KR20100071669A - Apparatus and method for channel conversion of portable terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus and a method for changing the channel of a portable terminal are provided to improve the channel receiving rate of the portable terminal. CONSTITUTION: The channel information of a first region which corresponds to location information is inquired(104). A second region which is adjacent to the first region is inquired(106). First signal which is received based on the channel information of the first region is compared with second signal which is received based on the second region(108). Based on the comparison result, either of the channel information of the first region and the channel information of the second region is selected(110).

Description

Channel change method and device of a portable terminal {APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CHANNEL CONVERSION OF PORTABLE TERMINAL}

The present invention relates to a portable terminal, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for changing a channel of a portable terminal.

The present invention is derived from a study conducted as part of the IT growth engine technology development project of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. [Task management number: 2006-S-001-03, Assignment name: Adaptive wireless access and transmission technology for 4G mobile communication Development].

Recently, portable terminals that can be used while the user moves are rapidly spreading. The portable terminal includes a mobile phone, a smart phone, a portable meadia player (PMP), a personal computer (PC), navigation, and the like.

Portable terminals have been developed to provide various multimedia services such as two-way broadcasting services. A representative example of the interactive broadcasting service is terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB).

However, bidirectional broadcast services generally have different allocations of broadcast channels according to regions. For example, the frequency of the signal for the same broadcast channel may vary depending on the region. Due to its characteristics, the mobile terminal provides a service while moving across various regions. Therefore, the portable terminal often crosses a boundary between two regions where channel information differs while using a service. However, according to the related art, whenever a portable terminal crosses a boundary, a process of re-searching and registering channel information should be performed.

Accordingly, the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to improve the channel reception rate of the portable terminal.

In addition, the present invention is intended to minimize the inconvenience that the user of the portable terminal should change the channel.

The objects of the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned objects, and other objects and advantages of the present invention which are not mentioned above can be understood by the following description, and will be more clearly understood by the embodiments of the present invention. It will also be readily apparent that the objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of changing a channel, the method comprising: receiving location information from a satellite positioning system, querying channel information of a first region corresponding to the location information, and first Querying channel information of a second region adjacent to the region, comparing reception sensitivity of the first signal received according to the channel information of the first region and the second signal received according to the channel information of the second region, and And selecting one of channel information of the first region and channel information of the second region according to the comparison result.

In addition, the apparatus for changing a channel according to another embodiment of the present invention includes a location information receiver for receiving location information from a satellite positioning system, channel information of a first region corresponding to the location information, and channel information of a second region adjacent to the first region. A channel information inquiry unit for querying the receiver; a reception sensitivity measurement unit configured to measure reception sensitivity of a first signal received according to channel information of a first region and a second signal received according to channel information of a second region; And a controller for selecting one of channel information of the first region and channel information of the second region according to the comparison result.

According to the present invention as described above, there is an effect that can increase the channel reception rate of the portable terminal.

In addition, according to the present invention, there is an effect that the user of the portable terminal can minimize the need to change the channel.

The following merely illustrates the principles of the invention. Therefore, those skilled in the art, although not explicitly described or illustrated herein, can embody the principles of the present invention and invent various devices that fall within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Furthermore, all conditional terms and embodiments listed herein are in principle clearly intended for the purpose of understanding the concept of the invention and are not to be limited to the specifically listed embodiments and states. Should be.

It is also to be understood that the detailed description, as well as the principles, aspects and embodiments of the invention, as well as specific embodiments thereof, are intended to cover structural and functional equivalents thereof. In addition, these equivalents should be understood to include not only equivalents now known, but also equivalents to be developed in the future, that is, all devices invented to perform the same function regardless of structure.

Thus, for example, the block diagrams herein should be understood to represent a conceptual view of example circuitry embodying the principles of the invention. Similarly, all flowcharts, state transitions, pseudocodes, and the like are understood to represent various processes performed by a computer or processor, whether or not the computer or processor is substantially illustrated on a computer readable medium and whether the computer or processor is clearly shown. Should be.

The functionality of the various elements shown in the figures, including functional blocks represented by a processor or similar concept, can be provided by the use of dedicated hardware as well as hardware capable of executing software in association with appropriate software. When provided by a processor, the functionality may be provided by a single dedicated processor, by a single shared processor or by a plurality of individual processors, some of which may be shared.

In addition, the explicit use of the terms presented in terms of processor, control, or similar concept should not be interpreted exclusively as a citation of hardware capable of executing software, and without limitation, ROM for storing digital signal processor (DSP) hardware, software. (ROM), RAM, and non-volatile memory are to be understood to implicitly include. Other hardware for the governor may also be included.

In the claims of this specification, components expressed as means for performing the functions described in the detailed description include all types of software including, for example, a combination of circuit elements or firmware / microcode, etc. that perform the functions. It is intended to include all methods of performing a function which are combined with appropriate circuitry for executing the software to perform the function. The invention, as defined by these claims, is equivalent to what is understood from this specification, as any means capable of providing such functionality, as the functionality provided by the various enumerated means are combined, and in any manner required by the claims. It should be understood that.

The above objects, features and advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, whereby those skilled in the art may easily implement the technical idea of the present invention. There will be. In the following description, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail since they would obscure the invention in unnecessary detail. Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the present invention, the channel information is selected using the location information and the reception sensitivity of the signal. By comparing the reception sensitivity of the received signal according to each channel information, one of the channel information of the first region corresponding to the received position information and the channel information of the second region adjacent to the first region is selected.

In general, the channel information is divided according to the region, and the portable terminal may receive a signal according to the channel information of the current region. However, when the portable terminal is located near the boundary region where the channel information is different, the reception sensitivity of the signal in the adjacent region may be better than the signal in the region where the portable terminal is actually located. This is because the reception sensitivity of a signal may vary depending on factors such as terrain, radio transmission conditions, and noise as well as location.

By confirming the location information, the portable terminal can query the channel information provided at the current location. In addition, by comparing the reception sensitivity of the channel information of the adjacent region with that of the current region, it is possible to receive a signal having excellent reception sensitivity and increase the channel reception rate.

<How to change channel>

Hereinafter, an embodiment of a channel change method according to the present invention will be described.

1 is a flowchart illustrating a channel changing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the method of changing a channel may include receiving location information from a satellite positioning system (102), querying channel information of a first region corresponding to the location information (104), and a second adjacent to the first region. Querying the channel information of the region (106), comparing the reception sensitivity of the first signal received according to the channel information of the first region and the second signal received according to the channel information of the second region (108), And selecting one of channel information of the first region and channel information of the second region according to the comparison result.

Channel information for each region may be previously stored in the portable terminal.

The first area may be an area where the portable terminal is currently located according to the location information. On the other hand, the second area may be determined by the pre-stored map information, the radius from the location information, etc. as the area adjacent to the first area. Setting the second region may be variously configured according to the embodiment. For example, all regions including a common boundary section in contact with the first region may be set as the second region. As another example, all regions included within a radius of 5 km from the coordinates indicated by the location information may be set as the second region. As another example, the nearest region may be set as the second region although the coordinates indicated by the location information are not included.

According to such a channel changing method, it is possible to receive a signal through a channel having substantially excellent reception sensitivity. Therefore, the channel reception rate of the portable terminal can be increased rather than the method of using fixed channel information corresponding to the location information. In addition, when the reception rate is not good according to the movement of the portable terminal, there is an effect of minimizing the user's hassle to change the channel.

Here, the channel information of the first region or the channel information of the second region may include information on a plurality of broadcast channels, respectively, and the first signal and the second signal may be signals of the same broadcast channel.

When each channel information includes information on a plurality of broadcast channels, information on channels not currently selected by the user may be selected in advance. For example, a case where the first signal and the second signal for the broadcast channel selected when the portable terminal is initially driven is compared will be described. If the A broadcast channel is selected when the portable terminal is initially driven, and the second signal has a better reception sensitivity than the first signal, the channel information is selected as the channel information for the second region.

On the other hand, since the channel information of the first region or the channel information of the second region includes information on the B broadcast channel in addition to the A broadcast channel, the channel information on the B broadcast channel is also selected to be based on the second region. Therefore, when the user changes the channel to the B broadcast channel after driving the portable terminal, a signal of the B broadcast channel may be received and provided according to channel information of the second region. As a result, whenever the user changes the channel, the reception sensitivity may not be measured and compared. That is, there is an effect that can immediately receive a signal having a good reception sensitivity according to the pre-selected channel information.

In addition, by comparing the signals of the two regions for the same broadcast channel, it is possible to select a channel having a substantially good reception sensitivity reflecting the influence of terrain, wireless transmission state, noise, and the like. This effect is due to factors that cannot be judged only by location information.

<Channel changer device>

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the channel change apparatus 200 according to the present invention will be described.

2 is a structural diagram of a channel changing apparatus 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2, the channel change apparatus 200 includes a location information receiver 202, a channel information inquiry unit 204, a reception sensitivity measurement unit 206, and a controller 208.

The location information receiver 202 receives location information from the satellite positioning system and transmits the location information to the channel information inquiry unit 204. The channel information inquiry unit 204 inquires channel information of the first region corresponding to the received location information and channel information of the second region adjacent to the first region. Channel information for each region may be previously stored in the channel changing apparatus 200.

The channel changing apparatus 200 may receive a signal corresponding to each channel according to channel information of the first region or channel information of the second region. In this case, the reception sensitivity measuring unit 206 measures the reception sensitivity of the first signal received according to the channel information of the first region and the second signal received according to the channel information of the second region. The controller 208 compares the measured reception sensitivity of the first signal with the reception sensitivity of the second signal, and selects one of channel information of the first region and channel information of the second region according to the comparison result.

According to such a channel changing method, it is possible to receive a signal through a channel having substantially excellent reception sensitivity. Therefore, the channel reception rate of the portable terminal can be increased compared to the case of using fixed channel information corresponding to the location information. In addition, when the reception rate is not good according to the movement of the portable terminal, there is an effect of minimizing the user's hassle to change the channel.

Here, the channel information of the first region or the channel information of the second region may include information on a plurality of broadcast channels, respectively, and the first signal and the second signal may be signals of the same broadcast channel.

When each channel information includes information on a plurality of broadcast channels, information on channels not currently selected by the user may be selected in advance. In addition, by comparing the signals of the two regions for the same broadcast channel, it is possible to select a channel having a substantially good reception sensitivity reflecting the influence of terrain, wireless transmission state, noise, and the like. This influence is due to factors that cannot be judged solely by location information.

Since the detailed description of the other channel changing apparatus 200 overlaps with the description of the above-described channel changing method, it will be omitted here.

<Other Embodiments>

3 is a structural diagram of a portable terminal 300 including a channel changing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, the portable terminal 300 includes a location information receiver 302, a first radio frequency processor 310, a second radio frequency processor 312, a first data processor 320, and second data. The processor 322 includes a first reception sensitivity measurement unit 330, a second reception sensitivity measurement unit 332, a control unit 340, a memory unit 350, and an output unit 360.

The location information receiver 302 receives information about the location of the portable terminal 300 from a satellite positioning system (GPS) and provides it to the controller 340. The memory unit 350 stores regional information and channel information according to the region. The controller 340 inquires the memory 350 to identify the first region with respect to the received location information, and inquires the channel information of the first region. In addition, a second region adjacent to the first region is determined to query channel information of the second region. In this embodiment, the channel information inquiry unit is configured to be included in the controller 340.

Channel information of the first region and channel information of the second region are provided to the first radio frequency processor 310 and the second radio frequency processor 312, respectively. The first radio frequency processor 310 receives a first signal having a frequency set according to channel information of a first region, and the second radio frequency processor 312 receives a second signal of a frequency set according to channel information of a second region. Receive The first data processor 320 and the second data processor 322 convert the first signal and the second signal into digital signals, respectively. The first reception sensitivity measuring unit 330 and the second reception sensitivity measuring unit 332 measure reception sensitivity from the first signal and the second signal converted into digital signals, respectively.

The controller 340 selects channel information having a better reception sensitivity by comparing the measured reception sensitivity. The received signal is transmitted to the output unit 360 according to the selected channel information. The user can receive and watch the desired channel with the best reception sensitivity.

As described above, the method of the present invention may be implemented as a program and stored in a recording medium (CD-ROM, RAM, ROM, floppy disk, hard disk, magneto-optical disk, etc.) in a computer-readable form. Since this process can be easily implemented by those skilled in the art will not be described in more detail.

The present invention described above is capable of various substitutions, modifications, and changes without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention for those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. It is not limited by the drawings.

1 is a flowchart illustrating a channel changing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a structural diagram of a channel changing apparatus 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a structural diagram of a portable terminal 300 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (2)

Receiving location information from a satellite positioning system; Querying channel information of a first region corresponding to the location information; Querying channel information of a second region adjacent to the first region; Comparing reception sensitivity of a first signal received according to channel information of the first region with a second signal received according to channel information of the second region; And Selecting one of channel information of the first region and channel information of the second region according to the comparison result; Included, the channel change method of the portable terminal. The method of claim 1, The channel information of the first region or the channel information of the second region each includes information on a plurality of broadcast channels. And the first signal and the second signal are signals for the same broadcast channel.

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