Reminder apparatus and method

An apparatus for notifying a user of information by using sound or silent medium includes a scheduler which determines an alarm time by the user's operation and a selector which selects a single mode from a sound mode and a silent mode comprising a beep silent mode, a modified silent mode, and a fully silent mode. The sound mode uses at least the sound medium to notify the user of the information, and the silent mode uses the silent medium to notify the user of the information. When either the sound mode or the beep silent mode has been selected, the apparatus makes a beep reminder at the alarm time. When the modified silent mode has been selected, the sound reminder is made at a time when a selection of the silent mode is reset after the alarm time has passed. When the fully silent mode has been selected, a silent reminder such as a visual or a vibration reminder is made at the alarm time.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a reminder apparatus having a scheduler 
function, and more particularly to a method and apparatus of reminding a 
user of a schedule by a sound, a visual or a vibration reminder. 
2. Description of the Related Art 
A selective calling receiver has been widely used for various purposes and, 
especially, a small-sized and lightweight selective calling receiver 
called a pager is suitable for being taken on the road. A basic function 
of the selective calling receiver is to indicate by beep sound, vibration, 
or light the incoming call. Since the beep is a nuisance to others, either 
a beep mode or a silent mode can be selected by the user operating a mode 
selector depending on surroundings. Further, in order to match the 
convenience of portability, many selective calling receivers have been 
provided with a scheduler program and an alarm function which makes a beep 
or a visual reminder to remind the user of a meeting or other events, as 
disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 3-18136. 
Since an alarm is generally important to the user, it is necessary to 
attract the attention of the user who may forget the appointment. For that 
purpose, a beep reminder is most effective. Therefore, the conventional 
selective calling receiver is generally designed to make a beep alarm even 
in the silent mode. However, as described above, it is true in some cases 
that the beep is a nuisance to others. 
SUMMARY OF TETE INVENTION 
The present invention has been proposed in order to overcome the 
aforementioned problems inevitably inherent in the prior art. 
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an 
apparatus and method for reminding a user of a schedule with reliability. 
It is another object of the present invention to provide a selective 
calling receiver for notifying the user of an alarm time with reliability 
even when a silent mode has been selected. 
In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, an apparatus 
for notifying a user of information by using at least one of a sound 
medium and a silent medium is provided with a scheduler which determines 
an alarm time and a selector which selects a single mode from a sound mode 
and a silent mode comprising a first silent mode, a second silent mode, 
and a third silent mode. The sound mode uses at least the sound medium to 
notify the information to the user, and the silent mode uses the silent 
medium to notify the information to the user. The apparatus makes a sound 
reminder at the alarm time when either the sound mode or the first silent 
mode has been selected. When the second silent mode has been selected, the 
sound reminder is made at a time when a selection of the silent mode is 
reset after the alarm time has passed. And, when the third silent mode has 
been selected, a silent reminder is made at the alarm time. 
In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, a selective 
calling receiver comprises a receiver which receives a selective calling 
signal and detects an incoming call and a scheduler which determines an 
alarm time. The selective calling receiver is further comprises a selector 
which selects a single mode from a sound mode and a silent mode comprising 
a first silent mode, a second silent mode, and a third silent mode. The 
sound mode uses at least the sound medium to notify the incoming call to 
the user, and the silent mode uses the silent medium to notify the 
incoming call to the user. When either the sound mode or the first silent 
mode has been selected, a sound reminder is generated at the alarm time. 
When the second silent mode has been selected, the sound reminder is 
generated at a time when a selection of the silent mode is reset after the 
alarm time has passed. And when the third silent mode has been selected, a 
silent reminder is generated at the alarm time. 
According to a method for notifying a user of information by using at least 
one of a sound medium and a silent medium, after determining an alarm time 
by a scheduler program, a silent mode is selected in which the silent 
medium is used to notify the information to the user. And then a sound 
reminder is generated at a time when a selection of the silent mode is 
reset after the alarm time has passed. 
The above and other objects and advantages of the present invention will 
become apparent from the following detailed description when read in 
conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a selective calling receiver in 
accordance with the present invention. The selective calling receiver 
comprising a radio system module 10 and a control unit 11 which is 
connected to a battery, a power switch, and an informer. The informer is 
comprised of a liquid-crystal display (LCD) 12, a speaker 13, and a 
light-emitting diode (LED) 14 which are connected to the controller 11 
through an LCD driver 15, a speaker driver 16, and an LED driver 17, 
respectively. The radio system module 10 comprises a built-in antenna, a 
receiver 101, and a waveform shaping circuit 102. The receiver 101 
receives a radio signal from a base station (not shown) of a paging system 
through the antenna. The receiver 101 further includes a demodulator which 
demodulates the received radio signal into a baseband signal. The waveform 
shaping circuit 102 shapes the waveform of the baseband signal and the 
wave-shaped signal is transferred as a selective calling signal from the 
radio system module 10 to the control unit 11. 
The control unit 11 comprises a decoder 103, a processor 104, a random 
access memory 105, a program memory 106, a timer 107, and other necessary 
circuits. The control unit 11 is further provided with an alarm time 
setting key 108, a message read key 109, and a mode selector 110. The 
decoder 103 decodes the selective calling signal received from the radio 
system module 10 and outputs received data to the processor 104. The 
processor 104 performs the receiving control according to a main program 
previously stored in the program memory 106. In addition to the main 
program, the program memory 106 further stores a scheduler as well as a 
beep mode and a silent mode programs one of which is selected by the user 
operating the mode selector 110. The silent mode program, as described 
later, includes three mode programs A, B, and C, one of which is 
designated by the user using the mode selector 110. 
Further, as known well, the processor 104 outputs an intermittent ON/OFF 
control signal to the radio system module 10 so as to perform an 
intermittent receiving operation. Furthermore, in the case of the beep 
mode, the processor 104 activates the speaker 13 and the LED 14 to inform 
the user of incoming call by beep sound and blinking light when a 
selective calling number included in the received data is identical to the 
ID number of its own previously stored in an ID memory (not shown). 
However, in the case where the silent mode is selected, the processor 104 
causes the speaker 13 not to be activated but the LCD 12 or the LED 14 to 
be activated when the incoming call has occurred. When the selective 
calling number is identical to the ID number of its own, the processor 104 
causes the memory 105 to store the received message and then the received 
message is displayed on the LCD 12 by the user operating the message read 
key 109. 
In addition to the receiving operations as mentioned above, the control 
unit 11 has an alarm function which makes a beep or a visual reminder when 
an alarm time previously set by the user is reached. The user can set the 
scheduler to appointment times by operating the alarm time setting key 
108. In the scheduler program, when the timer 107 reaches the set alarm 
time, the processor 104 activates the speaker 13 to make a beep reminder 
in the beep silent mode A, and activates the LCD 12 or the LED 14 to make 
a visual reminder in the fully silent mode C. Further, in the case where 
the modified silent mode B is designated, the processor 104 activates the 
speaker 13 to make a beep reminder when the alarm time has passed away and 
then the silent mode is reset by the user operating the mode selector 110. 
Such an alarm function will be described in detail hereinafter. 
Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, in the case where the user has set the timer 
107 to an alarm time through the scheduler program by operating the alarm 
time setting key 108 (YES in step S201), the processor 104 is informed of 
the current time reaching the set alarm time by the interrupt of the timer 
107 (YES in step S202). When the alarm time is reached, the processor 104 
checks the mode selector 110 whether the silent mode is set (step S203). 
When the silent mode is set (YES in step S203), it is further checked 
which silent mode is designated, the beep silent mode A, the modified 
silent mode B, or the fully silent mode C (S204). 
In the case where the beep silent mode A has been designated, the processor 
104 controls the speaker driver 16 such that the speaker 13 makes a beep 
reminder to remind the user of a meeting or other events (step S205). The 
time of day at that time may be displayed on the LCD 12. Since the 
receiver operates in the silent mode, needless to say, the user is 
informed of the incoming call by only a visual informer such as the LCD 12 
or the LED 14. 
When the modified silent mode B has been designated, the processor 104 
transfers control to the main program without reminding the user of the 
alarm time until the silent mode is reset by the user operating the mode 
selector 110 (step S206). At the time when the silent mode reset interrupt 
occurs, the processor 104 controls the speaker driver 16 such that the 
speaker 13 makes a beep reminder to remind the user of a meeting or other 
events (step S205). The time of day at that time may be displayed on the 
LCD 12. 
In the case of the fully silent mode designated, the user is informed of 
the current time reaching the set alarm time by only a silent informer 
such as the LCD 12 or the LED 14 (step S207). More specifically, the 
processor 104 controls the LCD driver 15 and the LED driver 17 so that the 
set alarm time is displayed on the LCD 12 and the LED 14 blinks to remind 
the user of an appointment or the like. The silent informer may include a 
vibrator in addition to a visual informer such as the LCD 12 and the LED 
14. 
As shown in FIG. 3, even when the selective calling receiver is set to the 
silent mode which is to inform the user of the incoming call by the visual 
informer only, the selective calling receiver can inform the user of the 
set alarm time to remind the user of the appointment according to a 
desired silent mode designated by the user himself. As described above, a 
beep reminder is made at the set alarm time when the user has designated 
the beep silent mode A, a beep reminder is made at the time when the 
silent mode is reset in the case of the modified silent mode B, and a 
visual reminder is made at the set alarm time when the user has designated 
the fully silent mode C.