Communications: electrical – Selective – Having indication or alarm
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-21
2003-07-01
Horabik, Michael (Department: 2635)
Communications: electrical
Selective
Having indication or alarm
C340S870030, C455S564000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06587035
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In general, the present invention relates to a portable radio information terminal and a message-notification method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a portable radio information terminal for confirming that an electric wave received from a radio base station installed at a remote location is a message signal destined for the portable radio information terminal, for notifying the user of the received message signal in the form of sound, light, mechanical vibration or another form to make the user aware of the arrival of the message signal and for displaying a message conveyed in the signal on an embedded screen display unit and, in particular, relates to a portable radio information terminal such as a pager and a message-notification method adopted in the pager.
A portable radio information terminal is a handy and portable apparatus that is capable of functioning as a terminal of a communication network. In recent years, there have been implemented portable radio information terminals with a variety of configurations and functions to meet a rapidly growing demand in a wide range of applications in the field of information communication.
An example of such a portable radio information terminal is a pager which is widely used for carrying out communications of radio signals.
An early pager generates bell sound when a calling signal is received from a radio base station. A radio calling signal is capable of calling the user carrying this pager even if the user is present at a separated place. The radio calling signal is normally used to urge the user to respond to the calling signal by using a wire telephone closest to the user.
By the way, a signal generated by the radio base station is not merely ended with such a calling signal. A signal generated by the radio base station is also capable of conveying information. On the pager side, on the other hand, information conveyed by an incoming signal is decoded and a result of the decoding is stored in a memory unit and displayed on a liquid-crystal display panel as a message. A pager having functions to decode, store and display such information has been developed and widely used at the present time.
Such a pager is provided with a message notifying unit having a function of generating ringing sound of a bell to notify the user of an incoming message or a time set in advance or to give the user a warning indicating the fact that the voltage of the battery has become lower than a predetermined value.
The message notifying unit is activated when a call arrives, a time set in advance is reached or the voltage of the battery becomes lower than a predetermined level and starts to generate ringing sound of the bell. The message notifying unit notifies the user of such an event for a predetermined period of time, then halts the operation to notify the user as the period of time lapses. As an alternative, the message notifying unit halts the operation to notify the user of such an event when the user acknowledges the notification of the arrival of such a call or such an alarm by entering a command to halt the operation while the bell is ringing.
While the ringing sound of a bell used as a message is an effective message notifying means, it is feared that the user can not hear the sound of the bell notifying the incoming message or the calling sound in the event of an incoming call in some cases when the pager is used outdoors or at a trip destination or, in particular, in a noisy environment.
At a place such as a movie theater or a conference hall, on the other hand, there is not much noise. At such a place, however, notifying sound of incoming message or calling sound will be a disturbance to the atmosphere.
In order to solve the problems described above, the message notifying unit is generally designed into a configuration including a vibration function of a vibrator for informing the user of a message by vibration in place of ringing sound of a bell. As an alternative, the message notifying unit is designed into a configuration which allows the user to manually operate an input device to select either ringing sound of a bell or vibration of a vibrator as a message-notification means.
Since the user normally uses a portable radio information terminal by carrying the portable radio information terminal all the time, the portable radio information terminal is required to have a small size and, thus, a small number of components.
In addition, the portable radio information terminal must also allow the user to halt an operation of ringing the bell to indicate reception of an incoming information signal in the event of such a signal by gripping the terminal quickly as well as easily without triggering a malfunction.
In order to satisfy the requirements described above, there has been developed a rotary/press input device comprising a rotary input operation unit and a press switch.
Such a rotary/press input device is put to practical use typically as a jog dial or a rotary encoder. The rotary input operation unit is implemented by a disc-shape knob built into a single assembly with the press switch. The disc-shape knob can be rotated with a high degree of freedom. The press switch generates an intermittent input signal when pressed along with the disc-shape knob.
Two groups of input signals can thus be resulted in with ease when the disc-shape knob is rotated in the clockwise (right) direction or the counterclockwise (left) direction respectively. On the top of that, an intermittent input signal is generated by pressing the disc-shape knob. Thus, the number of switch devices is reduced. As a result, the rotary/press input device can be made small in size and the operatability thereof is improved.
The contemporary portable radio information terminal has a configuration employing a jog dial or a rotary encoder therein, by operating the jog dial or the rotary encoder, it is possible to halt an operation to ring the bell to notify reception of an incoming information signal in the event of such a signal.
By the way, the user normally uses a portable radio information terminal of this type by carrying the portable radio information terminal all the time. More specifically, the user puts the portable radio information terminal in a pocket or a bag or attaches the portable radio information terminal to a belt wound around the belly in many cases.
Thus, when the user gets on or off a train, takes a seat or gets on and off a car, for example, it is quite within the bounds of possibility that an external force is accidentally applied to an operation unit of the rotary/press input device, inadvertently putting the portable radio information terminal into an unexpected state of operation in some cases. If an input signal is generated by such an inadvertent external force, the bell which should naturally generate ringing sound continuously may be put in a halted state, giving rise to a problem that the user is not notified of the incoming call.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is thus an object of the present invention addressing the problems encountered in a portable radio information terminal having the related-art message-notification configuration described above to provide a portable radio information terminal capable of operating with a high degree of reliability by eliminating the effect of an unexpected external force and to provide a message-notification method for the portable radio information terminal.
According to a message-notification method for a portable radio information terminal of the present invention including a rotary/press input device comprising a rotary operation unit and a press operation unit, and a non-rotary input device, if an input signal generated in the course of a message-notification operation is an input signal determined in advance, that is, if an input signal generated in the course of a message-notification operation is one of three input signals, namely, a rotary input signal generated by the rotary operation unit, an intermittent input signal generated by the press operati
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