JPH1168642A - Position information notice terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a center, which monitors the location of a PHS communication terminal, to grasp conditions before the operation stop of that terminal by notifying these conditions when the battery voltage of that terminal gets lower than a fixed voltage. SOLUTION: A position information communication terminal 101 automatically transmits information specifying a base station 1-2 under communication and its reception level in every prescribed cycle as position information and when the battery voltage is lowered rather than a reference voltage, information showing a battery voltage drop is added and transmitted. This transmission is performed by an out channel while putting the information into a 'call originating subaddress' and immediately disconnected and speech path setting is not started. Through the base station 1-2 and a network 1-3, a position information converting center 1-4 reports the battery voltage drop of the terminal 1-1 to a terminal position monitor center 1-5. In the case of a roaming aged monitor service or the like, a person in charge of management near the location of that terminal 101 can appropriately perform a job such as battery replacement.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable communication terminal utilizing PHS wireless communication, and more particularly to a terminal having a position information notification function for transmitting information corresponding to a service location of a wireless base station in which the communication terminal exists. , Its equipment (terminal)
When the battery voltage, which is the driving source for
It is intended to make it possible to notify the center that monitors the location of the terminal of the situation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a communication terminal using a PHS radio has a communication terminal located in any of a paging zone consisting of a plurality of cells (small zones) approaching each other in order to be able to receive a call to the communication terminal. A function of notifying the center of the presence or absence. Further, there is a communication terminal that transmits information corresponding to the location information of the service area of the radio base station where the terminal is located as well as the calling zone.

A communication terminal for transmitting the position information to the monitoring center has a battery mounted thereon, and operates the communication terminal using the battery as driving power. Therefore, when the battery capacity of the primary battery or the secondary battery becomes equal to or lower than the certain voltage, the operation of the communication terminal cannot be continued.

[0004]

There has never been a communication terminal that notifies the center for monitoring the position information of the state of the battery voltage even in such a communication terminal. A situation occurs in which the communication cannot be continued from the communication state due to a decrease in the voltage of the data, and information cannot be obtained. Therefore, when the position information monitoring center stops receiving the information from the position information notification terminal, the reason is that the operation has been stopped due to the decrease in the power supply voltage as described above, the power supply switch has been turned off, Alternatively, there is a problem that it is not possible to grasp the situation such as whether the user has left the service area.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a position information notification terminal having a function of notifying the status of a communication terminal before stopping its operation when the battery voltage of the communication terminal falls below a certain value.

[0006]

According to the present invention, a PHS wireless communication terminal monitors a battery voltage used as a driving source of the PHS wireless communication terminal, and when the battery voltage falls below a certain voltage, notifies the condition. The main feature is that it is provided. As a result, it is possible to prompt the user to replace the battery before the battery voltage drops and operation becomes impossible.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a system configuration of a location information search system using a location information notification terminal according to the present invention. The location information notification terminal 1-1 according to the present invention can be connected to a location information conversion center 1-4 via a wireless base station 1-2 using PHS radio and further via a public network 1-3. The location information conversion center 1-4 converts base station ID information and the like notified as location information from the location information notification terminal 1-1 into latitude / longitude information for the terminal 1-1, and the terminal location monitoring center 1-5. Manages the position information notifying terminal 1-1 by displaying the location of the position information notifying terminal 1-1 and a map around the position based on the latitude / longitude information obtained from the position information conversion center 1-4. Do.

FIG. 2 shows a position information notification terminal 1-1 according to the present invention.
Is shown. Each part of the terminal 1-1 is a battery 2-1.
Drive power is further supplied, and the power supply is turned on / off by a power switch 2-2. Control of the entire terminal 1-1 is performed by the control unit 2-3. In the present invention, the battery 2
The battery voltage of -1 is monitored by the battery voltage monitoring unit. PHS
A wireless unit 2-5 for performing wireless communication and an antenna 2-6 for wireless communication are provided.

Next, referring to FIG. 3A, the communication terminal 1 of the present invention will be described.
An operation example of -1 will be described. This is a case where the position information notification terminal 1-1 notifies information on the position where the terminal is located. In addition, regarding the call control, the information is transmitted without connection between the position information notification terminal 1-1 and the position information conversion center 1-4. This is an embodiment in the case of performing transmission. Note that the base station 1-2 is included in the network section 1-3 for the sake of simplicity.

If the location information notification terminal 1-1 does not have a key portion for inputting a telephone number for transmitting to the location information conversion center 1-4, the location information conversion center determined in advance by the location information search system is used. The telephone number 1-4 is stored in the control unit 2-3. This memory is stored in the control unit 2-3.
May be stored in a memory such as a flash memory or an EEPROM included in the memory. For the same reason, the time or period (every 10 minutes, every hour, etc.) for transmitting position information is also recorded at the same time.

The location information notification terminal 1-1 monitors the specified time period and the like by the control unit 2-3, and transmits a preset telephone number of the location information conversion center 1-4 when the specified time comes. For this purpose, a "call setting" signal (1) is transmitted to the network 1-3 via the radio unit 2-5 and the antenna 2-6. At this time, the location information notification terminal 1-1, for example, among the information elements used in the call control information (“call setting”) used at the time of calling, as a CS (wireless communication) with which the terminal communicates with the “calling subaddress” Base station) ID (CS-ID:
Base station identification information) and the received signal level of the signal from the base station at that time are set and transmitted. At this time, a control method for acquiring the CS-ID information or acquiring the received signal level on the terminal 1-1 side is defined in "RCR STD-28 Second Generation Cordless Telephone System Standard". The call control signal (2) reaches the location information conversion center 1-4 via the network 1-3 as it is, and when the location information conversion center 1-4 receives the "call setting" signal,
When necessary information can be obtained from within the "calling subaddress", a "call setting accepted" signal (3) is returned, and "call",
A control for connecting a call by a signal such as a "response", that is, a control for setting a communication channel is not performed, but a "disconnect" signal (4) is immediately transmitted, and thereafter, the position information notification terminal 1 receiving the signal. -1 sends a "release" signal (5), the location information conversion center 1-4 performs release processing, sends a "release complete" signal (6) to the location information notification terminal 1-1, and ends the call control. . According to this method, it is possible to notify the other party of the information included in the call control information (in this case, information relating to the position set in the “sub-address”) without shifting to the communication state. No need to pay.

For information on the position, see antenna 2
-6, position information notification terminal 1 input to radio section 2-5
-1 received from a CS (base station) in the vicinity of the control unit 2
-3 performs monitoring, and sets its CS-ID (base station identification information) and received signal level in the "calling sub-address" of the call control signal. Examples of this set will be described later. In this case, the PHS receives signals from other CSs in the vicinity in addition to the CS with which the location information notification terminal 1-1 is communicating, and by transmitting a plurality of CS-IDs and received signal levels, The location information conversion center 1-4 can confirm the location of the location information notification terminal 1-1 more accurately. Also, here, an example is shown in which an information element of “calling sub-address” is used to notify location information, but other information elements such as “keypad facility” that can be used in call control are used. Methods are also conceivable.

On the side of the location information conversion center 1-4, a method for specifying the location of the location information notification terminal 1-1 is described below.
Since the position of each CS is known in advance and the received signal level generally reflects the distance between the location information notification terminal and the CS, the CS-I sent from the terminal 1-1 is used.
Based on D and the received signal level, the position of the terminal 1-1 can be specified by a triangulation method or the like.
In this description, the CS-ID and the received signal level are notified as a pair, but this control is also possible as a method of notifying only the CS-ID. That is, it depends on the accuracy with which the location of the location information notification terminal 1-1 needs to be known. In the PHS, since the service area of one base station is relatively narrow, the service area of one base station is defined as a unit. If it is sufficient to know the position of the position information notification terminal to such an extent, only the CS-ID may be notified.

The location information conversion center 1-4 uses the CS-ID acquired from the location information notification terminal 1-1 as the original information when displaying the location of the location information notification terminal 1-1 on a map or the like. The received signal level is converted into latitude / longitude information. The information converted into the latitude / longitude information is notified from the position information conversion center 1-4 to the terminal position monitoring center 1-5 (7). The terminal location monitoring center 1-5 uses the notified latitude / longitude information and the telephone number (set in the call setting calling address) for specifying the location information notification terminal 1-1, etc., to determine the location information notification terminal 1-1. Can be displayed on the map and confirmed. As a result, the terminal location monitoring center 1-5 can determine where the location information notification terminal 1-1 is located. For example, in the case of a service for monitoring a wandering elderly person, the terminal 1-1 is used.
You can know the location of the person with

The above is one control content for notifying the position information of the position information notification terminal 1-1. By automatically repeating this operation at a predetermined time / cycle, the location of the person having the position information notification terminal 1-1 can be known, and by monitoring the location continuously, the terminal can be identified. It is possible to confirm the situation where the person having 1-1 moves.

Here, the position information notification terminal 1-1 operates with a battery mounted therein, and the battery is consumed by the operation of the terminal 1-1 and operates after a certain period of use, regardless of chargeability. The operation cannot be continued. When the battery voltage decreases and the operation of the terminal cannot be continued, the position information conversion center 1-4 and the terminal position monitoring center 1-5 cannot continue to monitor the position information notification terminal 1-1. . The processing based on the configuration of the present invention for avoiding this in advance will be described below.

In the position information notifying terminal 1-1, the control section 2-3 constantly monitors information from the battery voltage monitoring section 2-4 connected thereto. The battery voltage monitoring unit 2-4 monitors the voltage of the battery 2-1 built in the terminal, and when the voltage is equal to or higher than the reference voltage, the operation is enabled and the above-described position information notification operation is continued. If the battery 2-1 drops below the reference voltage, the battery voltage monitoring unit 2-4 detects this and notifies the control unit 2-3 that the voltage has dropped. Control unit 2-
In this embodiment, when the battery voltage drops, in this embodiment, information indicating the battery voltage drop is added to the "calling subaddress" of the "call setting" signal as shown in FIG.
5, antenna 2-6, base station 1-2, network 1-
3 to the location information conversion center 1-4. In the location information conversion center 1-4, the battery voltage of the location information notification terminal 1-1 is reduced because the information of the battery voltage drop is set in the "calling subaddress" in the "call setting" signal. Know that. The location information conversion center 1-4 notifies the terminal location monitoring center 1-5 that the battery voltage of the location information notification terminal 1-1 is low. In the terminal location monitoring center 1-5, when the service using the present system is a wandering elderly person monitoring service or the like, the terminal location monitoring center 1-5 contacts a manager in the vicinity where the terminal 1-1 is located, and encourages the user to replace the battery. Can be performed quickly. FIG. 3B
Is the same as that of FIG. 3A, except that the call setting signal includes information indicating a low battery voltage, and the information sent from the location information conversion center 1-4 to the terminal location monitoring center 1-5 includes the battery voltage. The difference is that information indicating a decrease is included.

The above embodiment shows an example in which the fact that the battery voltage is low is sent to the terminal position monitoring center 1-5 via the position information conversion center 1-4. Since the monitoring / maintenance of the position of the terminal 1-1 (the searched terminal) is performed by the terminal position monitoring center 1-5, the state of decrease in the battery voltage may be sent directly to the terminal position monitoring center 1-5. In this case, it is possible to record the telephone number of the destination (terminal position monitoring center 1-5) in the position information notification terminal 1-1 in the control unit 2-3 in advance.

When the position information notifying terminal 1-1 detects a drop in the battery voltage Vs, the trigger for notifying the information to the position information conversion center 1-4 and the contents of notification can be considered as follows. FIG. 4A shows that the battery voltage Vs is equal to the reference voltage V1.
In the above case, the operation of notifying the normal position information is performed,
The case where the battery voltage is equal to or lower than the reference voltage V1 indicates that the battery voltage Vs has been reduced. FIG. 5 shows an example of a processing flow 1 corresponding to the determination in FIG. 4A. First, the voltage drop notification flag is initialized to 0 (S1), and it is checked whether Vs <V1 (S2). If the battery voltage Vs is equal to or higher than V1, it is checked whether the specified cycle T0 (or specified time) has been reached (S3).
If not, return to step S2.
The location information is notified and the process returns to step S2 (S
4). If the battery voltage Vs is equal to or lower than V1 in step S2, it is checked whether the voltage drop notification flag is 0 (S5).
If it is 0, the battery voltage Vs is notified of a drop (S6), the voltage drop notification flag is set to 1, and the process returns to step S2 (S6).
7). If the flag is not 0 in step S5, the process proceeds to step S3. Therefore, in this processing flow, the notification of the battery voltage drop is performed only once, and thereafter, the normal position information notification is performed.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the processing flow corresponding to the judgment of FIG. 4A. It is checked whether or not the designated period T0 (or a predetermined time) has been reached (S1). If so, it is checked whether or not the battery voltage Vs is equal to or lower than V1 (S2). (S
3) If the battery voltage Vs is equal to or lower than V1, the position information is not notified and the voltage drop is notified (S4). This is repeated every designated cycle (T0) / time.

FIG. 4B shows that when the battery voltage Vs is equal to or higher than the reference voltage V1, normal position information notification is performed, and when the battery voltage Vs drops below the reference voltage V1, notification of position information and notification of a decrease in battery voltage are simultaneously performed. ing. This is because, as shown in FIG. 4A and FIG.
It is considered sufficient to give the notification twice, but there are circumstances where it is not possible to immediately respond after the notification due to circumstances such as battery replacement, etc.If the situation will be dealt with later, there is a possibility that the response may be forgotten In order to avoid this, it is considered effective to notify the user together with the position information. The processing flow corresponding to the determination in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4 in parentheses, "and position information" is notified of voltage drop and position information in step S4. Others are Fig. 4A
Is the same as the processing for the determination of.

FIG. 4C shows that, when the battery voltage Vs is equal to or higher than the reference voltage V1, normal position information notification is performed, and the reference voltage V1
Hereinafter, when the voltage is equal to or more than V2, the notification of the position information and the battery voltage drop are performed simultaneously, and the notification cycle T1 is set to the initial notification cycle T.
0 or longer, and when the battery voltage further decreases and the battery voltage Vs is in the state of V3 <Vs <V2,
Similarly, the notification of the position information and the decrease of the battery voltage is performed, but the notification cycle T2 is set to be longer than T0 and T1. This is because, when the battery voltage is greatly reduced, the notification (transmission) cycle is lengthened and the operation of the position information notification terminal by the battery is lengthened in order to reduce battery consumption.

FIG. 8 shows a flow of processing corresponding to the judgment of FIG. 4C. It is checked whether Vs is equal to or less than V1 (S1).
If not, the notification cycle is set to T0 (S2), and it waits for the specified notification cycle T0 to elapse (S3).
When the period T0 elapses, the position information is notified and the process returns to step S1 (S4). If Vs <V1 in step S1, it is checked whether V1>Vs> V2, and Vs is equal to V1 and V2.
If it is between 2, the notification cycle is set to T1 (S6), and it is waited for the designated cycle T1 to elapse (S7). After the elapse of T1, the position information and the battery voltage drop are notified and the process returns to step S1. (S8). In step S5, Vs is V1 and V
If not, it is checked whether Vs is halfway between V2 and V3 (S9). If so, the notification cycle is set to T2 (S10) and the specified cycle T2 is waited for (S10).
11) After the elapse of T2, the position information and the battery voltage drop are notified, and the process returns to step S1 (S12). Note that the position information need not always be sent in steps S8 and S12 in FIG.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a format for notifying a decrease in battery voltage. This is an example in which the "calling subaddress" of the information element at the time of call setup in the call control of "RCRSTD-28 Second Generation Cordless Telephone System Standard" is extended. RCR up to octet 3 in FIG.
Octet 1 as defined in STD-28
In this field, an identifier indicating that this information is the originating sub-address information element is recorded. In octet 2, the number of octets in which the information has been recorded, that is, 2 in this example, is recorded. The content of octet 4 is originally a part where the information of the originating sub-address is recorded, but in this embodiment, the state of the battery voltage is recorded. That is, the content of octet 4 is "00
In the case of “000011”, the battery power supply voltage Vs shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B is “V3 <V
s <V1 ”is shown. If the content of octet 4 is “00000001”, it indicates that the battery voltage Vs shown in FIG. 4C is “V2 <Vs <V1”,
00010 ", the battery voltage Vs similarly becomes" V3 <
A case where Vs <V2 is shown. Further, in the present invention, the information is notified when the battery voltage drops. However, the battery voltage state may be always notified, and the notification content when the battery voltage is normal is "0".
00000000 ".

FIG. 9 shows an example of a format in which the position information and the state of the battery voltage shown in FIGS. 4B and 5, 4C and 8 are simultaneously notified. The contents up to octet 4 are the same as those shown in FIG. After octet 5 is an example in which information from three types of CSs (base stations) is notified. In octet 5, the number of information (octets) after this is recorded, and each CS-ID and The reception level from each CS is recorded alternately. FIG. 9 shows an example in which the CS-ID and the received signal level corresponding to each CS are set as the position information. However, a method of notifying the CS-ID without setting the received signal level may be used. When notifying only the CS-ID, only the ID of the base station having the highest reception level may be notified, but if all CS-IDs of a plurality of base stations to be received are notified in the order of their reception levels, In the service area of the base station at the maximum reception level, it can be estimated to which side of the base station service area in the vicinity the mobile station is located.

In the above, the configuration of the position information notifying terminal for notifying the position information and the control embodiment when the battery voltage drops in the present invention have been described. Variations are conceivable. For example, the configuration of the location information notification terminal shown in FIG. 2 is described as a dedicated terminal without providing a call function in the configuration of the illustrated example, but is described as a general PHS telephone having a call function. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the function of the present invention is added as a control content. Further, regarding the notification of the location information, not only the terminal side transmits (notifies) at a specified time or a fixed period, but also transmits the location information after receiving a notification request from the location information monitoring center side. A configuration may be used. Furthermore, regarding the call control, it is configured to notify necessary information without issuing a “response” to “call setting”. May be notified. Further, in the present invention, the situation is notified when the battery voltage drops, but the configuration may be such that the position information is always notified at the same time.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the position information notifying terminal has a function of notifying the battery voltage drop, the position information monitoring center operates at the position information notifying terminal side. It is possible to grasp and it is possible to avoid a phenomenon that the notification is suddenly cut off due to a drop in the power supply voltage. Therefore, before the position information cannot be notified to the center due to a decrease in the battery voltage, the replacement of the battery can be urged or the battery can be replaced, so that the maintenance / operation can be made more efficient. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a position information system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a position information notification terminal.

3A is a diagram illustrating an example of a position information notification control sequence, and FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating an example of a battery voltage reduction notification control sequence.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing various examples of operations according to a battery voltage, a reference voltage, and a relationship between these;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure corresponding to FIG. 4A.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing another example of the processing procedure corresponding to FIG. 4A.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a format example for notifying a battery level.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure corresponding to FIG. 4C.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing another example of a format for notifying a battery level.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A location information notification terminal notifies information identifying a PHS wireless base station receiving a radio wave as location information to a location information conversion center, and information from the location information conversion center from the location information conversion center. The position information notification terminal of a system for monitoring the position of the position information notification terminal at a terminal position monitoring center, wherein the power supply voltage of the position information notification terminal is reduced to a reference voltage or less. Then, means for notifying the terminal position monitoring center of the voltage drop is provided. 2. The position information notifying terminal according to claim 1, further comprising means for notifying the position information when communicating the voltage drop. 3. The reference voltage is a first reference voltage and a second reference voltage lower than the first reference voltage, and a notification of a voltage drop is made periodically. The location information notification terminal according to claim 1, wherein the notification cycle based on the decrease is selected to be longer than a notification based on the decrease below the first reference voltage. 4. The position information notification terminal according to claim 1, wherein the position information includes a reception level of a radio wave received from the base station.