Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-06
2002-08-20
Chin, Vivian (Department: 2682)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S575100, C455S550100, C340S815450, C340S815690
Reexamination Certificate
active
06438390
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to status indication in communication devices.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many communication devices, such as cellular telephones, employ a simple status indicator, in addition to large multi-pixel displays, to communicate information to a user of the cellular telephone. One cellular telephone employs a single light emitting diode (LED) device that flashes red when the cellular telephone receives incoming calls or incoming messages. Another cellular telephone uses a single multi-color LED device that alternates flashing red and green when the cellular telephone receives an incoming call, but does not flash when the cellular telephone receives incoming messages. When a call is not incoming, occurring or being placed, the multi-color LED device is controlled to visually indicate the operating status of the cellular telephone. The multi-color LED device flashes red when the cellular telephone has no service (i.e., the cellular telephone is beyond the range of a cellular service area and calls on the cellular telephone cannot be received or placed), flashes green when the cellular telephone is in-service (i.e., the cellular telephone is in communication with a cellular system and calls on the cellular telephone can be received or placed) and flashes yellow when the cellular telephone is roaming (i.e., the cellular telephone is accessing cellular service outside of the cellular telephone's home system).
A prior art scheme
500
for controlling a status indicator
501
to visually indicate, for example, in-service status, is shown in FIG.
5
. The scheme
501
is characterized by continuous, repetitive indication periods, of which indication period
502
is exemplary. The indication period
502
has a single pulse
504
, whose width corresponds to the time period that the status indicator
501
is powered-on to emit the color green corresponding to the in-service status. A user will visually perceive that the status indicator
501
flashes the color green because the pulse
504
is separated from pulse
505
of a following indication period
503
by a suitable pulse separator
506
of the indication period
502
. The length of the pulse separator
506
corresponds to the time period during the indication period
502
that the status indicator
501
is powered-off. During the indication period
502
, the status indicator
501
is powered-on for
500
ms and powered off for 1500 ms. As can be seen, the status indicator
501
of the prior art scheme
500
is controlled to only provide a visual indication of one type of status information (i.e., in-service status) per indication period. Also, because the cellular telephone will spend the majority of its powered-on time indicating in-service status while waiting for a call to be received or placed, the status indicator
501
, as controlled according to the scheme
500
, exacts a high current drain of approximately 2 mA for each indication period.
Therefore, what is needed is a method of controlling a status indicator to visually indicate a plurality of status information. The method should be conducive to minimizing current drain and optimizing usability of the status indicator.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3987401 (1976-10-01), Irving
patent: 4544808 (1985-10-01), Milne et al.
patent: 4841280 (1989-06-01), Hermann
patent: 4926459 (1990-05-01), Advini et al.
patent: 4975694 (1990-12-01), Mclaughlin et al.
patent: 5339360 (1994-08-01), Endick et al.
patent: 5442806 (1995-08-01), Barber
patent: 5548271 (1996-08-01), Tsuchiyama et al.
patent: 5946636 (1999-08-01), Uyeno
patent: 6094586 (2000-07-01), Nishiyama
Qualcomm QCP-800 CDMA Portable Cellular Phone User Guide, 1996, front cover, and pp. 8-10.
StarTAC Wearable Cellular Telephone User Manual, 1995, front and back covers, and pp. 34 and 35.
Chin Vivian
Furukawa Shigeharu
Moore James K
Motorola Inc.
Patrick Mark D.
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