JP2005079819A - Mobile communication terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a mobile communication terminal for automatically setting profiles corresponding to various pieces of service provided in respective areas all over the world. <P>SOLUTION: A current position estimation part 13 estimates a current position and sends the estimated result to a profile determination part 14. The profile determination part 14 refers to an area-divided profile database in a storage part 12 and selects service to be utilized from various pieces of service usable on the current position. Then the profile determination part 14 determines a profile necessary for utilizing the selected service. After determining the profile, a radio set 11 corresponding to a radio system indicated by the profile starts communication. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention provides a mobile communication terminal that performs wireless communication by setting a profile such as a frequency and a modulation method corresponding to the service when using a service by wireless communication provided in various regions of the world. About.

  In recent years, mobile communication terminals that support single or multiple services (voice calls, data communication, etc.) using wireless communication have been commercialized, and users are provided by different operators in many different countries / regions. It is possible to receive various services. When a user receives a service using wireless communication such as a mobile phone or a wireless LAN, a profile setting including information such as a carrier, an identifier, a frequency, a modulation method, and a protocol corresponding to each service is set for the mobile communication terminal There is a need to do. By performing this setting, the user can receive a single service or a plurality of services in countries / regions around the world as long as the user has one mobile communication terminal.

Patent Document 1 describes a communication terminal device that automatically sets a channel frequency necessary for communication when the contracted business operator of communication is changed. In Patent Document 2, a control station that has received information transmitted from a mobile radio terminal at regular intervals via an intermediate station / base station knows the current position of the mobile radio terminal from this information, and in time series. Describes a communication system capable of predicting a future position of a corresponding mobile radio terminal from a past position stored in the above. Patent Document 3 describes a mobile station device that determines a monitoring channel of a corresponding mobile communication device based on device identification information received from the mobile communication device and notifies the mobile communication device of this.
JP 2003-125438 A JP-A-6-334595 JP-A-6-351060

  However, in the conventional mobile communication terminal, the user must know the service provided in each region in advance, and if not, it is necessary to check what service is provided. It was. Further, since the user has to manually set the profile described above, it is necessary to know in advance how to set the profile. As described above, there is a problem that the setting of the conventional profile is very complicated.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a mobile communication terminal that automatically sets a profile corresponding to various services provided in each region of the world. And

  The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and the invention according to claim 1 is a position detection means for acquiring position information by wireless communication from the outside and detecting a current position based on the position information. Storage means for storing the position, the wireless communication service available at the position and the setting information associated with the setting related to the wireless communication service, and the setting information is read from the storage means and detected by the position detection means Selection means for selecting the setting of the wireless communication service available at the current position from the setting information based on the set current position, and communication for performing wireless communication based on the setting selected by the selection means A mobile communication terminal.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the position information is acquired from the outside by wireless communication, and the current position is detected based on the position information, and the departure place and the movement by airplane from the departure place to the arrival place Storage means for storing position time information associated with the required time, setting information associated with the position, the wireless communication service available at the position and the setting related to the wireless communication service, and the time; A determination unit that determines whether or not the current position detected by the position detection unit is an airport; and when the determination unit determines that the current position is an airport, a power supply stop operation is detected and the stop Writing means for writing the time when the operation was performed in the storage means, and detecting the power-on operation, reading the time when the stop operation was performed from the storage means, A calculation means for calculating a stop time of the power supply; and the location time information read from the storage means, and the arrival location indicated by the position time information based on the position time information and the stop time calculated by the calculation means A setting unit that determines a priority of the wireless communication service, and reads the setting information from the storage unit, and sets the setting of the wireless communication service that can be used at the destination based on the priority determined by the determining unit. A mobile communication terminal comprising: selecting means for selecting from the above; and communication means for performing wireless communication based on the setting selected by the selecting means.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the mobile communication terminal according to the first or second aspect, the position detecting unit receives position information related to a current position from an artificial satellite, and the current position is based on the position information. And a GPS receiver for detecting.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the mobile communication terminal according to the first or second aspect, the position detecting unit reads out position information in an external wireless tag by wireless communication, and adds the read position information to the position information. A wireless tag reader that detects a current position based on the wireless tag reader is provided.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided storage means for storing history information indicating a past position, setting information associated with the position, a wireless communication service that can be used at the position, and a setting related to the wireless communication service. , Reading the history information from the storage means, determining the priority of the past position indicated by the history information, and reading the setting information from the storage means, to the priority determined by the determination means Based on the setting information, a selection unit that selects the setting of the wireless communication service that can be used at the position indicated by the history information, and a communication unit that performs wireless communication based on the setting selected by the selection unit. This is a mobile communication terminal.

  According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the environmental geographical information in which the information related to the position and the environment of the position is associated with the position, the wireless communication service available at the position, and the setting related to the wireless communication service are associated with each other. Storage means for storing setting information, detection means for detecting an external environment, the environmental geographic information is read from the storage means, and the environmental geographic information is based on the external environment detected by the detection means. A determination means for determining the priority of the position to be indicated, and the setting information is read from the storage means, and based on the priority determined by the determination means, the wireless communication service available at the position indicated by the history information Selecting means for selecting the setting from the setting information; and a communication means for performing wireless communication with the setting selected by the selecting means. A mobile communication terminal, characterized by comprising and.

  According to the present invention, the current position is estimated based on information obtained by wireless communication with the outside, information obtained from various sensors, and the like, and a profile necessary for using the wireless service is determined based on the estimation result. Since it did in this way, the effect that the setting of the profile corresponding to the various services provided in each area in the world can be performed automatically is acquired.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a mobile communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 11 is a wireless device provided for each of a plurality of systems, and performs processing such as modulation / demodulation and encoding related to transmission / reception of data and various information. Each wireless device 11 corresponds to a wireless system such as CDMA2000, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), W-CDMA, and wireless LAN. Thereby, the user can use different wireless services corresponding to each wireless system in different regions. Note that the mobile communication terminal according to the present embodiment is a portable mobile communication terminal having a wireless communication function, such as a mobile phone, PHS (registered trademark), or PDA (Personal Digital Assistance).

  Reference numeral 12 denotes a storage unit that associates a region where services that can be used by the mobile communication terminal are provided, a service provided in each of these regions, and a profile necessary for using these services. A regional profile database is stored. Note that the regional profile database may be updated when a new service is introduced. Reference numeral 13 denotes a current position estimation unit that estimates the current position of the mobile communication terminal and sends the estimation result to the profile determination unit 14. The profile determination unit 14 refers to the regional profile database in the storage unit 12 and searches for a service provided in the region to which the mobile communication terminal currently belongs based on the estimation result of the current location sent from the current location estimation unit 13. At the same time, the profile necessary for receiving the service is determined.

  The current position estimation unit 13 estimates the current position of the mobile communication terminal by the following operation. When the current position estimation unit 13 has a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver (not shown), the GPS receiver estimates the current position (latitude / longitude, etc.) based on information received from the satellite. The current position estimation unit 13 can also perform the following operation. In recent years, a wireless tag provided with an antenna in an IC chip to store information and perform wireless communication with the outside is becoming widespread. A wireless tag having position information is provided in an airport, a station, or the like, and a wireless tag reader (not shown) provided in the current position estimating unit 13 reads the position information by wireless communication and estimates the current position.

  In the present embodiment, the method of estimating the current position using a GPS receiver and a wireless tag reader has been described as an example of directly acquiring position information regarding the current position from the outside. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the mobile communication terminal As long as it has a configuration that can be obtained from outside by wireless communication.

  The operation of the mobile communication terminal having the current position estimation unit 13 as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, as described above, the current position estimation unit 13 estimates the current position (step S21). When the mobile communication terminal has a GPS receiver, a wireless tag reader, or the like, the current position estimation unit 13 can perform position estimation with relatively high accuracy. The current position estimation unit 13 sends the estimation result of the current position to the profile determination unit 14, and the profile determination unit 14 refers to the regional profile database in the storage unit 12 to determine whether there is a service available at the current position. (Step S22). If there is no service available, the process ends. If there is a service that can be used, the profile determination unit 14 selects a service to be used from the available services (step S23). This selection may be performed by displaying a list of available services on the display of the mobile communication terminal and allowing the user to select a service to be used. You may select the service which the profile determination part 14 utilizes according to a priority.

  Subsequently, the profile determination unit 14 determines a profile necessary for using the service (step S24). After the profile is determined, the wireless device 11 corresponding to the wireless system indicated by the profile starts communication (step S25).

  Next, a method in which the mobile communication terminal estimates the current position by another method will be described. The first method is a method of estimating the current position based on the history information with reference to the history information of the area where the current position estimating unit 13 has belonged to the present. The operation of the mobile communication terminal by this method is as follows. In addition, the memory | storage part 12 shall memorize | store the area | region where the mobile communication terminal has belonged so far as area | region history information. The current position estimation unit 13 refers to the region history information in the storage unit 12 and determines the priority order of regions that have belonged to the present. For example, when the area history information indicates that the mobile communication terminal has belonged to New York 10 times, London 3 times, and Beijing 2 times, the current position estimation unit 13 is arranged in the order of New York, London, and Beijing. Determine the priority of the profiles used in.

  Subsequently, the current position estimation unit 13 sends an estimation result to the profile determination unit 14, and the profile determination unit 14 determines a profile to be used according to the priority order indicated by the estimation result. In the above-described example, the mobile communication terminal first attempts communication using the profile used in New York, and if that fails, the mobile communication terminal attempts communication using the profiles used in London and Beijing, respectively. When the communication is successful, the fact that the profile used for the communication belongs to the region to which the profile belongs is added to the region history information, and the mobile communication terminal performs communication using this profile. If communication using profiles of all regions based on the estimation result fails, the mobile communication terminal performs the current position estimation again or confirms the user to cancel the process, and then stops the process.

  The second method is a method in which a sensor is provided in the mobile communication terminal, and the current position estimation unit 13 estimates the current position based on information about the external environment obtained by the sensor. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the current position estimation unit 13 according to this method. In the figure, 31 is a date and time information section having the current date and time as information. Reference numeral 32 denotes a temperature sensor, and 33 denotes a humidity sensor, which detects an external temperature and humidity, respectively. Reference numeral 34 denotes a magnetic sensor that detects geomagnetism. An altitude sensor 35 detects the altitude by detecting the external pressure. Reference numeral 36 denotes a climate geographical region estimation unit that estimates the current position based on information detected by the date and time information unit 31 to the altitude sensor 35. The storage unit 12 has a climate geographic information database in which environmental information such as date information, time information, temperature information, humidity information, magnetic information, and altitude information is associated with regional information. Note that this climate geographic information database may be updated in response to the introduction of new services or environmental changes, as with the regional profile database.

  The operation of the mobile communication terminal by this method is as follows. The climate geographic region estimation unit 36 receives information from each of the date and time information unit 31 to the altitude sensor 35, refers to the climate geographic information database in the storage unit 12, and estimates the current position. At this time, the climate geographical region estimation unit 36 selects a plurality of regions as candidates for the current location estimation region, and sends them to the profile determination unit 14 in order from the highest possibility. The profile determination unit 14 refers to the regional profile database in the storage unit 12 and attempts communication using the profiles in that region in order from the most likely region according to the estimation result. When communication using profiles of all regions based on the estimation result fails, the mobile communication terminal either estimates the current position again or confirms the user and then stops the processing.

  The third method is a method of estimating the current position from the time until the power is turned on again after the power of the mobile communication terminal is stopped. When a user travels to another country or region using an airplane, the user often turns off the mobile communication terminal while on the airplane and turns on the power when arriving at the destination. From the time during which the power supply is stopped, the current position estimation unit 13 estimates the current position. This operation is performed as follows. The current position estimation unit 13 estimates the position of the mobile communication terminal based on information from the GPS receiver or the wireless tag reader. The storage unit 12 stores a plurality of airport positions in advance, and the current position estimation unit 13 refers to the airport position in the storage unit 12 and knows that the estimated current position is within the airport. Alternatively, when the wireless tag stores information indicating that the current position is the airport together with the current position, the wireless tag reader may read the information to know that the current position is in the airport.

  Subsequently, when the power stop process is instructed by the user, the storage unit 12 stores the time at that time as the power stop time. Thereafter, when the power is turned on by the user, the current position estimation unit 13 detects the power-on operation, reads the power stop time in the storage unit 12, and stops the power from the time difference between the power stop time and the current time. Ask for time. The storage unit 12 stores in advance a travel time database between airports as a travel time database. The current position estimation unit 13 refers to the required time database, and selects the airport at the arrival place as a candidate for the current position in the order of travel time from the airport at the departure place to the stop time of the power source. Subsequent operations are the same as in the second method, and the profile determination unit 14 attempts communication using the profiles in order from the most likely area according to the estimation result. If the communication test is not successful even if the communication test is performed assuming that all the airports that may be the destinations are the current position, the profile determination unit 14 may not move. Communication is attempted using the profile of.

  The first method to the third method described above are performed only when it is difficult to estimate with high accuracy using a GPS receiver, a wireless tag reader, or the like. When the result is obtained, the profile determination unit 14 prioritizes the estimation result and determines the profile. Further, the above-described methods may be combined to improve the current position estimation accuracy.

  Next, an example of operation when the mobile communication terminal estimates the current position by the method described above will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, the case where the climate geographical region estimation unit 36 in the current position estimation unit 13 estimates the current position based on information obtained from the date information unit 31 to the altitude sensor 35 will be described as an example. First, the current position estimation unit 13 obtains various types of information from the date and time information unit 31 to the altitude sensor 35 and refers to the climate geography database in the storage unit 12. The current position estimation unit 13 creates an estimation target area list using all or a predetermined range of areas indicated by the area information in the climate geography database as an estimation target.

  The current position estimation unit 13 compares information such as date / time associated with the region information with information obtained from the date / time information unit 31 to the altitude sensor 35, and prioritizes the regions in the estimation target region list in the order of their proximity. The degree is set, and the area with the highest priority is estimated as the current position (step S401). Subsequently, the current position estimation unit 13 deletes the area estimated this time from the estimation target area list in order to exclude the area estimated this time from the estimation target after the next time (step S402). Thereby, the estimated current position is incorrect, and the efficiency of the estimation operation when the estimation is repeatedly performed can be increased.

  The estimation result is sent to the profile determination unit 14, and the profile determination unit 14 refers to the estimation result and the regional profile database in the storage unit 12 to determine whether an available service exists at the current position (step S403). ). If there is no available service at the current location, the process proceeds to step S412. In step S412, it is determined whether or not an instruction to stop the process is given by the user. If an instruction is given, the process ends. If no instruction is given, the process proceeds to step S422.

  If there is a service available at the current location in step S403, the profile determination unit 14 refers to the regional profile database and creates a list of services provided at the current location (step S404). At this time, when there are a plurality of services provided, the profile determination unit 14 refers to the setting in the storage unit 12 or the history of services used in the past, and gives priority to each service. Subsequently, the profile determination unit 14 selects a service with the highest priority in the list, determines a profile corresponding to the service (step S406), and the wireless device 11 starts a communication test according to this profile (step S407). .

  Subsequently, the mobile communication terminal determines whether communication is possible based on the result of the communication test (step S408). If it is determined that communication is possible, the mobile communication terminal determines whether to search the communication status of other services (step S409). This determination may be performed by the user, or may be automatically performed by the mobile communication terminal in accordance with settings made in advance in the mobile communication terminal. If it is determined that the communication status of another service is searched, the profile determination unit 14 deletes the service that has been successfully communicated from the list (step S410), and determines whether another service exists in the list (step S410). S411). If another service exists in the list, the process returns to step S405, and another service is selected. On the other hand, if no other service exists in the list, the process proceeds to step S414.

  If it is determined in step S408 that communication using the selected service is impossible, the mobile communication terminal determines whether an instruction to stop the process has been given by the user (step S413). If no instruction to stop the process is given, the process proceeds to step S416. When an instruction to stop the process is given, the mobile communication terminal determines whether there is a service that has been successfully communicated (step S414). If there is no service that has succeeded in communication, the process ends. If there is a service that has succeeded in communication, the profile determination unit 14 determines a profile corresponding to the service to be used, and communication is started ( Step S415).

  In step S416, the mobile communication terminal determines whether there is a service that has been successfully communicated. When step S416 is reached only once through steps S401 to S408, the current position is estimated and the profile is determined, but the communication test has failed. In this case, in step S416, it is determined that there is no service that has succeeded in communication, the process proceeds to step S422, and then the current position is estimated again. In addition, when the process reaches step S416 through the steps S401 to S408 several times, there is a service that has been successfully communicated, and thus the process proceeds to step S417.

  When step S417 is reached, there is at least one service that failed the communication test in step S408, so there is a possibility that the current position is estimated incorrectly. Therefore, the mobile communication terminal performs the current position estimation operation again after step S417. In step S417, the mobile communication terminal determines whether or not an area including a service that has been successfully communicated and further including one or more types of services exists in the estimation target area list. When this determination condition is satisfied, the current position estimation unit 13 estimates the current position, with the area including the service that has been successfully communicated and further including one or more types of services being estimated (step S418).

  Subsequently, the current position estimation unit 13 deletes the area estimated this time from the estimation target area list in order to exclude the area estimated this time from the estimation target from the next time (S419). The estimation result is sent to the profile determination unit 14, and the profile determination unit 14 creates a list of services provided at the current position based on the estimation result and the regional profile database in the storage unit 12 (step S420). . Further, in order to improve the efficiency of the communication test, the profile determination unit 14 excludes the service that has been successfully communicated in the previous step from this list (step S421). Then, it progresses to step S405 and after that, the communication test mentioned above is performed. If the determination condition is not satisfied in step S417, the profile determination unit 14 determines a profile corresponding to the service that has been successfully communicated, and communication is started (step S423).

  In step S422, the current position estimation unit 13 refers to the estimation target area list and determines whether there are other areas to be estimated (step S422). There is a possibility that the estimation result of the current position is incorrect both when the process reaches step S422 via step S403 and step S412 and when the process reaches step S422 via step S408, step S413, and step S416. The current position needs to be estimated again. In step S422, if there is no area to be estimated, the process ends. If there is an area to be estimated, the process returns to step S401, and the current position is estimated again.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the mobile communication terminal by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the mobile communication terminal in the embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the present position estimation part 13 in the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the other operation | movement of the mobile communication terminal in the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the other operation | movement of the mobile communication terminal in the embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Radio equipment, 12 ... Memory | storage part, 13 ... Current position estimation part, 14 ... Profile determination part, 31 ... Date information part, 32 ... Temperature sensor, 33 ... Humidity sensor, 34 ... magnetic sensor, 35 ... altitude sensor, 36 ... climate geographical area estimation unit

Claims (6)

Position detecting means for acquiring position information by wireless communication from the outside, and detecting a current position based on the position information;
Storage means for storing a location, a wireless communication service available at the location, and setting information associated with a setting related to the wireless communication service;
Selection means for reading the setting information from the storage means and selecting the setting of the wireless communication service available at the current position from the setting information based on the current position detected by the position detection means;
Communication means for performing wireless communication based on the setting selected by the selection means;
A mobile communication terminal comprising: Position detecting means for acquiring position information by wireless communication from the outside, and detecting a current position based on the position information;
Corresponding position time information associated with the departure point and the time required to travel by plane from the departure point to the arrival point, the position, the wireless communication service available at the position, and the setting related to the wireless communication service Storage means for storing setting information and time;
Determining means for determining whether the current position detected by the position detecting means is an airport;
A writing unit that detects a stop operation of the power source when the determination unit determines that the current position is an airport, and writes the time when the stop operation was performed in the storage unit;
A calculation unit that detects a power-on operation, reads a time at which the stop operation was performed from the storage unit, and calculates a power-off time;
Determining means for reading the position time information from the storage means and determining the priority of the destination indicated by the position time information based on the position time information and the stop time calculated by the calculation means;
Selection means for reading the setting information from the storage means and selecting the setting of the wireless communication service available at the destination from the setting information based on the priority determined by the determination means;
Communication means for performing wireless communication based on the setting selected by the selection means;
A mobile communication terminal comprising:   The said position detection means is equipped with the GPS receiver which receives the positional information regarding a present position from an artificial satellite, and detects a present position based on this position information, The Claim 1 or Claim 2 characterized by the above-mentioned. Mobile communication terminal.   The said position detection means is equipped with the wireless tag reader which reads the positional information in an external wireless tag by wireless communication, and detects a present position based on the read said positional information. The mobile communication terminal described in 1. Storage means for storing history information indicating a past position, setting information associated with a position, a wireless communication service available at the position, and settings related to the wireless communication service;
Determining means for reading the history information from the storage means and determining the priority of the past position indicated by the history information;
A selection unit that reads the setting information from the storage unit and selects the setting of the wireless communication service that can be used at the position indicated by the history information from the setting information based on the priority determined by the determination unit. When,
Communication means for performing wireless communication according to the setting selected by the selection means;
A mobile communication terminal comprising: Storage means for storing environmental geography information associated with a position and information regarding the environment of the position, and setting information associated with the position, a wireless communication service available at the position, and a setting related to the wireless communication service; ,
Detection means for detecting the external environment;
Determining means for reading out the environmental geographical information from the storage means and determining a priority of a position indicated by the environmental geographical information based on the external environment detected by the detecting means;
A selection unit that reads the setting information from the storage unit and selects the setting of the wireless communication service that can be used at the position indicated by the history information from the setting information based on the priority determined by the determination unit. When,
Communication means for performing wireless communication according to the setting selected by the selection means;
A mobile communication terminal comprising:

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