The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 26, 2000
Filed:
Jan. 22, 1998
Leland Lester, Austin, TX (US);
David Iglehart, Austin, TX (US);
Larry W Coons, Cedar Park, TX (US);
Michael Duncan, Austin, TX (US);
Siemens Information and Communication Networks, Inc., Boca Raton, FL (US);
Abstract
A telephone utilizes a grid of light beams to generate signals that are unique to particular key regions of the telephone in response to interruptions of light beams that intersect at the particular key regions. The key regions of the telephone are arranged in a matrix of rows and columns and the light grid includes horizontally and vertically oriented pairs of light sources and photo detectors that have respective light beam paths passing through rows and columns of key regions. The intersection points of one of the horizontal and vertical light beam paths correspond to particular key regions. In one embodiment, the light sources and photo detectors are raised from a surface of the support structure such that the light beam paths cross the matrix of key regions at the exterior of the support structure. In another embodiment, the telephone generates DTMF signals in response to interruptions of the intersecting light beams, and the telephone has holes formed completely through the support structure at the key regions where the light beam paths intersect.