Method and apparatus for managing the use of an electronic lock for
Contents
1. Patent No 4 724 537 Issued Feb 9 1988 Appl No 06 651 711 Filed Sep 18 1984 Certificate of Correction issued Jul 1 1997 SD TaGC is H04M 1 66 OH US GL ua ua di 455 565 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 3 508 202 A 4 1970 Joel J reiser 340 164 3 958 231 A 5 1976 Hoffman 340 274 4 114 147 A 9 1978 Hilez a sasa 340 528 4 510 623 A 4 1985 Bonneau et al 455 181 FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS JP 46 62189 4 1973 JP 54 91242 2 1981 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Motorola Communications and Electronics Inc DYNA T A C 8000X Cellular Portable Telephone User s Manual pp 1 50 Feb 20 1984 Motorola Southwest Newswire Press Release dated Mar 13 1984 regarding Motorola Announces Complete New Cellular Portable and Mobile Telephone Product Line Avail able Now pp 1 3 Mortorola Newswire Press Release dated Mar 13 1984 regarding Motorola s communication sector Introduces the most complete and comprehensive line of cellular portable and mobile telephones available in the industry today pp 1 3 Harris Corp RF Communications Group Mobile Tele phone Division Cellular Mobile Telephone Operator s Instruction Manual Alpha Custom pp 1 56 and A1 A4 2 85 Harris Corp RF Communications Group Mobile Tele phone Operator s Instruction Manual Alpha E ET pp 1 36 and A1 A2 3 84 Harris Corp RF Communications Group Mobile T2. bile and thus have access to a mobile telephone located therein Likewise land based telephones must fre quently be placed in locations where rigorous control of access to the dialing apparatus of such telephones is difficult to achieve A telephone installed in a public area may be convenient for authorized users but at the same time is accessible to unauthorized persons The use of both physical and electronic locks to con trol the use of telephones is well known Physical locks which conventionally are engaged and disengaged by means of a key or combination mechanically impede a would be user from obtaining access to a portion of the telephone instrument necessary for dialing Telephone systems which utilize a key or other physi cal device to lock and unlock the telephone instrument require the telephone user to carry the key whenever use of the telephone is desired An authorized user of a telephone who for whatever reason does not have the unlocking key in his possession is denied the ability to place telephone calls Electronic lock systems generally obviate the need for carrying a key because such systems generally can be locked by activation of a single switch or button and are unlocked by the execution of the correct unlocking sequence Other known electronic locks automatically lock the controlled device after each use However such electronic systems can often be accidentally locked or locked by unauthorized persons by t
3. 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 65 4 the microphone 22 and the transmitter 20 and between the receiver 28 and the speaker 30 From the foregoing it will be apparent that the pres ent invention provides unique management control of the use of a mobile telephone Only authorized users can operate the lock and can do so without a physical key Moreover the use of a single code sequence for both locking and unlocking reduces the possibility of confu sion between the locking and unlocking codes and lapses of memory Requiring that the code sequence be input before locking eliminates the possibility of inad vertent locking by an error or mistake in the code se quence Tampering is also inhibited These and many other advantages of the present invention will be obvious to one skilled in the art from the claims It should be understood that the foregoing description of the preferred embodiment is illustrative only and that many modifications may be made with out departing from the spirit thereof as defined in the claims when accorded a full range of equivalents What is claimed is 1 A method of managing the use of a mobile radio telephone comprising the steps of a providing a mobile radio telephone having a plu rality of input keys b providing an electronic lock responsive to the successive operation of a predetermined sequence of said keys to lock and unlock the telephone c requiring entry of the predetermine
4. OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method and appara tus for managing the electronic lock of a radio tele phone More particularly it relates to a method and apparatus for preventing the unauthorized use of the telephone as well as the inadvertent or intentional tam pering with the electronic locking device Subscribers to telephone service are often charged by the operator of the telephone system for each minute that the telephone is in use and additional fees per min ute of use may also be charged for long distance calls This is particularly true for special purpose telephones such as mobile radio telephones Accordingly it is often important to limit operational access of unauthorized persons to a telephone The nature of the use of telephones and particularly of mobile radio telephones is such that rigorous control of access to the telephone instrument is difficult to en sure Often the goal of limiting access to unauthorized personnel is in direct conflict with a goal of allowing ease of access to authorized personnel For example mobile telephones are often installed in automobiles to permit use of the telephone system while driving How ever the authorized user of the telephone is frequently not the only person with access to the automobile Park ing attendants automobile service personnel and per sons borrowing an automobile generally have to be given access to the interior compartment of an automo
5. accidental or unauthorized operation of said control means comprising the steps of receiving a predetermined plurality of input signals comparing said plurality of input signals with said plurality of memory signals and operating said control means only if each of said plurality of input signals matches said plurality of memory signals thereby to prevent persons not knowing the plurality of memory signals from op erating said lock UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO 4 724 537 DATED February 9 1988 INVENTOR S Paul L Monet It is certified that error appears in the above indentified patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby corrected as shown below Column 3 lines 20 28 35 and 61 for the drawing petepence numeral nun each occurrance should read 12 Signed and Sealed this First Day of July 1997 Attest WS ace l BRUCE LEHMAN Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks US004724537C1 a2 EX PARTE REEXAMINATION CERTIFICATE 4926th United States Patent Monet US 4 724 537 C1 Apr 13 2004 10 Number 45 Certificate Issued 54 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING THE USE OF AN ELECTRONIC LOCK FOR A MOBILE RADIO TELEPHONE 75 Inventor Paul L Monet Syracuse NY US 73 Assignee Harris Corporation Melbourne FL US Reexamination Request No 90 005 578 Dec 1 1999 Reexamination Certificate for
6. UED UNDER 35 U S C 307 THE PATENT IS HEREBY AMENDED AS INDICATED BELOW OR ORO E Claims 1 5 and 6 are cancelled
7. United States Patent 115 11 Patent Number 4 724 537 Monet 45 Date of Patent Feb 9 1988 54 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR 56 References Cited MANAGING THE USE OF AN ELECTRONIC LOCK FOR A MOBILE RADIO TELEPHONE USS STENT DO CLEMENT 4 099 033 7 1978 Murray commons 179 90 D 4 436 957 3 1984 Mazza et al 179 2 EA 75 Inventor Paul L Monet Syracuse N Y 4 532 507 7 1985 Edson et al cmo 340 825 31 d E Primary Examiner Robert Lev 73 Assignee Harris Corporation Melbourne Fla Attorney Agent or Firm L Lawton Rogers III Joseph M Killeen A method and apparatus for managing an electronic D2 Filed Sep 18 1984 radio telephone lock in which the electronic lock can be rendered operative or inoperative only by first entering 51 ICAA nai a qalas H04M 1 66 apredetermined code so as to prevent unauthorized use 52 US Clin 379 58 379 63 as well as accidental or unauthorized locking code 58 Field of Search 179 2 E 2 EC 90 D changes etc 179 2 CA 18 DA 2 A 2 DP 340 825 31 379 58 66 59 60 63 6 Claims 1 Drawing Figure TRANS MITTER RECEIVER 4 724 537 Feb 9 1988 US Patent EDO d3A13938 O 0 9 qt YALLIN SNVYL Dbz LINOUIO JOYLNOD MOLWYANAD a E 8 AMOW3SNW 9l O Ol AV 1dSIG tl 4 724 537 1 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING THE USE OF AN ELECTRONIC LOCK FOR A MOBILE RADIO TELEPHONE BACKGROUND
8. curity device for a telephone instrument com prising selectively operable inhibit means to prevent the use of said instrument signal recognition means operable to receive a plural ity of signals representing a predetermined code and 4 724 537 5 control means responsive to said signal recognition means to operate said inhibit means and to disable said inhibit means only upon the receipt of said predetermined code 5 An electronic lock device to prevent unauthorized use of a telephone instrument comprising digital input means for the receipt of input signals from a user of said instrument locking means operative to selectively prevent use of said instrument logic means responsive to said digital input means and controlling said locking means said logic means enabling said locking means upon the receipt of a predetermined sequence of input signals by said digital input means and disabling said locking means upon the receipt of said predetermined se quence of input signals 10 20 25 30 35 45 50 35 65 6 6 In an electronic lock for a telephone having an input means providing a plurality of different signals each signal representing an input signal from a user a memory means for storing a plurality of memory sig nals each said memory signal representing at least one of said input signals and a control means for selectively inhibiting operation of the telephone a method of pre venting
9. d sequence of keys prior to unlocking the telephone and d requiring entry of the predetermined sequence of keys prior to locking the telephone whereby both unauthorized use and inadvertent or un authorized locking of the telephone may be achieved without a physical key 2 A method of managing the use of a mobile radio telephone comprising the steps of a providing a mobile radio telephone b providing an electronic lock responsive to a single predetermined code sequence c requiring entry of the code sequence as a condi tion precedent to the enabling of the telephone and d requiring entry of the code sequence as a condi tion precedent to the disabling of the telephone whereby both unauthorized use and inadvertent or un authorized disabling of the telephone may be achieved without a physical key 3 A method of preventing unauthorized use of an electronic lock comprising the steps of providing an electronic lock responsive to a plurality of preselected electronic signals in a preselected sequence for opening said lock opening said lock by applying said plurality of prese lected electronic signals in said preselected se quence and closing said lock only upon the receipt by said lock of said plurality of preselected electronic signals in said preselected sequence so that said lock cannot be closed except by persons knowing said plurality of preselected electronic signals in said preselected sequence 4 A se
10. e unlock sequence which both locks and unlocks the telephone instrument may be a predetermined se quence of input signals from the keypad 10 Although described above as preceding the input signal indicating a lock command the unlock sequence may also be en tered after the lock command or both before and after the entry of the lock command Indeed the lock com mand may be eliminated entirely if an unambiguous unlocking sequence is selected Whenever the telephone instrument is in the un locked state it is possible to change the unlock sequence by either activating a code change switch on the keypad 10 or by operating a second code sequence indicative of a code change command Upon receiving the code change command the control circuit 12 will accept and store in the storage device 16 the new lock sequence While the memory storage device 16 has been hereto fore described as an electronic storage device the pres ent invention does not so require and the storage device may be any method of indicating a code sequence to the control circuit 14 e g coding plugs for grounding certain wires attached to the control circuit 12 and indicative of a coding sequence The control circuit 12 may be designed to inhibit all calls both incoming and outgoing inhibit outgoing calls or inhibit incoming calls only because the control circuit 12 controls both the dialing signal generator 18 and the switch 24 to the communication paths between 20
11. ele phone Operator s Instruction Manual Alpha 40 pp 1 19 1982 and Addendum No AD 6624 1404 4 88 Motorola DYNA T A C 6000X Universal Mobile Tele phone Product Brochure pp 1 5 DYNA T A C Cellular Mobile Telephone General Descrip tion Technical Writing Services Schaumburg IL Jun 15 1983 pp 1 3 Operating Instructions for the Emerald Radiophone Brit ish Telecom Radiophone 4 pages Operating Instruction for the Sapphire Radiophone Brit ish Telecom Radiophone 4 Pages British Telecom Time Line Chart 1 Page Radiophone No Longer Just an Executive Toy Telecom Feb 1984 p 5 Extra Features Make Sapphire a Gem Telecom Mar 1984 p 4 Stornomatic 900 User Instructions Storno Radio Com munications Systems 7 Pages Televa Cargo Ammattilaisen NMT Autopuhelin Adver tisement 1 Page Quattro Keyboard Buttons and Indicators Communica tions Systems 1983 1 Page Primary Examiner Lee Nguyen 57 ABSTRACT A method and apparatus for managing an electronic radio telephone lock in which the electronic lock can be rendered operative or inoperative only by first entering a predeter mined code so as to prevent unauthorized use as well as accidental or unauthorized locking code changes etc 28 RECEIVER US 4 724 537 C1 1 2 EX PARTE AS A RESULT OF REEXAMINATION IT HAS BEEN REEXAMINATION CERTIFICATE DETERMINED THAT ISS
12. he mere activation of a simple locking switch without any knowledge of the operating code Electronic locks are known in which telephone dial ing may be inhibited by the activation of a switch or button on the telephone instrument When the locking button or switch is activated the control circuits in the telephone instrument inhibit dialing by not transmitting 20 25 35 45 50 65 2 the dialing signals necessary to establish communication between the telephone instrument and the telephone network Frequently such electronic locks may be unlocked by performing an unlocking sequence consist ing of entering an unlock code comprising a predeter mined code sequence If the correct code sequence is input the control circuit removes the inhibit and ena bles the transmission of the dialing signals Electronic locks for telephone instruments of this type are dis closed in U S Pat No 4 099 033 issued to Murray on July 4 1978 U S Pat No 4 314 108 issued to Shauvit on Feb 2 1982 and United Kingdom Patent Applica tion No 2 086 188 by Feuell filed May 6 1982 If a lock is accidentally locked or tampered with an authorized user of the mobile telephone who does not know the unlocking sequence will be denied use of the telephone Additionally an authorized user who mis takenly believes that he knows the unlocking sequence may intentionally activate the locking mechanism and henceforth be unable to unlock the system p
13. l from a base station and second to send the appropriate tone signals from the dialing signal generator 18 to the antenna 26 through the transmitter 20 in order to signal the base station of the telephone number of the telephone being called To complete the audio circuit which enables the user to transmit his voice signal and hear the incoming signal the control circuit 14 closes ganged switch 24 connecting the mi crophone 22 to the transmitter 20 and the receiver 28 to the speaker 30 Subsequently when the telephone call or calls are completed and the user desires to inhibit any further telephone dialing by unauthorized persons the user depresses certain keys of the keypad 10 which corre spond to the unlock sequence and indicates to the con trol circuit 14 via one of the keys of the keypad 10 that he desires the telephone be locked Upon receiving the unlock sequence and the lock command the control circuit 12 compares the unlock sequence to a sequence previously stored in the storage device 16 If the unlock sequence received from the keypad 10 matches the sequence stored in the storage device 16 the control circuit 14 disables the telephone instrument by opening the ganged switch 24 If the unlock sequence received from the keypad 10 does not match the sequence stored in the storage device 16 the control circuit 12 ignores the lock command and provides an indication on dis play 14 that the telephone instrument is still unlocked Th
14. ossibly at the expense of an expensive service call to open the instrument for the purpose of reprogramming the lock ing sequence It is therefore an object of the present invention to obviate these and other problems in known electronic locking systems and to provide a novel method and apparatus for managing the use of an electronic lock particularly for mobile radio telephones It is another object of the present invention to pro vide a novel method and apparatus for controlling the use of telephone instruments without the use of a key It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel method and apparatus for ensuring the correctness of the unlocking sequence prior to engaging an electronic lock These and many other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to one skilled in the art from the claims when read in conjunction with the appended drawing DRAWING FIG 1 is a functional block diagram of an embodi ment of the apparatus of the present invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT One embodiment of the electronic locking system of the present invention is illustrated in a mobile telephone instrument in FIG 1 In the figure an input device such as a keypad 10 provides input signals to a control circuit 12 The keypad 10 contains a plurality of keys some of which represent commands and others of which repre sent the digits 0 through 9 in a standard telephone in
15. strument keypad To assist a telephone user a display 14 is provided to echo commands and digits entered on the keypad 10 The control circuit 12 communicates with a storage device 16 and controls the operation of dialing signals from a dialing signal generator 18 to a transmit ter 20 The audio signals to be transmitted by the tele phone instrument are received by a microphone 22 and are converted to electrical signals which are passed to the transmitter 20 through one portion of a ganged switch 24 Similarly electrical signals representative of audio signals are received by the telephone instrument through an antenna 26 to a receiver 28 and subsequently to a speaker 30 The speaker 30 converts the electrical signals into audio signals The electrical connection 4 724 537 3 between the receiver 28 and the speaker 30 is switched via the other portion of the ganged switch 24 Addition ally signals received by the receiver 28 are passed di rectly to the control circuit 12 so that incoming tele phone calls may be detected and announced If a user wishes to place a call on the telephone instru ment which is enabled or unlocked the user depresses appropriate keys on keypad 10 to indicate that a call is to be placed and the telephone number which the user desires to call Upon receipt of the signal from the key pad 10 the control circuit 12 performs a standard com munications repertoire first to obtain an available trans mission channe
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