JPH11113060A - Radio communication terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow the user to recognize intuitionally whether the terminal equipment is in a zone or at the outside of the zone. SOLUTION: A control section 14 conducts an intermittent operation so as to be in the run mode at an interval of 1.2 sec in the in-zone state or at an interval of 10 sec in the out-zone state in the standby state depending on the in-zone/out-zone discrimination result by a TDMA decoder 41. Then the control section 14 reads character data depending whether being in the in-zone or the out-zone from a character data storage area 9a once in the entry to the run mode and allows a display section 12 to display an image corresponding to the character data. Furthermore, in the case of the in-zone, the control section 12 allows the display section 12 to display a moving image by reading pluralities of character data from the character data storage area 9a in a prescribed sequence.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a PHS (Personal Handy) capable of performing communication only when it is located in a predetermined communication area (in a service area).
phone System) relates to a wireless communication terminal device such as a terminal device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A PHS terminal device cannot perform communication unless it is located within a predetermined communication area where radio waves from a base station device reach. Therefore, conventionally, a PHS terminal device displays whether the vehicle is in a service area or in a state outside the communication area (out-of-service state) and notifies the user. This display is performed by, for example, displaying / hiding a character string “out of service area” or an antenna mark.

[0003] However, in such a conventional display, the same display is continued in both the in-service state and the out-of-service state as long as the state is continued.
For this reason, it is difficult to determine whether the state is the in-service state or the out-of-service state at a glance, and the display contents have to be checked firmly.

[0004]

As described above, in the conventional wireless communication terminal device, the presence or absence of a character string or a mark indicates whether the terminal is in the service area state or the service area outside the service area. Unless the contents are confirmed, it is difficult to determine whether the state is the in-service state or the out-of-service state.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a radio communication system that allows a user to intuitively recognize whether the user is in an in-service state or out-of-service state. It is to provide a terminal device.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for determining whether a vehicle is in an in-service state located in a predetermined communication area or in an out-of-service state located outside the communication area. For example, a TDMA decoder or the like, an in-range / out-of-range determination unit, a display unit for displaying an arbitrary image, for example, a liquid crystal display, and the designated image is continuously displayed until the next image is designated. A display control unit, such as a display control unit, for displaying on the display unit, and a notification image update control unit, such as a standby image display control unit. When it is determined that the vehicle is in the service area, a predetermined moving image is displayed. And to specify a predetermined image on the display control means to display the Tomega imaging.

[0007] In particular, according to the present invention, when the mobile phone is in a service area located in a predetermined communication area during standby, the mobile phone is in an out-of-service state located at a predetermined first time interval and outside the communication area. In such a case, in the wireless communication terminal device that performs the intermittent operation at a predetermined second time interval longer than the first time interval, the notification image update control means may include: If it is determined by the in-range / out-of-range determining means that the vehicle is in the in-range state, one of the plurality of predetermined in-range notification images is selected in a predetermined order. At least 1 if it is determined by the
One of the three predetermined out-of-service notification images is selected in a predetermined order and designated to the display control means.

[0008] By taking such means, a moving image is displayed as a notification image when the vehicle is in the service area, and a still image is displayed as a notification image when the camera is out of the service area. Therefore, by switching between the moving image / still image of the notification image, the user is notified of the state of the in-service state or the out-of-service state.

In another aspect of the present invention, in addition to the above-mentioned invention, an electric field intensity detecting means such as an RSSI detector for detecting a received electric field intensity is provided, and the notification image update control means is provided by an in-range / out-of-range determining means. If it is determined that the vehicle is in the in-range state, each of the plurality of in-area notification images includes a plurality of in-area notification images and is detected by the electric field strength detection unit from among a plurality of in-range notification images corresponding to a predetermined reception electric field intensity. One group corresponding to the received electric field strength is selected, and one of a plurality of in-zone notification images included in the in-zone notification image group is selected in a predetermined order and designated to the display control means. .

[0010] By taking such means, the type of moving image displayed on the display means when the vehicle is in the service area is switched according to the received electric field strength. Therefore,
In addition to notifying the user of the in-service state or the out-of-service state by switching between the moving image and the still image of the notification image, the user is notified of the received electric field strength by switching the type of the moving image.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a main configuration of a PHS terminal device configured by applying the wireless communication terminal device according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the PHS terminal device of the present embodiment has an antenna 1, a radio unit 2, a modem unit 3, a TDM
It has an A section 4, a communication section 5, a speaker 6, a microphone 7, a power supply section 8, a memory section 9, a timing circuit 10, an operation section 11, a display section 12, a sounder section 13, and a control section 14.

A radio carrier signal transmitted from a base station and received is received by an antenna 1 and then input to a receiving unit 22 via a high-frequency switch (SW) 21 of a radio unit 2. In the receiving section 22, the received radio carrier signal is mixed with a receiving local oscillation signal generated from the frequency synthesizer 23 and frequency-converted into a receiving intermediate frequency signal or a receiving baseband signal. The local oscillation frequency generated by the frequency synthesizer 23 is specified by the control unit 14. Further, the radio unit 2 is provided with a reception field strength (RSSI) detector 25. This R
The SSI detector 25 detects the received electric field strength of the wireless carrier signal arriving from the base station, and notifies the control unit 14 of the detected value to determine whether the wireless channel is free.

The reception intermediate frequency signal or the reception baseband signal output from the reception section 22 is input to a digital demodulation circuit 31 of the modem section 3. The digital demodulation circuit 31 digitally demodulates the received intermediate frequency signal or the received baseband signal, thereby reproducing a digital speech signal.

The TDMA decoder 41 of the TDMA unit 4
From the digital communication signal output from the digital demodulation circuit 31, a digital communication signal inserted in a time slot (instructed by the control unit 14) allocated to the own station is extracted, and the extracted digital communication signal is extracted. It is given to the communication unit 5. Also, the TDMA decoder 41
A function of monitoring a unique word error in the digital communication signal output from the digital demodulation circuit 31, determining whether the own device is in a service area state or a service outside state, and notifying the control unit 14 of a result of the determination. Have.

The communication unit 5 includes an ADPCM codec 51
And a PCM codec 52. The ADPCM codec 51 performs decoding processing for error correction or erasure correction of a digital communication signal. The PCM codec 52 converts the decoded digital call signal into an analog call signal. The analog call signal is amplified by a receiving amplifier (not shown) and then output from the speaker 6.

On the other hand, the transmission voice input to the microphone 7 is amplified by a transmission amplifier (not shown) in the communication unit 5, and then converted into a digital transmission signal by the PCM codec 52. The digital transmission signal is input to the TDMA unit 4 after being subjected to an encoding process for error correction or erasure correction by the ADPCM codec 51. In the TDMA encoder 42, the ADP
The digital communication signal output from the CM codec 51 is inserted into the time slot specified by the control unit 14 and input to the digital modulation circuit 32. The digital modulation circuit 32 digitally modulates the high-frequency signal by the digital communication signal and outputs a modulated wave signal.

In the transmitting section 24, the modulated modulated wave signal is mixed with the transmitting local oscillation signal generated from the frequency synthesizer 23 to be up-converted to the radio channel frequency specified by the control section 14, and further up-converted. It is amplified to a predetermined transmission power level. Then, the wireless carrier signal output from the transmitting unit 24 is transmitted from the antenna 1 via the high frequency switch 21.

The power supply unit 8 includes a battery 8 composed of a secondary battery.
1 and a power supply circuit 82 for generating a predetermined operating voltage based on the output voltage of the battery 81. The memory unit 9 includes, for example, an EEPROM or a flash memory, and stores data necessary for the control unit 14 to perform various processes. In the present embodiment, a part of the storage area of the memory unit 9 is
It is set in a character data storage area 9a for storing character data to be displayed on the display unit 12 during standby.

The clock circuit 10 generates and outputs clock data representing the current date and time by counting the reference clock. The operation unit 11 is provided with function keys and numeric keys for the user to perform operations such as calling and answering, inputting a dial number, and ending a call, and accepts an instruction input by the user.

The display unit 12 is for visually displaying various information to be notified to the user under the control of the control unit 14, and includes a liquid crystal display (LCD) 121 and a display control unit 122. . The liquid crystal display 121 is driven by the display control unit 122 and displays an arbitrary image. The display control unit 122 displays the image indicated by the image data provided from the control unit 14 with another image data.
4 to drive the liquid crystal display 121 so as to display continuously until given.

The sounder section 13 is for generating a ring tone or an alarm under the control of the control section 14.
The control unit 14 realizes an operation as a PHS terminal device by controlling each unit collectively. The control unit 14 includes, for example, a microcomputer as a main processing unit, and in addition to a well-known general control unit in the PHS terminal device, a standby state indicating whether the apparatus is in an in-service state or an out-of-service state during standby. A standby image display control unit 14a for displaying an image on the display unit 12 is provided.

Next, the operation of the PHS terminal configured as described above will be described. Note that the PHS of the present embodiment
The operation of the terminal device relating to a normal telephone call and the like is the same as that of a conventional general PHS terminal device, and a description thereof will be omitted.

First, when in the standby state, the PHS terminal device of the present embodiment performs intermittent operation at predetermined time intervals for battery saving. That is, the intermittent reception operation is performed by supplying power from the power supply unit 8 to the wireless unit 2 at a predetermined cycle for a fixed time. Further, in synchronization with the intermittent reception operation, when the power supply to the radio unit 2 is not performed, the control unit 14 enters an idle mode in which only limited processing such as management of a time interval of intermittent reception is performed. When the power supply to the power supply 2 is performed, a run mode for performing various other processes is set. The time interval of the intermittent operation is different between the case where the vehicle is in the service area and the case where the vehicle is out of the service area. For example, the time interval is 1.2 seconds when the vehicle is in the service area and 10 seconds when the vehicle is in the out of service state. Has become.

The control unit 14 executes the standby image display processing as shown in FIG. 2 by the standby image display control means 14a once each time the run mode is set. In the standby image display process, the control unit 14 first confirms the determination result of the in-service area / out-of-service area in the TDMA decoder 41 and determines whether or not the own apparatus is in the service area at present (step ST).
1).

If the vehicle is in the service area, the control unit 14
Increments the variable n by 1 (step ST2), and then the RSSI
It is determined whether the received electric field strength detected by the detector 25 is “strong”, “medium”, or “weak” (step ST3). If the received electric field strength is "strong", character data A (n) is read from character data storage area 9a, and is provided to display control unit 122 (step ST4). If the received electric field strength is "medium", the character data B (n) is read from the character data storage area 9a, and the read character data B (n) is read.
2 (step ST5). If the received electric field strength is "weak", the character data storage area 9a
The character data C (n) is read out from the display control unit 122 and supplied to the display control unit 122 (step ST6).

Subsequently, the control unit 14 determines whether or not the variable n has reached a predetermined maximum value ("2" in this embodiment) (step ST7), and the variable n has reached the predetermined maximum value. If so, the variable n is cleared to “0” (step S
T8).

The character data storage area 9a stores character data A (1) and A (2) in FIG.
FIGS. 4A and 4B show data indicating an image as shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B as character data B (1) and B (2).
The data indicating the image as shown in FIG.
Data indicating images as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B are stored as (1) and C (2), respectively.

Therefore, when the vehicle is in the service area, the display unit 12
Are displayed on the liquid crystal display 121 at every time the intermittent operation is performed, that is, every 1.2 seconds, if the received electric field strength is “strong”, the images shown in FIGS. However, if the received electric field strength is “medium”, the images shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B are obtained, and if the received electric field strength is “weak”, FIG.
The images shown in (b) are updated alternately.

As a result, the image displayed on the liquid crystal display 121 is recognized by the user as a moving image.
On the other hand, if the state is out of the service area, control unit 14 unconditionally reads out character data D from character data storage area 9a and supplies it to display control unit 122 (step ST9).

Therefore, the display unit 12 is in the out-of-service state.
The image displayed on the liquid crystal display 121 is repeatedly updated to an image as shown in FIG. 6, for example, every time an intermittent operation is performed, that is, every 10 seconds.

As a result, the image displayed on the liquid crystal display 121 does not change and is recognized as a still image by the user. As described above, according to the present embodiment, as the standby image to be displayed on the liquid crystal display 121 when in the standby state, a moving image is displayed when the mobile phone is in the service area, and a still image is displayed when the mobile phone is out of service area. You.

Accordingly, the user can recognize which of the in-service state and the out-of-service state by determining whether the display image on the liquid crystal display 121 is a moving image or a still image. The determination as to whether the display image of the liquid crystal display 121 is a moving image or a still image can be made more intuitively than determining whether or not there is a mark or the like. It is possible for the user to more easily recognize which of the states is in.

Further, according to the present embodiment, switching between a moving image and a still image is realized by synchronizing an image update timing with an intermittent operation timing for battery saving. Therefore, the present invention can be realized very easily without performing complicated processing for displaying a moving image, and it is not necessary to increase the period of the run mode in order to realize the displaying of a moving image. That is, the standby time does not decrease.

According to the present embodiment, a moving image is displayed when the vehicle is in the service area. If the image is set to a size comparable to the display size of the liquid crystal display 121, it will function as a screen saver. In addition, the deterioration of the liquid crystal display 121 can be prevented.

Further, according to the present embodiment, the type of the standby image when the vehicle is in the service area is made different according to the received electric field strength. Therefore, the user can determine the type of the image displayed on the liquid crystal display 121 by judging the type of the image. The received electric field strength can also be recognized.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the embodiment described above, the communication terminal device according to the present invention is applied to a PHS terminal device, but the present invention is also applied to a wireless telephone terminal device of another system such as a PDC (Personal Digital Cellular) terminal device. Applicable.

In the above embodiment, in the out-of-service state, character data of a single pattern is repeatedly displayed. However, character data of a plurality of patterns may be repeatedly displayed. Even in this case, in the out-of-service state, the update interval of the character data to be displayed is long, so that the user recognizes it as a still image.

In the above embodiment, in the out-of-service state, character data of a single pattern is repeatedly displayed. However, when the out-of-service state continues, the character data updating process may not be performed.

In the above embodiment, the number of character data repeatedly displayed in one state is one or two, but may be three or more. In the above embodiment, the type of the standby image when in the service area is made different according to the received electric field strength. However, one type of the standby image may be displayed regardless of the received electric field strength. In addition, various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0041]

According to the present invention, there is provided an in-service / out-of-service determining means for determining which of an in-service state located in a predetermined communication area and an out-of-service state located outside the communication area, Display means for displaying an image, display control means for continuously displaying the specified image on the display means until the next image is specified, and notification image update control means. When the control unit determines that the vehicle is in the service area by the service area / out of service area during standby, a predetermined moving image is determined, and the service area / out of service area is determined by the service area / out of service area. In the case where a predetermined image is displayed, a predetermined image is designated to the display control means in order to display a still image.

In particular, according to the present invention, at the time of standby, if the vehicle is in a service area located in a predetermined communication area, the vehicle is in an out-of-service state located at a predetermined first time interval and outside the communication area. In such a case, in the wireless communication terminal device that performs the intermittent operation at a predetermined second time interval longer than the first time interval, the notification image update control means may include: If it is determined by the in-range / out-of-range determining means that the vehicle is in the in-range state, one of the plurality of predetermined in-range notification images is selected in a predetermined order. At least 1 if it is determined by the
One of the three predetermined out-of-service notification images is selected in a predetermined order and designated to the display control means.

As a result, the wireless communication terminal device allows the user to intuitively recognize whether the user is in the in-service state or the out-of-service state. According to yet another invention,
In addition to the above-described invention, an electric field intensity detecting unit for detecting a received electric field intensity is provided,
If it is determined by the in-range / out-of-range determination means that the vehicle is in the in-range state, the plurality of in-range notification images each include a plurality of in-range notification images, and each of the plurality of in-range notification images corresponding to a predetermined reception electric field intensity indicates the electric field. Selecting a group corresponding to the received electric field intensity detected by the intensity detecting means, and further selecting one of a plurality of in-area notification images included in the in-area notification image group in a predetermined order; Wireless communication that allows the user to intuitively recognize whether the user is in the in-service state or out-of-service state, and also allows the user to recognize the reception electric field strength in the in-service state. Terminal device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a main configuration of a PHS terminal device configured by applying a wireless communication terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a control unit 14 in a standby image display process.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image displayed when the mobile phone is in a service area and the received electric field strength is “strong”;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image displayed when the mobile phone is in a service area and the reception electric field strength is “medium”;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image displayed when the mobile phone is in a service area and the received electric field strength is “weak”;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image displayed when the mobile phone is out of service area.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Antenna 2 ... Radio | wireless part 3 ... Modem part 4 ... TDMA part 5 ... Telephone part 6 ... Speaker 7 ... Microphone 8 ... Power supply part 9 ... Memory part 9a ... Character data storage area 10 ... Clock circuit 11 ... Operation part 12 ... Display Unit 121: Liquid crystal display (LCD) 122: Display control unit 13: Sounder unit 14: Control unit 14a: Standby image display control means

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An in-service / out-of-service judging means for judging whether an in-service state located in a predetermined communication area or an out-of-service state outside the communication area, and an arbitrary image can be displayed. Display means; display control means for continuously displaying the specified image on the display means until the next image is specified; and determining that the vehicle is in the service area by the service area / out-of-service area during standby. The predetermined image is displayed on the display control means in order to display a predetermined moving image when the image is displayed, and to display a still image when the area is determined to be out of the service area by the service area / out-of-service determination means. And a notification image update control means for designating a wireless communication terminal. 2. In standby mode, at a predetermined first time interval when the vehicle is in a service area located in a predetermined communication area, and when the vehicle is in a service area outside the communication area, A wireless communication terminal device that performs an intermittent operation at predetermined second time intervals longer than the first time interval, wherein a notification image update control unit performs the intermittent operation at each one operation timing of the intermittent operation. When it is determined by the out-of-service area determining means that the vehicle is in the service area, one of the plurality of predetermined service information images is selected in a predetermined order, and the out-of-service state is determined by the service area / out-of-service determining means. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein when it is determined that one of the at least one predetermined out-of-service notification image is selected in a predetermined order and designated to the display control means. The wireless communication end of Apparatus. 3. An electric field strength detecting means for detecting a received electric field strength is provided, and the notification image update control means includes a plurality of service areas when the in-service / out-of-service determination means determines that the vehicle is in the service area. A group corresponding to the reception electric field intensity detected by the electric field intensity detection means from among a plurality of in-area notification image groups each including the notification image and each corresponding to the predetermined reception electric field intensity, and further selecting the in-range notification image The wireless communication terminal according to claim 1, wherein one of a plurality of in-area notification images included in the group is selected in a predetermined order and designated to the display control unit. apparatus.