JP2003309486A - Communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide communication equipment capable of automatically and selectively displaying expected equipment by filtering equipment list results obtained by searching communication equipment connectable to the self- communication equipment. <P>SOLUTION: A radio equipment searching device 4 searches other communication equipment communicable by radio with the communication equipment itself and filters a list of the other communication equipment communicable by radio with the communication equipment itself, which is results obtained in such a manner that a display control filter searches. A key input device 8 can set various desired filtering methods by setting filtering methods of the display control filter 10. The display control filter 10 performs filtering by the set filtering methods. A display device 14 displays a list of results obtained by performing filtering. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication device, and more particularly to a communication device capable of wirelessly communicating with another communication device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, wireless communication devices using wireless communication by wireless LAN, infrared communication, short-range wireless communication such as Bluetooth, etc. have become widespread.

Unlike wireless communication devices connected by wire, these wireless communication devices search for a communicable device at the time of starting communication, and when there are a plurality of searched partner devices, the communication partner is specified. Need to be synchronized.

In the case where there are a plurality of other devices with which communication is possible, even though there are devices that the user expects to list in the display device, all the other devices are not expected in the limited display device. There was a problem that it was buried in the result of and was not displayed.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2000-307528 and 200
0-358062 discloses a system for filtering HTML files and receiving and displaying only necessary files, but does not provide a solution to the above-mentioned problem.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In consideration of the above circumstances, the present invention filters a device list result obtained by searching a communication device connectable to its own communication device,
An object of the present invention is to provide a communication device that can automatically limit the display of expected equipment.

[0007]

The present invention according to claim 1 is a communication device capable of wirelessly communicating with another communication device, and a search unit for searching for another communication device capable of wireless communication with itself. A filter unit for filtering the results searched by the search unit, an input unit for setting a filtering method in the filter unit, a display unit for displaying a list of the results obtained by the filtering, and a display for the display unit. And a communication unit capable of performing communication by communicating with the communication devices in the list.

According to the present invention of claim 1, the search unit searches for another communication device capable of wireless communication with itself, and the filter unit searches by the search unit, that is, another communication device capable of wireless communication with itself. Filter the list of communication devices. Since the input unit sets the filtering method in the filter unit, various desired filtering methods can be set by the input in the input unit. The filter unit filters according to the set filtering method. The display unit displays a list of results obtained by filtering with the filter unit. The communication unit can perform communication by connecting and communicating with the communication device in the list displayed on the display unit.
There may be one filtering method or two or more filtering methods. The number of filter units may be one or two or more.
The input unit is an input device such as a key input device, a mouse, a touch panel, or the like, and may be a device that is not directly linked to a key and that can indirectly specify a character.

The present invention according to claim 2 comprises the communication device according to claim 1, further comprising a sorting section for sorting the results obtained by filtering by the filtering section.

According to the present invention of claim 2, the sorting section sorts the results obtained by filtering by the filtering section. Therefore, for example, when filtering is performed a plurality of times, if the results of filtering by the first filtering method are sorted, it is easy to set the filtering method even when filtering by the second and subsequent filtering methods. The sorting method of the sorting unit can be freely set.

The present invention according to claim 3 further comprises a selection section for selectively displaying, on the display section, a list of respective results obtained by a plurality of filtering when a plurality of filtering methods are set. A communication device.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the list of the respective results obtained by performing the plurality of filtering operations can be selectively displayed on the display unit by the selection unit. In other words, if the selection unit selects to display the result that is filtered by A, the list of the results by A is displayed, and that the result that is filtered by B is displayed in the selection unit. If you select B
A list of results from is displayed.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In this embodiment, short-distance wireless communication is used.
An example in which the present invention is applied to a communication device using Bluetooth will be described.

Bluetooth has a communication range of about 10 m or less, a transmission speed of 1 Mbps numerically, and an effective transmission of several hundred Kb.
ps, short-range wireless communication.

As a communication procedure, Bluetooth has a synchronization establishing step of searching for a communication partner and establishing synchronization for communication with the communication partner, and a communication connection step of establishing connection and data transfer after the synchronization is established. Have. Communicate with Bluetoot
h Device has the role of master or slave. Blue
In the tooth, packets are transmitted and received between the master and the slave for each time slot, and the packet configuration is as shown in FIG. Packet is 6
It is composed of an access code of 8 or 72 bits, a packet header of 54 bits, and a variable length payload of 0 to 2745 bits.

First, the synchronization establishment stage will be described. Figure 6
[Fig. 6] is a diagram showing negotiation between a master and a slave at a synchronization establishment stage of communication by Bluetooth. Bl
uetooth is a frequency hopping type spread spectrum wireless communication that uses the 2.4 GHz band. Frequency hopping is performed 1600 times per second. The synchronization establishment stage is roughly divided into an inquiry stage and a paging stage.

Inquiry is a procedure to be executed when the master does not know what kind of Bluetooth device exists in the communication range. The master device continuously transmits IQ packets to unspecified parties and receives them. This is executed by the slave device that has returned information about itself (slave device) to the master device.

Paging is a procedure executed when the master knows that a specific device exists within the communication range and causes the specific device to participate in a communication channel sharing state called a piconet. This is executed by continuously transmitting the ID packet for the device, and the target slave device responding to the ID packet.

The inquiry procedure will be described in detail. In the inquiry, first, the master device continuously transmits IQ packets to an unspecified partner regardless of whether or not slave devices are present around (1). The IQ packet is configured as shown in FIG. 2, and is a configuration including only the 68-bit access code in the packet format of FIG. When there is a slave device in the "Inquiry" processing state around the master device, the slave device sends an attribute to the master device each time the slave device receives an IQ packet so that the slave device can transmit its attributes to the master device. To the master device (2).

The payload structure of the FHS packet is as shown in FIG. Of this payload configuration, LAP
24 bits, UAP 8 bits, and NAP 16 bits are shown in FIG.
Configure a Bluetooth device address called BD address as shown in. A Bluetooth device is given its unique BD address. As described above, the BD address is made up of 48 bits and is made up of a 6-byte hexadecimal address. Also, a Bluetooth device can be given a unique name corresponding to the BD address. The name is the local device name,
It consists of a character string of up to 248 bytes. However, the local device name is generally 20 characters or less due to display restrictions on the display of the slave device.

As described above, the slave device that receives the inquiry from the master device has the BD address and / or
Alternatively, an FHS packet including a local device name (hereinafter referred to as "BD address or the like") is transmitted to the master device to notify the master device of the existence of the device itself. The master device can know the BD address of the slave device and the clock.

The paging procedure will be described in detail. Each Blue
A tooth device is half the length of a timeslot 31
It has a Bluetooth clock that outputs a 28-bit clock value every 2.5 μsec. Each Bluetooth device generates a pseudo-random number sequence by performing the specified calculation with the BD address and this clock value as input, and the other Bl
You're getting a hopping pattern that doesn't overlap with the uetooth device.

Paging consists of paging I steps and paging II steps. Paging I is used to determine the frequency hopping pattern. Paging ii
Is performed to synchronize the clocks of the slots.

In paging I, the master device continuously transmits an ID packet to the slave device that responded to the inquiry (3). The ID packet is configured as shown in FIG. 3, and among the packet formats shown in FIG.
This is a configuration consisting of only a 68-bit access code.
The slave device which has received the ID packet of the master device transmits its own ID packet to the master device (4).

ID between the master device and the slave device
By transmitting and receiving the packet, the frequency hopping pattern between the master device and the slave device is determined.

In paging II, since the frequency hopping pattern is determined in paging I, this is a step for obtaining the synchronization. The master device continuously transmits the FHS packet to the slave device that responded with paging I (5). The structure of the FHS packet is as described above. This allows the slave device to know the BD address and the like of the master device and the clock. The slave device, which has received the FHS packet of the master device, confirms the reception of the FHS packet of the master device by transmitting its own ID packet to the master device (6). At this point, together with the processing in "Inquiry", it means that the BD address and clock information necessary for synchronization within the piconet have been exchanged between the master device and the slave device. Will be able to achieve clock synchronization.

The frequency hopping pattern is synchronized by paging I and II, and the master device and the slave device are ready for communication connection.

Next, the communication connection stage will be described. Figure 7
6 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure between a master device and a slave device at a communication connection stage of communication by Bluetooth.

The communication connection stage is a stage in which the master device and the slave device are synchronized in the piconet after the synchronization establishment stage and can communicate with each other.

When the paging step 100 described above is completed, it is checked whether or not the connection authentication has been completed between the master device and the slave device (step 102). That is, it is determined whether or not the pairing setting described later has been made between the master device and the slave device. When connection authentication has been completed, that is, when pairing has been set, connection is established between the master device and the slave device (step 104). Then, data transfer is performed, and data packets are transmitted and received (step 110). After that, the master device and the slave device enter the standby state (step 112).

If the connection authentication is not completed in step 102, it means that the logical link for communication is not set between the master device and the slave device, and therefore the connection authentication process is performed (step 106). Connection authentication process is 48
It is performed by using a bit address such as a BD address and a 128-bit link key. The BD address and / or the local device name are used to specify the master device and the slave device. The link key is a 128-bit secret key, and is a parameter uniquely defined between a specific master device and slave device. The link key is managed between a specific master device and a slave device as a pair with the BD address or the like of the connection partner. That is, the BD address or the like is used for recognizing the partner device when the connection authentication is performed, and the link key is used for the authentication. For devices that connect for the first time, the same P
Input the IN code to agree on the parameter of the link key, and perform pairing setting between the master device and the slave device to be connected to recognize each other. As a result, the connected device has been authenticated. Connection authentication is not performed simply by specifying the BD address of the connected device, etc., and erroneous connection prevention is realized in a communication environment in which there may be an unspecified number of terminal devices. .

When connection authentication is performed, encryption processing is performed (step 108). The encryption process is not an essential function, but is performed as needed. An encryption key generated from the link key is used for the encryption process. The strength of encryption depends on the bit length of the encryption key. The encryption key has a variable length of up to 128 bits every 8 bits.

When the encryption process is completed, a connection is established between the master device and the slave device (step 104). Then, the data transfer is enabled, and the data transfer is started to transmit / receive the data packet (step 11).
0).

As mentioned above, the communication connection stage consists of two processing states, connection and data transfer.

Communication device (master device) of the present embodiment
The configuration of is shown in FIG.

The communication device 2 comprises a wireless device searching device 4, a memory 6, a key input device 8, a display control filter 10, a sorting device 12 and a display device 14.

The wireless device searching device 4 is a device for transmitting an IQ packet to a slave device and receiving an FHS packet from the slave device at the inquiry stage. FHS from multiple slave devices that responded
The contents of the packet or the like, that is, the BD address and / or the local device name, the clock, etc. are stored in the memory 6. The display control filter 10 has a filtering method set by an input from the key input device 8. Memory 6
The BD address and / or local device name stored in is filtered by the filtering method set in the display control filter 10. The filtered result is also stored in the memory 6 and sorted by the sorting device 12. The BD address and / or local device name of the slave device searched by the wireless device searching device 4 is displayed on the display device 14.
The result filtered by the display control filter 10 is also displayed on the display device 14. The display content on the display device 14 can be selected by the key input device 8.

In the inquiry (2), the wireless device searching device 4 obtains the BD address and / or the local device name of the slave device from the FHS packet of the slave device that responded. The obtained results are as shown in FIG.
4 is displayed. The listed order is the order in which the radio waves reach the master device. The obtained result is stored in the memory 6.

It is now assumed that the display control filter 10 has filters 1 and 2 set as filtering methods. Filter 1 uses the character string "FI from the result of FIG.
It has a function of extracting a character string including a character string that partially matches LM_ ”at the beginning. The filter 2 further selects a character string selected from the filtering results of the filter 1, for example,“ P ”.
It has a function of extracting a character string including a character string that partially matches C "or" CAME ". Character strings that cause the character strings to be filtered by the filter 1 and the filter 2, for example," FILM_ "," PC ", “CAME” and the like can be arbitrarily set by the user of the communication device 2 using the key input device 8.

In the display control filter 10, the inquiry response result stored in the memory 6 is filtered by the filters 1 and 2 to select a character string. The filtering result of the filter 1 is as shown in FIG. The results are sorted by the sorting device 12 via the memory 6.
Are sorted in descending order and displayed on the display device 14. This result is further filtered by the filter 2.
Here, the case where the filter 2 extracts a character string including a character string that partially matches "PC" is shown. The results are sorted by the sorting device 12 in descending order and displayed on the display device 14 as shown in FIG. With the filters 1 and 2, it is possible to select only devices that are locally named as PC devices with the company name "FILM", for example.

As a result, the device expected by the user is displayed on the display device 14, and the problem that the device expected by the user is buried in the list of devices not expected and is hardly displayed is avoided. Because you can
The convenience in using the wireless communication device is significantly improved.

Further, the control character of the filter 2 is changed to "CAM
Re-set to E ”and PC for the selection result in Filter 1.
It is also possible to reset the filtering setting from the device to the CAMERA device.

The display list on the display device 14 displays only the number of lines that can be displayed, but the number of lines can be displayed in a list by scrolling the screen.

When “PC” is set in the first sorting of the filter 2 and “CAME” is set in the sorted sorting of the filter 2, the results sorted by the filter 1 are sorted and sorted by “PC”. And the results sorted and sorted by "CAME" are displayed in the tab switching display format.
It is possible to easily switch between the C device list (FIG. 12A) and the CAMERA device list (FIG. 12B). As shown in FIG. 13, switching of the tabs causes the selector 16 to operate to select which of the filters 2 to display the filtered one.

As shown in FIGS. 12 (a) and 12 (b), the user operates the key input device 8 from the list displayed on the display device 14 to move the cursor index of the display device 14 so that the user can One or more specific devices in the list can be specified.

After the device is specified, the specified partner device can be registered, and the paging and communication connection steps can be performed.

In the above-described embodiment, among the slave devices that responded to the inquiry, the devices that have already been paired with the master device are not displayed in the list of the display device 14, and such devices are not displayed. It may be possible to switch between displaying and not displaying.

The list display on the display device 14 may have a GUI (graphical user interface) such as a pull-down menu or a pop-up menu.

The functions of the memory 6, the display control filter 10, and the sorting device 12 may be configured by a CPU and software.

The functions of the memory 6, the display control filter 10, and the sorting device 12 may be configured by hardware. In this case, for example, the BD address and / or the local device name of the searched slave device are entered as a character string for each byte, and the entered character string is sequentially set for each character by the character string set in the display control filter and the comparator. When they are compared, it is judged whether they match or not, and the matched ones are displayed on the list of the display device.

The functions of the memory 6, the display control filter 10, and the sorting device 12 may be configured by hardware and software.

In the present embodiment, the filter contents of the display control filter are configured to be connected to each other, but the filter contents may be singular or three or more.

In the present embodiment, the present invention has been described by taking an example of a communication device using Bluetooth, but the present invention is not limited to this and can be applied to a wireless LAN device and other wireless communication devices.

[0055]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is convenient because the expected device among the communication devices connectable to its own communication device can be automatically limited and displayed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the filtering result can be easily seen.

According to the present invention of claim 3, when a plurality of filtering methods are executed, it is possible to selectively display a list of respective results. Therefore, the results of various filtering can be selected on the display section. It is convenient because it can be displayed with.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a packet configuration.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of an IQ packet.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of an ID packet.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a payload structure of an FHS packet.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a structure of a BD address.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing negotiation between a master device and a slave device at a stage of establishing synchronization of communication by Bluetooth.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure between a master device and a slave device at a communication connection stage of Bluetooth communication.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a communication device (master device).

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a list of BD addresses and / or local device names of slave devices that responded to the inquiry.

FIG. 10 is a filter 1 for an inquiry reply result.
Figure that lists the results filtered by.

FIG. 11 shows the result of selection made by the filter 1 as a filter 2
The figure which sorted and displayed the result at the time of extracting the character string containing the character string which partially matches with "PC".

12A is a diagram showing the result of sorting by the filter 1 further sorted by "PC" by the filter 2 and displaying the sorted result by the tab switching display format, and FIG.
The figure which displayed the result of having selected by "CAME" by the filter 2 and sorted by the tab switching display form.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a display control filter and configurations before and after the display control filter.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... Communication device, 4 ... Wireless device search device, 6 ... Memory, 8
... key input device, 10 ... display control filter, 12 ... sorting device, 14 ... display device, 16 ... selector

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Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A communication device capable of wirelessly communicating with another communication device, the searching unit searching for another communication device capable of wirelessly communicating with itself, and a filter unit filtering a result searched by the searching unit. An input unit for setting a filtering method in the filter unit, a display unit for displaying a list of the results obtained by the filtering, and a communication connection with a communication device in the list displayed by the display unit. A communication device comprising a communication unit capable of performing communication. 2. The communication device according to claim 1, further comprising a sorting unit that sorts results obtained by filtering by the filtering unit. 3. The communication device according to claim 1, further comprising a selection unit for selectively displaying, on the display unit, a list of results obtained by a plurality of filterings when a plurality of filtering methods are set.