Phone lines are currently capable of carrying many types of information which include data and voice transmissions. In recent times, both of these types of information can be incorporated into a single transmission over a phone line. Currently, when a phone call is placed, the call may include information about the phone number of the phone from which the call is being placed, as well as the name of person who is listed with that phone number. Many telephone service providers and other businesses now provide caller ID boxes which translate the non-voice information included in the phone call and present it to the receiver of the phone call prior to the phone being taken off-hook. Through use of this box, the receiver of the phone call can tell in advance who is calling and whether or not to take that phone call. In the situation where the person receiving the phone call is not present, the caller ID box will store this non-voice information in memory. At a later time, the information may be retrieved and reviewed. As the log of received calls is being reviewed, selected calls may be deleted through activation of user interface control.
In many homes and businesses, multiple caller ID boxes may be connected to the same telephone line. Just as multiple phones can be on the same line, these boxes will each receive the incoming telephone calls and display and store the caller ID information. Because the only connection between these caller ID boxes is a common telephone line, any manual update of one caller ID box will not be reflected in any of the other caller ID boxes. Further, in some cases the devices can get out of synchronization with one device showing a new call has arrived and another indicating that calls have been answered.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds