Importance

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Abstract

A system and method are presented for sending a message from one telephone to another by transmission of a short code. A set of message units stored within the receiving telephone is assigned to a set of codes which may be transmitted. The receiving telephone is a code-compatible telephone configured to detect an incoming code and forward the corresponding message unit to an output device associated with the code-compatible telephone. A message unit may comprise an entire message, or a portion of a message, such that multiple message units are combined to form a message. The message units may be alphanumeric or non-alphanumeric. An alphanumeric message unit contains multiple alphanumeric characters, while a non-alphanumeric message unit may contain graphical or auditory information. An alphanumeric or graphic message unit is forwarded to a display screen on the code-compatible telephone if the corresponding code is received. An auditory message unit is instead forwarded to the telephone's loudspeaker. The codes may be transmitted using dual-tone-multi-frequency (DTMF) tones, digital signals, or other signals convertible to a form detectable by the code-compatible telephone. Transmission of codes to a code-compatible telephone may be used in one-way or two-way non-spoken communication by telephone, which may be useful for people with hearing and/or speech impairment, or for people in an environment in which spoken telephone communication is difficult or undesirable.

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First Claim