JPH11331350A - Communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication equipemnt capable of calling an opposite party after confirming the local time of the country or area of the opposite party. SOLUTION: A controlling part reads the time difference of an area from the country code and area code of the opposite party telephone number, calculates the local time of the area from time difference data and the current time data and shows calculated local time together with the country name and area name on an indicator (steps S1 to S3). After that, the controlling part shows a message that asks the propriety of transmitting 'Do you transmit?' on the indicator (step S4) and starts a transmission (call out) operation (steps S6 and S8) only when a caller operates a transmission key on top of confirming the local time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication device for displaying the local time of a communication partner on display means.

[0002]

In recent years, with the development of the telephone line network, it has become possible to make an international call even with a portable telephone as a communication device. In this case, there is a time difference between the communication partner country or region. If there is, there is a possibility that a trouble due to a time difference may occur, such as making a call even if the communication partner is late at night.

For this reason, conventionally, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
A technique as described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 146 has been considered. That is, when the telephone number of the communication partner is input from the operation unit, the control unit performs a calling operation (calling operation), and furthermore, based on the country code and the region code of the telephone number of the communication partner, the corresponding region. (Eg, New York, Los Angeles, U.S.A.) and the local time of the area are calculated based on the time difference of the clock of the mobile phone of the caller, and the calculated local time is displayed on the display together with the area name. is there.

However, in the above-mentioned conventional configuration, the control unit performs the calculation and display of the local time in the area and also performs the calling operation to the communication partner, so that the caller can confirm the local time in the area on the display. It is conceivable that a problem may occur in which the incoming call is made to the other party during the communication.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a communication device capable of performing a call operation after confirming the local time of a destination country or region. It is in.

[0006]

According to the communication device of the present invention, the control means identifies the country code or the area code from the telephone number of the communication destination input by the input operation means and identifies the country code. Alternatively, calculate the local time of the country or region corresponding to the region code based on the current time of the clock means, display the calculated local time together with the country or region name on the display means, and further transmit to the communication destination. A message asking whether or not the message is to be displayed is displayed on the display means, and control is performed such that a call operation is executed only when an operation for permitting a call is performed by the input operation means. Therefore, the control means does not execute the call operation unless the caller determines whether or not the call can be made to the communication destination by looking at the message on the display means and performs an operation of enabling the call by the operation input means. It is possible to prevent a call from being received carelessly first, and it is possible to reliably prevent a trouble due to a time difference.

According to the communication device of the second aspect, when the control means identifies both the country code and the area code from the telephone number of the communication partner input by the input operation means, the control means corresponds to the area code corresponding to the area code. Is displayed on the display means together with the country name and the region name. As a result, the display means displays the name of the country, the name of the area, and the local time of the area, which is extremely convenient for the sender.

[0008] According to the communication device of the third aspect, the control means identifies the country code from the telephone number of the communication partner input by the input operation means, and clocks the local time of the country corresponding to the country code. The current time of the means is calculated based on the current time, the calculated local time is displayed on the display means together with the country name, and when there are a plurality of regions having different local times in the country corresponding to the country code, the local time is selected by the input operation means. The local time of the region is displayed on the display unit together with the country name and the region name, and a message asking whether or not to transmit to the communication partner is displayed on the display unit. Control is performed so that a call operation is executed only when there is a call. Therefore, even when the control means does not have a function of identifying the area code, the same effect as that of the first aspect can be obtained.

According to the communication device of the fourth aspect, the control means controls the display means to display the current time of the caller. Therefore, the caller can feel a time difference between the current time of the caller and the local time of the communication partner.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a portable telephone as a communication device will be described below with reference to FIGS. First, the electrical configuration will be described with reference to FIG. The control unit 1 serving as control means is mainly configured by a microcomputer, has a ROM 1a and a RAM 1b serving as storage means, and has a clock unit 1c serving as clock means. The input / output port of the control unit 1 is connected to the signal input / output terminal of the radio unit 2, and the transmission / reception terminal of the radio unit 2 is connected to the antenna 3. Further, an input / output port of the control unit 1 is connected to an input / output terminal of the audio processing unit 4, and an output terminal and an input terminal of the audio processing unit 4 are connected to a speaker 5 and a microphone 6, respectively. In the control unit 1, an output port is connected to a display unit 7 as a display unit, and an input port is connected to a key operation unit 8 as an operation input unit.

In this case, the ROM 1a of the control unit 1 stores an international identification code (number), a country code (number),
When a single country has a plurality of areas with different time differences, the area code (number) and information on the time difference between the home country (Japan) and each country and each area (each city) are stored.
The key operation unit 8 is provided with various keys such as a “start (call)” key, an “end” key, numeric keys “0” to “9”, and a “scroll” key.

When the power key of the key operation unit 8 is pressed, the antenna 3 captures the radio wave having the strongest electric field strength among the peripheral base stations and transmits it to the radio unit 2 as a received high-frequency signal. The radio unit 2 converts the received high-frequency signal into a reception baseband signal via the antenna sharing device, the high-frequency amplifier, and the reception mixer, and transmits the signal to the control unit 1. The control unit 1 obtains broadcast information by demodulating the received baseband signal. When the control unit 1 determines that location registration is necessary based on the obtained broadcast information, the control unit 1 converts the location registration information into a transmission baseband signal, and
To be transmitted. The radio unit 2 converts the transmission baseband signal into a transmission high-frequency signal by a transmission mixer, and transmits the transmission high-frequency signal as a radio wave from the antenna 3 via a power amplifier and an antenna duplexer. As described above, the mobile phone (the control unit 1) is in the standby state.

In this standby state, the control unit 1 displays the country name and city name (region name) to which the owner of the portable telephone belongs on the display unit 7 and at the same time, the clock unit 1.
The current time according to c is also displayed on the display 7. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the country name is "Japan" and the city name is "Nagoya".

When making a call (calling), when the caller inputs the telephone number of the communication partner using the key of the key operation unit 8, the control unit 1 causes the display unit 7 to display the telephone number.
When the caller confirms the telephone number and presses the “start (call)” key of the key operation unit 8 to complete the call, the voice of the caller is converted by the microphone 6 into an electric signal. Audio processing unit 4 as transmission audio signal
Is input to The transmission audio signal input to the audio processing unit 4 is converted into a digital signal via an internal amplifier and an A / D converter, and is further compressed via an audio encoding circuit to reduce the transmission data signal. Is input to the control unit 1.

The control unit 1 performs time division multiplexing (TDMA) processing on the input transmission data signal, digitally modulates the signal, and transmits it to the radio unit 2 as a transmission Bavan degree signal. Radio unit 2
Converts the transmit baseband signal to a transmit high frequency signal,
Further, the signal is transmitted as a radio wave from the antenna 3 to the base station via the high frequency power amplifier and the antenna duplexer.

On the contrary, the radio wave transmitted from the base station is received by the antenna 3 and transmitted to the radio unit 2 as a received high-frequency signal. The radio unit 2 converts the received high-frequency signal into a reception baseband signal via the antenna sharing device, the high-frequency amplifier, and the reception mixer, and transmits the signal to the control unit 1. The control unit 1 demodulates and TDMA-processes the received baseband signal, converts the demodulated baseband signal into received audio data, and transmits the audio data to the audio processing unit 4. The received voice data transmitted to the voice processing unit 4 is expanded by a voice decoding circuit to become a received voice digital signal, which is converted by a D / A conversion circuit into a received voice signal as an analog signal, and passed through an amplifier to a speaker 5. Is transmitted to Therefore, the speaker 5 converts the received voice signal into a sound to obtain the received voice.

When an incoming call is received, an incoming message is transmitted from the base station from the standby state, is received by the antenna 3 and is converted into a baseband signal by the radio unit 2, and the baseband signal is converted by the control unit 1. Upon receiving the incoming message, the incoming call operation is performed to complete the call. The operation when a call is established is the same as that for a call.

Next, a specific operation at the time of calling will be described with reference to FIG.
Will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the caller presses the "start (call)" key of the key operation unit 8, the control unit 1 exits from the main routine and shifts to the interrupt routine of "call processing" shown in FIG. When the caller inputs the telephone number of the communication partner by operating the numeric keys of the key operation unit 8 or the telephone number of the communication partner by operating the shortcut keys, the control unit 1
Is the processing step S1 of "reading the telephone number of the communication partner".
Then, the telephone number is read and stored in the RAM 1b, and the display unit 7 displays the telephone number.

Next, the control unit 1 proceeds to the processing step S2 of "extraction of country code and area code of telephone number",
The country code and the region code are extracted from the input telephone number of the communication partner. For example, if the caller has a telephone number of a communication destination as “00xx-1-760-xxx” of an international call
Assuming that "-xxxx" has been input, the control unit 1 determines in step S2 that the number "00"
"Xx" is removed from the beginning of the telephone number, the country code of "1" and the area code of "760" are extracted, and the process proceeds to the processing step S3 of "display of country name, area name, local time".

In this processing step S3, the control unit 1
From country code "1", the country name is "USA" and area code "7"
60, it is determined that the area name (city name) is "Los Angeles", and these are displayed on the display 7. or,
The control unit 1 reads the time difference of the United States Los Angeles from the ROM 1a and uses the time difference data as the time difference data.
The local time of the United States, Los Angeles, is calculated from the current time data from c and displayed on the display 7. That is,
As shown in FIG. 3A, for example, if the current time in Japan is 18:16 (18:16), the local time in Los Angeles, USA is 1:16 (1:16). Is displayed as follows. That is, the time difference between Japan and Los Angeles in the United States is 17 hours.

When a name such as a company name, a branch name, or a personal name corresponding to the telephone number is registered in the RAM 1b in advance, the control unit 1 also displays the name on the display 7. In the example of FIG. 3A, the name is displayed as “Los Angeles Branch”.

Thereafter, the control section 1 proceeds to the processing step S4 of "display of" Do you want to send? ""
As shown in FIG. 3 (a), the display 7 is displayed with a character message "Do you want to send?" As a message asking whether or not to make a call.
Move to 5. Then, in this processing step S5, the control section 1 starts a timer for performing a time counting operation for a predetermined time (for example, 5 seconds), and then proceeds to a determination step S6 of “transmission key detected?”.

In decision step S6, control unit 1 determines whether or not the "start (call)" key of key operation unit 8 has been pressed by the caller. Sometimes "time up?"
Move to 7. Then, in this determination step S7, the control unit 1 determines whether or not the timer has finished the time counting operation for a predetermined time (time-up). If "NO", the process returns to the determination step S6, and thereafter, the determination step S7 And S6
Is repeated.

The caller displays "Do you want to make a call?"
After confirming the local time in Los Angeles, USA, after seeing the message, and pressing the "start" key of the key operation unit 8 to permit transmission, the control unit 1 determines "YES" in the determination step S6. Then, the process proceeds to the process step S8 of "calling", where the calling (calling) operation is started, and then the process returns to the main routine (return). In this way, in the state where the call is established, communication processing with the communication partner is performed in the main routine of the control unit 1 as in the case of the above-described calling. At this time, the control unit 1
As shown in (b), the display 7 is caused to display the character string "in communication".

The control unit 1 communicates with the communication partner, as is apparent from the difference between the display of the current time in Nagoya, Japan and the local time in Los Angeles, USA in FIG. 3 (a) and these displays in FIG. 3 (b). During communication (call) with the destination, the current time of the caller and the local time of the area are displayed on the display 7 so as to change in minutes.

On the other hand, while repeating the determination step S6 of "transmit key detection?" And the determination step S7 of "time-up?" Is determined to be "YES", and the process proceeds to the processing step "S9" of "Stop calling". Then, in this processing step S9, the control unit 1
, The display other than the caller's country name, city name, and current time is stopped, and the process returns to the main routine without performing a calling (calling) operation (return).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the control unit 1
Determines the country name and the region name from the country code and the region code of the destination telephone number input by the key operation unit 8, reads the time difference of the region from the ROM 1a, and further reads the time difference data and the time difference from the clock unit 1c. The local time of the region is calculated from the current time data, and the calculated local time is displayed on the display 7 together with the country name and the region name. Therefore, the caller can confirm the local time in the area by looking at the display on the display 7, so that it is possible to prevent communication at an inappropriate time of the communication partner, and to cause trouble due to time difference. Can be prevented.

After displaying the calculated local time on the display 7 together with the country name and the region name, the control unit 1 displays "Do you want to send?" Characters are displayed on the display unit 7, and control is performed so that a call operation is executed only when a "start (call)" key of the key operation unit 8 is pressed as a callable operation. . Therefore, the control unit 1 determines whether the caller can make a call to the communication destination by looking at the message on the display 7 and then makes a call unless the caller operates the "start" key of the key operation unit 8 to permit the call. Since the operation is not executed, it is possible to prevent a careless incoming call to the communication partner, and it is possible to reliably prevent the occurrence of trouble due to a time difference.

Then, the control unit 1 controls the display 7
The country name and region name (eg, United States, Los Angeles) of the communication partner and the local time of the region are displayed, and the country name, city name (eg, Nagoya, Japan) of the sender and the current time are also displayed. The user can feel the time difference between the current time and the local time of the communication partner, which is extremely convenient for the caller.

Incidentally, some countries have a plurality of regions with different time differences. For example, in the United States, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and the like are regions (cities) with different time differences. In such a case, according to the present embodiment, the ROM is determined based on the area to which the caller belongs.
If the time difference data between the respective areas is stored in 1a, the local time of the area of the communication partner can be displayed on the display 7.

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. The same parts as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and different parts will be described below. Note that FIG. 2 is referred to for an electrical configuration. In this embodiment, the control unit 1 has a function of identifying the country code of the destination telephone number, but does not have a function of identifying the area (city) code.

When the control section 1 shifts to the interruption routine of the "transmission processing", the control section 1 shifts to the processing step S10 of the "extraction of the country code of the telephone number" via the processing step S1, and here, from the communication destination telephone number, The country code is extracted, and the process proceeds to the next step of determining “A plurality of regions?”.
In this processing step S11, the control unit 1 determines whether or not there are a plurality of regions with different time differences in the country corresponding to the country code. If "NO", the process of "displaying country name, local time" is performed. Move to step S12. Then, in this processing step S12, the control unit 1 reads the time difference of the country corresponding to the country code from the ROM 1a to calculate the local time, and displays the calculated local time on the display 7 together with the country name. Move to step S4.

When there are a plurality of regions having different time differences, such as the United States, the control unit 1 determines "YES" in the determination step S11 and performs the "N ← 0" processing step S13.
Then, the counter is set to "0", and the process shifts to the processing step S14 of "display of country and region names". Control unit 1
In this processing step S14, the area name corresponding to the count value of the counter (in this case, "0") is read from the ROM 1a, and the read area name is displayed together with the country name on the display unit 7.
Is displayed on the screen, and the next “timer start” processing step S
Move to 15. The control unit 1 performs this processing step S15
Then, similarly to the processing step S5, the timer is started to measure a predetermined time, and the process proceeds to the determination step S16 of "selection key detected?".

In the determination step S16, the control section 1 determines whether or not the selection key of the key operation section 8 has been pressed to select the area displayed on the display 7 by the caller. If NO, the process proceeds to the determination step S17 of “Scroll key detected?”. The control unit 1
In this processing step S17, the area of the next candidate is displayed on the display 7
It is determined whether or not the scroll key of the key operation unit 8 has been pressed so as to display on the screen. If “NO”, the process proceeds to the next “time-up?” Determination step S18. In this determination step S18, the control section 1 performs the same determination as in the determination step S7. If "NO", the control section 1 returns to the determination step S16. Thereafter, the pressing operation of the selection key and the scroll key of the key operation section 8 is performed. If not, judgment steps S17, S18 and S16 are repeated.

The control section 1 determines at steps S17 and S18.
If the caller presses the scroll key of the key operation unit 8 while repeating steps S16 and S16, a determination of "YES" is made in the determination step S17 and "N ← N + 1"
The process proceeds to step S19 to add "1" to the count value of the counter. Therefore, in this case, the count value of the counter becomes “1”. The control unit 1 next sets “N =
X? In this case, it is determined whether or not the count value N of the counter has reached the number X of the areas with different time differences, and if "NO", the processing step S1 is performed.
Return to 4. When the control unit 1 returns to the processing step S14,
The area corresponding to the count value of the counter (in this case, "1") is read from the ROM 1a, and the read area name is displayed on the display 7 together with the country name.

In the same manner, the control unit 1 determines "YES" in the determination step S17 each time the scroll key of the key operation unit 8 is pressed or continuously while the scroll key is pressed. The count value of the counter is incremented by "1", and based on this, the processing step S1 is performed.
4 changes the area name displayed on the display 7.
When the control unit 1 determines "YES" in the determination step S18 or S20, the control unit 1 shifts to the processing step S9. Therefore, no calling operation is performed.

When the caller looks at the area name displayed on the display 7 and confirms that it is the target area name, and presses the selection key of the key operation section 8, the control section 1
Is "YE detected" in the determination step S16 of "selection key detected?"
S ”and processing step S2 of“ display of local time ”
It will shift to 1. In step S21, the control unit 1 reads the time difference of the area displayed on the display 7 from the ROM 1a, calculates the local time based on the time difference data, and displays the calculated local time on the display 7. Then, the process proceeds to processing step S4. Subsequent operations are the same as in the first embodiment.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, when there are a plurality of regions with different time differences in one country, the names of the plurality of regions are sequentially displayed on the display 7 so that the caller can enter the key. The local time of the selected area is calculated based on the time difference of the area selected by operating the selection key of the operation unit 8 and is displayed on the display 7. Therefore, the control unit 1 identifies the area code of the destination telephone number. Even when there is no function, the same effect as in the first embodiment can be obtained.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above and shown in the drawings, but can be extended or modified as follows. The region is not limited to a city, but also means, for example, an overseas territory of a certain country. The present invention can be applied not only to a wireless telephone such as a mobile telephone but also to a general telephone.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing control contents according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing display contents of a display device.

FIG. 4 is a view corresponding to FIG. 1, showing a second embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

In the drawings, 1 denotes a control unit (control means), 1c denotes a clock unit (clock means), 7 denotes a display (display means), and 8 denotes a key operation unit (input operation means).

Claims (4)

[Claims] An input operation means capable of inputting a telephone number or the like of a communication partner, a clock means, a display means capable of displaying a telephone number, a time or the like, and a communication partner input by the input operation means Identify the country code or region code from the telephone number of the country code, calculate the local time of the country or region corresponding to the country code or region code based on the current time of the clock means, and calculate the calculated local time by country name or region A message is displayed on the display means together with the name, and a message asking whether or not the call is to be made to the communication partner is displayed on the display means, and a call operation is performed only when the input operation means allows the call. A communication device comprising: 2. The control means, when identifying both the country code and the area code from the telephone number of the communication partner input by the input operation means, displays the local time of the area corresponding to the area code together with the country name and the area name. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said means is displayed on said means.
Communication device as described. 3. An input operation means capable of inputting a telephone number of a communication partner, a clock means, a display means capable of displaying a telephone number, a time, etc., and a communication partner input by the input operation means Identifying the country code from the telephone number of the country code, calculating the local time of the country corresponding to the country code based on the current time of the clock means, and displaying the calculated local time together with the country name on the display means; When there are a plurality of regions having different local times in the country corresponding to the code, the local time of the region selected by the input operation means is displayed on the display means together with the country name and the region name, and further transmitted to the communication partner. A communication device comprising: control means for displaying a message asking whether or not the call has been made on the display means, and executing a call operation only when an operation for permitting a call is performed by the input operation means. 4. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the control means is configured to cause the display means to also display the current time of the caller.