Not Applicable
Not Applicable
1. Technical Field
This invention relates in general to communications and, more particularly, to a digital communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Over the last two decades, communications capabilities have increased dramatically. Current communication networks are now capable of providing sophisticated features such as multiple party conferencing with multiple private sidebar conversations, programmable xe2x80x9cfollow-mexe2x80x9d calling, and sophisticated voice mail options.
Unfortunately, the main interface to a communication network, the 12-key telephone pad, has not changed. As a result, many available features are seldom used, because accessing the features by key sequences is non-intuitive and error-prone. In some cases, features can be provisioned by a user through a computer interface apart from the telephone. For example, follow-me calling allows a user to have a single telephone number which is used to access a number of communication devices associated with the user, such as a home telephone number, a work telephone number, a mobile telephone and voice mail, in a specified sequence. The user can define the sequence in which the communication devices are accessed in relation to certain criteria, such as date and time. For example, a user may define a work day sequence where his or her work number is accessed first, a secretarial phone accessed second, a mobile phone accessed third and voice mail accessed fourth; the weekend sequence may be home phone first, mobile phone second and voice mail third. The desired sequence is stored in a database of a network provider. To ease the burden of user programming, some providers have allowed the database to be modified by users through a Web page over an Internet connection. However, use of a separate computer connection is often inconvenient, and Internet provisioning of services can reasonably be used only for certain types of features that do not change often.
Recently, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) was developed to assist in providing advanced telephony services using VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) over a digital communication network (which could include the Internet or other global data network). Using a telephone with a graphical interface, a user can easily create, modify and terminate multiple telecommunications sessions with one or more participants by manipulating objects on the telephone screen.
A downside to a SIP telephone is that there is no standard graphical user interface (GUI); each SIP telephone manufacturer is free to design its own GUI. Accordingly, a user is likely to become accustomed to a single interface and will face difficulties using telephones with a different interface. Since a single home or office may use telephones from multiple manufacturers, the advantages of using a SIP phone for simplified access to advanced features are greatly diminished.
Therefore, a need has arisen for a method and apparatus for providing a consistent user interface to telephones from multiple manufacturers.
In the present invention, a communications system comprises a digital network and a plurality of devices coupled to a network for enabling communications sessions responsive to commands conforming to a known protocol. A plurality of telephones are coupled to the network for communicating by sending and receiving packetized data over the network during the communications sessions. One or more graphical proxy servers are coupled to a plurality of the telephones for providing a graphical interface to the telephones, receiving control information associated with actions by users using the graphical interface, and generating commands conforming to the known protocol in response to the control information.
The present invention provides significant advantages over the prior art. First, since the network provider controls the graphical proxy servers on its network, a consistent interface can be provided to all users on the network, regardless of the brand of telephone used. As features and capabilities are added, the graphical interface of the telephone can be easily upgraded to include those features.