JP2007110321A - Ptt (push to talk) system, portable telephone, and ptt server - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain position information on a plurality of persons by simple operation in a portable telephone. <P>SOLUTION: A PTT system includes a server for mediating in a PTT call among a plurality of portable telephones registered as a group, and the plurality of portable telephones that are registered in the server as a group and have a PTT function. At least one of the portable telephones has a request means for requesting the position information for indicating the position of the portable telephone belonging to groups except the own telephone to the server, a reception means for receiving the position information from the server, and a display means for performing display based on the content of the position information received by the reception means. The server has a storage means for storing a group in which the identifier of the plurality of portable telephones is registered; an acquisition means for receiving a request from one portable telephone to acquire the position information for indicating the position of the plurality of portable telephones belonging to a group except one portable telephone; and a transmission means for transmitting the acquired position information to a portable telephone having issued the request. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a PTT system and a mobile phone and a PTT server constituting the PTT system, and more particularly to a technique for acquiring position information of members who make a PTT call.

There is a technology that can acquire location information of a communication partner in a mobile phone. This is performed by one of the services provided to the phone, and the mobile phone held by the communication partner transfers the location information obtained using GPS (Global Positioning System). is there.
Patent Document 1 discloses a mobile phone that displays the position of a communication partner during a videophone call.
JP 2004-228805 A

  By the way, a mobile phone as described in Patent Document 1 acquires position information of one user holding the mobile phone. If you want to obtain location information for multiple people, for example, if you want to check whether the teacher in your class has returned home safely, you must obtain the location information one by one, It will be cumbersome for you. Further, by requesting the position information once each, there may be a problem that it takes a lot of time when there are many people.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a PTT system including a mobile phone that can collectively acquire position information of a plurality of mobile phones.

  In order to solve the above problems, a PTT system of the present invention includes a server that mediates a PTT (Push To Talk) call between a plurality of mobile phones belonging to the same group, a group registered in the server, and a PTT function. A plurality of mobile telephones, wherein at least one of the mobile telephones requests location information indicating a position of a mobile phone belonging to the group other than its own device to the server; Receiving means for receiving the position information from the server; and display means for performing display based on the contents of the position information received by the receiving means, wherein the server includes a plurality of mobile phones registered as a group. Storage means for storing the identifier and the request from one mobile phone, and belongs to the group other than the one mobile phone An acquisition unit that acquires position information indicating the position of the number of the mobile phone, is characterized in that the acquired position information comprises a and a transmitting means for transmitting to the mobile phone that issued the request.

  With the configuration as described above, one mobile phone in the PTT system can collectively acquire location information of mobile phones belonging to the same group. As a result, it is not necessary to acquire the position information of each mobile phone as in the prior art, and the operability is improved. Further, by using this system, for example, a homeroom teacher can infer whether or not a child in the class in charge has returned home safely by looking at the position of the mobile phone.

Further, the acquisition means receives position information indicating the positions of a plurality of mobile phones belonging to the group every predetermined time from each mobile phone and repeats acquisition, and the transmission means acquires position information by the acquisition means. Each time the position information is transmitted, the display means may update the display content each time the reception means receives the position information from the transmission means.
Accordingly, the cellular phone periodically acquires the position information of the group, so that the current position of the group member can be confirmed while sequentially updating the display data. Further, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to input an acquisition request one by one when a little time has passed and the position of the member of the group may be moved.

The mobile phone further includes storage means for storing a map, and the display means includes a position on the map of each mobile phone based on the location information received by the receiving means, and an identifier of each mobile phone. May be displayed in correspondence with each other.
Thereby, the position of the mobile phone belonging to the group is displayed in correspondence with the map, and the user can easily visually confirm the position of the mobile phone of each member.

  Further, in the PTT system, each of the plurality of mobile phones uses a GPS when receiving a location information acquisition request from the server, and when receiving the location information acquisition request by the reception unit. Position information acquisition means for acquiring the position information of the machine and transmission means for transmitting the position information of the own machine acquired by the position information acquisition means to the server may be provided.

As a result, the mobile phone can acquire position information using GPS. This position information is transmitted to the server, so that accurate position information can be obtained, and the display on the mobile phone can be made accurate.
Further, each of the plurality of mobile phones further transmits position information in response to the request when a predetermined condition resulting from a user instruction is satisfied when the receiving unit receives the request for acquiring position information. It is good also as providing the refusal means which does not perform.

The predetermined condition here refers to a case where the user of the mobile phone does not want to transmit the position information. For example, when the position information is set not to be transmitted in advance, or in response to a request for position information, There are cases where the user can decide whether to accept or not.
As a result, even if an acquisition request for requesting location information is received in the mobile phone, it can be rejected, and this is useful for protecting privacy in the case where the user of the mobile phone registered in the group does not want to be known. be able to.

Hereinafter, a PTT system according to an embodiment of the present invention and a mobile phone and a server according to the PTT system will be described with reference to the drawings.
<Configuration>
First, the PTT system according to the present invention will be described.
<Configuration of PTT system>
The PTT system will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, the PTT system according to the present invention includes mobile phones 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, base stations 110, 111, 112, a PTT server 120, and a network 130. Is done.
Note that the number of mobile phones, base stations, and PTT servers is not limited to the number shown in FIG.

The mobile phones 100 to 105 are mobile phones having a PTT function, and have a function of executing a PTT call with another user holding a mobile phone other than the mobile phone registered in the group.
Each of the base stations 110 to 112 has a function of performing communication by wirelessly connecting to a mobile phone existing in the area.

The PTT server 130 has a function of managing a mobile phone that has requested a PTT call and a mobile phone as a communication partner, and a function of mediating a PTT call between mobile phones. In addition, a PTT call is performed between mobile phones belonging to a group registered in the PTT server in advance, and has a function of managing the group.
When performing a PTT call with a mobile phone, the mobile phone makes a wireless connection with a base station and requests a PTT call. The base station that has received the PTT call request transmits the request to the PTT server 120. The PTT server 120 makes a PTT call to a group of mobile phones requested by the mobile phone. When the user accepts the PTT call and accepts the PTT call, the PTT call between the mobile phones is established. In the case of a PTT call, the sound recorded in the microphone while the PTT key for performing the PTT call is pressed is transmitted to all the mobile phones that are executing the PTT call as voice packets by the PTT server 120. The Note that voice packets are basically exchanged in a PTT call, but the packets may include commands and data other than voice.

In the case of the present application, voice packets are not exchanged between mobile phones belonging to a group by a PTT call, but a packet including a position information acquisition command and position information is exchanged.
<Configuration of mobile phone>
Next, the functional configuration of the mobile phone will be described.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the mobile phone 100. The function of the mobile phone will be described with reference to FIG. It is assumed that the mobile phones 101 to 105 shown in FIG.
The mobile phone 100 includes a communication unit 210, a GPS reception unit 220, a voice processing unit 230, a display unit 240, an operation unit 250, a storage unit 260, and a control unit 270.

  The communication unit 210 includes an antenna 211, demodulates the received signal received from the antenna 211 into a received voice signal and a received data signal, the demodulated received voice signal to the voice processing unit 230, and the received data signal to the control unit. 270 to output to 270. Further, it has a function of modulating the A / D-converted transmission voice signal from the voice processing unit 230 and the transmission data signal such as an electronic mail given from the control unit 270 and outputting the modulated data signal from the antenna 211.

  The GPS communication unit 220 has a function of communicating with a GPS satellite and acquiring position information of the own device, and acquires position information using a conventional GPS system. GPS usually communicates with three GPS satellites to acquire position information using the arrival time of radio waves, but mobile phones also acquire position information using communication with a base station. Obtain location information in a hybrid manner.

The voice processing unit 230 performs D / A conversion on the reception voice signal output from the communication unit 210 and outputs it to the speaker 232, and A / D converts the transmission voice signal acquired from the microphone 231, and outputs the generated signal. It has a function of outputting to the communication unit 210.
The display unit 240 is a monitor realized by an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or the like, and has a function of displaying an image in response to an instruction from the control unit 270. For example, the display unit 240 displays a standby screen or a mail document.

  The operation unit 250 includes a group of keys such as a numeric keypad, an on-hook key, an off-hook key, a direction key, and an enter key, and has a function of receiving a user operation and transmitting the received operation content to the control unit 270. The operation unit 250 particularly includes a PTT key 251. When the key is pressed by the user, voice can be transmitted in a PTT call on the mobile phone 100.

The storage unit 260 includes a ROM (Read Only Memory) and a RAM (Random Access Memory). The storage unit 260 is realized by a small hard disk or a nonvolatile memory and has a function of storing various data. In the present application, a position information acquisition program 261 for acquiring position information using the PTT system is stored.
The control unit 270 has a function of controlling each unit of the mobile phone 100. In particular, in the present application, in response to a predetermined input from the user, the position information acquisition program 261 is read out and the contents of the program are executed.
<Configuration of PTT server>
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the PTT server 120. The function of the PTT server 120 will be described with reference to this figure.

The PTT server 120 includes a communication unit 310, a control unit 320, and a storage unit 330.
The communication unit 310 has a function of communicating with the network 130 and transmitting a voice packet transmitted from the mobile phone to the control unit 320 or transmitting a voice packet that is a command of the control unit 320.

The control unit 320 controls each unit of the PTT server and has a function of controlling a PTT call between mobile phones. Specifically, when a PTT call is requested from one mobile phone, the PTT call is transmitted to the mobile phone belonging to the group to establish the PTT call. When a position information acquisition request is received, the position information of the mobile phone belonging to the group is acquired instead of the voice packet and transmitted to the mobile phone that issued the position information request.

The storage unit 330 can be realized by a hard disk device or the like, has a function of storing various data, and particularly stores a group list 331 and a position information acquisition program 332. The contents of the group list 331 will be described later.
The location information acquisition program 332 describes a process that is executed by the control unit 320 to acquire location information of mobile phones belonging to a group when a location information acquisition request is received from the mobile phone.
<Data>
Information about groups held by the PTT server will be described here.

FIG. 4 shows a group list 400 showing an example of the group list 331 managed by the PTT server.
A group list is a table showing members included in a group, and a PTT call is established between members registered in the group.
As shown in the figure, the group list 400 includes a group number 401, a member number 402, a name 403, and a telephone number 404.

The group number 401 is a group number for identifying a plurality of groups managed by the PTT server 120. Here, it is set to 20.
The member number 402 means the number of a member belonging to the group.
A name 403 indicates the name of a member belonging to the group.
For example, the member number 6 of the group number 20 is Keisuke Kenmochi.

The telephone number 404 indicates the telephone number of the mobile phone possessed by each member. Here, the telephone numbers are uniformly described as XXX-XXXX-XXXX, but they are naturally different telephone numbers.
FIG. 5 shows a position information list 500 that the mobile phone 100 receives from the PTT server 120.

The position information list 500 includes a position information group number 501, a member number 502, a name 503, and position information 504.
The position information group number 501 indicates which group position information is included in the position information list 500.
The member number 502 indicates the number of a member belonging to the group, and also corresponds to the member number 402 of the group list 400.

A name 503 indicates the name of a member belonging to the group.
The position information 504 represents the position of each member by longitude and latitude.
For example, the name of member number 4 is Masaki Onodera, and the position of his mobile phone is 137.7870 longitude and 35.222 latitude.
The mobile phone 100 can receive the position information list and display the position information to the user.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a screen diagram of a display on which the mobile phone 100 that has received the position information list 500 displays the positions of the members of the group.
As shown in FIG. 6, the positions of the members belonging to the group are indicated by numbers corresponding to the members. Here, as shown in the member menu 600, the member number 2 Kenji Iizuka has been selected, and the map is displayed so that the display 601 is substantially at the center of the screen.

  The map shown here is a part of the map, and the user wants to know the position by changing the direction key of the user up and down, and can see the position. At this time, the member menu 600 displays the number and name of another member. For example, if “lower” is entered in the state shown in FIG. 6, the notation is “No. 3: Osamu Eda”, and the display is changed so that No. 3 is the center of the screen on the map.

The map information may be recorded in advance in the storage unit 260 of the mobile phone 100, or may be received together with the position information from an external server such as the PTT server 120.
<Operation>
The operations of the mobile phone 100, the server 120, and mobile phones belonging to other groups are shown. Here, only one mobile phone 101 among a plurality of other mobile phones belonging to the group is shown, but the other mobile phones also perform the same operation.

FIG. 7 is a timing chart showing the operation of the entire PTT system according to the present invention.
First, the mobile phone 100 accepts an input indicating a position information acquisition request from a user (step S701). This input content includes information indicating which group's position information is to be acquired. Receiving the position information acquisition input, the mobile phone 100 wirelessly connects to the base station, and transmits a request for acquiring the location information of the mobile phone belonging to the group to the PTT server via the network 130 (step S703).

  Upon receiving the position information acquisition request, the PTT server reads which group's position information it wants to acquire, and reads the corresponding group list as shown in FIG. 4 (step S705). Then, the location information acquisition request is transmitted as a command packet in place of the voice packet in the PTT call to the mobile phone 101 described in the read group list (steps S707 and S709).

The mobile phone 101 that has received the acquisition request for the position information communicates with the GPS satellite via the GPS communication unit included in the own apparatus, and acquires its own position information (step S711). The mobile phone 101 that has acquired its own location information transmits the packet including the location information instead of the voice packet to the PTT server 120 (steps S713 and S715).
The PTT server 120 that has received the location information from the mobile phone 101 converts the location information other than the mobile phone 100 belonging to the group into one data such as a location information list as shown in FIG. 100 (steps S717 and S719).

The mobile phone 100 that has acquired the location information from the PTT server 120 analyzes the location information, and displays the location on the display such that the location of the identifier indicating each mobile phone corresponds to the map, for example, as shown in FIG. Are displayed (step S721).
The above is the operation of the mobile phone and the PTT server in the PTT system.
<Supplement>
As described above, the PTT system according to the present invention, the mobile phone included in the system, and the PTT server have been described. However, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to this. Hereinafter, the modified example will be described.
(1) In the above embodiment, it has been described that the location information of mobile phones belonging to a group can be taken. However, depending on the location of the mobile phone, a PTT call that is outside the communication range and requests location information can be received. There may be no. In this case, remember that the PTT server could not acquire the location information, and when the mobile phone that was out of service entered the communication range, issue an acquisition command again to acquire the location information. The location information may be transmitted later.

Thereby, even when the mobile phone belonging to the group cannot acquire the position information for the first time, the location information of all the mobile phones belonging to the group can be finally obtained.
(2) In the above embodiment, the position information is obtained only once. However, the position information is received from the server every predetermined time, for example, every two minutes. It may be updated and displayed.

As a result, the user can check the position of the group member in real time.
(3) In the above embodiment, only the mobile phone that requested the acquisition of the position information has received the position information. However, the mobile phones of all the members belonging to the group may be able to receive the position information.
(4) In the above-described embodiment, the mobile phone that has been requested for position information always transmits the position information. However, this is because the mobile phone can be set not to transmit even if the position information is requested. Good. It is also possible to set a time zone in which the request for position information can be rejected. Alternatively, when a location information acquisition request is received as a PTT call, the user may be permitted to send the location information each time. For example, it may be possible to receive a request for location information during a time when the company is out of business and reject it outside the working hours.

Requests for location information can sometimes infringe privacy, but this can help prevent privacy infringement.
(5) In the above embodiment, the mobile phone acquires position information using GPS. However, if the position information cannot be acquired by GPS, the mobile phone can communicate with the base station. The position information may be transmitted to the server as the position information of the mobile phone. The base station basically holds its own location information and transmits the location information to the PTT server. This makes it possible to cope with a case where the mobile phone cannot communicate with three or more GPS satellites and cannot acquire position information.

Further, recent mobile phones acquire position information using a hybrid GPS system that utilizes not only communication with GPS satellites but also communication with base stations.
(6) In the above embodiment, the mobile phone 100 requesting the location information does not acquire the location information, but the mobile phone 100 may also acquire the location information and transmit it to the PTT server 120. Then, the location information of all mobile phones belonging to the group may be collectively received from the PTT server.

By doing so, it becomes easy to compare the position of the own device and another mobile phone.
(7) In the above embodiment, the mobile phone 100 displays the position information in association with the map. However, the mobile phone 100 may display the approximate address of the member's position in text, for example, without corresponding to the map.
(8) The present invention may be a method in the above embodiment or a computer program for causing a computer to execute the method. Further, it may be a recording medium such as a ROM in which the computer program is stored.

  The mobile phone according to the present invention can be used as a mobile phone that can know the position of a predetermined group member at once.

It is the system figure which showed the utilization form of the PTT system which concerns on this invention. It is the block diagram which showed the function structure of the mobile telephone which concerns on this invention. It is the block diagram which showed the function structure of the application server which concerns on this invention. It is the table | surface which showed an example of the group list. It is the table | surface which showed the positional information which a mobile telephone acquires. It is the screen figure which showed an example of the screen displayed on a display based on the positional information which the mobile telephone acquired. It is a timing chart showing exchange of data between a cellular phone and a PTT server.

Explanation of symbols

100 to 105 Mobile device 110 to 112 Base station 120 PTT server 130 Network 210 Communication unit 211 Antenna 220 GPS communication unit 221 Antenna 230 Audio processing unit 231 Microphone 232 Speaker 240 Display unit 250 Operation unit 251 PTT key 260 Storage unit 261 Acquisition of position information Program 270 Control unit 310 Communication unit 320 Control unit 330 Storage unit 331 Group list 332 Position information acquisition program

Claims (11)

A PTT system including a server that mediates a PTT (Push To Talk) call between a plurality of mobile phones belonging to the same group, and a plurality of mobile phones that are registered in the server as a group and have a PTT function,
At least one of the mobile phones is
Request means for requesting the server for location information indicating the location of a mobile phone belonging to the group other than the own device;
Receiving means for receiving the location information from the server;
Display means for performing display based on the content of the position information received by the receiving means,
The server
Storage means for storing an identifier of each of a plurality of mobile phones registered as a group;
Receiving means for receiving the request from one mobile phone and acquiring position information indicating the positions of a plurality of mobile phones belonging to the group other than the one mobile phone;
Transmitting means for transmitting the acquired location information to the mobile phone that issued the request. The acquisition means receives position information indicating the positions of a plurality of mobile phones belonging to the group every predetermined time from each mobile phone, and repeats acquisition,
The transmission means transmits the position information every time the acquisition means acquires the position information,
The PTT system according to claim 1, wherein the display unit updates display content every time the receiving unit receives position information from the transmission unit. The mobile phone further includes:
A storage means for storing the map;
The PTT system according to claim 1, wherein the display means displays the position of each mobile phone on the map based on the position information received by the receiving means and the identifier of each mobile phone in association with each other. . Each of the plurality of mobile phones
Accepting means for accepting an acquisition request for position information from the server;
Position information acquisition means for acquiring position information of the own device using GPS when receiving an acquisition request for position information by the reception means;
The PTT system according to claim 1, further comprising: transmission means for transmitting the position information of the own device acquired by the position information acquisition means to the server. Each of the plurality of mobile phones further includes:
When receiving an acquisition request for position information by the reception means, the apparatus includes a rejection means that does not transmit position information in response to the request only when a predetermined condition resulting from a user instruction is satisfied. The PTT system according to claim 4. A mobile phone capable of making a PTT call to a mobile phone registered as a group in the server,
A communication means for communicating with the server that mediates a PTT call;
Request means for requesting the server to acquire location information of mobile phones belonging to a group;
Receiving means for receiving the position information from the server;
A mobile phone comprising: display means for performing display based on position information received by the receiving means. The mobile phone further includes:
A storage means for storing the map;
The mobile phone according to claim 6, wherein the display means displays the map so that an identifier indicating a position of each mobile phone based on the location information received by the receiving means corresponds to the map. The mobile phone further includes:
Accepting means for accepting an acquisition request for position information from the server;
Position information acquisition means for acquiring position information of the own device using GPS when receiving an acquisition request for position information by the reception means;
The mobile phone according to claim 6, further comprising: transmission means for transmitting the position information of the own device acquired by the position information acquisition means to the server. The mobile phone further includes:
When receiving an acquisition request for position information by the receiving means,
The mobile phone according to claim 6, further comprising a rejection unit that does not transmit position information in response to the request. A PTT server that mediates PTT calls between a plurality of mobile phones belonging to the same group,
Storage means for storing an identifier of each of a plurality of mobile phones registered as a group;
Receiving means for receiving a request for acquisition of location information from one mobile phone registered in the group;
An acquisition unit for acquiring position information of a plurality of mobile phones belonging to the group from the mobile phones registered in the group when the request is received by the reception unit;
A PTT server comprising: transmission means for transmitting the position information acquired by the acquisition means to the one mobile phone. The acquisition means further includes
The acquisition is performed every predetermined time,
The PTT server according to claim 9, wherein the transmission unit transmits the newly acquired position information every time the acquisition unit acquires the position information.

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