GB2316789A

GB2316789A - Communication apparatus

Info

Publication number: GB2316789A
Application number: GB9718388A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Keiichi Taniguchi
Original assignee: NEC Corp
Current assignee: NEC Corp
Priority date: 1996-08-29
Filing date: 1997-08-29
Publication date: 1998-03-04
Also published as: GB9718388D0; AU3610997A; JPH1075470A

Abstract

A communication apparatus, when transmitting, determines the kind of data to be transmitted, voice data or non-voice data, and then transmits a data flag indicating the kind of data followed by the data. When receiving, it checks the data flag included in the received data and determines the kind of the received data. Depending on the kind of the received data, a ring sound is changed to inform a called user of the kind of the received data.

Description

COMMUNICATION APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the invention The present invention generally relates to a communication apparatus, and in particular to a communication apparatus which is provided with an indicator capable of attracting the attention of a user by sound, vibration and/or light.

2. Description of the Related Art There has been proposed a radio selective call receiver which changes in beep sound depending on whether a specific code is included in a received signal in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.3245 The specific code is stored in a transmission signal depending bn a c.lle- instruction and when the radio selective call receiver detects the specific code from the received signal, the called user is informed by another beep sound different from a normal one. Therefore, the called user can understand whether it is an urgent calling or who is calling depending on which beep is made.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the known receiver as described above, however, the specific code must be input by the caller when a message is transmitted. Further, since the known receiver changes the beep sound depending on the presence or absence of the specific code, it cannot identify the kind of received data.

In other words, the beep sound is changed only when the specific code is detected, regardless of which kind of received data is, voice data or text data.

According to the present invention, the kind of data is determined and an identifier indicating the kind if data is transmitted. When receiving the identifier, the receiver changes the form of the conveying medium according to the identifier.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a communication apparatus includes an input interface for inputting first data to be transmitted, and further includes R controller for identifying a kind of the first data received from the input interface to produce transmission data including a first identifier followed by the first data with the first identifier identifying the kind of the first data. A transmission signal generated from the transmission data is transmitted to a destination.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a communication apparatus includes a receiver for receiving a signal from outside to produce received data including a second identifier followed by second data with the second identifier identifying a kind of the second data, and further includes an indicator for indicating a calling by a conveying medium. A second controller controls the indicator according to the second identifier such that the conveying medium changes in form according to the kind of the second data.

Therefore, the called user can recognlze the kind of received data when the indicator indicates an incoming call by changing a form of the conveying medium, resulting in improved convenience and operability BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing a radio communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a diagram showing a data section of a signal format used for transmission between radio communication terminals according to the embodiment: Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing a data transmitting operation in the embodiment: and Fig. 4 is a flowchart showing a data receiving operation in the embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Ref erring to Fig. 1, a radio communication terminal is provided with a radio system 101 and a control processor 102. The radio system 101 demodulates a radio signal received through an antenna to output a demodulated signal to the control processor 102 and modulates a transmission signal received from the control processor 102 to transmit a radio signal through the antenna.

The control processor 102 controls the operations of the terminal including call setup, coding/decoding, data reception and transmission, data inputtoutput, and decision on the kind of data. Received data and transmiss~on data are. stused onto a data memory 103 under control of the control processor 102. A ring sound processor 104 has a plurality of ring sounds therein and is capable of selecting one of the ring sounds under the control of the control processor 102 and driving a sounder 105 according to the selected ring sound. More specifically, when called, the control processor 102 controls the ring sound processor 104 so that the sounder 105 is driven to make a beep sound selected depending on the kind of received data. A vibrator and/or a light-emitting diode (LED) may be used together with or instead of the sounder 105. In general, it is necessary to provide the radio communication terminal with an indicator which indicates a calling by at least one conveying medium selected from sound, mechanical vibration and light. An indicator by sound is the sounder 105, another indicator by mechanical vibration is the vibrator, and still another indicator by light is the LED.

A voice signal processor 106 receives a voice signal from a microphone 107 and outputs transmission voice data to the control processor 102. Contrarily, the voice signal processor 106 inputs received voice data from the control processor 102 and outputs a voice signal to a speaker 108. The control processor 102 controls an LCD controller 109 which in turn controls a liquid-crystal display (LCD) 110. On the LCD 110, necessary status indicators, text data and received character information data are displayed The radio communication terminal is provided with a keypad 111 which is used to input various instructions including dialing and data by a user. Further other "on-voice data may be input or output from or to outside through an external interface 112.

The control processor 102 receives the transmission voice data from the voice signal processor 106 and the non-voice data from the-keypad 111 and the external interface 112. Therefore, the control processor 102 can discriminate between the voice data and the non-voice data by identifying a data source. The control processor 102 runs a control program which is stored in a program read-only memory 113. The control program includes data transmission and reception programs as will be described referring to Figs. 3 and 4.

Referring to Fig. 2, there is shown the data section of a signal format which is used for data transmission between terminals. The data section begins with a start signal STX and ends with an end signal ETX. The start signal STX is followed by an identifier (hereinafter, a data flag F) which indicates the kind of data following the data flag F. In this embodiment, the data flag F is set to '00' in the case of voice data and the data flag F is set to 'Cl in the case of non-voice data (here, character information data or text data). Needless to say, other settings may be possible.

DATA TRANSMTSSTON Referring to Fig. 3, when a data input occurs (step S101), the control processor 102 determines whether the input data is voice data or not by identifying its data source (step S102). When t input data ts voice data received from ne voice signal processor 106, the control processor 102 sets the data flag F to '00' (step S103) and then the data flag F='OO' is stored onto the data memory 103 (step S104).

On the other hand, when the input data is non-voice data such as text data or character information data received from either the keypad 111 or the external interface 112, the control processor 102 sets the data flag F to 01' (step S105) and then the data flag F='01 ' is stored onto the data memory 103 (step S106) .

Subsequently, the input data is converted into a predetermined data format and then the converted data is stored onto the location following the data flag F in the data memory 103 as shown in Fig. 2 (step S107). After that, the control processor 102 performs a predetermined connection sequence to establishes a connection to a destination terminal (step S108).

The destination address number may be dialed and transmitted by the user operating a ten-key and depressing a start button of the keypad 111. Then, a transmission signal including the data flag F and the data sandwiched between the start signal STX and the end signal ETX is transmitted from the radio system 101 to the destination terminal (step S109).

The data flag setting steps S102, S103 and S105 may be performed by the user inputting the kind of data to be transmitted through the keypad 111.

DATA RECEPTTON Referring to Fig. 4, when receiving a calling signal from other temina3 a a base station (YES in step S201), the control processor 102 extracts the received data (step S202) and stores it onto the data memory 103 (step S203). Then, the control processor 102 checks whether the data flag F of the received data is '00' or '01' (step-S204). In other words, it is determined whether the received data is voice data or non-voice data.

When the data flag F='00', that is, the received data is voice data, the received data is transferred from the data memory 103 to the voice signal processor 106 (step S205). Further, the control processor 102 instructs the ring sound processor 104 to select a first ring A indicating the reception of voice data and then the sounder 105 makes the first ring A (step S206) . According to the user's instruction, the control processor 102 instructs the voice signal processor 106 to drive the speaker 108 and thereby the received voice message is output (step S207), When the data flag F='01', that is, the received data is non-voice data, the received data is transferred from the data memory 103 to the LCD controller 109 (step S208). Further, the control processor 102 instructs the ring sound processor 104 to select a second ring B indicating the reception of non-voice data and then the sounder 105 makes the second ring B (step S209).

According to the user's instruction, the control processor 102 instructs the LCD controller 109 to control the LCD 110 and thereby the received non-voice message is displayed on screen of the LCD 110 (step 5210).

As described above, in the case of transmission, the control pr ssor 102 determines th kind of data to be transmitted, voice data or non-voice data, and then transmits the data flag indicating the kind of data followed by the data. In the case of reception, the control processor 102 checks the data flag included in the received data and determines the kind of the received data.

Depending on the kind of the received data, the ring sound is changed to inform the called user of the kind of the received data.

In the case where the receiver is further provided with a vibrator and /or a light-emitting diode, the vibrating frequency of the vibrator and the blinking frequency of the LED may be changed depending on tne kind of the receivecii data. Therefore, the called user can recognize the kind of received data when the sounder or the like is operated.

Contrarily, in the case where a communication terminal is not provided with such a function of discriminating between a plurality of kinds of data but supports conrmunications of the kinds of data, a called user can recognize received data as voice data when a speaker outputs a voice and as text data when a received message is displayed on screen. In other words, the called user cannot recognize the kind of received data without paying attention to the display and the speaker.

Although discriminating between voice data and non-voice data in the above embodiment, it is apparent that the present invention is applicable to a communication apparatus supporting different kinds of data

Claims

Claims:

1. A communication apparatus comprising: a receiver for receiving a signal from outside to produce received data including an identifier followed by data, the identifier identifying a kind of the data; an indicator for indicating a calling by a conveying medium; and a controller for controlling the indicator according to the identifier such that the conveying medium changes in form according to the kind of the data.

2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data is of one of two different kinds and the identifier identifies one of the two different kinds1 wherein the indicator indicates a calling by a first form of the conveying medium when the identifir iden;lffr4s o of the two different kinds and the indicator indicates a calling by a second form of the conveying medium when the identifier identifies the other of the two different kinds.

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3. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the data is one of voice data and non-voice data and the indicator indicates the calling by the first form of the conveying medium when the identifier identifies voice data and the indicator indicates the calling by the second form of the conveying medium when the identifier identifies non-voice data.

4. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the indicator is a sounder using a sound as the conveying medium, wherein the sounder makes a first sound when the identifier identifies one of the two different kinds and the sounder makes a second sound different from the first sound when the identifier identifies the other of the two different kinds.

5. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the indicator is a vibrator using a mechanical vibration as the conveying medium, wherein the vibrator makes a first mechanical vibration when the identifier identifies one of the two different kinds and the vibrator makes a second mechanical vibration different from the first mechanical vibrat?%on hen tne identifier identifies the other of the two different kinds.

6. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the indicator is a light source using light as the conveying medium, wherein the light source blinks in a first form when the identifier identifies one of the two different kinds and the light source blinks in a second form different from the first form when the identifier identifies the other of the two different kinds.

7. The communication apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising: a first converter for converting voice data into voice; and a second converter for converting non-voice data into display data which is displayed on screen.

8. A communication apparatus comprising: an input interface for inputting data to be transmitted; a controller for identifying a kind of the data received from the input interface to produce transmission data including an identifier followed by the data, the identifier identifying the kind of the data; and a transmitter for transmitting a transmissi -n signal generated from the transmission data.

9. The communication apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the input interface comprising a plurality of input devices.

10. The communication apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the controller identifies the kind of the data depending on which input device inputs the data.

11. The communication apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the data is of one of two different kinds and the identifier identifies one of the two different kinds,

12. The communication apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the data is one of voice data and non-voice data, wherein the input interface comprises a microphone and a keypad, the microphone inputting a voice signal which is converted to the voice data and the keypad inputting a non-voice signal which is converted to the non-voice data.

13. The communication apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the controller sets the identifier to a first figure when the data is voice data and the controller sets the identifier to a second figure when the data is non-voice data.

14. A communication apparatus comprising a transmitting section and a receiving section, the transmitting section comprising: an input interface for inputting first data to be transmitted; a first controller for identifying a kind of the first data received from the input interface to produce transmission data including a first identifier followed by the first data, the first identifier identifying the kind of the first data; and a transmitter for transmitting a transmission signal generated from the transmission data, and the receiving section comprising: a receiver for receiving a signal from outside to produce received data including a second identifier followed by second data. the second identifier identifying a kind of the second data; an indicator for indicating a calling by a conveying medium; and a second controller for controlling the indicator according to the second identifier such that the conveying medium changes in form according to the kind of the second data.

15. A communication system comprising a first terminal and a second terminal the first terminal comprising: an 'np?t interface fol inputting data to be transmitted; a first controller for identifying a kind of the data received from the input interface to produce transmission data including an identifier followed by the data, the identifier identifying the kind of the data; and a transmitter for transmitting a transmission signal generated from the transmission data, and the second terminal comprising: a receiver for receiving a signal from the first terminal to produce received data including the identifier followed by the data; an indicator for indicating a calling by a conveying medium; and a second controller for controlling the indicator according to the identifier such that the conveying medium changes in form according to the kind of the data.

16. The communication system according to claim 15, wherein the second terminal receives the signal from the first terminal through a mobile communication system.

17. A communication method comprising the steps of: at a source terminal, inputting data to be transmitted; identifying a kind of the data to produce transmission data including identifier follG by ^ the identifier identifying the kind of the data; and transmitting a transmission signal generated from the transmission data to a destination terminal, and at the destination terminal, receiving a signal from the source terminal to produce received data including the identifier followed by the data; and changing a form of a conveying medium of an incoming call indicator according to the identifier.

18. A communication apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to the drawings.