Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-03
2004-10-12
Nguyen, Simon (Department: 2685)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S425000, C455S407000, C455S414100, C455S466000, C455S517000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06804537
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data communication apparatus and data communication system for receiving non-speech data. More particularly, the present invention relates to a data communication apparatus and data communication system for receiving data selected in accordance with a menu.
2. Description of the Related Art
The technique for the integration and mounting of a semiconductor device, and the communication technique have rapidly advanced in recent years. Thus, it is now possible to transmit and receive electronic mails, and to browse content data of various data formats, such as characters, figures, and images, using mobile stations as mobile data communication apparatuses. A portable phone and a personal digital assistant (hereinafter abbreviated as PDA) are typical examples of the mobile stations as the data communication apparatuses. Particularly, the mobile phone is improved in size and weight and superior in portability. In addition, the mobile hone can be connected to a base station via a radio channel for speech communication. Also, the mobile phone can acquire content data as the above-mentioned non-speech data from various servers on the Internet to which computer networks are connected and to display the content data on a display unit of the mobile phone.
Such a mobile phone can be connected to a mobile communication network via the base station. The mobile communication network is connected to a gateway server and a content server via a switching apparatus accommodating a public telephone network connected to subscriber telephones. The content server is accommodated on the Internet, and stores non-speech data such as characters, figures, and images as content data. The gateway server carries out protocol conversion between a network composed of the mobile communication network and the public telephone network and the Internet in which the content server is accommodated.
FIG. 1
shows a flow of a series of processes for browsing content data by the conventional mobile phone as a mobile station in the data communication system described above. In this case, it is supposed that a radio channel has already been established between the mobile station and a base station. First, when the content data should be browsed, the mobile station transmits a connection request
10
to a content server via the base station, a switching apparatus and a gateway server. When the content server receives the connection request
10
, and approves the connection, the content server sends back a connection confirmation
11
via the gateway server, the switching apparatus and the base station. In this way, a session between the content server and the mobile station as the data communication apparatus on the receiver side is established.
Next, an initial menu display data
12
is transmitted from the content server to the mobile station. The initial menu display data
12
is described in a predetermined data description language such as Compact Hypertext Markup Language (hereinafter abbreviated as C-HTML) and Wireless Markup Language (hereinafter abbreviated as WML) used in the Wireless Application Protocol (hereinafter abbreviated as WAP) system. The initial menu display data
12
is described in a text file format, and character modifications and layout designation are carried out in accordance with tags composed of reserved word codes put between the marks “<” and “>”. The various types of designations are carried out between the tag put between the symbols “<” and “>” and the tag in which the same reserved word codes as those of the above tag are put between the symbols “</” and “>”. In the data description language, specific data to be displayed can be linked to other content data. Accordingly, it is possible to acquire a large amount of linked data according to necessity, even when the displayed content data itself has only a description for display.
The initial menu display data
12
received by the mobile station is described in the above-mentioned data description language. A list of content data acquirable from the content server is displayed as an initial menu screen (initial menu display
13
) by use of a browser function installed in the mobile station.
FIG. 2
shows an example of the initial menu screen display on a display section of the mobile station. On the display section
14
of the mobile station are shown “MY MENU”, “INFORMATION IN THIS WEEK”, “WEATHER REPORT”, and “NEWS” in units of items as the list of content data acquirable from the content server. Each of the items on the initial menu display data is linked to the content data stored in the content server.
As mentioned above, in the mobile station, the menu display data is displayed on the display section thereof by the browser function, to promote the user of the mobile station to carry out a selecting operation. When the user selects one of the items, a data transmission request
15
of the content data linked to the selected item is sent to the content server. In response to the data transmission request
15
, the content server transmits content data
16
requested by the user to the mobile station. The mobile station receives the content data
16
and transmits an acknowledge (ACK)
17
to the content server.
As such, in the conventional data communication apparatus and data communication system, each time the data communication apparatus is connected to the content server, the initial menu display data is transmitted and the initial menu display data is displayed based on the initial menu display data. Then, the data communication apparatus issues a data transmission request for requesting the content data linked to one selected from among the displayed items. Therefore, the user needs to follow a hierarchy of menu screens in order to access desired data. As a result, the user is required to carry out a troublesome operation before acquiring the desired content data. In addition, it takes much time for the user to acquire the desirable content data.
In order to solve the problems, a mobile terminal apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 11-120487). In this reference, menu display data is possessed in advance by the data communication apparatus and is updated into new menu display data to be received in response to a searching request to a predetermined data center. Thus, the data communication apparatus needs not to receive the menu display data each time the data communication apparatus is connected to a content server. Also, the data communication apparatus can always display an initial menu display data having the latest menu items to allow desirable content data to be acquired.
In addition, there is known Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 10-207710) entitled “software download system and menu generation system”. In this reference, software installation data is transmitted from a data communication terminal to a host apparatus such as a content server. A download menu display data of software corresponding to the software installation data is sent back. Thus, a menu display data most suitable for the condition of each data communication terminal can be displayed. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate a troublesome operation without following the hierarchy of some menu display data.
As described above, in the data communication apparatus and the data communication system disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 11-120487), the latest version of the list of content data stored in the content server can be displayed on the display section. However, the user of the data communication apparatus still needs to follow the hierarchy of menu screens to acquire the desirable content data. This is because the menu display data is only updated in accordance with the condition between the content server and the data communication apparatus. Therefore, it is impossible to display a menu display data for easily browsing desired content data.
In addition, in th
LandOfFree
Data communication system providing most adaptive initial... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Data communication system providing most adaptive initial..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Data communication system providing most adaptive initial... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3299128