JP2000253435A - Message receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the useless consumption of memory capacity due to the erasing of a stored message having high importance, and the storage of a storing message having low importance without forcing complicated operation to a user and without increasing the processing load of a control part. SOLUTION: A holder means 10 sorts messages stored in a memory by using holders, an importance setting means 10 sets up the degrees of importance in plural holders, and when necessity for automatically erasing a message is generated, an erasing means 12 erases a message in a holder having low importance from a memory prior to a message in a holder having high importance. Consequently importance can be collectively set in plural messages without individually setting up importance in each of many messages and messages having high importance can be stored as long as possible.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a message receiver capable of storing a radio-received message in a memory and displaying it arbitrarily, and more particularly to management of a memory for storing many messages.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A pager as an example of a message receiver has a display screen composed of a liquid crystal panel (LCD) or the like, and receives and displays not only a call notification but also a message addressed to an individual transmitted by a caller. Can be displayed on the screen. And more recently, pagers have been using "news"
Information messages automatically delivered, such as "weather forecast" and "stock price information", can also be received and displayed on the display screen. A mobile phone (including a PHS) as another example of a message receiver also has a display screen, and can receive not only voice communication but also a message addressed to an individual transmitted by a caller similarly to a pager. It can be displayed on a liquid crystal display screen. In addition, future mobile phones will receive distribution information messages such as "news" as well as pagers,
It is also possible to display on a display screen.

[0003] Since such a message receiver receives many messages and stores them in a memory (when receiving a distribution information message, the number of stored messages becomes much larger), the stored messages are not stored. How to manage is an important issue in reading and displaying a message. In particular, there is a limit to increasing the memory capacity of a portable wireless communication device that is required to be small, such as a mobile phone or a pager, but a message is automatically received without the user's intention. Since storing the data reduces the free space of the memory, it automatically deletes unnecessary stored messages automatically.
An important issue is how to secure memory capacity for storing new messages.

[0004] In general memory management, an unread message that has not been read by the user among messages already stored in the memory (that is, a message that has been read from the memory and is not yet displayed on the display screen). )
, Memory management is performed by deleting a read message already read by the user (that is, a message read from the memory and already displayed on the display screen). In other words, when a new message is received, if there is no free space in the memory for storing the message, the read messages stored in the memory are deleted from the memory in the order of the oldest reception time, and thereby the free message is deleted. The received message is stored with the specified memory capacity. When there is no read message, the unread messages are deleted from the memory in the order of the reception time, and the received messages are stored with the empty memory capacity.

However, such read or unread,
Deleting stored messages on a simple basis, such as by time of receipt, will cause messages of interest to the user to be erased from memory before messages of no interest to the user (ie, not important or unnecessary). There was a problem that would. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, in a memory capable of storing a maximum of ten messages, five unread messages of “news”, four “weather forecasts”, and one “fortune-telling” are already stored, and there is no space. If "news" is more important than "weather forecast" for the user, a new message is received and stored in order to store the new message.
Is deleted from memory. That is, "news" that is important to the user is deleted before "weather forecast" that is not important. In this example, the stored messages are classified into folders for each type automatically or by a user's operation, so that the messages stored in the memory can be easily read and displayed.

Various inventions have been proposed for such memory management. For example, JP-A-9-22
According to the invention described in Japanese Patent No. 4270, priority is set for each message stored in the memory according to the type thereof, and when a new message is received,
When there is no free space for storing a message in the memory, a stored message having a low priority and an old reception time is deleted.

Further, for example, in the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-238373, importance is set for each message stored in the memory, and when a new message is received, the message is stored in the memory. When there is no free space for storing messages, stored messages of low importance are deleted. Further, for example, in the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-178665, important words such as telephone numbers and character strings are set in advance, and a message that does not include an important word among individual stored messages is stored in a memory. I try to erase it.

[0008]

According to the above invention,
Rather than simply deleting stored messages based on uniform criteria such as read, unread, and received time, realize memory management that is fine-grained and suited to usage according to the content and importance of each message Can be.

However, on the other hand, there is a problem that the user must set the importance and the priority for each stored message, and the operation becomes complicated. This problem is particularly acute in message receivers that receive and store delivery information messages as described above.
It has been extremely difficult to individually perform a setting operation on a huge number of stored messages. In addition, even if the priorities are automatically set for the individual stored messages according to the priorities set in advance according to the types of the messages, the setting and determination processing must be performed for each individual message. There is a problem that a control process that imposes a heavy burden must be performed. This problem is particularly serious in a portable message receiver that requires miniaturization, and the control unit (CPU) that has to perform a communication function must bear such processing.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, and does not require a user to perform complicated operations.
An object of the present invention is to provide a message receiver in which a storage message with high importance is deleted and a memory capacity is not wasted by a storage message with low importance without increasing a processing load on a control unit. And
Further objects of the present invention will be apparent in the following description.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is realized in a message receiver for receiving a message transmitted by radio and storing the message in a memory.
One feature is that the folder means associates a plurality of stored messages in the memory with each other and classifies them into folders. This foldering allows the stored messages to be foldered according to the user's free criteria such as date and time of reception, day of the week, sender, work or private, etc. Can easily find a desired message and read out and display it.

In the message receiver according to the present invention, the importance setting means sets the importance for a plurality of folders automatically based on a user's operation or a preset reference, and stores the stored message. When it becomes necessary to automatically delete the message stored in the less important folder, the deleting unit deletes the message stored in the less important folder with higher priority than the message stored in the more important folder. Therefore, the importance can be collectively set for a plurality of stored messages without setting the importance individually for a large number of stored messages. For example, stored messages that are not of interest to the user can be easily prioritized. Can be erased,
Messages that the user has read and deemed unnecessary are classified as low-priority folders and can be deleted preferentially, and high-priority stored messages can be stored and stored for as long as possible. it can.

Further, in the message receiver according to the present invention, the foldering means folders the stored message based on the type information attached to the message, and similarly to the above, the importance setting means applies to the plurality of folders. When the importance is set and the stored message needs to be automatically deleted, the deletion unit deletes the stored message in the less important folder from the memory prior to the stored message in the more important folder. . Therefore, it is not necessary to individually set the importance of each of a large number of stored messages. For example, the stored messages of the type “weather forecast” may be collectively set to a low importance, and the stored messages of the type “news” that are highly necessary Can be erased in preference to.

Further, in the message receiver according to the present invention, the foldering means associates messages including the preset important word with each other to create a folder, and similarly to the above, the importance setting means assigns the message to a plurality of folders. When it is necessary to automatically delete stored messages by setting the importance level, the deletion means will preferentially delete messages stored in less important folders from the memory prior to stored messages in higher importance folders. to erase. Therefore, without setting the importance of each of a large number of stored messages, if, for example, a high importance is set to a folder of a message including a personal name, stored messages in other folders are preferentially deleted, and many messages are stored. Even when the distribution information message is received and stored, contact information between individuals can be reliably stored and stored.

Further, in the message receiver according to the present invention, the importance setting means can set the difference in importance between the stored messages in the folder, whereby the erasing means can store the low importance storage in the same folder. Messages are deleted from memory in preference to stored messages of higher importance. Therefore, it is possible to perform more detailed erasure processing according to the importance.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A specific description will be given of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a pager. As shown in FIG.
The pager according to the present embodiment includes a wireless communication unit 2 that wirelessly receives a call signal and a message signal via an antenna 1 and an R that stores a processing program executed by its own ID and a control unit.
A readable memory 3 composed of an OM or the like, a readable / writable memory 4 composed of a RAM or the like for storing a wirelessly received message, a display unit 5 composed of a liquid crystal panel for displaying the received message, Notifying unit 6 for notifying the user of a call by emitting vibration and sound.
An operation unit 7 including button keys for receiving various input commands from a user, a timer 8 for measuring time,
The control unit 9 controls the functional units 2 to 7 and executes various processes.

The control unit 9 controls the self-I
With reference to D, the notification unit 6 performs the notification operation and the received message storage processing only for the received call signal or message signal that matches the self ID. Then, the control unit 9 has a storage processing unit 10 that adds the reception time information based on the time of the timer 8 to the received message whose ID matches and stores the received message in the memory 4.

The storage processing means 10 stores the stored message in a folder for each type such as "news", "weather forecast", "divination", etc. in accordance with the type information attached to the message and the instruction of the user from the operation unit 7. Summary or operation unit 7
Has a function (folder means) for collecting stored messages containing important words into folders according to important words set by the user, or collecting stored messages into folders arbitrarily classified according to the user's instruction from the operation unit 7. ing. The folder may be configured by fixedly allocating a memory area of a certain size, and the folder means 10 may store the message in each folder area. In this example, as shown in FIG. The folder means 10 constitutes a folder by adding a folder type attribute to the stored message, and the size of the folder is changed as necessary so that the limited memory capacity can be used as effectively as possible. I have to.

Further, the storage processing means 10 sets each folder formed according to the importance set in advance by the input from the operation unit 7 by the user through the input from the operation unit 7, or according to the importance set in advance by the input from the operation unit 7 by the user. Has a function of setting importance (importance setting means). For example, the importance of each folder is assigned as “high”, “medium”, or “low”, and this importance may be managed for each folder by a table provided in the importance setting means 10. In this example, when the user sets the importance for a certain folder from the operation unit 7, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the importance setting means 10 stores the importance information in the folder. Each message is automatically added as importance information.

The control unit 9 monitors the free space and the like of the memory 4 and manages the messages stored in the memory 4 as will be described later, and inputs from the memory management unit 11 and the operation unit 7. The display unit 5 includes an erasing unit 12 for erasing a stored message in response to the input erasing command, and a display unit 13 for displaying the stored message on the display unit 5 in response to a display command input from the operation unit 7.

According to the pager described above, when a new message is received in a state in which the message is stored in the memory 4 full, the stored message that is less important to the user is deleted and the received message is stored. Free space is secured for the operation. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, ten messages can be stored in the memory 4, five in the “news” folder, four in the “weather forecast” folder, and one in the “fortune-telling” folder, for a total of ten messages. Unread delivery information messages have already been stored, and users have placed a "high"
Assuming that the “fortune-telling” folder is set to “medium” importance and the “weather forecast” folder is set to “low” importance, when a new message is received, the least important “weather forecast” folder Then, the first stored message (weather forecast 1 of No. 5) is deleted, and the received message is stored in the memory 4 using the capacity vacated by the deletion.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, ten messages can be stored in the memory 4, and ten unread messages addressed to individuals have already been stored. If the stored message that contains in the message body is set to be highly important,
When a new message is received, not the oldest (reception time: AM 10:00) storage message including the important word but the next storage message (reception time: AM 10:10) not including the important word is deleted. The message is stored in the memory 4 using the capacity freed by the deletion. In this example, one message can be stored by erasing one stored message as a fixed-length message. However, if the message has a variable length, it is necessary to use the same criterion to increase the storage capacity. The necessary number of stored messages may be deleted.

Next, the above-described memory management processing is described with reference to FIG.
This will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. First, the control unit 9 wirelessly receives a message signal via the antenna 1 and the wireless communication unit 2 and compares the message signal with its own ID to determine that the message is a message addressed to itself (step S1). The means 11 determines whether there is free space for storing the received message in the memory 4 (step S2). If there is free space, the received message is stored in the memory 4 (step S3), and the message is received. The user is notified from the notification unit 6 by sound, vibration, light, or the like (step S4).

The storage process has various modes, and the storage processing means 10 sorts the data into folders for each type according to the type information such as "news" and "weather forecast" attached to the received message. An important word such as “telephone” preset by the user from the operation unit 7 is registered in the built-in table, and the storage processing unit 10 searches the body data of the received message to include the important word. Messages are classified and stored in folders having a high degree of importance. When a user displays a message already stored in the memory 4 on the display unit 5 and reads it, a message considered to be important is displayed as a high importance message. A mode such as classification into folders in which degrees are set is adopted.

On the other hand, if there is no free space (step S
2) The memory management unit 10 issues an erasure command to the erasure unit 12, whereby the erasure unit 12 deletes a message stored in a folder to which a low importance level is set (or a high importance level is not set). The oldest one is selected and deleted based on the reception time (step S5), and the received message is stored in this free memory capacity (step S3).

Further, the memory management process is performed even at the time other than the above-mentioned reception, and when there is an operation input by the user from the operation unit 7 (step S6), the control unit 9 determines the operation type (step S7). ). As a result, if the operation is an erasing operation, the memory management unit 11 issues an erasing command and the erasing unit 1
3, the corresponding stored message (for example, the message designated to be deleted or the message currently displayed on the display screen 5) is deleted from the memory 4 (step S8).
If the result of the above determination (step S7) indicates a read operation, the designated storage message is read from the memory 4 and displayed on the display screen 5 (step S7).
9) A flag is set on the message to make it a read message.

The result of the above determination (step S
7) If the operation is an importance setting operation, a setting menu is displayed on the display screen 5, and the storage processing unit 10 sets the importance for the folder in accordance with the user's instruction input from the operation unit 7. (Step S10). When a folder is formed for each type, for example, the user has a high importance for "news", a medium importance for "divination", and a "weather forecast".
Is set to a low degree of importance, as shown in FIG. 2, these levels of importance are set for each type of folder, and in the erasing process, messages in folders with a low degree of importance are deleted. In addition, in a case where a message including a character string set in advance by a user in a message is grouped in a folder, for example, if the user sets a character string such as “telephone” as an important word, as shown in FIG. A high importance is set to a folder of a message including the character string “phone” in the message. Also, if messages are grouped in folders based on arbitrary criteria such as interests, etc., rather than important words or types, if the folder is specified and a high priority is set, stored messages classified into the folder Can be set to high importance.

The result of the above determination (step S
7) If the operation is a folder operation, the storage processing means 1
0 performs the process of classifying the stored messages into folders according to the criteria specified by the user as described above (step S11). Also, the result of the above determination (step S7),
For other operations (for example, adding a protection setting flag to prohibit message deletion to a stored message)
The corresponding process is performed (step S12).

In the above example, the messages belonging to the same folder are given the same importance, and the erasing order of the messages is from the oldest reception time. In the present invention, each message in the folder is deleted. The difference may be set with a further difference in importance. For example, in a folder grouped by the important word "telephone", if a number string that can be regarded as a telephone number is further included, the importance is increased, and important news enters even in the same type folder "news". AM 6:00, PM 12: likely
If the reception time of 00, 3:00, etc. is set to be higher in importance, and if the unread one is set to be higher in importance than already read, it is possible to store a message having higher importance or need. The limited memory capacity can be used effectively.

Further, in the above example, the erasing process for the folder is performed on a message basis, but the stored messages belonging to the folders with low importance may be collectively erased. Further, in the above example, the control unit 9 stores the memory 3
Is a program module configured by executing the processing program stored in the control unit 9 by the CPU, but each function of the control unit 9 may be configured by a circuit. In the above description, a pager has been described as an example, but the present invention can be widely applied to a portable wireless communication device having a message receiving function such as a portable telephone or a PHS.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The importance is set for each folder for a large number of stored messages, so that the message receiver can be provided without forcing the user to perform complicated setting operations and without increasing the processing load on the control unit. By using the limited memory capacity effectively, highly important messages can be stored and stored for as long as possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an internal configuration diagram of a pager according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a message storage state of a message.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a message storage state of a message.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a memory management process.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a memory management process.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a message storage state of a message.

[Explanation of symbols]

4: message storage memory, 7: operation unit, 9: control unit, 10: storage processing unit (folder unit) (importance setting unit), 11: memory management unit, 12: deletion unit,

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A message receiver for receiving a wirelessly transmitted message and storing the message in a memory, a folder means for associating a plurality of stored messages in the memory with each other to form a folder, and a plurality of folders. Priority setting means for setting the importance to the message, and erasing means for erasing messages stored in the less important folder from the memory prior to messages stored in the more important folder. Characterized message receiver. 2. A message receiver for receiving a message transmitted by radio and storing the message in a memory, wherein the folder is formed by associating messages of the same type among messages stored in the memory with each other. Means, importance setting means for setting the importance for a plurality of folders, and erasing means for erasing messages stored in less important folders from memory prior to stored messages in higher importance folders. A message receiver, comprising: 3. A message receiver for receiving a radio-transmitted message and storing the message in a memory, wherein the messages including a predetermined important word among the messages stored in the memory are associated with each other. Folder means for creating folders according to the following: importance setting means for setting the importance for a plurality of folders; messages stored in folders with low importance are given priority over messages stored in folders with high importance from memory. A message receiver, comprising: erasing means for erasing. 4. The message receiver according to claim 1, wherein the importance setting means sets a difference in importance between messages stored in the folder, and the erasing means is the same. A message receiver, wherein a stored message having a low importance is deleted from a memory prior to a stored message having a high importance in a folder.