KR20040079534A - A Mobile Phone And A Location Searching Method According To Respective Area For Mobile Phone - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A mobile communication terminal and a method for retrieving regional positions of the mobile communication terminal is provided to add a regional retrieval function, and to decide whether a desired terminal of a user is located in a selected region if the user selects the specific region, then to display decided results on a display, so that the user can contact people in the specific region. CONSTITUTION: A user selects a regional retrieval function to search terminals of other subscribers located in a specific region(100), and inputs the specific region to be retrieved(102). A system transmits terminal information on the retrieved subscribers to an exchange, to request a regional retrieval process(104). The system retrieves whether the terminals are registered in the exchange with position information, and transmits the position information on the terminals to a terminal which requests a position retrieval function(106). The terminal receives retrieved results, and decides whether a terminal searched by the user exists in the specific region(108). If so, the terminal displays position information on a corresponding subscriber on a display(110).

Description

A Mobile Phone And A Location Searching Method According To Respective Area For Mobile Phone}

The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal, and more particularly, to a mobile communication terminal capable of searching for a location of specific subscribers by region and a location search method for each region of the mobile communication terminal.

In general, the global positioning system (GPS) is a system that can accurately determine the position of a GPS function user using satellites. Recently, the navigation function can be performed through the connection of various communication networks with the GPS function.

For example, a car navigation system is a system that is mounted on a vehicle and provides magnetic location information. The GPS function is mounted on a personal mobile communication terminal such as a cellular phone, a personal communication phone (PCS), a personal digital assistant (PDA) terminal, as well as a vehicle, and can provide user location information.

Recently, various services such as a service for finding a location of a friend, a lover, a child, etc. using a terminal equipped with a GPS function or a PDA are provided. Hereinafter, a user's location is provided through a mobile communication terminal using the GPS function. Let's look at how to search.

1 is an exemplary schematic diagram illustrating a conventional method for searching a location of a specific terminal, and FIG. 2 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating a conventional location search process.

As illustrated, when the user of the terminal 10 equipped with the GPS function sends a signal requesting the location information of the user of the specific terminal 20, the base station 30 receives the signal and sends the signal to the switching center 40. (Step 50).

The switching center 40 determines whether the specific terminal 20 which the user of the terminal 10 wants to find is registered with the switching center on the basis of the signal received from each base station 30 (step 52).

The specific terminal 20 has been registered and the switching center 40 finds the location where the specific terminal 20 is located based on the registration information for the specific terminal 20 (step 54). In addition, the switching center 40 transmits the result of the position search for the specific terminal 20 to the terminal 10 of the user requesting information on the position of the specific terminal 20 (step 56).

On the terminal 10 having received the location information of the specific terminal 20 from the switching center 40, the location information of the specific terminal 20 is displayed (step 58).

Through this process, it is possible to search the current location of the specific terminal 20 that the user wants to find.

However, the above conventional location retrieval method has the following problems.

When using a service for locating a specific terminal 20 using a terminal 10 or a PDA equipped with a conventional GPS function, a service must be registered among desired persons to use the service, and the specific terminal 20 Only the location of can be identified.

Therefore, in the case of the conventional location search method, location information for each region about people around the user may not be obtained based on the current location of the user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention for solving the above problems is to provide a mobile communication terminal and a location search method for each location of a mobile communication terminal capable of searching for a location of a terminal subscriber located in an area near a current location or a specific location of a terminal user. .

According to the present invention, when a specific region is selected by the user by adding a region-specific search function to the mobile communication terminal, it is possible to determine whether the terminal of the specific subscribers desired by the user is in the selected region, and display the determination result on the display unit. Let's do it.

1 is a schematic diagram showing a user location using a conventional terminal.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a function of identifying a conventional user position.

3 is a control block diagram of a mobile communication terminal according to the present invention.

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a preferred embodiment of a regional search method of a mobile communication terminal of the present invention.

5 is a flowchart of a preferred embodiment of a regional search method of a mobile communication terminal according to the present invention.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

60 ........ Mobile communication terminal 62 ......... Input means

64 ............ Display means 66 .........

67 ........ Memory 68 ......... Control

70 ........

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a region location search method of a mobile communication terminal, comprising: a region selection step of selecting a specific region to search; A search step of searching whether there are terminals of specific subscribers in the specific region; And a display step of displaying the result found in the search step.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the searching step includes selecting and transmitting terminal information of the specific subscribers to which the user wants to search, and searching whether the terminal of the particular subscribers is located in the specific area at the switching station. And determining whether there is a terminal device to be found by receiving the search (decision) result from the switching center.

The searching step may be performed using a GPS function.

The region selection step may be performed by the user inputting a specific region, and the selection of the specific region may be performed by the user selecting a specific region from an image displayed on the terminal. In addition, the selection of the specific region may be automatically selected according to the location of the terminal of the user.

The region-specific search may be performed for the subscriber's terminal registered in the user's address book.

The display of the terminal subscriber in a specific region based on the search result may be displayed as a 2D image map of the corresponding region, or the contact information of the subscriber may be displayed.

The mobile communication terminal according to the present invention comprises: selecting means for selecting a specific region to be searched; Search means for finding a terminal of a predetermined range of users in the specific region; And display means for displaying a terminal user in a specific area based on the search result by the search means.

According to the present invention having the above-described configuration, it is possible to determine the location of the terminal of the other users in the specific area selected by the terminal user contributes to the user's convenience.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, a configuration of a preferred embodiment of a location search method for each region using a GPS function of a mobile communication terminal and a mobile communication terminal according to the present invention having the configuration as described above will be described in detail.

3 is an exemplary control configuration of a mobile communication terminal according to the present invention. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a location search method for each location of a mobile communication terminal according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a location search method for each location.

The mobile communication terminal 60 according to the present embodiment having the control structure shown in FIG. 3 is equipped with a GPS function, so that the terminals 80 communicating with the switching center 70 and looking for the user based on a specific area are specified. It is possible to search whether or not you are in the area.

The terminal 60 of the present embodiment shows the state of the terminal 60 in response to a signal input to the terminal 60 and the input means 62 for selecting a service or inputting information by the user, or displays information desired by the user. And display means (64) for displaying and retrieving means (65) for performing information retrieval and the like through communication with the outside.

The retrieval means 65 of the present embodiment is a transmission / reception section 66 which communicates with the switching center 70, and from the input means 62 to the switching station 70 based on an input signal in accordance with a program stored in the memory 67. The control unit 68 selects the information to be transmitted and selects the information desired by the user from the search result received from the switching center 70 and transmits the information to the display means 64.

When the user selects a regional search function through the input means 62, the controller 68 transmits information on a target to be searched through the transceiver 66 via the local location search program stored in the terminal memory 67 or the like. To 70.

The switching center 70 searches for the location where the terminal 80 of the specific subscriber selected by the user is located according to the region-specific search request from the terminal 60, and locates the location information of the terminals 80 in the specific region input by the terminal user. To the terminal 60 requesting the information again.

The transmitter / receiver 66 transmits a signal received from the switching center 70 to the controller 68, and the controller 68 displays the location information of the terminal when the terminal 80 is found by the user in the specific region. To the means 64.

The display means 64 converts the signal transmitted from the controller 68 into image information and displays the image information.

The following describes a location search method for each location of a mobile communication terminal having the control structure as described above.

As shown in FIG. 5, a user who wants to search by region selects a region-specific search function through the input unit 62 to find terminals of other subscribers in a specific region (step 100). In this case, the regional search function may be selected by moving the cursor in the sub menu of the GPS function, or may be selected by an electronic pen on the displayed screen.

Next, in the regional search function, the user inputs a specific region to search for (step 102). The selection of a specific region may be performed by text input through a keyboard, or the user may select a specific region on a two-dimensional image screen or input using an electronic pen or handwriting recognition technology.

In addition, according to the exemplary embodiment, instead of directly inputting a specific region, the user may automatically select a current location of the user terminal 60 only by selecting a region-specific search function.

When a specific region to be searched is selected, the terminal 80 of the subscribers to be searched is transmitted to the switching center to request a region-specific search (step 104). In this case, the target group to be searched may be arbitrarily designated by the user in the regional search menu, or the terminal 80 of other subscribers input in the user's address book may be automatically designated.

Since the switching center 70 always stores information such as service area, terminal status, terminal number, etc. in the database for the terminal 80 being registered, it is possible to find the location of the terminal 80 of the subscriber when the subscriber is specified. do.

Therefore, when the exchange 70 receives a region-specific search request, the terminal 80 searches whether the search target terminals 80 are registered with the exchange 70 and its location information, and locates the terminals 80 located in the selected region. Information is transmitted to the terminal 60 requesting the location search (step 106). In this case, the location information of the terminals 80 may be provided as two-dimensional image information indicating the location of the terminal 80 on a map of a specific region, or may be provided as text information.

The terminal 60 receives the searched result from the switching center 70, and determines whether there is a terminal 80 that the user finds in the specific region (step 108).

If the user finds the terminal 80, the location information of the subscriber is displayed on the display means 62 (step 110). In this case, the display means 64 may display the contact information of the subscriber in a specific area in text, or may be displayed in a two-dimensional image indicating the location of the subscriber on the map.

If there is no terminal 80 that the user is looking for, it is possible to display that there is no corresponding information or to display a map of a specific region without displaying the corresponding subscriber on the map of the 2D image (step 112).

In the present invention, the location of a particular subscriber is searched for the location of the terminal 80 designated by the user based on a specific area by using a search function and an information database on the registration terminal 80 of the switching center 70. When there is a terminal 80 to be found in the search result, the terminal 80 displays the location information of the terminal 80. Through the above-described process, the present invention enables location search by region.

The scope of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but is defined by the claims, and it is obvious that the present invention includes various modifications and adaptations made by those skilled in the art within the scope of the same as those described in the claims.

According to the present invention having the above-described configuration, it is possible to search whether there are terminals of subscribers having an acquaintance relationship based on a specific region. Therefore, when a user passes through a specific area, it is possible to contact and meet other subscribers in the area, and to contact people in a specific area in an urgent situation and the like, so that quick response is possible.

In addition, according to the present invention, since it is possible to provide the location on the map of the terminal with the location information of the specific area, it is possible to provide a great convenience for the user's various tasks.

Claims (11)

A region selection step of selecting a specific region to search for; A search step of searching whether there are terminals of specific subscribers in the specific region; And a display step of displaying a result found in the search step. The method of claim 1, wherein the searching comprises: selecting and transmitting terminal information of the specific subscribers of which the user wants to search, and transmitting to the switching center; Searching (determining) whether the terminal of the specific subscribers is in the specific region at the switching center; And determining whether there is a terminal device to be found by receiving the search (decision) result from the switching center. The method of claim 1, wherein the searching comprises using a GPS function. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the region selection step is performed by a user inputting a specific region. The method of claim 4, wherein the selection of the specific region is performed by the user selecting a specific region from an image displayed on the terminal. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection of the specific area is automatically selected according to the location of the user's terminal. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the specific subscribers are subscribers registered in an address book of a user terminal. The regional search function according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the display of the search result displays a terminal location found on a two-dimensional image map of the corresponding region. The search function of claim 1 or 3, wherein the display of the search result displays a contact number of the terminal user found as a result of the search. In the mobile communication terminal, Selecting means for selecting a specific area to be searched; Search means for finding a terminal of a predetermined range of users in the specific region; And And display means for displaying a terminal user in a specific region based on a result of the search by the searching means. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 10, wherein the search means uses a GPS function.