Abstract: Automatic expansion of a hierarchical repertory that is maintained by a touch screen based product to accommodate a user request to add an entry to a touch screen display page that has reached its capacity of entries is discussed. Such automatic expansion operates by selecting a button from the display page, wherein the selected button is linked to a first node of the repertory. A second node is added to the repertory, and the repertory is modified to establish the first node as a child node of the second node. Then, a new menu button is associated with the second node, and the selected button is deleted from the display page. The new menu button is positioned in the display page at the position previously occupied by the selected button.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for displaying more than one font on a limited dot matrix display device are disclosed. In addition to displaying characters in a standard font based on using all pixels in a five by seven pixel matrix, a custom font set based on a reduced size pixel matrix is used for character display. A maximum of four columns and six rows of pixels, i.e., a four by six matrix, are used for the custom font out of the five columns and seven rows of pixels which are available. In further embodiments of the invention, the pixels which are not used to create a character may be used to add a background characteristic. Thus a reverse video font or underlining font may be created. In an additional embodiment, a box can be placed around a word by using the underline font in conjunction with placing a vertical line immediately before the first character and immediately after the last character of a word to be placed in a box.

Abstract: A procedure for cleaning a display screen in a touch screen based telephone such that features of the telephone are not inadvertently activated is described. The procedure operates by causing the telephone (actually, a processor in the telephone) to enter a "clean screen" mode in response to a request from the user to clean the display screen. While in the "clean screen" mode, all signals generated in response to the user touching the display screen are ignored. In this matter, while in the "clean screen" mode, the user is able to clean the display screen without inadvertently activating any features of the telephone. The telephone automatically determines when the user has finished cleaning the display screen. When it is determined that the user has finished cleaning the display screen, the telephone leaves the "clean screen" mode and enters an "active screen". While in the "active screen" mode, all signals generated in response to the user touching the display screen are processed.

Abstract: Telephone line status indication is improved by making measurements of the differential voltage across the Tip-Ring terminals of a telephone set. The telephone set is connected to a telephone line which is shared with other parallel-connected sets. The measurement of differential line voltage is made time the set changes state (i.e., between on-hook and off-hook). The maximum magnitude of one of the last three measurements is stored to represent the state, and is arithmetically averaged with the maximum magnitude of one or the last three stored for the oil-hook state to create a reference voltage. The reference voltage is updated each time the telephone set changes state and is continually compared with the present differential line voltage to determine which one is larger A light-emitting-diode on the telephone set indicates that the telephone line is in use whenever the reference voltage exceeds the measured differential line voltage.