Telephony Collaboration Manager Group Call Routing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users often miss incoming calls when their cellphone is out of reach, as they cannot hear or quickly locate it, especially in different rooms or when it is in a briefcase or purse.
Innovation Solution
A Telephony Collaboration Manager (TCM) subscription system that allows collaboration between phones in a trusted environment, using an admin device and a guest device to form and manage groups, enabling wireless communication and notification across devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the cellphone is kept in a fixed location (home or work), then the device is easily accessible, but the user cannot receive calls when away from that location
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple cellphones into a single collaborative group, merging their telephony functions. When one phone is away from the user, another phone in the group can receive and answer calls, effectively combining the capabilities of multiple devices to solve the location availability problem.
Solution Approach 2:
The collaborative telephony system makes the group of phones universally accessible for call reception regardless of which specific device the user carries. Any phone in the group can function as the primary communication device, providing multi-functionality across the device set.
2Ease of operation
If the cellphone is carried in a bag or purse, then the device is protected and always accessible, but the user cannot hear the ring or quickly retrieve it
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges the alerting functions of multiple phones in the collaborative group. When any phone in the group rings, the user receives notifications on all connected devices, allowing them to hear the ring even if the primary phone is in a bag, and quickly answer from a more accessible device.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces intermediary notification mechanisms where one phone can alert the user about incoming calls on another phone. The collaborative group acts as an intermediary system that relays call information across devices, enabling the user to respond to calls without physically accessing the ringing device.
3Device complexity
If the user relies on a single cellphone, then the system is simple and easy to manage, but the user may miss calls when the phone is out of reach
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple cellphones into a collaborative telephony group, creating a distributed system where call reception is shared across devices. This maintains relative simplicity through centralized management while significantly improving reliability by providing multiple potential receivers for incoming calls.
Solution Approach 2:
The system assigns different roles and capabilities to different phones in the collaborative group based on their local characteristics. Each phone maintains its own features and strengths, while contributing to the overall collaborative functionality, allowing the system to leverage local quality differences to improve overall reliability.
Data Source
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AI summary
A telephony collaboration system and method are provided. The method includes activating a wireless feature on an admin device, determining, whether a new group is to be created, determining whether to subscribe a guest device to an existing group, determining whether to join the guest device to a previously subscribed to group, when the admin device is to create the new group, creating the new group and assigning a name to the new group, when the guest device is to subscribe to the existing group, scanning for the existing group and transmitting a subscription request requesting that the guest device be subscribed to the existing group, and when the admin device is to join the previously subscribed to group, scanning for the previously subscribed to group and transmitting a join request requesting that the admin device be registered with the previously subscribed to group.