JP2001177627A - Device and method for obtaining telephone number - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily obtain an international telephone number, the nation number of a call destination and the domestic telephone number of the call destination required for making an international call in countries to which a user moves. SOLUTION: Nation information (the name of a nation) on a presently existing place is obtained by a GPS device 2 and a map database 3. The nation number of a caller source is obtained from the nation information by referring to a nation number table 6 through a display and an input 5. The international telephone number is obtained from the nation number by referring to a by- country international telephone number table 8. The nation number of the calling destination is obtained by referring to a moving destination list 7 to which the nation number of the countries to which the user has moved until then are added. The domestic telephone number of the calling destination is obtained by referring to a calling destination telephone number list 9.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a telephone number obtaining apparatus and a telephone number obtaining method, and more particularly to a telephone number obtaining apparatus capable of easily obtaining a telephone number necessary for making a desired international call, and a telephone number obtaining apparatus using the same. The present invention relates to a portable communication terminal and a method for obtaining a telephone number.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When making an international call, a combination of the international telephone number used in the country of the calling party, the country code of the country of the called party (the other party), and the telephone number of the called party (domestic phone number) is used. Dialing. You will need to look up the international phone number of the country you are calling because it varies from country to country. Also, since the country code of the called party differs depending on the country, it is necessary to check the number. It is necessary to check the address book and the like for the telephone number (domestic number) of the call destination. If the telephone number of the call destination is registered in the memory of the portable telephone device or the like, it can be referred to. Conventionally, as described above, several steps have been taken to obtain a desired telephone number when making an international call.

[0003]

As described above, conventionally,
When making an international call, the international telephone number used in the country of the caller, the country code of the country of the callee, and the telephone number of the callee must be separately checked, which is troublesome and troublesome. In particular, when traveling between countries, it is necessary to know exactly where the current country is, that is, the country of the caller, and to look up the corresponding international telephone number.

In order to cope with this, as a method of acquiring the country code of the caller, a technique using a mobile telephone device that receives a different area identification code for each country transmitted from each wireless base station of the wireless communication system has been proposed. (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.
-186856). However, in this technique, only a wireless terminal can be used as a telephone terminal, and cannot be used when a wired terminal is used.

[0005] An object of the present invention is to provide an international telephone number used in a calling country, regardless of whether a terminal for making an international call is wired or wireless in a destination country.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a telephone number acquisition device and an acquisition method capable of easily acquiring a country code of a country of a called party (the other party) and a domestic telephone number of the called party as a series of numbers.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A telephone number obtaining apparatus according to the present invention receives a GPS information from a GPS satellite and obtains current position information, a map database for obtaining a country name from the current position information, and a country name. Country code table to get the country code from, destination list to get the country code to call, international phone number table by country to get the international phone number from the country code, and the domestic phone number to call Telephone number list for obtaining the information, display means for visually displaying information, input means for inputting information, and country name of the country where the user is located by referring to the map database with current position information from the GPS device International phone number used in the calling country by referring to the country code table with the acquired country name and referring to the country-specific international phone number table with the acquired country code Causes display on the display means retrieves the items, and a control means for selectively displayed by said input means the contents of the destination list and the called party's telephone number list on the display means.

In the above configuration, when a country code is acquired from the country name of the country of residence, the country code is additionally registered in the destination list as a candidate for a destination after inter-country movement, and the destination country of the desired call is included in the destination list. When a number is not registered, the content of the country code table may be displayed on the display unit instead of the destination list.

[0008] A portable communication terminal according to the present invention comprises a telephone number acquiring device having the above-mentioned configuration, an international telephone number, a destination country code, and a destination address used in a calling country selected by the telephone number acquiring device. And a communication means for receiving a domestic telephone number and automatically making a call to enable international telephone communication with a corresponding destination.

According to the telephone number obtaining method of the present invention, a current location information is obtained by a GPS device, a country name of a country of the home country is obtained by referring to a map database set in advance with the obtained current location information, and the obtained country name is obtained. Refers to the preset country code table to obtain the country code, and refers to the preset country-specific international phone number table to obtain the international phone number used in the calling country by using the obtained country code. Display, a preset destination list can be displayed and the desired destination country code can be selected, and a preset destination phone number list can be displayed and the desired destination domestic phone number can be displayed. Making it selectable and presenting the telephone number required to make the desired international call.

[0010] In the above step, when a country code is obtained from the country name of the country of residence, the country code is additionally registered in the destination list as a candidate for a destination after the inter-country movement, and the destination country of the desired call is included in the destination list. If the number is not registered, the method may include a step of visually displaying the contents of the country code table instead of the destination list.

[0011] Further, the method further comprises a step of automatically making outgoing calls by communication means based on the telephone number required to make the presented desired international call and enabling international telephone communication with a corresponding destination. Can be.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a telephone number obtaining apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, a telephone number acquisition device of the present example has a control unit 1 having a CPU and controlling the entire device by software control, and an antenna 2a.
GPS device 2 that receives GPS information from GPS satellites to obtain current position information via a GPS, a map database 3 stored in a memory for obtaining country information (country name) from current position information, and various types of information such as telephone numbers A display unit 4 for visually displaying information to a user, an input unit 5 for inputting various kinds of instruction information from the user such as selection of display contents of information, and a memory for obtaining a calling country code from country information , A destination list 7 stored in a memory for accumulating information (country name and country code) of the moved country and obtaining a destination country code, It comprises a country-specific international telephone number table 8 stored in a memory for obtaining international telephone numbers and a destination telephone number list 9 stored in a memory for obtaining destination telephone numbers (domestic numbers).

In FIG. 1, the map database 3 is stored in G
Although provided separately from the PS device 2, it may be configured to be built in the GPS device 2. Under the control of the control unit 1, the antenna 2a
GPS information received from is analyzed by the GPS device 2 and the map database 3 to obtain current location information and country information of the current location. By referring to the country code table 6 from the acquired country information, the calling country code can be obtained.
The international telephone number can be obtained by referring to the country-specific international telephone number table 8 from the country code. The call destinations are displayed in a list on the display unit 4 with reference to the call destination telephone number list 9, and the call destination telephone numbers can be obtained by selecting the call destination telephone numbers by operating the input unit 5.

[0015] The country code of the caller is additionally registered in the move destination list 7 as a candidate for a subsequent call each time the user moves from one country to another. Therefore, if the destination country is in the country to which the user has moved so far, the destination country code can be obtained by referring back (searching) to the destination list 7. It is also possible to obtain the calling country code from the destination list 7. When adding the country code of the caller to the destination list 7, the corresponding country name can be added at the same time. This is convenient for searching for the destination country code. Alternatively, only the country name of the caller can be added to the destination list 7. In this case, if the destination country name can be searched, the destination country code can be obtained by referring to the country code table 6. A desired telephone number is obtained as described above.

Map database 3, country code table 6,
The country-specific international telephone number table 8 is configured by storing necessary country information in a corresponding memory area in advance. As a method of storing information in the memory, there is a method of mounting a ROM in which information has been written in advance, or a method of externally writing information through a well-known appropriate input / output unit. The destination telephone number list 9 is entered in the input section 5.
There is also a method in which the user manually writes the data in the corresponding memory through the above-mentioned method, and a method in which the data of the electronic telephone directory of the portable information terminal, the portable telephone device or the like is copied from the outside via the above-mentioned input / output means.

Next, the operation of the telephone number obtaining apparatus of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

The current position information is acquired by the GPS device 2, and country information (country name) is obtained from the current position information with reference to the map database 3. Country code to country code table 6
The current country code can be obtained by referring to. Considering an example in which the user has moved from Japan to the United States, the current country can be identified as the United States from the current location information. Therefore, the current country code “1” is obtained by referring to the country code table 6 (see FIG. 2). Current country code is Destination List 7
Is registered in the destination list and the destination country code is added to the destination list 7. Now that the user has moved from Japan to the United States, the United States country code "1" has been added to the destination list 7 (see FIG. 3). As described above, the country name "USA" can be added together with the country code "1".

When making an international call to Japan after moving to the United States, an international telephone number is selected by referring to the country-specific international telephone number table 8 based on the country code. Current country code "1"
When referring to the country-specific international telephone number table 8 from "
A list of telephone numbers “A” and “BBB” is displayed through the display unit 4 (see FIG. 4). The user selects an international telephone number to be used from the input unit 5, and the calling international telephone number is determined.

The destination country code can be obtained by referring to the destination list 7. Typically, international calls are most often made from the destination country to the source country,
First, consider the country code of the source country as the destination country code.
Referring to the destination list 7 via the display unit 4, the end of the list is the destination, and the position immediately before it is the source (see FIG. 3). Before that, it will be the source list. Therefore, the country code of the source (in this case, Japan) “81” is set as the destination country code. The user calls the country code "8
If it is not "1", then by selecting a destination country from the destination list, a destination country code can be selected from the countries to which the user has traveled so far. If the destination country code is other than the above, the destination country name can be obtained by designating the destination country name from the input unit 5 and referring to the country code table 6. Alternatively, country code table 6 without specifying the country name
Can be sequentially displayed on the display unit 4 and the user can select it by operating the input unit 5.

A destination telephone number (domestic telephone number) is selected from a destination telephone number list 9 via the display unit 4. By selecting the telephone number specified by the input unit 5 from the telephone number list 9, the telephone number can be obtained (see FIG. 5). If the destination telephone number is not in the destination telephone number list 9, the destination telephone number is obtained by directly designating it from the input unit 5.

As described above, the user can acquire the international telephone number, the destination country code, and the destination domestic telephone number via the display unit 4 and obtain a desired series of telephone numbers. A user can select a desired communication terminal (for example, a mobile phone, a PHS terminal, a PDA with a communication function, a personal computer with a communication function, a normal (fixed) analog telephone / By dialing this telephone number on a digital telephone or the like, an international call can be made and a call can be made with the other party.

The telephone number acquiring apparatus shown in FIG.
It has a function to display telephone numbers, but does not have a function to communicate by itself. However, the telephone number acquisition device of the present invention can be incorporated in any terminal that has a communication function and is portable (hereinafter, referred to as a portable communication terminal). For example, any of a mobile phone, a PDA and a personal computer having a communication function for a wireless line, a PDA and a personal computer having a communication function for a wired line, and the like are possible.

Next, as another embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 6 shows a telephone number acquiring apparatus incorporated in such a portable communication terminal.

In FIG. 6, of the components of such a portable communication terminal, a portion related to a communication function is shown as a communication unit 1.
0 is extracted and shown (other parts are omitted). The communication unit 10 includes a control unit 1, a GPS device 2, a map database 3, a display unit 4, an input unit 5, a country code table 6, and a destination having the same configuration and function as the telephone number acquisition device shown in FIG. A telephone number acquisition device comprising a list 7, a country-specific international telephone number table 8, and a destination telephone number list 9 is connected.

The control unit 1, display unit 4, input unit 5, and destination telephone number list 9 are shared with those of the communication terminal.

In a portable communication terminal in which the telephone number acquiring device is incorporated, processing for obtaining telephone numbers (international telephone number, destination country code, destination domestic telephone number) required for making an international call is as follows. This is the same as the processing in the telephone number acquisition device shown in FIG. The control unit 1 sends the obtained telephone number to the communication unit 10 and automatically dials (transmits) the telephone number to enable communication with the other party by international telephone via the corresponding line.

Here, various modifications of the embodiment of the present invention will be described again for confirmation.

In the present invention, an international call can be made by a portable telephone, a PHS, a PDA with a communication function, a personal computer with a communication function, or a normal analog telephone / digital telephone.

In the present invention, the current country information is obtained by GP
The method by S, the method of obtaining from the telephone number list of the called party, or the method of directly inputting may be used.

In the present invention, the country-specific international telephone numbers can be obtained by a method of referring to a list of country-specific international telephone numbers, a method of using a fixed number for each country, or a method of directly inputting.

In the present invention, the acquisition of the domestic telephone number of the destination
A method of referring to a list of called telephone numbers or a method of directly inputting may be used.

[0033]

According to the present invention, a GPS device for obtaining current location information and country information of a current location, a country code table for obtaining a country code from country information, and an international telephone number from a country code are obtained. International phone number table for each country, list of destinations for obtaining country code of destination, list of destination phone numbers for obtaining domestic phone number of destination, etc. Also, it is possible to easily obtain an international telephone number used in the country of the calling party required for making an international call, the country code of the country of the called party, and the domestic telephone number of the called party as a series of numbers. The user can make an international call by dialing the telephone number from any communication terminal regardless of whether it is wireless or not. Also,
A portable communication terminal incorporating a telephone number acquisition device can automatically dial.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a country code table.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a destination list.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a country-specific international telephone number table;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a destination telephone number list.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Control part 2 GPS device 3 Map database 4 Display part 5 Input part 6 Country code table 7 Destination list 8 Country-specific international telephone number table 9 Telephone number list 10 Communication part

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F-term (reference)

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A GPS device that receives GPS information from a GPS satellite and obtains current position information, a map database for obtaining a country name from the current position information, a country code table for obtaining a country code from the country name, and a call A destination list for obtaining the destination country code, a country-specific international phone number table for obtaining an international phone number from the country code, a destination phone number list for obtaining the domestic phone number of the called party, Display means for performing a visual display; input means for inputting information; acquiring the country name of the country of residence by referring to the map database with the current position information from the GPS device; and acquiring the country code table with the acquired country name. With reference to the obtained country code, the obtained country code refers to the country-specific international telephone number table, obtains the international telephone number used in the country of the caller, and displays it on the display means. Control means for displaying the contents of the destination list and the called telephone number list on the display means so as to be selectable by the input means, and presenting a telephone number necessary for making a desired international call. A telephone number acquisition device characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. When a country code is acquired from the country name of the home country, the country code is additionally registered in the destination list as a candidate for a destination after inter-country movement, and the destination country code is registered in the destination list. 2. The telephone number acquisition device according to claim 1, wherein when not, the contents of the country code table are displayed on the display unit instead of the destination list. 3. The telephone number acquiring device according to claim 1, wherein the international telephone number, the destination country code, and the domestic telephone number used in the calling country selected by the telephone number acquiring device are used. Communication means for receiving a number and automatically transmitting the number to enable international telephone communication with a corresponding destination. 4. A current position information is acquired by a GPS device, a country name of a country of residence is acquired by referring to a map database preset by the acquired current position information, and a country code table preset by the acquired country name. To obtain the international code used in the calling country by referring to the country-specific international telephone number table set in advance with the obtained country code The destination list is displayed visually so that the desired destination country code can be selected.The preset destination phone number list can be displayed visually and the desired destination domestic phone number can be selected. A telephone number acquisition method, characterized by presenting a telephone number necessary for making a call. 5. When a country code is obtained from the country name of the country where the user is located, the country code is additionally registered in the destination list as a candidate for a destination after the transfer from one country to another, and the country code of the call destination is registered in the destination list. 5. The telephone number acquiring method according to claim 4, wherein if not, the contents of the country code table are visually displayed instead of the destination list. 6. A method for automatically making a call by communication means based on a telephone number required to make a desired international call presented, thereby enabling international telephone communication with a corresponding call destination. The telephone number acquisition method according to claim 4 or 5, wherein