color
`once the CC between the communication apparatus used by
`the first subscriber and communication apparatus used by
`the calling party.
`11. A method as defined in claim 8 including dragging the
`icon representing first CC subscriber to the new call setup
`icon, placing the second CC subscriber’s line on hold,
`
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`displaying an image of the icon representing the first CC
`subscriber in the call icon, displaying a directory of sub-
`scribers, dragging an identity of a third CC subscriber from
`the directory of subscribers, establishing a CC between
`communication apparatus used by the first subscriber and
`communication apparatus used by the third CC subscriber,
`changing the identity of the new call setup icon to a second
`call
`icon, displaying an icon representing the third CC
`subscriber in the second call icon and displaying another
`new call setup icon,
`whereby icons representing CC subscribers of a second
`call in progress are both represented in the second call
`icon, and the icon representing the second CC sub-
`scriber with a ghost icon of the first CC subscriber
`denoting the second CC subscriber being on hold are
`both visually represented in the first call icon.
`12. A method as defined in claim 11 including dragging
`the icon representing the second CC subscriber within the
`second call, icon, conferencing the second CC subscriber
`with the first and third subscribers in a conference call,
`changing the identity of t