GB2278003A

GB2278003A - Selective calling receiver

Info

Publication number: GB2278003A
Application number: GB9409722A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Tomohiro Fujii
Original assignee: NEC Corp
Current assignee: NEC Corp
Priority date: 1993-05-14
Filing date: 1994-05-16
Publication date: 1994-11-16
Anticipated expiration: 2014-05-16
Also published as: KR940027409A; CN1097908A; CN1050721C; KR970004775B1; GB2278003B; GB9409722D0

Abstract

A selective calling receiver has a mouse 14 which generates horizontal and vertical moving distance signals by moving on an arbitrary plane. The moving distance signals are processed to generate an address signal of a memory in which transmitted message is stored. Thus, the message is read from the memory to be displayed 11. Consequently, the scroll display of the message is carried out by manipulating the mouse. <IMAGE>

Description

SELECTIVE CALLING RECEIVER The invention relates to a selective calling receiver, and more particularly, to a selective calling receiver having a mouse for motion of a display position of transmitted information.

A conventional selective calling receiver is provided with scroll keys to display information on a display having a limited displaying area in a scrolling manner. The scroll keys comprises left and right direction keys, and upper and lower direction keys.

In operation, an operator presses the scroll keys selectively, so that a memory storing information received in the selective calling receiver is accessed at addresses determined by the pressed keys. Consequently, even if the amount of information stored in the memory is greater than a displaying amount of information determined by the area of the display, the whole information is possible to be successively displayed in accordance with the scrolling of the information.

In the conventional selective calling receiver, however, there is a disadvantage in that the left and right direction keys and the upper and lower direction keys must be selectively pressed one by one to locate an important portion in the information stored in the memory. This means that the manipulation and the manual operation of the keys are difficult and troublesome, and it takes a time in locating the important information.

Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a selective calling receiver in which the scrolling of information is easy to Carry oust.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a selective calling receiver in which an important portion of information is located to be displayed on a display in a short time.

According to the invention, a selective calling receiver, comprises: a receiving circuit for generating an ID signal and message in accordance with a detection, a demodulation and a decoding of a received signal; a display for displaying the message; an alert device for informing an operator of receiving the message; a memory for storing an ID number assigned to the selective calling receiver and the message included in the received signal; a mouse provided with a spherical member rotating on an arbitrary plane, and a detector for detecting horizontal and vertical components of a rotating amount of the spherical member; and a controller for detecting a coincidence between the ID signal and the ID number, and driving the alert device to alert the operator and the display to display the message read from the memory by detecting the coincidence; wherein the controller controls the display to scroll the message displayed thereon by receiving the horizontal and vertical components, when an amount of the message included in the received signal is greater than an amount of displaying information determined by an area of the display, the horizontal and vertical components being generated in accordance with a manipulation of the mouse on the arbitrary plane by the operator.

The invention will be explained in more detail in conjunction with appended drawings, wherein: Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing a conventional selective calling receiver, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the motion of a displayed information in the conventional selective calling receiver, Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing a selective calling receiver in a preferred embodiment according to the invention, Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a mouse used with the selective calling receiver in the preferred embodiment, Figs. 5A and 5B are explanatory views showing a slit disc used in the mouse in Fig. 4, Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing the connection between the mouse and a main body in the selective calling receiver in the preferred embodiment, Fig. 7 is an explanatory view showing the manipulation of the mouse in the preferred embodiment, Fig. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing displayed information of information received in the selective calling receiver in the preferred embodiment, Fig. 9 is a flow chart showing operation of the mouse in the preferred embodiment, and Fig. 10 is a flow chart showing operation of a pulse generator in the mouse in the preferred embodiment.

Before explaining a selective calling receiver in the preferred embodiment, the aforementioned conventional selective calling receiver will be explained.

Fig. 1 shows the conventional selective calling receiver which comprises an antenna 1 for receiving a transmitted radio signal, a radio circuit 2 for detecting and demodulating the received radio signal, a decoder 3 for decoding the demodulated signal to provide an ID signal and transmitted message, and a control signal to alert an operator in case of coincidence between the transmitted ID signal and an assigned ID signal, a CPU 8 for controlling a whole system in accordance with a program stored in a P-ROM (not shown) and receiving the decoded ID signal and the decoded information from the decoder 3, an ID-ROM 9 storing the assigned ID signal, an alert driver 5 for driving a speaker 6 and a vibrator 7 by receiving the control signal from the decoder 3, a LCD driver 10 for driving a LCD (liquid crystal display) to display the information transmitted to be stored in a memory (not shown) and read therefrom, a reset switch 13 for supplying a reset signal to the CPU 8, and a scroll key unit 4 including left and right direction keys and upper and lower direction keys.

In operation, a transmitted signal is received by the antenna 1, and the received signal is detected and demodulated in the radio circuit 2. The demodulated signal is decoded in the decoder 3, so that an ID signal and message are obtained therein. Then, the decoded ID signal is compared in the CPU 8 with the assigned ID signal read from the ID-ROM 9, and a coincidence signal is generated, when the both ID signals are coincided. The coincidence signal is supplied from the CPU 8 via the decoder 3 to the alert driver 6, so that the speaker 6 and the vibrator 7 are driven to inform the operator of receiving the message from a transmitter (not shown). The received message is stored as information in the memory as shown in Fig.

2. A portion of the stored information is read from a region corresponding the start position of the memory by control of the CPU 8 receiving the reset signal from the reset switch 13, and the LCD driver 10 is thereby controlled to drive the LCD 11.

Consequently, the start position portion (as indicated by hatching in Fig. 2) of the received information is displayed on the LCD 11. When the right direction key is pressed in the scroll key unit 4 to generate a repetition signal of "0" (low) and "1" (high) which is then supplied to the CPU 8 therefrom, the displaying region is moved in the right direction along an arrow of "HORIZONTAL MOTION" as indicated in Fig. 2, and, when the lower direction key is pressed in the scroll key unit 4, the displaying region is moved in the lower direction along an arrow of "VERTICAL MOTION" as indicated in Fig. 2.

Thus, the information to be displayed on the LCD 11 can be scrolled by selectively manipulating the scroll keys in the scroll key unit 4, as illustrated in Fig. 2.

However, the selective manipulation and the manual operation of the scroll keys are difficult and troublesome for the operator to locate the important portion of the transmitted information, as described before.

Next, a selective calling receiver in the preferred embodiment according to the invention will be explained in Fig.

3, wherein like parts are indicated by like reference numerals as used in Fig. 1.

In the preferred embodiment, a mouse 14 for scrolling information to be displayed on the LCD 11 is provided to be connected to the CPU 8 contained in a main body (not shown in Fig. 3) by connecting terminals 15 (to be explained in Fig. 6 later).

Fig. 4 shows the mouse 14 which comprises a spherical member 145 rotating on a plane, rollers 144a and 144b rotating in contact with the rotating spherical member 145, slit discs 143a and 143b rotated by the rollers 144a and 144b, light emitting circuits 141a and 141b for emitting lights directed to the slit discs 143a and 143b, and light receiving circuits 142a and 142b for receiving lights passed through slits of the slit discs 143a and 143b.

Fig. 5A and 5B shows the slit disc 143b which is the same in structure as the slit disc 143a. The slit disc 143b is provided with slits 146 each having a length ratio of 2:1 relative to an interval distance between each two slits 146 as shown in Fig. 5A. On the other hand, the light receiving circuit 142b has a width equal to the dimension of one slit and one interval distance as shown in Fig. 5B, and is provided on opposite sides with first and second photodiodes D1 and D2 each having a sensing width equal to a half of the length of the slit 146. As a result, the photodiodes D1 and D2 take photosensing states of "1" and "1", "1" and "0", and "0" and "1" dependent on the relative position between the rotating slit disc 143b and the static light receiving circuit 142b.In the illustrated state in Fig. 5B, "0" and "1" are obtained from the photodiodes D1 and D2.

Fig. 6 shows the connecting terminals 15A and 15B for connecting the mouse 14 to the main body 20 containing the radio circuit 2, the decoder 3, the CPU 8, etc, wherein the terminal 151 is for a power supply, 152 for ground, 153 for a vertical upper direction motion signal, 154 for a vertical lower direction motion signal, 155 for a horizontal right direction motion, and 156 for a horizontal left direction motion.

In operation, when the scrolling display of information is required, the mouse 14 is connected to the main body 20, and the spherical member 145 is rotated on an arbitrary plane P as shown in Fig. 7.

As a result of moving the mouse 14 on the plane P, information to be displayed on the LCD 11 of the main body 20 is scrolled as shown in Fig. 8 by hatching portions.

The operation of the selective calling receiver in the preferred embodiment will be explained in more detail in Fig. 9.

First, a power supply switch is turned on to be ready for receiving a transmitted signal by the antenna 1. Then, whether message is received or not is checked at the step S1.

When the message is received, calling sound is generated in the speaker 6, or vibration is generated by the vibrator 6 at the step S2. Then, the amount of the received message is detected to determine whether the scrolling display of information is required or not at the step S3. When the message amount is equal to or less than an amount displayed on the LCD 11 at one time without scrolling information, an ordinary display of the information is carried out at the step S13. On the other hand, when the message amount is greater than the one timedisplaying amount, the mouse 14 is connected to the main body 20, and the mouse 14 is placed on the plane P at the step S4 as shown in Fig. 7. In this situation, the reset switch 13 is turned on at the step S5, so that information read from the start position of the memory (left and upper corner), as shown in Fig.

8, is displayed on the LCD 11 at the step S6. Then, the mouse 14 is moved on the plane P together with the main body 20 at the step S7. Thus, the horizontal moving distance is detected by the light emitting and receiving circuits 141a and 142a detecting the rotating amount of the slit disc 141a at the step S8, so that the displaying position is moved in the left and right directions at the step S9. In a similar manner, the vertical moving distance is detected by the light emitting and receiving circuit 141b and 142b detecting the rotating amount of the slit disc 141b at the step S10, so that the displaying position is moved in the upper and lower directions at the steps 11. When the motion of the mouse 14 finishes on the plane P, the initial state is restored by turning the reset switch 13 on at the step S12.

Next, the horizontal motion of the mouse 14 will be explained in Fig. 10.

Operation starts as indicated by the reference numeral 70, and it is checked whether the photodiode D1 (simply defined "D1" hereinafter) of the light receiving circuit 142b is "0" or "1" at the step 71. When D1 is "0", it is determined that D1 is "0" and the photodiode D2 (simply defined D2 hereinafter) of the light receiving circuit 142b is "1" at the step 73, and operation goes to the step 74. On the other hand, when D1 is "1", it is checked whether D2 is "0" or "1" at the step 72.

When D2 is "0", it is determined that D1 is "1" and D2 is "0" at the step 76, and operation goes to the step 77. At the step 72, when D2 is "1", it is determined that D1 is "1" and D2 is "1" at the step 79, and operation goes to the next step 80.

At the step 74, it is checked whether D1 is "0" or "1".

When D1 is "0", the present state of D1="0" and D2="1" is equal to the former state. This means that the mouse 14 has not moved in any of left and right directions, and operation goes back to the step 73 as indicated by the reference letter "D". When D1 is "1" at the step 74, it is checked whether D2 is "0" or "1" at the step 75. In this check, when D2 is "1", it is determined that the mouse 14 has moved in the left direction, and operation goes back to the step 79 (the reference letter "F"). On the other hand, when D2 is "0" at the step 75, it is determined that the mouse 14 has moved in the right direction, and operation goes back to the step 76 (the reference letter "E"). At the step 77, it is checked whether D1 is "0" or "1".When D1 is "0", it is determined that the mouse 14 has moved in the left direction, and operation goes back to the step 73. On the other hand, when D1 is "1", it is checked whether D2 is "0" or "1" at the step 78, wherein when D2 is "0", it is determined that the mouse 14 has moved in the right direction, and operation goes back to the step 79, and, when D2 is "1", it is determined that the mouse 14 has not moved, and operation goes back to the step 76. At the step 80, it is checked whether D1 is "0" or "1", wherein when D1 is "0", it is determined that the mouse 14 has moved in the right direction, and operation goes back to the step 73, and, when D1 is "1", operation goes to the step 81.At the step 81, it is checked whether D2 is "0" or "1", wherein when D2 is "1", it is determined that the mouse 14 has not moved, and operation goes back to the step 79, and, when D2 is "0", it is determined that the mouse 14 has moved in the left direction, and operation goes back to the step 76. In this operation, the signals of "0" and "1" generated in D1 and D2 are supplied via the connecting terminals 15A and 15B to the CPU 8.

In the preferred embodiment, although the mouse 14 is connected to the main body 20 by the connecting terminals 15a and 15b, the mouse 14 may be contained in the main body 20.

Although the invention has been described with respect to a specific embodiment, by way of example it will be understood that variations and modifications thereof, as well as other embodiments, may be made within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A selective calling receiver, comprising: a receiving circuit for generating an ID signal and message in accordance with a detection, a demodulation and a decoding of a received signal; a display for displaying said message; an alert device for informing an operator of receiving said message; a memory for storing an ID number assigned to said selective calling receiver and said message included in said received signal; a mouse provided with a spherical member rotating on an arbitrary plane, and a detector for detecting horizontal and vertical components of a rotating amount of said spherical member; and a controller for detecting a coincidence between said ID signal and said ID number, and driving said alert device to alert said operator and said display to display said message read from said memory by detecting said coincidence; wherein said controller controls said display to scroll said message displayed thereon by receiving said horizontal and vertical components, when an amount of said message included in said received signal is greater than an amount of displaying information determined by an area of said display, said horizontal and vertical components being generated in accordance with a manipulation of said mouse on said arbitrary plane by said operator.

2. A selective calling receiver, according to claim 1, wherein: said receiving circuit, said alert device, said memory, and said controller are contained in a main body, said display is provided on one outer plane of said main body, and said mouse is connected to said controller by connecting terminals.

3. A selective calling receiver, according to claim 1, wherein: said detector of said mouse comprises horizontal and vertical rollers rotating by receiving said horizontal and vertical components, horizontal and vertical slit discs rotating by receiving rotations of said vertical and horizontal rollers, each of said slit discs having periodically and circularly arranged slits, and horizontal and vertical photocouplers for detecting said horizontal and vertical components by passing lights through said slits.

4. A selective calling receiver, comprising: a main body containing circuits for detecting, demodulating and decoding a received signal to provide an ID signal and message, a memory for storing said message, and a controller for controlling said memory to store said message and reading said message from said memory, and provided with a display on an outer plane to display said message read from said memory in case where said ID signal coincides with an ID number originally assigned to said selective calling receiver; a mouse moving on an arbitrary plane to generate horizontal and vertical components of a moving distance thereof; and a connector for connecting said mouse to said controller contained in said main body; wherein said controller controls said display to display said message read from said memory at an address designated by said horizontal and vertical components.

5. A portable, hand-held selective calling receiver, comprising: a main body containing circuits for detecting, demodulating and decoding a received signal to provide an ID signal and message, a memory for storing said message, and a controller for controlling said memory to store said message and reading said message from said memory, and provided with a display on an outer plane to display said message read from said memory in case where said ID signal coincides with an ID number originally assigned to said selective calling receiver; characterised in that there is provided a mouse movable through bodily motion of the receiver relative to an arbitrary plane to generate horizontal and vertical components of a moving distance thereof; ; wherein said controller controls said display to display said message read from said memory at an address designated by said horizontal and vertical components.

6. A selective calling receiver substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figures 3 to 10 of the accompanying drawings.