Telephone having receive call indicating function and mute/light key

Abstract: A telephone having a receive call indicating function and a mute/light key (9) includes means (11) for displaying at least the arrival of a call, means (7, 13) for illuminating the display, means (5) for driving the illuminating means, means (6) for manually providing a key signal, control means (8) for intermittently providing a first control signal in response to the arrival of a call, for providing a second control signal when the control means receives the key signal during a conversation, and for providing a third control signal when the control means receives the key signal during a stand-by state, switch means connected between the driving means and the illuminating means for selectively connecting the driving means to the illuminating means in response to the first to third control signals, and a microphone unit (54) which is disabled in response to the second control signal.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a telephone having a receive call indicating function and a mute/light key and, more particularly, to a hand-held portable (HHP) telephone having such a function and a key. The HHP telephone of the prior art typically has a keyboard for inputting call signals and so forth and a liquid crystal display (LCD) for indicating the telephone number dialled and so on. For convenient use at night, the HHP telephone further includes a back-light for illuminating the LCD. When called, the HHP telephone alerts the user to the arrival of the call (or receive call) by turning on and off a message, such as "CALL", on the LCD, illuminated by the back-light, while outputting a ringing signal. With the conventional HHP telephone referred to above, however, when the ringing signal is less audible in a car, the intermittent lighting of the message "CALL" may have too little impact to alert the user. Therefore, the user would then fail to notice the arrival of the call. It is even more difficult to alert the user at night. Furthermore, when the user makes a call at night, he or she requires to turn on the back-light for inputting control signals from the keyboard. For this purpose, the HHP telephone comprises a switch for turning on and off the back-light which switch has to be mounted on the face of the HHP telephone. The available space on the HHP telephone casing, however, is limited because the HHP telephone has a built-in keyboard, needs a part by which the user can hold it and has to be compact in size. In Patent Abstracts of Japan Vol. 9, No. 197(E-335) 1920, published on August 14 1985, and in corresponding Japanese Patent publication No. 60 62 745, published on April 10 1985, there was proposed an arrangement for displaying information in a selective call radio receiver by means of a liquid crystal device (LCD) in which a flickering illuminating device for the LCD was employed. Features of the present invention to be described are the provision of a telephone in which space is saved by making a back-light switch also serve as a mute key, and in which the user is alerted to the receipt of a call with greater certainty. An arrangement to be described below includes a telephone having a receive call indicating function and a mute/light key comprising display means for displaying at least the arrival of a call, illuminating means for illuminating the display means, driver means for driving the illuminating means, key means for manually providing a key signal, control means for intermittently providing a first control signal in response to the arrival of a call, for providing a second control signal when the control means receives the key signal during conversation, and for providing a third control signal when the control means receives the key signal during stand-by state, switch means connected between the driver means and the illuminating means for selectively connecting the driver means to the illuminating means in response to the first to third control signals, and microphone unit means being disabled in response to the second control signal. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a hand-held portable telephone having a receive call indicating function and a mute/light key, which is a preferred embodiment of the invention; FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the preferred embodiment of the invention; and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of a control section illustrated in FIG. 2. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to FIG. 1, a keyboard 10 for inputting a call signal and so forth is provided on the front central part of an HHP telephone 100. On the front lower part are arranged grills 1 and 4 for a ringing speaker or loudspeaker and a microphone unit, which will be described later. An LCD 11 is arranged above the keyboard 10, and further above is a slit 12 for an earpiece receiver, which will also be described later. The LCD 11 is so designed as to be able to display various items including the arrival of a call and a telephone number dialled. A mute/light key 9 is arranged on the upper right side of the HHP telephone 100 so that it can be readily manipulated when the HHP telephone 100 is held by the user. Behind the keyboard 10 are provided back-lights 7 and 13, indicated by dotted lines in the illustration. When the back-lights 7 and 13 are on, the LCD 11 and the keyboard 10 are illuminated from behind. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the main sections of the telephone shown in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the HHP telephone 100 includes a control unit 8 for controlling a first switch 6 and a second switch 2 according to a receive call signal supplied from a receiver unit (not shown). This control unit 8 also controls the turning on and off of a microphone unit 54 and the first switch 6 in response to a mute/light control signal from a mute/light key 9. Furthermore, the control unit 8 controls a back-light driver 5. The first switch 6 connects and disconnects a back-light driver 5 and back-lights 7 and 13 in response to the receive call signal. The second switch 2 connects and disconnects a ringing speaker 51 and a ringing signal generator 3 according to the receive call signal. The control unit 8 also controls an LCD 11 on which "CALL" is displayed in response to the arrival of the call. Now will be described the operation of the telephone of Fig. 2 with reference to FIG. 2 and the flowchart of FIG. 3. This flowchart basically shows the following procedure. When the mute/light key 9 is closed, either the back-lights 7 and 13 will be turned on during the stand-by condition of the telephone, or the microphone unit 54 will be muted and the back-lights turned on during telephone conversation. If a call arrives, the ringing and the intermittent turning on and off of the back-lights will continue until the user takes the telephone off the hook, that is, the line is connected. The flowchart will now be explained in further detail. First, power supply to the telephone is started at Step 21, followed by Step 22 where it is checked whether or not the mute/light key 9 is pressed down. If it is, the back-light driver 5 is actuated, and the first switch 6 closed to turn on the back-lights 7 and 13 (Steps 23 and 24), followed by a move ahead to Step 25. Even if the mute/light key 9 is not pressed down at Step 22, the sequence also moves on to Step 25. At Step 25, the arrival of a call is monitored and, if no arrival is detected, the sequence returns to Step 22. If a receive call is detected, the receive call message "CALL" is displayed on LCD 11 at Step 33. Then the second switch 2 is turned on to output the ringing signal at Step 26 which is followed by Step 27, where the off-hook state is monitored. If the off-hook state is not detected, the sequence proceeds to Step 31 to turn off the first and second switches 6 and 2. The loop of Steps 24, 25, 33, 26, 27 and 31 means that the ringing and the intermittent turning on and off of the back-lights continues at a suitable interval, while display "CALL" on LCD 11, until the user takes the telephone off the hook at Step 27. If the off-hook state is detected at Step 27, the display "CALL" is erased from LCD 11 and the first and second switches 6 and 2 is opened to turn off the back-lights 7 and 13 and discontinue the ringing (Step 28), followed by Step 29. If the mute/light key 9 is found to be pressed down at Step 29, the sequence proceeds to Steps 30 and 32. Thus, the pressing down of the key 9 mutes the microphone unit 54 and turns on the back-lights 7 and 13 again. If the key 9 is not found pressed down at Step 29, the state at this step is retained at it is, i.e. the mute/light key 9 is kept off. The mute key of an HHP telephone of the prior art is intended only for muting the microphone during conversation. In other words, it is never used in a stand-by state. Since the telephone according to the present invention has a mute key with an additional function to turn on the back-lights, the key can be useful in a stand-by state as well. Muting during conversation means non-use of the microphone and, consequently, moving the handset away from the ear. Since the back-lights are on at this time, the keys will be visible even in the dark. Further, flashing the back-lights during displaying the receive call message "CALL" on the LCD can give the user a greater impact, which could be even greater at night. At the same time, the intermittent illumination from behind also facilitates the user's operation of the telephone. Although the preferred embodiment described above is an HHP, the invention can as well be applied to a handset of a car telephone or the like. To sum up, the present invention can provide a telephone in which space saving is achieved by combining the back-light switch and the mute key and which can notify the user of the arrival of a call with greater certainty.

Claims: A telephone (100) having a receive call indicating function (11) and a light key (9), the indicating function (11) being provided by a display (11) for displaying at least the arrival of a call, illuminating means (7) for illuminating the display (11), a driver (5) for driving the illuminating means (7), a keyboard (10) for manually providing a key signal, control means (8) for providing a first control signal for intermittently turning the illuminating means on and off in response to the arrival of a call, characterised in that the control means (8) provides a second control signal when the control means (8) receives a key signal during a conversation, and a third control signal when the control means receives a key signal during a stand-by state, in that there are provided a switch (6) connected between the driver (5) and the illuminating means (7) for selectively connecting the driver (5) to the illuminating means (7) in response to the first to third control signals, and a microphone (54) which is disabled in response to the second control signal, and in that the light key (9) functions, when operated, to mute the microphone (54) and to turn on the illuminating means (7). A telephone (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the light key (9) is a press-type mute/light key (9), and wherein the control means (8) includes first means (22) for judging whether or not the mute/light key (9) is operated, second means (23) for turning on the driver (5) when the first means (22) judges the mute/light key (9) to be operated, third means (24) for turning on the switch (6) when the first means (22) judges the mute/light key (9) to be operated and the second means (23) turns on the driver (5), fourth means (25) for detecting the presence of the arrival of a call when the mute/light key (9) is operated, the second means (23) turns on the driver (5) and the third means (24) turns on the switch (6), fifth means (27) for judging whether or not the telephone (100) is off the hook if the fourth means (25) detects the receive call signal, and sixth means (29) for muting the microphone (54) and for turning on the switch (6) again when the fifth means (27) detects the off-hook state and the third means (24) does not turn on the switch (6). A telephone (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display (11) is a liquid crystal display (LCD). A telephone (100) as claimed in claim 2, wherein the illuminating means (7) is a back-light for illuminating LCD from behind. A method of controlling the turning on and off of a back-light illuminating means (7) of a telephone (100) and muting a microphone (54) of the telephone (100) including the steps of:- (i) judging whether or not a key (9) is operated immediately followed by a second step (ii) if the key (9) is judged to be operated or by a fourth step (iv) if it is not; (ii) turning on a light driver (5) after the completion of the first step (i); (iii) closing a switch (6) after the completion of the second step (ii); (iv) detecting the presence of a receive call signal after the completion of the third step (iii), followed by a fifth step (v) if the presence is detected or by a return to said first step (i) if the presence is not detected, and intermittently providing a first control signal in response to the receipt of a call in order to control the light driver (5) for intermittently operating the illuminating means (7), and continuing intermittently to turn on and off the illuminating means (7) until the user takes the telephone (100) off the hook; (v) judging whether or not the telephone (100) is off the hook after the completion of the fourth step (iv), followed by a sixth step (vi) if the telephone (100) is judged to be off the hook, or by a return to the third step (iii) after opening the switch (6) after the completion of the fifth step (v); (vi) opening the switch (6) after the completion of the fifth step (v); (vii) judging whether or not the key (9) is operated after the completion of the sixth step (vi), followed by an eight step (viii) if it is judged that the key (9) is operated, or by the retention of this state of judgment if it is not; and (viii) muting the microphone (54) of the telephone (100) and closing the switch (6) at the same time after the completion of the seventh step (vii).

Inventors: ISHIGAMI MASAHIRO C O NEC SAIT, SAITO AKIO C O NEC CORPORATION, TSUKAMOTO TOMOKO C O NEC CORPO, ISHIGAMI, MASAHIRO C/O NEC SAITAMA, LTD., SAITO, AKIO C/O NEC CORPORATION, TSUKAMOTO, TOMOKO C/O NEC CORPORATION
Applicants: NIPPON ELECTRIC CO, NEC CORPORATION
Application year: 1988
Main classification: H04M1
IPC codes: H04M1