Enhanced telephony computer user interface allowing user interaction and control of a telephone using a personal computer

Abstract

An enhanced telephony (ET) computer user interface that seamlessly integrates features of a personal computer (PC) and a telephone into a coherent user interface. The user is provided with a rich variety of functionality that leverages the fact that the PC has considerably more processing power and greater access to variety of data than the ordinary telephone. This processing power and data access is used to the user's advantage as the telephone's capabilities and functionality are greatly expanded. Notes and other documents corresponding to a previous call can be identified and presented during a call.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method implemented for facilitating the taking of notes during a telephone call and for linking the notes to a history associated with the telephone call, the method comprising:
 a computing system detecting a telephone call that is received at the computing system, the computing system including a processor and memory and capabilities of connecting the telephone call with at least one participant;   the computing system identifying one or more characteristics of the telephone call;   the computing system using the one or more identified characteristics of the telephone call to create a header for a note document;   the computing system receiving user input comprising one or more notes that are input into the note document by the at least one participant during the telephone call; and   the computing system indexing and saving the note document as part of a history that links the one or more identified characteristics with the note document.   
     
     
         2 . The method recited in  claim 1 , wherein the one or more identified characteristics comprises a telephone number of a caller. 
     
     
         3 . The method recited in  claim 1 , wherein the one or more identified characteristics comprises a telephone number of a callee. 
     
     
         4 . The method recited in  claim 1 , wherein the one or more identified characteristics comprises a meeting identifier. 
     
     
         5 . The method recited in  claim 1 , wherein the one or more identified characteristics are extracted from calendar information that is accessed by the computing system from a calendar database of the at least one participant. 
     
     
         6 . A computer program product comprising at least one hardware computer-readable storage medium for providing access to an electronic document associated with at least one attribute of a telephone call at a computing device that includes at least one processor and memory, the at least one hardware computer-readable storage medium having stored computer executable instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, implement a method comprising:
 a computing system detecting a telephone call, the computing system including a processor and memory;   the computing system identifying one or more characteristics of the telephone call;   the computing system using the one or more identified characteristics of the telephone call to identify one or more electronic document associated with the one or more identified characteristics; and   the computing system displaying a selectable link to the one or more electronic document on an interface associated with the computing system.   
     
     
         7 . The computer program product recited in  claim 6 , wherein the one or more identified characteristics comprises a telephone number of a caller. 
     
     
         8 . The computer program product recited in  claim 6 , wherein the one or more identified characteristics comprises a telephone number of a callee. 
     
     
         9 . The computer program product recited in  claim 6 , wherein the one or more identified characteristics comprises a meeting identifier. 
     
     
         10 . The computer program product recited in  claim 6 , wherein the one or more identified characteristics are extracted from calendar information that is accessed by the computing system from a calendar database associated with a participant on the telephone call. 
     
     
         11 . The computer program product recited in  claim 6 , wherein the selectable link to the one or more electronic document is also displayed with a transfer file button which, when selected, transfers the electronic document to one or more participant on the telephone call. 
     
     
         12 . A computing system comprising:
 at least one processor; and   memory storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, implement a method for providing an electronic document associated with a telephone call at the computing system, wherein the method includes:   the computing system detecting a telephone call, the computing system including a processor and memory;   the computing system identifying one or more characteristics of the telephone call;   the computing system using the one or more identified characteristics of the telephone call to identify one or more electronic document associated with the one or more identified characteristics; and   the computing system displaying a selectable link to the one or more electronic document on an interface associated with the computing system.   
     
     
         13 . The computing system recited in  claim 12 , wherein the one or more identified characteristics comprises a telephone number of a caller. 
     
     
         14 . The computing system recited in  claim 12 , wherein the one or more identified characteristics comprises a telephone number of a callee. 
     
     
         15 . The computing system recited in  claim 12 , wherein the one or more identified characteristics comprises a meeting identifier. 
     
     
         16 . The computing system recited in  claim 12 , wherein the one or more identified characteristics are extracted from calendar information that is accessed by the computing system and which is associated with at least one participant on the telephone call. 
     
     
         17 . The computing system recited in  claim 12 , wherein the selectable link to the one or more electronic document is also displayed with a transfer file button which, when selected, transfers the electronic document to at least one participant on the telephone call. 
     
     
         18 . The computing system recited in  claim 12 , wherein the electronic document is a note document that was created during a previous call with at least one participant on the telephone call on an interface of the computing system. 
     
     
         19 . The computing system recited in  claim 18 , wherein the computing system identifies the one or more characteristics from header data that was created and stored with the note document from calendar information extracted from a calendar database associated with at least one participant on the telephone call. 
     
     
         20 . The computing system recited in  claim 12 , wherein the computing system includes a display screen that displays the interface.