KR970007610B1 - Pager - Google Patents

Abstract

The user presses A key to confirm the received message. The microcomputer(10) in response to the input of A key, reads the message stored in RAM(12) and displays at the display part(16). When the user wants to protect the message, press B key. Then the microcomputer stores it in EEPROM(6) and the message(MSG3) is erased from the RAM(12). By handling B key, the user sets the received message to protected message and stores it in the non-volatile message and releases the protection of the message to erase.

Description

How to Protect Messages Using Nonvolatile Memory in the Pager

1 is a schematic functional block diagram of a pager to which the present invention is applied.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a message reception and protection process of a pager according to the prior art.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of reading and protecting a pager's received message in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process of reading a protected received message and releasing the protection according to the flow shown in FIG.

5 is a view for explaining the reception message protection operation of the pager according to the present invention.

6 is a view for explaining the operation of releasing the protection state of the received message of the pager according to the present invention.

The present invention relates to a pager of a radio page receiver, and more particularly to a method of protecting a message by storing the received message separately in a nonvolatile memory.

With the rapid advancement in the field of information and communication, the spread of pagers, especially as portable devices, is on the rise. A phaser generally satisfies light weight, ease of carrying, operation of a battery, and the like, and is generally stored in a person's pocket or easily fitted to a belt. It is well known that messages received by such pagers are stored in volatile memory or RAM.

1 is a schematic functional block diagram of a pager to which the present invention is applied, and includes an RF receiver 2, a waveform shaping unit 4, an EEPROM 6, a state driver 8, a microcomputer 10, a RAM 12, an alarm driver 14, and a display unit 16. FIG.

Referring to Fig. 1, the schematic operation of the pager to which the present invention is applied will be described. The RF receiver 2 receives the RF signal transmitted from the radio call transmitter, and transfers the received RF signal to the waveform shaping unit 4. The waveform shaping unit 4 forms a waveform of the RF signal transmitted from the RF receiving unit 2 and delivers the received message to the microcomputer 10. The microcomputer 10 controls the overall operation of the pager, receives the message received from the waveform shaping unit 4, and performs a control operation corresponding to the reception of the message. The state driver 8 drives the motor M, the diode, and the lamp when the message is received under the control of the microcomputer 10. The alarm driver 14 transmits an alarm sound corresponding to the reception of the message under the control of the microcomputer 10. The display unit 16 is implemented as an LCD and outputs the received message under the control of the microcomputer 10. As such, the microcomputer 10 controls the state driver 8, the alarm driver 14, and the display unit 16 so that the user who has the pager can know whether a message is received.

Meanwhile, in FIG. 1, the RAM 12 stores the received message under the control of the microcomputer 10. At this time, since the RAM12 has a limited capacity for storing the received message, when there are more messages received than the storage capacity, the RAM 12 erases some of the stored messages and stores the newly received message. Usually, RAM12 is made in such a manner that the configuration of data storage is designated by information of a predetermined address, and the designation is arranged so as to be sequentially assignable. Therefore, when a message is received for the first time in the pager, the received message is stored in the block designated by address 0 of RAM12, and when the next message is received, the corresponding address is incremented by 1 and at the same time the block corresponding to the address value. Store the next received message in. In this manner, each time a new message is received, the address is incremented by one. When the highest address is input, all the storage blocks in the RAM 12 are saturated. When a new message is received under saturation under the control of the microcomputer 10, the RAM 12 erases the message stored in the block corresponding to the first stored address 0, and stores the newly received message in the block. At this time, if the message erased from the RAM is an important matter, there is no measure to restore it again, which may cause a large loss.

The conventional method of protecting a message proposed to solve this problem is shown in FIG. The characteristic of the flowchart shown in Fig. 2 is to place a flag indicating whether or not each message is protected in the area Q having the information of the message so that it can be erased when the RAM area is saturated according to this flag. It is a method of protecting a message by determining whether a message exists.

1 and 2, a method of protecting a received message in a conventional pager is described. In step 22, the microcomputer 10 maintains a reception standby state until a predetermined message is received. In step 24, the microcomputer 10 receives the RF signal received from the RF receiver 2 through the waveform shaping unit 4 and determines whether a predetermined message is received. In step 26, the microcomputer 10 searches the RAM12 to determine whether the message storage capacity of the message storage area is full. If the message storage capacity is saturated, the microcomputer 10 sets the address of RAM12, which is an area for storing the received message, to 0 in step 28. In step 30, the microcomputer 10 checks a flag of the message storage area of the RAM 12 and detects whether the flag indicates a protection state of the message. If the flag is in the message protection state, in step 32, the microcomputer 10 sets an address value of 1 plus the address, and repeats the control operation from step 30. On the other hand, if the storage capacity of the message is not saturated, the microcomputer 10 adds 1 to the address of the most recently stored message as an address value in step 34. If the flag of the protected message is not set, the microcomputer 10 stores the received message in the RAM 12 in step 36.

The above conventional message protection method has the following problems. That is, in the conventional message protection method, there is a problem that the capacity of a newly received message is reduced when there is a protected message on RAM12. That is, since m (m = 1, 2, 3,…) messages are not deleted in the capacity to store N (N = 1, 2, 3,…) messages, the capacity of newly received messages Becomes Nm. In addition, since RAM12 is a volatile memory, there is a risk that all messages stored on RAM12 are erased when a power failure occurs, for example, due to a user's mistake.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a message protection method for safely storing and protecting a message received in a pager.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a pager message protection method for maximizing the storage capacity of a message under a given environment.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a message protection method for stably storing and protecting a received message regardless of power supply in a pager.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a message protection method for storing and protecting a received message simply and stably with a single key press operation in a pager.

In order to achieve these objects, a message received by the pager of the present invention is stored in a volatile memory, and only a message selected as a protection message among the messages stored in the volatile memory is stored in a nonvolatile memory.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

3 is a flowchart showing a process of storing and protecting a received message of a pager according to the present invention. Meanwhile, it should be noted that the message storing process of the pager according to the present invention stores the received message in RAM12, which is a volatile memory, and stores only the message selected as a protection message among the received messages, in EEPROM6, which is a nonvolatile memory. Here, EEPROM6 is an electrically erasable and programmable non-volatile memory, in which data stored once remains in its stored state even in the event of a power failure. In the configuration as shown in FIG. 1, in the conventional pager, the EEPROM6 is not used except for an area for storing an address, that is, a cap-code, and the present invention uses an area not conventionally used in the EEPROM6. Implement a way to secure received messages. In addition, the function key according to the present invention is composed of the A key and the B key as shown in Figure 1, the A key is a key for selecting the read function, the B key is to set the protection and release function of the message That's the key.

1 and 3, a process of reading and protecting a message received in a pager according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail as follows. In step 42, the microcomputer 10 maintains a reception standby state until a predetermined message is received. In step 44, the microcomputer 10 receives the RF signal received from the RF receiver 2 through the waveform shaping unit 4 and determines whether a message is received. If it is determined that the predetermined message has been received, the microcomputer 10 stores the received message in the RAM 12 in step 46. At this time, when the user presses the A key for reading the message stored in RAM12, the microcomputer 10 determines whether an A key for reading the stored message is input in step 48. The microcomputer 10 outputs the message stored in the RAM 12 to the display unit 16 in response to the input of the A key, so that the user can read the stored message. That is, although not shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3, under the reception standby state, when the A key is input, the microcomputer 10 reads the message stored in the RAM 12 and outputs the read message to the display unit 16. FIG. At this time, when the user checks the message output on the display unit 16 and wants to protect the message, when the user presses the B key for setting the message as a protection message, the microcomputer 10 determines whether the B key is input in step 50. do. When the B key is input, the microcomputer 10 stores the message selected as the protection message in the EEPROM 6 as in step 52. In addition, the microcomputer 10 deletes the message stored in the EEPROM6 from the RAM12. Once a message has been stored in EEPROM6, the device in EEPROM6 may be in any state (e.g., when all data in RAM12 is erased due to a power failure, or when a previous message is erased by receiving a new message). By virtue of this property, the message stored in EEPROM6 is stably protected. On the other hand, if there is no key operation for a certain time, the microcomputer 10 maintains the reception standby state as in step 42. That is, when the A key for reading the stored message or the B key for setting the protection message is not input, the microcomputer 10 waits for a predetermined message to be received in the reception standby state as in step 42.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process of reading a protected received message and releasing the protection according to the flow shown in FIG. 3, after reading the protected received message and continuing to protect or reading the read message. Indicates the process of releasing. This operation is based on the fact that the storage capacity of EEPROM6, which is a nonvolatile memory for storing protection messages, is limited.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 4, a process of reading and unprotecting a protected message of a pager according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail as follows. Until the predetermined message is received, the microcomputer 10 maintains the reception standby state as in step 60. When the user wants to check the stored protection message in the reception standby state, when the B key is pressed to enter the mode for confirming the protection message, the microcomputer 10 determines whether the B key is input in step 62. When the B key for entering the mode for reading the protection message is input, the microcomputer 10 enters the mode for reading the protection message stored in the EEPROM6 in step 64 and displays a message informing that the protection message reading mode is entered. Will print After the user confirms the message indicating the entry of the protection message reading mode and presses the A key to read the protection message, the microcomputer 10 determines whether the A key is input in step 66. When the A key is input, the microcomputer 10 reads the protection message stored in the EEPROM6 and outputs it to the display unit 16 in step 68. Meanwhile, when the B key entering the mode for reading the protection message is not input and the A key is not input, the microcomputer 10 maintains the reception standby state as in step 60. If the user presses the B key for releasing the protection message from the protection message output to the display unit 16, the microcomputer 10 determines whether the B key is input in step 70. When the B key is input, the microcomputer 10 releases protection for the protection message in step 72. The protection release method for the protection message is performed by the microcomputer 10 deleting the selected protection message on the EEPROM6. As described above, the process of deleting the protection message has a limitation on the storage capacity of the nonvolatile memory EEPROM6, and thus deletes the unnecessary message according to the user's selection. In contrast, when the B key is not input, the microcomputer 10 maintains a protection function for the protection message stored in the EEPROM6 in step 74. That is, if a function key for deleting the protection message is not input, the microcomputer 10 continuously stores the protection message in EEPROM6.

5 is a view for explaining a receiving message protection operation of a pager according to the present invention, wherein the protecting a received message is a receiving message stored in a volatile memory in response to an input of a setting key for protecting a received message. Is stored in a nonvolatile memory.

An operation of setting a message received in a pager as a protection message will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 5. When the user of the pager presses the A key to confirm the received message, the microcomputer 10 reads the message stored in RAM12 (usually the recently received message "MSG3") in response to the input of the A key, and the display unit 16 Print the read message. At this time, when the user checks the message output to the display unit 16 and presses the B key for setting a protection message when the user wants to protect the message, the microcomputer 10 responds to the input of the B key. "MSG3") is stored in EEPROM6, and the message ("MSG3") is deleted from RAM12.

6 is a view for explaining an operation of releasing a protection state of a received message of a pager according to the present invention, wherein the protection releasing operation of a protected message is performed in a nonvolatile memory in response to an input of a key for releasing a message protection function. This is done by deleting saved protection messages.

An operation of releasing protection of a message set as a protection message will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 6. The protection message release operation is started by pressing a key B to enter a mode for reading a protection message in a pager, confirming entry into the protection message reading mode, and then pressing an A key for reading the protection message. . The microcomputer 10 performs a control operation corresponding to the input of the key pressed by the user. That is, the microcomputer 10 enters the protection message reading mode in response to the input of the B key, which is a function key for setting the entry into the protection message reading mode. Next, the microcomputer 10 reads the protection message (normally recently protected message "MSG3") stored in EEPROM6 in response to the input of the A key reading the protection message, and then displays the protection message ("MSG3") on the display unit 16. Output On the other hand, the user checks the protection message ("MSG3") output to the display unit 16, and if you want to release the protection function of the protection message, press the B key to release the message protection state. Then, the microcomputer 10 deletes the protection message ("MSG3") stored in the EEPROM6 in response to the input of the B key.

In summary, when the B key is input while reading a message on RAM12, the microcomputer 10 stores the read message in EEPROM6 and performs a control operation to protect the message. On the other hand, when the B key is input while the protection message on the EEPROM6 is read, the microcomputer 10 performs a control operation of releasing the protection of the message by deleting the protection message of the EEPROM6. That is, the user can easily operate the B key to set the received message as a protection message and store the received message in the nonvolatile memory. The protection message stored in the nonvolatile memory can be deleted by canceling the protection state of the received message.

As described above, the method for protecting the received message of the pager according to the present invention is achieved by storing the received message in RAM12 once, and transferring the selected message as the protected message among the stored received messages to EEPROM6. Meanwhile, in the present invention, the protection of the received message is disclosed to be achieved by EEPROM6, but this may be coped with by other nonvolatile memory having the same effect as EEPROM6.

As described above, the present invention provides a method of storing a message received in a pager in a RAM, which is a volatile memory, and a message selected for protection among the received messages, in an EEPROM, which is a nonvolatile memory. Accordingly, the received message can be securely protected. In addition, the use of both volatile and non-volatile memory has the effect of maximizing the storage capacity of the message in a given environment. In addition, it is possible to reliably protect the received message regardless of the application of the power supply. In addition, a single key press allows the storage and protection of received messages simply and stably.

Claims (5)

A method of protecting a message in a pager having at least a volatile memory and a nonvolatile memory, the method comprising: storing a predetermined received message in the volatile memory, selecting a message for protection among the received messages, and separately storing the received message in the nonvolatile memory; Message protection method characterized by the storage. The method of claim 1, wherein the nonvolatile memory is an EEPROM that can be electrically erased and programmed. A method of protecting a message in a pager having at least a volatile memory and a nonvolatile memory, the method comprising: a first process of receiving a predetermined message, a second process of storing the message received in the first process in the volatile memory; A third process of outputting and displaying the received message to a display unit in response to an input of a first key for reading a message, and a display of the second key for setting a protection message during execution of the third process; And a fourth process of transferring the stored message from the volatile memory to the nonvolatile memory. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the nonvolatile memory is an electrically erasable and programmable EEPROM. 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: a fifth process of outputting a protection message stored in the nonvolatile memory to the display unit when the third key for reading the protection message is input, and a protection message displayed in the fifth process; And a sixth step of deleting the displayed protection message on the nonvolatile memory when the fourth key for deletion is input.