PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To convert a modem command of general communication software which is adaptive to analog line modem into a telephone control function which matches a digital multifunctional telephone line by acquiring the modem command and converting its format. SOLUTION: Modem command TAPI(telephony application programming interface) converting driver software 7 acquires command data sent from the modem command adaptive communication software 1, and converts the format of the modem command and passes the data to a program 8 for TAPI function execution before outputting the modem command to a serial port of a PC (personal computer) when deciding that the command data is an effective command and a TAPI function is available. The TAPI function execution program 8 calls a TAPI 4 and requests a telephony function corresponding to the modem command by utilizing a TAPI function 4 as an API on an OS(operating system) as well as the TAPI adaptive communication software 3 to realize telephone control. Consequently, various communication environment adaptive to the TAPI can be utilized with the general software adaptive to an analog modem as it is.

A system for connecting transaction services to an ATM (10, 500) that includes a network (20). A user interface service (12) and a lookup service (22) are in operative connection with the network. Transaction services such as a printer service (16), card reader service (18), and cash dispenser service (14) are also in operative connection with the network. These transaction services are operative to register with the lookup service and to upload a service proxy to the lookup service. The user interface service is operative to locate transaction services on the network by invoking a remote lookup method on the lookup service. The lookup service is operative to return service proxies that match the type of service that is required. The user interface service is further operative to invoke methods of the service proxies that remotely control the functionality of the transaction services on the network. The user interface service is further operative to register events with the service proxies for notification when certain events on the services occur.

An application programming interface provides for command and data communication between a user, application or driver and a telephone data processing system which provides communication between a host computer and a telephone line. The telephone data processing system is capable of processing ISDN telephone calls as well as voice or analog-originated telephone calls. The application programming interface of the invention includes a host interface, an ISDN interface and a modem interface. The host interface receives commands and data from the user. The modem interface and ISDN interface provide commands and data communication between the host interface and the appropriate telephone call processing based on telephone call type. At the top level, the specific call type processing is transparent to the user. That is, the user need not know the type of telephone call, i.e., modem or ISDN, being processed.

Systems, methods, and data structures for pluggable terminals are provided. Pluggable terminals are part of client and server TAPI communications systems. Pluggable terminal allow third parties to provide their own media processing devices and implement control methods for those devices. Methods for plugging in a pluggable terminal and conducting a communications session using the new pluggable terminal are described. A data structure for a pluggable terminal type has a wrapper around a media processing device control method. A data structure for registering a pluggable terminal has a terminal class name, a unique identifier, and a set of media types supported by the pluggable terminal. A data structure for a terminal base class has an interface for plugging in a pluggable terminal and another interface for a TAPI application component.

A method and apparatus are provided for exchanging information between a cordless telephone application and physical hardware of a cordless telephone system. The method includes the steps of intercepting information exchanged between the application and the physical hardware, processing the intercepted information in order to ascertain whether the exchange requires at least one API macro and translating between the at least one API macro and a telephone command to be executed by the physical hardware of the cordless telephone system.

The present invention is a switch controller that provides an interface between a public switched telephone network and intelligent services network components. The switch controller controls the operation of one or more programmable switches that accept calls from the public switched telephone network. Intelligent service network components are used for enhanced service processing, interconnection to external networks, and other call functions. The switch controller includes a switch controller application program. Within the switch controller application program are multiple routines that perform call processing. The design of the switch controller application program hides vendor-specific processing and service-specific processing from routines not needing the vendor-specific and service-specific details.

A telephone communication system utilizing a virtual phone wherein a telephone switch or similar digital switching device, a digital telephone and an external device such as a personal computer (PC) or other processor are generically interfaced. The virtual phone generic interface is configurable and comprises a set of virtual phone data structures, internal and external virtual phone application program interfaces, and an external transfer protocol. Software designated an abstraction layer provides communication between the internal virtual phone application program interface, the telephone switch and the telephone set. The generic interface converts proprietary telephone switch or external application protocols into a common format and functions as a protocol interpreter between proprietary switching system protocols and protocols of various applications.

Communications and messaging in a Computer-Telephony (CT) system are assisted using an Electronic Call Request (ECR), a computer and network system construct that operates in place of a telephone call. An ECR is invoked and made a storage and communication entity in a computing and network environment in which the ECR is logged in a queue. The ECR in the form of a storage and communication entity navigates the telephone network under the direction of the caller who graphically manipulates the ECR using a graphical user interface (GUI). The ECR is activated into a telephone call at the command of a human or computer or network system agent generating a telephone call both to the caller and the call target.

A method and apparatus provide communication in a telephone system connected to an external phone line, wherein the telephone system has a telephone line, a telephone, a phone interface unit coupled to the telephone and the telephone line, a computer system, and a computer interface unit coupled to the computer system and the telephone line. A bias voltage on the telephone line is detected to determine if the telephone is on-hook or off-hook, a ringing voltage on the telephone line is detected to determine if an external call is incoming, and a first carrier transmitted by the phone interface unit is detected. A second carrier is transmitted using the computer interface unit under control of the computer system. Detection of the bias voltage, ringing voltage, and/or first carrier is communicated to the computer system. An off-hook condition is indicated if the line bias voltage is less than an off-hook bias threshold voltage. An incoming ring is indicated if the ringing voltage has an amplitude greater than a first voltage and a frequency in the range of a ring frequency. The first carrier is indicated as being present if a signal is detected at a first carrier center frequency and having an amplitude greater than a first carrier threshold voltage. The second carrier is indicated as being present if a signal is detected at a second carrier center frequency and having an amplitude greater than a second carrier threshold voltage.

When a source subscriber activates a voice communications unit of a computer, an agent process unit in a computer center receives a data stream transmitted from a voice communications unit. The agent process unit activates a voice communications unit capable of communicating with the voice communications unit, and transfers the data stream from the voice communications unit to the voice communications unit. A network control unit transmits a telephone number stored in a telephone number storage unit. Thus, communications can be established between the computer and a telephone terminal.

An information apparatus comprising information acquisition resources, distribution resources, association resources and control coordinating resources. The control coordinating resources coordinate the activations of the acquisition and association resources. The association resources provide an association annotation to the distribution resources, and the distribution resources distribute responsive thereto. The association annotation is based on at least one of the information acquired by the acquisition resources or directives provided in accordance with prevailing configuration of the apparatus. The apparatus also comprises one or more of: (a) processing resources, (b) administration resources, the administration resources (comprising at least one of timer facilities, prompting facilities, and configuration facilities), and (c) exploiting resources (to which the distribution resources distribute all or part of the information and the association annotation). The configuration facilities support (i) a shared relevance space, the shared relevance space supporting enhanced coordination between the acquisition and distribution resources and (ii) tracking of user's use of the apparatus.

In an I/O subsystem comprising device drivers for controlling connection-oriented hardware adapters, connection-oriented data transports, and an integrating component allowing data transport drivers and hardware device drivers to be "bound" together to form data communication channels. The integrating component exposes a connection interface for creating and maintaining connections. Furthermore, a proxy client component is disclosed that interacts with a known application-level interface, such as TAPI, and converts such known application-level interface commands into appropriate commands for the connection interface of the integrating component. Additionally, the proxy client component will interact with the integrating component in order to represent the underlying connection-oriented devices and attendant device characteristics to the known application-level interface. All this allows the application programmer to take advantage of a connection-oriented I/O subsystem and underlying connection-oriented devices without requiring the programmer to learn yet another interface. Added benefits include the ability to dynamically redirect a data stream received over a created connection from one data transport to another under application control. This is useful in multimedia applications where different types of data may come over the same connection.

A telephone communication system utilizing a virtual phone wherein a telephone switch or similar digital switching device, a digital telephone and an external device such as a personal computer (PC) or other processor are generically interfaced. The virtual phone generic interface is configurable and comprises a set of virtual phone data structures, internal and external virtual phone application program interfaces, and an external transfer protocol. Software designated an abstraction layer provides communication between the internal virtual phone application program interface, the telephone switch and the telephone set. The generic interface converts proprietary telephone switch or external interface application protocols into a common format and functions as a protocol interpreter between proprietary switching system protocols and protocols of various applications.

A communication control device including an analog modem control unit for outputting a control command for controlling an analog line modem, a communication control unit for controlling a communication platform conformed to a standard interface of a telephone control function, a command conversion driver for receiving input of a control command output from the analog modem control unit and converting the command into that of format conformed to a telephone control function used at the communication control unit, and a function executing unit for calling a telephone control function in response to a command whose format is converted by the command conversion driver to control a communication platform.

A SIM Manager is disclosed that accesses functionality contained within a GSM-type telephone SIM by combining functionality of a plurality of asynchronous RIL functions into a single synchronous application programming interface. A first dynamic link library receives a function call for performing a selected function from an application operating in a GSM-type telephone device. The first dynamic link library is preferably a stub dynamic link library to which applications link, links to the application and initiates a process thread corresponding to the received function call, thereby blocking all subsequently received calls until the received function call for the selected function is complete. A second dynamic link library contains at least one application programming interface corresponding to the selected function. Each application programming interface corresponds to the selected function within the second dynamic link library links to a radio interface layer of the GSM-type telephone device for performing the selected function. The second dynamic link library is loaded by the first dynamic link library when the first dynamic link library receives the function call. The second dynamic link library initiates a process thread corresponding to the received function call and blocks all subsequently received calls until the received function call for the selected function is complete.

Methods and systems for providing operating system support of computer telephone sets are described. Services are provided to standardize the interactions between computer telephony applications and telephone sets, to unify those interactions into a coherent whole, and to simplify the interactions by automatically performing common tasks. A default Telephone Manager provides all the functionality needed to support basic telephony. With all call processing performed on the host computer, telephone sets attached to the host need have no native intelligence. Support for transporting voice to distant locations is provided entirely by the host computer rendering the telephone set independent of any transport technology.

A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for controlling the call control, service control, and user interface functions of a legacy telephone system from a web application. The web application communicates with a legacy call server and controls the legacy call server. A web application also communicates with a legacy telephony device and controls the legacy telephony device. A communication channel may be provided between the web application and the legacy call server, and data transferred over the communication channel is translated to a form that each can understand. The data may be a call control command or a service control command. A communication channel may be provided between the web application and the legacy telephony device, and data transferred over the communication channel is translated to a form that each can understand. The data may be translated to a legacy telephony device data format, and to a web API data format. An abstraction may be used to represent a telephony device or a class of telephony devices having similar characteristics. Access to the telephony device may be arbitrated, and data from the telephony device may be routed. A service plugin may be provided as an interface to the web application. An execution environment may be provided to allows dynamic insertion of service plugins. The data being transferred may be mapped to a telephony device resource. The web application may be an interface to another telephony device, so that telephony devices can communicate peer to peer.

A communication utility for establishing real-time, point-to-point communications between processes over a computer network includes apparatus for querying a server as to the network protocol address of another client process, and apparatus for directly establishing a communication link with the client process upon receipt of the network protocol address from the server. In one embodiment, the utility includes a sophisticated user interface having features similar to typical telephony hardware but implementing greater flexibility with software.

The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) specifies an application framework and network protocols for wireless devices such as mobile telephones, pagers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs).

When Qualcomm first mentioned that they were partnering with 3Com's Palm Computing division to build a cell phone combined with a Palm Pilot, the possibilities were exciting. Talk about James Bond-like gadgetry in palm of your hand. This device lets you make calls, keep records, send email, browse the web and run over a thousand different applications, all while on the go. Although a cell phone, it is one of the first truly portable, mobile and multipurpose Internet devices.