Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-24
2001-06-19
Nguyen, Lee (Department: 2683)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S572000, C320S106000, C320S115000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06249690
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable information equipment system including portable information equipment such as a portable telephone, and a battery charger of the equipment.
2. Background of the Invention
FIG. 8
is a block diagram of the structure of conventional portable information equipment such as a PHS (Personal Handy phone System).
In portable information equipment
53
, an antenna
31
transmits and receives a radio wave. The radio wave received from the antenna
31
is transmitted via a switch
32
to a receive group
33
to be subjected to signal processing. The signal processed in the receive group
33
is transmitted to a voice processing portion
34
where the signal goes through voice processing to be a voice signal. Then, a receiver
35
receives the voice signal and emits a voice therefrom.
A microphone
36
receives a voice signal and transmits it to the voice processing portion
34
. The voice processing portion
34
performs signal processing of the voice from the microphone
36
and transmits it to a transmit group
37
. After performing signal processing of the signal from the voice processing portion
34
, the transmit group
37
transmits it as a radio wave via the switch
32
to the antenna
31
.
The receive group
33
, the transmit group
37
, and the voice processing portion
34
are controlled by a circuit control signal SC from a micro controller
40
. The micro controller
40
, operating on the basis of a clock generated by a crystal oscillator
41
, controls a display of a liquid-crystal display portion
42
, receives an input from a keyboard
43
, or performs the reading and writing from/to a storage portion
44
as well as outputting the circuit control signal SC.
The liquid-crystal display portion
42
displays information, such as an input from the keyboard
43
and received electric field strength. The keyboard
43
receives information input such as a phone number, and the storage portion
44
stores personal information such as a phone number.
A rechargeable battery
45
is an operating power of the portable information equipment
53
. As shown in
FIG. 9
, the battery
45
becomes chargeable by inserting an AC adapter
51
into an electrical outlet
52
to establish electric connections between the AC adapter
51
and the battery charger
50
as well as establishing electric connections between the portable information equipment
53
and the battery charger
50
.
The AC adapter
51
converts an ac voltage obtained from the electrical outlet
52
into an appropriate dc voltage and gives it to the battery charger
50
. With the dc voltage from the AC adapter
51
, the battery charger
50
charges the rechargeable battery
45
in the portable information equipment
53
.
The storage portion
44
consists of a high-performance/low-power volatile memory, and a nonvolatile memory that makes no loss of personal information even with insufficient holding power.
As previously described, the portable information equipment, such as a portable telephone, includes a storage portion for storing personal information such as a phone number, an address, and a schedule. This kind of portable information equipment has a built-in rechargeable battery which is charged periodically for operation.
Such portable information equipment, however, carries a risk that the personal information stored in the internal storage portion may be lost, for example when an user leave the rechargeable battery in the equipment uncharged. To prevent this, mostly applied as a memory element for storing the personal information in the portable information equipment has been a nonvolatile memory, such as a flash memory or an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), that makes no loss of the memory contents even with low or no power voltage.
The nonvolatile memory, however, has the following problems:
(1) Its high manufacturing cost as compared with that of an ordinary volatile memory results in price increase of the portable information equipment;
(2) The use of relatively high write voltage in writing of data (still 5 to 10 V in this semiconductor world where the standard voltage is now about 3.3 V) is an disadvantage for the portable information equipment which requires reduction in power consumption;
(3) If required to include a voltage-transform device driver, the portable information equipment is upsized to be not suitable for portability; and
(4) The adoption of a high-voltage battery results in price increase of the portable information equipment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A first aspect of the present invention is directed to a portable information equipment system comprising: portable information equipment having a rechargeable battery and operating with the rechargeable battery used as an operating power; and a battery charger capable of charging the rechargeable battery when connected to the portable information equipment in a predetermined condition. The portable information equipment further includes: input means; a storage portion for portable information equipment, storing personal information; and a control portion for portable information equipment, capable of transmitting/receiving information to/from the storage portion for portable information equipment. The battery charger includes: a storage portion for battery charger, storing backup information and an inquiry password; and a control portion for battery charger, capable of transmitting/receiving information to/from the storage portion for battery charger. When the portable information equipment and the battery charger are connected in the predetermined condition, information can be transmitted between the control portion for portable information equipment and the control portion for battery charger, and information management operation is automatically performed between the storage portion for portable information equipment and the storage portion for battery charger, under the control of the control portion for portable information equipment and the control portion for battery charger. The information management operation comprises the steps of: (a) judging whether a password inputted from the input means is consistent with the inquiry password or not; (b) when the password is judged consistent at the step (a) and the personal information has been updated, performing backup processing by transferring the personal information to the storage portion for battery charger as the backup information; and (c) when the password is judged consistent at the step (a), the personal information has not been updated, and the contents of the personal information are inconsistent with the contents of the backup information, performing restore processing by transferring the backup information to the storage portion for portable information equipment as the personal information.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the portable information equipment system of the first aspect, the portable information equipment includes the first portable information equipment to the N-th (N≧2) portable information equipment; the rechargeable battery includes the first to the N-th rechargeable batteries; the input means includes the first to the N-th input means; the personal information includes the first personal information to the N-th personal information; the storage portion for portable information equipment includes the first to the N-th storage portions for portable information equipment; the inquiry password includes the first to the N-th inquiry passwords corresponding to the first portable information equipment to the N-th portable information equipment; the first to the N-th storage portions further store the first identifying information to the N-th identifying information, respectively; the storage portion for battery charger further stores the first inquiry identifying information to the N-th inquiry identifying information corresponding to the first portable information equipment to the N-th portable information equipment.
Mitsubishi Denki & Kabushiki Kaisha
Nguyan Simon
Nguyen Lee
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
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