Abstract:
A remote communication apparatus having a wireless communication function for intermediating a call of a registered cellular phone decreases a connection area for the wireless communication function under an instruction from a user of the cellular phone, and issues a temporary registration number for a non-registered cellular phone for accommodating the wireless communication function for the call to/from the non-registered cellular phone. In this manner, the remote communication apparatus uses fewer steps of registration operation to register a non-registered cellular phone.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]     This application is based on and incorporates herein by reference Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-99738 filed on Mar. 30, 2004.  
       FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The present invention generally relates to a remote communication device for wireless system having an intermediation function by a wireless connection.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     A conventional remote communication apparatus is used to assist a driver of a vehicle for answering a call to a cellular phone when the driver is mainly involved in driving of the vehicle. The remote communication apparatus intermediately relays an audible signal of a cellular phone in communication with a telephone to a user of the cellular phone. That is, the remote communication apparatus outputs and inputs the audible signal, or speaks and listens, on behalf of the cellular phone for the driver in the vehicle.  
         [0004]     The driver of the vehicle, for example, can place a call and converse with a person without holding the cellular phone by using the remote communication apparatus disposed in the vehicle.  
         [0005]     The conventional remote communication apparatus establishes a connection to a registered cellular phone based on an ID that identifies each cellular phone. This type of remote communication apparatus disposed in the vehicle requires a registration procedure before the user of the cellular phone actually uses the apparatus for answering the call. This registration procedure is not a problem for the user who regularly uses a same vehicle. However, the procedure becomes tedious when the user is asked to register the cellular phone everytime he/she drives a different vehicle equipped with this device. Registration procedure may also be followed by deletion procedure, when the user leaves the vehicle. This situation is typically observed for users in a company who arbitrarily use one of plural company owned vehicles.  
         [0006]     The registration and deletion procedure of the cellular phone may be perceived as troublesome when the user of the cellular phone has to repeat the procedure many times.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a remote communication apparatus having an intermediary function to a registered cellular phone through a wireless connection that is established in a simplified procedure.  
         [0008]     According to the present invention, the remote communication apparatus wirelessly connects to the registered cellular phone within a connection area for providing an intermediary function. The remote communication apparatus further accommodates the non-registered cellular phone by reducing a transmission power for the wireless connection under an instruction of the user by a cellular phone independent input device.  
         [0009]     In this manner, the remote communication apparatus authorizes the wireless connection with the non-registered cellular phone. That is, the reduced transmission power narrows the connection area for the non-registered cellular phone, and the non-registered cellular phone has to be in a close proximity of the remote communication apparatus. As a result, a connection to the non-registered cellular phone is prioritized to a connection to the registered cellular phone by a device independent (i.e., cellular phone independent) operation. That is, a simple, device independent operation enables the user to register the cellular phone to the remote communication apparatus for the intermediary function.  
         [0010]     The intermediary function provided by the wireless connection is a function that receives and outputs a transmitted voice signal received by the cellular phone that is placing a call to another telephone as an audible signal, and inputs and sends the audible signal (i.e., voice) of the user of the cellular phone to another telephone through the wireless connection.  
         [0011]     The registered cellular phone in this case indicates a cellular phone that is identified by the remote communication apparatus by an ID registered therein.  
         [0012]     The remote communication apparatus may prioritize the wireless connection to the non-registered cellular phone to the wireless connection to the registered cellular phone based on an instruction from the user.  
         [0013]     The remote communication apparatus may register the non-registered cellular phone in the connection area to prioritize it as the registered cellular phone.  
         [0014]     The remote communication apparatus may register a first non-registered cellular phone that enters the connection area after receiving the user&#39;s instruction.  
         [0015]     The remote communication apparatus may increase a transmission power of the wireless connection after registering the non-registered cellular phone.  
         [0016]     The remote communication apparatus may prohibit the wireless connection to the cellular phone when an ignition switch of the vehicle is turned off. This is because the remote communication apparatus is installed in the vehicle and the device is intended for use in the vehicle.  
         [0017]     The remote communication apparatus may delete the registration of the cellular phone when the ignition switch is turned off. In this manner, the user can save a process to delete the registration of the cellular phone.  
         [0018]     The remote communication apparatus may authorize the wireless connection to the cellular phone while a button switch in an input device of the remote communication apparatus is pressed.  
         [0019]     The remote communication apparatus may decrease the transmission power of the wireless connection while the button switch in the input device of the remote communication apparatus is pressed.  
         [0020]     The remote communication apparatus may prohibit the wireless connection to the cellular phone when the wireless connection is interrupted.  
         [0021]     The remote communication apparatus of the present invention is characterized by the input device that accepts the input of the user for authorizing the wireless connection to the non-registered cellular phone.  
         [0022]     In this manner, a device independent operation (i.e., a cellular phone independent operation) on the input device of the wireless connection device authorizes the wireless connection from the remote communication apparatus to the cellular phone. Therefore, complication of the registration procedure for authorizing the wireless connection to the remote communication apparatus is decreased.  
         [0023]     The remote communication apparatus of the present invention is further characterized by the function that prioritizes the wireless connection to the non-registered cellular phone over the wireless connection to the registered cellular phone based on closeness of the cellular phone to the remote communication apparatus. That is, the non-registered cellular phone is prioritized in terms of the wireless connection when a first distance from the non-registered cellular phone to the remote communication apparatus is shorter than a second distance from the registered cellular phone to the remote communication apparatus.  
         [0024]     In this manner, complication of the registration procedure of the non-registered cellular phone is decreased. That is, the wireless connection to the registered cellular phone is switched to the wireless connection to the non-registered cellular phone only by bringing the non-registered cellular phone closer to the remote communication apparatus than the first distance, that is, closer to the remote communication apparatus than the registered cellular phone. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0025]     Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description made with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0026]      FIG. 1  shows an illustrative drawing of a telephone system with regard to an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0027]      FIG. 2  shows a block diagram of a remote communication apparatus;  
         [0028]      FIG. 3  shows a flowchart of a narrow area mode registration program; and.  
         [0029]      FIG. 4  shows a sequence chart of a communication procedure between the remote communication apparatus and a cellular phone.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0030]     An embodiment of the present invention is explained with reference to the drawings.  FIG. 1  shows a general scheme of a telephone system with regard to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0031]     A remote communication apparatus  1  installed on a vehicle establishes a communication to a cellular phone  2  that is already registered to the remote communication apparatus  1 . The remote communication apparatus  1  establishes a wireless connection to the cellular phone  2  by using a Bluetooth technology when the cellular phone  2  enters into a connection area of the remote communication apparatus  1 .  
         [0032]     The cellular phone  2  wirelessly transfers a call by another telephone  4  in a telephone system  3  to the remote communication apparatus  1  when the wireless connection with the remote communication apparatus  1  is being established. The remote communication apparatus  1  outputs an audible signal, i.e., voice, from a speaker. In addition, the remote communication apparatus  1  receives voice of an occupant of the vehicle by using a microphone and sends a voice signal wirelessly to the cellular phone  2 . The voice signal is transferred from the cellular phone  2  to the telephone  4  through the telephone system  3 . In this manner, the remote communication apparatus  1  intermediates the call between the cellular phone  2  and the telephone  4 .  
         [0033]     The remote communication apparatus  1  is illustrated as a block diagram in  FIG. 2 . The remote communication apparatus  1  includes a Bluetooth transceiver  11 , a display  12 , an input device  13 , a voice data processor  14 , a speaker  15 , a microphone  16 , a CPU  17 , a flash memory  18 , and a RAM  19 . The flash memory  18  is a non-volatile writable memory medium that stores a registration data for the wireless connection.  
         [0034]     The Bluetooth transceiver  11  controls the wireless connection to the cellular phone  2  or the like based on an instruction of the CPU  17 . More practically, the Bluetooth transceiver  11  outputs a voice signal of another cellular phone  2  received by a Bluetooth antenna (not shown in the figure) to the CPU  17  after processing the voice signal according to a Bluetooth protocol including an amplification, a frequency conversion, a demodulation, an analog/digital conversion and the like. The Bluetooth transceiver  11  also outputs a signal to the Bluetooth antenna after processing an input from the CPU  17  according to the Bluetooth protocol including a digital/analog conversion, a modulation, the frequency conversion, the amplification and the like.  
         [0035]     The Bluetooth transceiver  11  controls a transmission power of the wireless connection based on the instruction from the CPU  17 . More practically, the transmission power is switched to either of a low power mode and a normal power mode (i.e., an output of the Bluetooth transceiver  11  is decreased from the normal power mode to the low power mode). The connection area of the Bluetooth transceiver  11  in the low power mode is narrower than that of the normal power mode.  
         [0036]     The display  12  includes a liquid crystal display or the like, and displays output data from the CPU  17  on a display area.  
         [0037]     The input device  13  includes a mechanical push switch or the like, a touch panel disposed on the display area and the like. The input device outputs a signal based on a user operation to the switches, the panel and the like.  
         [0038]     The voice data processor  14  outputs an audible signal from the speaker  15  after it converts a digital voice signal from the CPU  17  to an analog form. The voice data processor  14  outputs the digital voice signal to the CPU  17  after it converts the analog form of sound, e.g., voice, into the digital voice signal.  
         [0039]     The CPU  17  executes a program retrieved from the flash memory  18 . The CPU  17  processes the signal from the Bluetooth transceiver  11 , the input device  13  and the voice data processor  14  according to the executed program. The CPU  17  retrieves and writes information to the RAM  19  after processing the signal, outputs a transmission signal and a power control signal to the Bluetooth transceiver  11 , and outputs the digital voice signal to the voice data processor  14 . The CPU  17  controls the Bluetooth transceiver  11  for connection and disconnection to the cellular phone  2 . The CPU  17  receives a signal from an IG/ACC switch to determine whether an ignition switch of the vehicle is ON or OFF.  
         [0040]     The CPU  17  executes the program retrieved from the flash memory  18 . The program includes a cellular phone registration program, a wireless connection control program, an intermediation program. The CPU  17  executes the wireless connection program to establish the wireless connection (i.e., a Bluetooth link) to the cellular phone  2  when the registered cellular phone  2  enters into the connection area of the remote communication apparatus  1  based on a registered priority. The CPU  17  executes the intermediation program when the remote communication apparatus  1  is wirelessly connected to the cellular phone  2 . The CPU  17  controls intermediation between the remote communication apparatus  1  and the cellular phone  2  by executing the intermediation program.  
         [0041]     The CPU  17  registers the cellular phone  2  in the following manner. The CPU  17  executes the cellular phone registration program under an instruction by a user. The CPU  17  stores an ID with a priority of the ID in the flash memory  18  when the user inputs those data from the input device  13 . The input data is appended to a registration data in the flash memory  18 . In this case, the ID identifies a cellular phone  2 . The ID is associated to a predetermined priority when the user omits the input of the priority.  
         [0042]     The CPU  17  controls the wireless connection in the following manner. The CPU  17  continuously executes the wireless connection control program. The CPU  17  sends a connection request signal from the Bluetooth transceiver  11  to the cellular phone  2 . The cellular phone  2  responds to the connection request signal by sending a connection response signal to the remote communication apparatus  1  according to the Bluetooth protocol. The connection response signal includes identification information of the cellular phone  2 .  
         [0043]     The CPU  17  recognizes the cellular phone  2  as approaching when it receives the connection response signal through the Bluetooth transceiver  11 .  
         [0044]     The CPU  17  compares the identification information with the registration data in the flash memory  18 , and determines whether the identification information is identified by the ID in the registration data when it recognizes that the cellular phone  2  is approaching to the remote communication apparatus  1 .  
         [0045]     The CPU  17  executes either of a first process and a second process when the identification information is identified by the ID in the registration data.  
         [0046]     The first process is executed when there is no cellular phone  2  connected wirelessly to the remote communication apparatus  1 . The first process includes establishing the wireless connection to the cellular phone  2  that newly enters into the connection area. Establishing the wireless connection indicates that the remote communication apparatus  1  and the cellular phone  2  are in communication wirelessly to accommodate and intermediate a call by using the remote communication apparatus  1  when the cellular phone  2  receives an incoming call.  
         [0047]     The second process is executed when a cellular phone  2  is already connected to the remote communication apparatus  1 . The second process includes comparison of the priority of the cellular phone  2  that the wireless connection already established to the remote communication apparatus  1  to the priority of another cellular phone  2  that is newly approaching to the device  1 . The established wireless connection is continued when the priority of the established wireless connection is higher or the same as the priority of the approaching cellular phone  2 . The established connection is disconnected and a new connection is established, i.e., the connection is switched, to the approaching cellular phone  2  when the priority of the established connection is lower than the priority of the approaching cellular phone  2 .  
         [0048]     The CPU  17  executes the intermediation program in the following manner. The CPU  17  continuously executes the intermediation program while the wireless connection to the cellular phone  2  is established.  
         [0049]     The cellular phone  2  informs the CPU  17  of a reception of an incoming call by sending a reception signal to the CPU  17  through the wireless connection by using the Bluetooth transceiver  11 . The CPU  17  sends a session start signal to start a communication session for the incoming call in response to the reception signal through the wireless connection under an instruction of the user for starting the session from the input device  13 . The CPU  17  further receives a notice of telephone circuit establishment from the cellular phone  2  through the Bluetooth transceiver  11  when it actually starts the intermediation of the call between the cellular phone  2  and the telephone  4 .  
         [0050]     The CPU  17  informs the cellular phone  2  through the Bluetooth transceiver  11  that the user is placing a call to the telephone  4  when it receives a signal for placing the call from the input device  13 . The CPU  17  receives a notice of telephone circuit establishment from the cellular phone  2  through the Bluetooth transceiver  11  when it actually starts the intermediation of the call between the cellular phone  2  and the telephone  4 .  
         [0051]     The intermediation of the call between the cellular phone  2  and the telephone  4  is more practically explained in the following manner. The cellular phone  2  transfers a voice data from the telephone  4  to the remote communication apparatus  1  through the wireless connection. The CPU  17  outputs the digital voice signal based on the voice data to the voice data processor  14  to convert the signal to an audible form, i.e., voice, for outputting it from the speaker  15 . The voice of the occupant of the vehicle captured and processed by the microphone  16  and the voice data processor  14  is sent to the CPU  17  as a digital voice signal, and transferred to the cellular phone  2  through the wireless connection. The cellular phone  2  sends the signal to the telephone  4  through the telephone system  3 . The call between the cellular phone  2  and the telephone  4  is intermediated by the remote communication apparatus  1  in the above-described manner.  
         [0052]     The CPU  17  executes a narrow area mode registration program in addition to the above-described programs. The narrow area mode registration program is continuously executed by the CPU  17 . A flowchart of the narrow area mode registration program is shown in  FIG. 3 . The operation of the program is explained with reference to the flowchart in  FIG. 3 .  
         [0053]     In step S 310 , a process of the program determines whether the push switch of the input device  13  is pressed or not. This push switch is designated as a narrow area button in the following description. The narrow area button is operated without inputting the identification information of the cellular phone  2 . Therefore, the operation of the narrow area button is regarded as a cellular phone independent operation, or a device independent operation.  
         [0054]     The operation of the narrow area button may be substituted by an operation of the touch panel. In this case, pressing the narrow area button corresponds to a touch in a predetermined area of the touch panel.  
         [0055]     Step S 310  is repeated until the narrow area button is detected as being pressed. The process executes step S 320  when the narrow area button is pressed.  
         [0056]     In step S 320 , the transmission power of the Bluetooth transceiver  11  is switched to the low power mode. More practically, the power control signal is sent to the Bluetooth transceiver  11  to decrease the transmission power.  
         [0057]     In step S 330 , the process determines whether a non-registered cellular phone  2  is in the connection area of the remote communication apparatus  1 . The non-registered cellular phone  2  is determined to be in the connection area when the CPU  17  receives the connection response signal from the cellular phone  2 . The cellular phone  2  is determined as registered when the identification information in the connection response signal is identified by the ID in the registration data in the flash memory  18 .  
         [0058]     The process executes step S 340  when the non-registered cellular phone  2  is within the connection area of the remote communication apparatus  1 , and the process executes step S 310  when the non-registered cellular phone  2  is not in the connection area.  
         [0059]     In step S 340 , a temporary ID for the non-registered cellular phone  2  being determined in the connection area in step S 330  is issued and sent to the cellular phone  2  as a part of a registration instruction signal.  
         [0060]     The cellular phone  2  in the present embodiment stores the temporary ID as the identification information of the cellular phone  2  in the registration instruction signal by using a memory medium on the cellular phone  2 . The cellular phone  2  responds to the connection request signal from the remote communication apparatus  1  by sending the connection response signal including the temporary ID until it deletes the temporary ID from the memory medium.  
         [0061]     In step S 350 , the process gives the temporary ID a top priority. More practically, the priority given to the registered cellular phone  2  in the registration data in the flash memory  18  is changed so that the priority given to the temporary ID surpasses any other priority in the registration data.  
         [0062]     The priority of the temporary ID may be determined to be a greater value than any other priority value of the registered cellular phone  2 .  
         [0063]     In step S 355 , the cellular phone  2  being determined to be within the connection area in step S 330  is registered. More practically, the temporary ID determined in step S 340  is associated with the priority determined in step S 350 , and is appended to the registration data in the flash memory  18 .  
         [0064]     In step S 360 , the transmission power of the Bluetooth transceiver  11  is increased to the normal power mode. More practically, the power control signal is sent to the Bluetooth transceiver  11  to increase the transmission power to a level of the normal power mode.  
         [0065]     In step S 370 , a state of the IG/ACC switch is determined based on a signal from the IG/ACC switch. Step S 370  is repeated while the switch is not determined as OFF. The process proceeds to step S 380  when the switch is determined as OFF.  
         [0066]     In step S 380 , the temporary ID of the cellular phone  2  being determined within the connection area in step S 330  is deleted. More practically, the temporary ID and the priority stored in the flash memory  18  in step S 355  is deleted. Further, a delete instruction signal for deleting the temporary ID is sent to the cellular phone  2  that is identified by the temporary ID.  
         [0067]     The cellular phone  2  in the present embodiment deletes the temporary ID from the memory medium upon receiving the delete instruction signal.  
         [0068]     In step S 390 , the priority of the cellular phone  2  is restored to a state before registration of the temporary ID. More practically, change to the priority of the registered cellular phone  2  is cancelled and a previous priority is used again. Execution of the narrow area mode registration program ends after execution of step S 390 .  
         [0069]     The narrow area mode registration program allows the Bluetooth transceiver  11  to decrease the transmission power in the low power mode while the narrow area button is being pressed (step S 310 ). Then, the CPU  17  further executes the following steps when the cellular phone  2  enters into the connection area (step S 330 ) while the narrow area button is pressed. That is, the CPU  17  issues the temporary ID for a non-registered cellular phone  2  and sends the temporary ID to the cellular phone  2  by sending the registration instruction signal (step S 340 ). The temporary ID has the top priority in the registration data (step S 355 ).  
         [0070]     The transmission power of the Bluetooth transceiver  11  is increased to the level of the normal power mode after registration of the temporary ID of the non-registered cellular phone  2 . The non-registered cellular phone  2  is the first cellular phone  2  that enters the connection area after the narrow area button is pressed.  
         [0071]     The registration is deleted (step S 380 ) when the IG/ACC switch is turned off (step S 370 ) and the priority is restored (step S 390 ).  
         [0072]     Operation of remote communication apparatus  1  including registration of the cellular phone  2 , establishment of the wireless connection, intermediation of a call and registration of narrow area mode is shown as an example in the following description. The operation is under control of the program being executed by the CPU  17 .  
         [0073]     Steps in the operation taken by the remote communication apparatus  1  to accommodate a cellular phone  2  in the example are sequentially shown in  FIG. 4 .  
         [0074]     The narrow area button on the remote communication apparatus  1  is pressed when the non-registered cellular phone  2  approaches to the device  1  within the connection area (e.g., within 30 cm from the apparatus  1 ) of the low power mode in the above description (step S 400 ).  
         [0075]     The device  1  determines a temporary ID for the cellular phone  2  and sends it to the cellular phone  2  together with the registration instruction signal in step S 340  after determining steps S 310  and S 330  in  FIG. 3  as YES (signal Sig 405 ).  
         [0076]     The cellular phone  2  receives the registration instruction signal and stores the temporary ID in the memory medium (step S 410 ), and sends back the connection response signal including the temporary ID to the device  1  (signal Sig 415 ).  
         [0077]     The Bluetooth transceiver  11  gives the cellular phone  2  a top priority in terms of the wireless connection as described in steps S 355  and S 360  in  FIG. 3  (step S 420 ).  
         [0078]     Then, the Bluetooth transceiver  11  establishes the wireless connection to the cellular phone  2  by executing the wireless connection control program based on the connection response signal and the temporary ID. The remote communication apparatus  1  and the cellular phone  2  exchange necessary information for establishing the wireless connection to each other in plural times of connection operation steps (signal Sig 421 ).  
         [0079]     The cellular phone  2  sends the reception signal to the remote communication apparatus  1  (signal Sig 430 ) when the cellular phone  2  has an incoming call (step S 425 ).  
         [0080]     The remote communication apparatus  1  starts intermediation of the call by executing the intermediation program based on reception of the reception signal (step S 435 ), and the call is intermediated by exchanging the voice data with the cellular phone  2  through the wireless connection of the Bluetooth link (signal Sig 440 ).  
         [0081]     The user of the cellular phone  2  placing the call may get out of the vehicle while the engine is still running (i.e., the IG/ACC switch is ON). In this case, intermediation of the call is interrupted when the cellular phone  2  leaves the connection area of the wireless connection, because a radio wave from the remote communication apparatus  1  in the normal power mode does not reach the cellular phone  2 . That is, the cellular phone  2  resumes the call independently from the remote communication apparatus  1  when the cellular phone  2  is out of the wireless connection area of the remote communication apparatus  1  (step S 445 ).  
         [0082]     The intermediation of the remote communication apparatus  1  is re-established by executing the wireless connection control program when the user of the cellular phone  2  returns to an inside of the vehicle (i.e., returns to the connection area). In this case, the remote communication apparatus  1  tries to re-connect to the cellular phone  2  because the cellular phone  2  stays in the top priority. The wireless connection between the apparatus  1  and the cellular phone  2  is re-established through exchanging necessary information for the wireless connection (signal Sig 450 ).  
         [0083]     Then, the established wireless connection is used for intermediation of the call by the intermediation program (step S 455 ).  
         [0084]     Further, the remote communication apparatus  1  sends the delete instruction signal (signal Sig 465 ) to the cellular phone  2  based on the process in step S 380  in  FIG. 3  when the IG/ACC switch of the vehicle is turned off by the user (step S 460 ). The remote communication apparatus  1  deletes the temporary ID from the flash memory  18  (step S 470 ). The cellular phone  2  also deletes the temporary ID from the memory medium upon receiving the instruction (step S 475 ).  
         [0085]     The remote communication apparatus  1  having the intermediation function for the registered cellular phone  2  in the connection area exclusively accommodates the non-registered cellular phone  2  by issuing the temporary ID when the non-registered cellular phone  2  enters into the connection area that is narrowed while the narrow area button is being pressed by the user. In this manner, the wireless connection to the non-registered cellular phone  2  is accommodated by the device independent operation. Therefore, complicated operation for registration is eased by the remote communication apparatus  1 .  
         [0086]     The remote communication apparatus  1  may be used for intermediation of the call to the registered cellular phone  2  in the connection area of the wireless connection in the normal power mode. The device  1  may also be used for intermediation of the call to the non-registered cellular phone  2  in the connection area of the wireless connection in the low power mode.  
         [0087]     The remote communication apparatus  1  prioritizes the cellular phone  2  having the temporary ID to other cellular phone  2  in terms of the wireless connection for intermediation of the call.  
         [0088]     The CPU  17  in the embodiment described above serves as a power control means by executing steps  320  and  360  shown in  FIG. 3 .  
         [0089]     The CPU  17  serves as a authorization means by executing steps  340  and  355  shown in  FIG. 3 .  
         [0090]     The CPU  17  serves as a priority control means by executing step  350  shown in  FIG. 3 .  
         [0091]     The remote communication apparatus  1  has the connection area corresponding to the first distance in the normal power mode, and the connection area corresponding to the second distance in the low power mode.  
         [0092]     Although the present invention has been fully described in connection with the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art.  
         [0093]     For example, the remote communication apparatus  1  wirelessly connects to the first cellular phone  2  by issuing the temporary ID. However, the remote communication apparatus  1  may wirelessly connect to a plurality of the cellular phones  2  in the connection area.  
         [0094]     Further, the remote communication apparatus  1  may delete the temporary ID of the cellular phone  2  instead of keeping the ID in the memory when wireless connection is interrupted. That is, the remote communication apparatus  1  may prohibit the wireless connection for intermediation for the cellular phone  2  based on the temporary ID by deleting the temporary ID when the wireless connection to the cellular phone  2  is interrupted.  
         [0095]     Such changes and modifications are to be understood as being within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.