JP2001136556A - Message receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an index for message retrieval of high necessity for a user by displaying rough contents of a received and stored message on a screen in the form of an icon. SOLUTION: A message receiver which stores a received message in a memory 4b and displays the message on a screen 6 stores key words and icons, in a correspondence storage means 4a so that they correspond to each other and a decision means 3a decided whether a key word is included in the received message, when a key word is included, a symbol display means 3b displays on the screen 6 the icon which is stored while made to correspond to the key word. A similar process is performed on similar information on the message.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus having a function of receiving a message and displaying the received message on a screen, and more particularly, to a representative apparatus which calls the received message as an icon or a character based on a keyword in the received message. The present invention relates to a message receiver represented on a screen by a symbol.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a device having a function of receiving a message and displaying it on a screen, for example, a radio selective calling receiver having a message receiving function called a pager or a pager (registered trademark), a message receiving function There is known a mobile phone or the like provided with. In the present specification, a message refers to communication data other than voice information or a simple call signal, such as character information and image information.

The radio selective calling receiver has a simple calling function of notifying a sales representative on the go of a contact number of a contact person and making a call, for example. In addition to this function, for example, It has evolved to include a message receiving function of receiving a text message (or may be referred to as e-mail) sent by a friend and displaying the message on a screen such as an LCD. Furthermore, in recent years, a service for wirelessly distributing various information messages such as news and weather forecasts has been implemented, and a radio selective calling receiver can receive such a distributed information message and display it on a screen. It has evolved into one that also has an information terminal function that can be used.

Similarly, mobile phones have evolved to have a function of transmitting and receiving messages for personal mail, as described above, and furthermore, receive various information messages as described above. It has evolved to have a function of transmitting and receiving image information messages.

In an apparatus having such a message receiving function (message receiver), the received message is stored in a memory, and the stored message is read out by a user's switch operation and displayed on a screen. . When a message receiver receives a message and stores it in a memory, for example, an envelope-shaped icon is displayed on a screen to allow a user to recognize that there is a received message.

[0006]

However, in the conventional message receiver, the user can recognize that the received message is stored in the memory by displaying the icon on the screen. It was not known whether the message was received and stored unless the user operated the switch to display the stored message on the screen. Therefore, it was not possible to easily confirm what kind of message was received, and the user was forced to perform a complicated operation for checking the message regardless of the content.

In addition, a large number of received messages are stored in the memory instead of one. Further, when an information message distributed frequently as described above is received, a considerably large number (for example, several hundred messages) is received. ) Is stored in memory,
It has been difficult for a user to search for a necessary message from stored messages by operating a switch.

[0008] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-174137 discloses that a signal including a selective calling signal and a message signal is received, and a selection is made according to whether a message signal including a preset keyword is received. L based on ringing signal
A radio selective calling receiver that performs a calling operation by blinking an ED, sounding a buzzer, or vibrating a vibrator is disclosed. According to this, it is possible to select whether or not to make a call based on the set keyword, thereby avoiding the trouble that the user is frequently called. However, in this radio selective calling receiver, the user is notified by flashing, vibrating, or sounding that a certain message corresponding to the keyword has been received. However, the reception of the message is left to the user's memory.

It may not be a problem if the message is read from the memory and displayed on the screen immediately after receiving the message, but if there is a delay after receiving the message or another message is displayed. In the case of receiving a message, the user forgets that the message was received, how many messages were received, and what keyword the received message corresponds to.
After all, in the above radio selective call receiver, it is meaningful to restrict troublesome call notification by a keyword, but it is necessary for the user to determine what kind of received message is stored in the memory. It did not have the ability to provide a brief, concise, or, more specifically, an index of stored messages.

Further, in the above-mentioned radio selective calling receiver, if the received message is stored in the memory,
Even if the call notification corresponding to the keyword is made, the user cannot determine which message stored in the memory corresponds to the call notification, and after all, these stored messages are read out one by one and displayed on the screen. If displayed, the contents of the necessary or important message could not be confirmed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, and displays a representative symbol such as an icon or a character reflecting the contents of a received message on a screen so that a stored message required by a user can be easily displayed. An object of the present invention is to provide a message receiver that can be displayed on a screen. Further objects of the present invention will be apparent in the following description.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a message receiver for storing a message received wirelessly in a memory and displaying the message on a screen and outputting the message on a screen in advance. Are stored in association with each other, and the determination unit determines whether or not the received message includes the keyword, and when the received message includes the keyword,
The symbol display means displays and outputs the representative symbol stored in association with the keyword on the screen. As a result, even if the content of the received message is not displayed on the screen, the fact that the message having the content including the preset keyword is received is displayed on the screen by the representative symbol, so that the user can receive the message selected by the keyword. It can be easily checked, and can be used as an index for a highly necessary message search.

The above-mentioned correspondence storage means may store in advance a keyword and a representative symbol such as an icon in association with each other at the stage of manufacturing the message receiver. And the representative symbol may be stored in association with each other. For example, an editing operation (including a new creation operation) for at least one of the keyword and the representative symbol is received from a user from an editing receiving unit such as an operation switch provided in the message receiver, and the editing unit receives the editing operation. The content stored in the correspondence storage means may be edited according to the operation, and in this case, customization according to the individual user can be performed.

An interface means such as a plug for connecting an external information processing apparatus such as a personal computer is provided in the message receiver, and at least one of a keyword and a representative symbol created by the information processing apparatus is used as an interface. The editing means may edit the content received from the means and stored in the corresponding storage means in accordance with the created content, so that the word processing function and the drawing function provided in the information processing apparatus can be used. Then, various keywords and representative symbols can be easily created and registered in the message receiver.

Further, in the present invention, the message type information is stored in the correspondence storage means in association with the representative symbol instead of or together with the keyword, and the determination means determines the type of the message received by radio, and The display means may output a representative symbol stored in association with the type of the received message on a screen. As a result, for example, the screen is displayed with a representative symbol corresponding to the type information added to the received message according to the message content, such as “addressed to the individual”, “weather forecast”, and “news”. Even without displaying the content of the message on the screen, the user can easily confirm the reception of the message of the content type set in advance by the representative symbol, and can be used as an index of a message search that is highly necessary.

In the above-described message receiver for displaying a representative symbol corresponding to a keyword or message type information on a screen as described above, the storage processing means stores a message received wirelessly in a memory in association with the representative symbol displayed on the screen. A selection instruction receiving means such as an operation switch receives a user's selection instruction for the representative symbol displayed on the screen, and a message corresponding to the representative symbol selected by the user is read from the memory and displayed on the screen. It may be. As a result, a message corresponding to the representative symbol can be easily displayed on the screen from among a large number of messages stored in the memory, and a necessary or important stored message can be easily searched. Note that the correspondence between the representative symbol and the stored message is not limited to the case of one-to-one correspondence, and a plurality of stored messages may be associated with one representative symbol. A plurality of messages may be displayed on the screen at the same time if the display screen has an appropriate size, and if the display screen is small, the plurality of messages may be scroll-displayed in order.

Further, in the message receiver which stores the received message in the memory in association with the representative symbol displayed on the screen as described above, the mode changing means changes the representative symbol displayed on the screen in response to the corresponding message being displayed on the screen. It may be changed by changing the color of the display mode, changing the shape, changing the presence or absence of blinking, etc., so that the user can easily determine whether the corresponding stored message has already been read by the representative symbol. You can figure out.

If the display mode of the representative symbol is changed, for example, if the user does not operate the switch to end the display of the representative symbol on the screen, the stored message corresponding to the representative symbol is displayed on the screen. Is meaningful when the configuration is also continued to be displayed on the screen, but in the present invention,
The representative symbol may be automatically deleted from the screen after the corresponding stored message is displayed on the screen. Further, the screen display of the representative symbol is not performed only for a short time at the time of reception such as a call notification such as light emission blinking or ringing, but is permanently displayed on the screen even after the message is received. The representative symbol may be automatically deleted from the screen after a lapse of a predetermined time, such as one hour after the display, regardless of the read-reading.

Further, it is needless to mention that a plurality or a plurality of representative symbols may be stored in the correspondence storage means, and a plurality of representative symbols may be simultaneously displayed on the screen. You may. Furthermore, a single keyword may be registered in the correspondence storage means, or a plurality of keywords may be registered in a logical expression format connected by logical elements.

[0020]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be specifically described with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a main part of a mobile phone according to an embodiment of the present invention. The mobile phone receives a message signal addressed to itself transmitted wirelessly through a base station by a wireless unit 2 via an antenna 1 and demodulates the message signal. Note that the mobile phone has a function of transmitting and receiving a normal audio signal and inputting and outputting the audio, but since these functions are known, their description is omitted.

This portable telephone has a control unit (processing unit) including a CPU, a ROM storing a predetermined program, and a work area provided by a RAM.
3, a storage unit 4 including a RAM for storing corresponding data described later, an operation unit 5 including a button switch operated by a user, a display screen 6 including an LCD, etc., an interface unit including a connector plug for connecting a cable and the like. 7 is provided.

The control section 3 has a judgment function 3a, a symbol display function 3b, a storage processing function 3c, a display switching function 3d, a mode changing function 3e, and an editing function 3f.
The PU is configured by executing a predetermined program. The determination function 3a determines whether a message stored in the corresponding storage area 4a of the storage unit 4 is included in the message received wirelessly.

When the keyword is included in the radio-received message according to the result of the determination by the determination function 3a, the symbol display function 3b performs the processing from the icon stored in the corresponding storage area 4a in association with the keyword. Is displayed on the screen 6. Storage processing function 3
c stores the wirelessly received message in the message storage area 4b of the storage unit 4. At this time, if a representative symbol is displayed on the screen for the received message, the representative message to be displayed on the screen is displayed in the received message. The information is added to the symbol and stored in the message storage area 4b.

The display switching function 3d stores a message corresponding to the selected representative symbol when a user's selection instruction for the representative symbol displayed on the screen 6 is received from the operation unit 5 as the selection instruction receiving means. Is read from the message storage area 4b and displayed on the screen 6. In addition,
The instruction to select the representative symbol is performed by, for example, moving the cursor displayed on the screen 6 by operating a button on the operation unit 5, aligning the cursor with a desired representative symbol, and further instructing the selection by operating the button on the operation unit 5. .

The mode changing function 3e changes the display mode of the representative symbol displayed on the screen 6 in response to the storage message corresponding to the representative symbol displayed on the screen 6 being displayed on the screen 6. I do. This change of the display mode is performed, for example, by not blinking the representative symbol that was blinking, displaying the representative symbol that was highlighted without highlighting, and displaying the representative symbol that was displayed with an envelope-shaped icon. This is performed by changing the shape of the opened envelope, changing the icon to a completely different shape, changing the color of the icon, changing the size of the icon, and the like. This includes the display form, that is, erasing.

When the editing function 3f receives an editing operation by the user for at least one of the keyword and the representative symbol from the operation unit 5 as the editing operation receiving means, the corresponding storage area 4a is operated in accordance with the editing operation. Edit the contents stored in. The editing function 3f, when receiving at least one of a keyword and a representative symbol created by the personal computer (not shown) connected via the interface unit 7, receives the created content. The content stored in the corresponding storage area 4a is edited in accordance with. Therefore, it is possible to arbitrarily change the corresponding data (in this example, mainly, keyword and representative symbol data associated with each other) stored in the corresponding storage area 4a or add new corresponding data. .

FIG. 2A shows an outline of the corresponding data stored in the corresponding storage area 4a, and FIG. 2B shows an outline of the received message stored in the message storage area 4b. The corresponding data is a data set 10 including a set of a keyword 10a and an icon 10b, and a plurality of such data sets 10 are stored in the corresponding storage area 4a.
Each data set 10 is provided with a unique icon number 10c for identifying each set. When the data set 10 is associated with a stored message as described later, the message number of the associated message is assigned. 10
d is added.

Here, the icon data 10b is data for displaying icons on the screen 6, and different icon data is set for each data set 10. The keyword data 10a is a logical expression in which a single keyword or a plurality of keywords is connected by a logical element such as “OR” or “AND”, and different keyword data is set for each data set 10. For example, "Sapporo AND sunny"
The icon data 10b for displaying an icon as shown in FIG. 3A on the screen is stored in association with the keyword data 10a composed of a logical expression such as, and the keyword data 10a composed of a single keyword “giant” The icon data 10b for displaying an icon as shown in FIG. 3B on the screen is stored in association with the keyword data 10a, and the icon data 10b is associated with the keyword data 10a having a logical formula of "meal OR drink" in FIG. The icon data 10b which displays the icon as shown on the screen is stored.

The message data is a data set 11 including a single received message data 11a, and a plurality of such data sets 11 are stored in the message storage area 4b. Each data set 11 is provided with a unique message number 11b for identifying each set. When the data set 11 is associated with a representative symbol icon as described later, the associated icon data Icon number 11c is added. Here, in the present example, the set is one set each such as the icon data set 10 and the message data set 11, but for example, the keyword data 10a and the icon data 1
0b is stored in a separate table, and these data 10
A data element may be divided and stored, as described above, in which an association table for associating a and 10b is provided.

Next, the operation of the portable telephone having the above configuration will be described. FIG. 4 shows an example of a processing procedure for editing the icon data set 10 stored in the corresponding storage area 4a by an operation input from the operation unit 5 by the user. First, when an instruction input from the user is received from the operation unit 5, the control unit 3 changes the display state of the display screen 6 to a screen for creating and inputting a keyword or an icon from a standby screen in a reception standby state (state shown in FIG. 7). Change (step S1). Then, the control unit 3 determines an instruction input from the user received by the operation unit 5 (step S2). If the input is a keyword input, the control unit 3 receives a keyword input by the user from the operation unit 5, and The editing function 3f stores the information in the corresponding storage area 4a. When the input of the keyword is completed (step S3), the screen shifts to a standby screen and the process is terminated (step S4).

On the other hand, in the case of an icon creation input
(Step S2) The control unit 3 displays the dot matrix for icon creation on the screen 6, and the editing function 3f operates the operation unit 5
Receives the dot selected on the matrix from the user (step S5).
Receives the color designation of the dots input by the user from (step S6), and stores the icon data of the colors formed by these dots and of the designated color in the corresponding storage area 4a,
When the icon creation is completed (step S7),
Move to the standby screen and end the process (step S
4). Therefore, keywords and icons stored in the corresponding storage area 4a can be arbitrarily changed by a user operation. When an icon or a keyword created by an external personal computer is received from the interface unit 7, the editing function 3f stores the created content in the corresponding storage area 4a, and similarly stores it in the corresponding storage area 4a. You can arbitrarily change the keywords and icons to keep.

Next, FIG. 5 shows an example of a series of processing procedures from the wireless reception of the message to the display of the icon screen. First, when a message signal is received by the antenna 1 and the radio unit 2, the radio unit 2 detects an error in the received message (step S10), discards the received message with an error error, and ends the processing (step S1).
1, S12).

On the other hand, when the message is normally received,
(Step S11), the storage processing function 3c of the control unit 3 checks the free space of the message storage area 4b (Step S1).
3) On the other hand, if there is a free space, the received message is stored in the message storage area 4b (steps S14 and S14).
15) If there is no free space, the oldest message data set 11 already stored in the message storage area 4b
Is deleted to secure free space (step S6), and the received message is stored in the message storage area 4b.
(Step S15). At the time of this storage processing, a unique message number 11b is added to each received message, and further, reception time information and the like are added, and the stored message is deleted based on the reception time information.

When storing such received messages, the following processing is performed. That is, the determination function 3a compares the keyword with the keyword data 10a stored in the corresponding storage area 4a to determine whether the content of the received message includes the stored keyword (steps S17 and S18). As a result, when the content of the received message includes the stored keyword, the storage processing function 3c associates the data set 11 of the received message with the icon data set 10 including the keyword (step S19). . Specifically, the icon number 11c of the icon data set 10 including the keyword is added to the data set 11 of the received message, and the data set 11 of the received message is added to the icon data set 10 including the keyword.
Is added to the message number 10d.

Then, the collation between the contents of the received message and the keyword is performed for all registered keywords (step S20). In this example, since all the icon data sets 10 having the matching relationship between the received data and the keyword are associated with the received data, as described later, the icon displayed on the screen is selected and the corresponding message is displayed on the screen. In the case of displaying, it is possible to display stored messages of corresponding contents on a plurality of screens based on one icon. However, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration. When an icon data set with a matching keyword is found, one matching icon is used for one stored message without performing subsequent matching search. You may. Naturally, when the keyword data 10a is a logical expression including a plurality of keywords, matching of keywords means matching of logical conditions.

When the matching with the keyword is completed (step S20), the icon data set 10
If the message associated with the message is received and stored, the symbol display function 3b displays an icon on the screen 6 based on the icon data included in the icon data set 10 associated with the message (step S21, S22). For example, as shown in FIG. 7 showing an example of the display mode of the screen 6 in the standby state, “Sapporo”
When the received message having the contents including both the keywords “sun” and “sunny” is stored in the storage unit 4, the corresponding icon 12a is displayed on the screen 6, and the received message having the contents including the keyword “giant” is stored. When the message is stored in the storage unit 4, the corresponding icon 12 b is displayed on the screen 6, and when the received message having the content including one of the keywords “meal” and “drink” is stored in the storage unit 4, the corresponding icon 12 b is displayed. The icon 12c is displayed on the screen 6. Therefore, by looking at the icons displayed on the screen 6, the user can easily know what kind of message has been received and stored.

Next, FIG. 6 shows an example of a processing procedure for displaying the corresponding stored message on the screen based on the icon displayed on the screen 6 in the standby state as described above. For example, when several icons 12a, 12b, and 12c are displayed on the standby screen 6 as shown in FIG. 8A, when the user operates the operation unit 5 to select and confirm the icon 12a. (Step S30), the display switching function 3d extracts the added message number 10d from the icon data set 10 of the icon 12a stored in the corresponding storage area 4a (Step S30).
31), the message storage area 4b is searched based on the message number (step S32), the message data 11a is read from the message data set 11 having the matching message number 11b, and the message content is displayed and output on the screen 6 (step S32). Step S33).

The contents of the stored message associated with the other icons 12b and 12c can be displayed on the screen 6 by the same processing as described above. In the above example, when the icon 12a is selected, the display of the screen 6 is switched as shown in FIG. 8B, and "Sapporo" and "Sunny" are displayed.
A corresponding stored message of the content including both of the two keywords is displayed on the screen 6. Therefore, the user can grasp the general contents from the icons displayed on the screen and select the desired icon to display the stored message of necessary or important contents on the screen.

Here, when the content of the stored message is displayed on the screen, the display mode of the icon associated with the message can be changed to indicate that the stored message has already been read. Is preferred. Therefore, in the present embodiment, when the icon is selected and the content of the corresponding stored message is displayed on the screen 6 as described above, the mode changing function 3e turns off the icon on the subsequent standby screen, for example, by blinking the icon. On the screen in a different manner from before.

In the above-described embodiment, data in which a keyword is associated with a representative symbol is used. However, when a message to which type information indicating a type of a message is added is received, the type information is used. Alternatively, the representative symbol corresponding to the message type may be displayed on the screen 6, and the rough contents of the stored message may be displayed on the screen by the representative symbol depending on the type.

More specifically, an icon data set 10 in which message type information such as "address to individual" and "weather forecast" is included in the keyword data portion 10a shown in FIG. 2A is stored in the corresponding storage area 4a. The determination function 3a determines a match between the type information of the received message and the type information included in the icon data set 10, and when the type information matches, the storage processing function 3c matches the received message. The message is stored in the message storage area 4b in association with the icon data set 10, and the stored message is also associated with the icon data set 10.

The symbol display function 3b displays on the screen 6 an icon whose type information matches, and when the icon displayed on the screen is selected by the user, the display switching function 3d stores the corresponding stored message in the message storage. The message is read out from the area 4b and the message content is displayed on the screen 6. And further, the mode changing function 3e
The icon corresponding to the stored message displayed on the screen in this manner is thereafter displayed on the screen in a changed display mode. In this embodiment, the message type information may be a single type or a plurality of types as logical expressions. Further, in the present invention, the above two embodiments may be combined to form a format in which a keyword and message type information are associated with an icon, and the storage of a corresponding received message based on the keyword and the message type may be represented. You may make it display on a screen with a symbol.

[0043]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the representative symbol reflecting the content of the received message is displayed on the screen, it is possible to promptly and easily notify the user of the content of the message received and stored. In addition, since the representative symbol displayed on the screen and the stored message are associated with each other, the user can roughly determine the necessity based on the representative symbol, and when necessary, can quickly and easily display the content of the message on the screen. it can.
In addition, since the icons and keywords can be arbitrarily edited, the above-described operation and effect can be obtained in a manner according to each user's preference.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a main part of a mobile phone according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an icon data set and a message data set.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an icon displayed on a screen.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an editing process.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing from message reception to icon display.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a screen display process of a stored message by selecting an icon.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an icon displayed on the screen.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a screen display of a stored message by selecting an icon.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3: control unit, 3a: determination unit, 3b: symbol display unit, 3c: storage processing unit, 3d: display switching unit, 3e: mode changing unit, 3f: editing unit, 4: storage unit, 4a: corresponding storage area, 4b: message storage area, 5: operation section, 6: display screen, 7: interface section,

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Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A message receiver for storing a radio-received message in a memory and displaying and outputting the message on a screen, a correspondence storage means for storing a keyword and a representative symbol in association with each other, Determining means for determining whether the keyword is included; symbol display for displaying and displaying, on a screen, a representative symbol stored in association with the keyword when the keyword is included in a message received wirelessly; Means, and a message receiver. 2. A correspondence storage means for storing a message received wirelessly in a memory and displaying and outputting the message on a screen, wherein the message type information and the representative symbol are stored in association with each other in accordance with a user operation. Determining means for determining the type of the message received wirelessly; and symbol display means for displaying and outputting a representative symbol stored in association with the type of the message received wirelessly on the screen. Message receiver. 3. The message receiver according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a storage processing means for storing a radio-received message in a memory in association with a representative symbol displayed on a screen; A message receiver comprising: a selection instruction receiving unit that receives a user's selection instruction; and a display switching unit that reads a message corresponding to a representative symbol selected by a user from a memory and displays the message on a screen. 4. The message receiver according to claim 3, further comprising mode changing means for changing a display mode of a representative symbol displayed on the screen in response to the corresponding message being displayed on the screen. Message receiver. 5. The message receiver according to claim 1, wherein the editing operation receiving means receives an editing operation for at least one of the keyword and the representative symbol from a user, and the correspondence storage means stores the editing operation in response to the received editing operation. Editing means for editing the stored content; and a message receiver. 6. The message receiver according to claim 1, wherein the interface unit is connected to an external information processing device and receives at least one of a keyword and a representative symbol created by the information processing device. Editing means for editing the content stored in the correspondence storage means in accordance with the created content.