Paging receiver with a display function

Abstract: A paging receiver with a display function allows a usual message to be displayed and a receiver control signal to be sent together in a single message format. A first and a second predetermined character are detected in a received message, and a message occurring between the first and second characters is extracted as a receiver control signal and not displayed on a display.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a paging receiver with a display function which allows an ordinary message to be displayed and a receiver control signal to be transmitted and received together in the form of a single message. With a prior art paging receiver having with a display function, it has been customary to send a usual message to be displayed and a receiver control signal adapted for the register and deletion of an address for the reception of information, alert control or similar purpose severally, i.e., it has been impractical to send them together in a single message format. An example of a paging receiver of the kind described is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 62-239726 (corresponding to U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 035,348, European Patent Application No. 87303013.4, Canadian Patent Application No. 534,391, Australian Patent Application No. 71377/87, Korean Patent Application No. 3486/1987, and Taiwan Patent Application No. 76101975). The paging receiver disclosed in this Patent Publication is capable of receiving a call number assigned to that receiver (A call) and another call number adapted for an information service which is available for a number of unspecified receivers (B call). The receiver is allowed to or inhibited from receiving the information survice which is based on the B call depending upon whether or not it detects a predetermined pattern (e.g. "space", "+" or "-") in a message which is added to the A call. More specifically, the receiver displays a message such as "OUT SERVICE" when the receiver is inhibited from receiving the information service and a message such as "IN SERVICE" when it is allowed to receive it. As stated above, with a prior art paging receiver having a display function, it is impossible to send a receiver control signal and a usual message in the form of a single composite message. For example, when a subscriber who owns the receiver is excluded from an information service, a message notifying the subscriber of the inhibition of reception of the information service such as "INFORMATION SERVICE XX NOT OFFERRED. FOR DETAILS, CALL XX-XXXX. X MONTH X DAY XX SERVICE CORP." cannot be sent together with a receiver control signal which disables the receiver from receiving the service. On the other hand, since a different pattern has to be assigned to each receiver control function beforehand, it is difficult to provide the receiver with an extra control function after an information service has been initiated. For example, assume that only the receiver control function for "allowing and inhibiting the reception of an information service" is available with the receiver at the beginning of the service. Then, when an extra function of "energizing a speaker only when important information is supplied" is provided in addition to the above-mentioned receiver control function after the start of the service, the receiver of the old version fails to recognize a receiver control signal representative of the extra function and therefore erroneously displays it as an ordinary message. A feature of an arrangement to be described is a generally improved paging receiver with a display function which allows an ordinary message to be displayed and a receiver control signal to be transmitted and received in the form of a single message. There will be described below a paging receiver with a display function which includes a receiver section for receiving and demodulating a carrier wave which has been modulated by a paging signal and a message signal which follows the paging signal and contains a message, a decoder section for comparing the paging signal demodulated and a predetermined own station's paging signal which is assigned to the receiver and, if the demodulated and own station's paging signals are coincident, outputting the message signal which follows the paging signal, a non-volatile memory storing the own station's paging signal and all operation mode of the receiver, an alert section for alerting a user of the receiver to reception of a call by sound, light or similar means, a display section for displaying the message received, and a control section responsive to the message signal from the decoder section for controlling the alert section and causing the display section to display the message. The control section is provided with message reception control means which comprises first comparing means for comparing the message contained in the message signal which is inputted from the decoder section with a predetermined first character, second comparing means for comparing the message received with a predetermined second character, and switch means for extracting the message received which appears from an instant when the first comparing means detects the first character in the received message to an instant when the second comparing means detects the second character in the received message. The message extracted by the message reception control means is treated as a receiver control signal and not displayed by the display section. In the specification of European Patent Application No. 84109812.2, which was published under number 1325783 on April 3 1985, there was proposed a radio communication apparatus which can be disabled on the receipt of a predetermined signal. The apparatus is able to receive a specific call signal, using a stored identification number, and to produce a predetermined signal, after the call signal is defined, to inhibit or disable the receiving operation after the predetermined signal has been received. In the specification of United Kingdom Patent Application No. 8503433, which was published under number 2154347 on September 4 1985, there was proposed a paging communication system in which a base station counts the number of transmissions to each of a number of receivers to determine the fees to be charged. The supply of information to a receiver for which a contract fee has not been paid can be inhibited. Arrangements which embody the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a paging receiver with a display function embodying the present invention; Fig. 2 shows a specific format of a paging signal applicable to the present invention (CCIR No. 1 code); Fig. 3 is a block diagram schematically showing message reception control means which is included in the paging receiver of Fig. 1 and implemented by hardware; Fig. 4 is a schematic block diagram showing a specific construction of switch means is included in the message reception control means; Fig. 5 is a timing chart useful for understanding the operation of the circuitry shown in Figs. 3 and 4; Fig. 6 is a flowchart demonstrating the operation of the message reception control means which is implemented by software; and Fig. 7 is a flowchart representative of a specific receiver control procedure in accordance with the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to Fig. 1 of the drawings, a paging receiver with a display function embodying the present invention is shown and generally designated by the reference numeral 10. As shown, the paging receiver 10 is generally made up of a receiver section 101, a decoder section 102, a non-volatile memory 103, a control section 104, an alert section 105, and a display section 106. The receiver section 101 receives and demodulates a carrier wave which has been modulated by a paging signal and a message signal which follows the paging signal. The decoder section 102 compares the demodulated paging signal with a predetermined own station's paging signal and, when the former is coincident with the latter, activates the control section 104 while feeding the message signal to the control section 104. The non-volatile memory 103 stores therein the own station's paging number and an operation mode available with the receiver 10. When a power switch, not shown, of the receiver 10 is turned on, the control section 104 reads the own station's paging number and operation mode out of the memory 103 to load them in the decoder section 102. Upon the arrival of a message signal, the control section 104 energizes the alert section 105 while displaying the received message on the display section 106. The alert section 105 informs a person who owns the receiver of the arrival of a call by sound, light or similar alerting means. The paging signal applicable to the present invention may be implemented by the CCIR No. 1 code (POCSAG code). As shown in Fig. 2, messages (a₁, a₂, a₃, ..., s₁, c₁, c₂, c₃, ...) are error-correction coded by using a BCH code. Applying error control to the output of the receiver section 101, the decoder section 102 produces a message signal d₁ (a₁, a₂, a₃, ..., s₁, c₁, c₂, c₃, ...), as shown in Fig. 5. The messages are implemented by alphanumeric characters which are standardized by ISO 646. Predetermined first and second characters S1 and S2 are usually selected from "control characters", i.e., those characters which are indicated in the first and second columns of Table 1 shown below. Referring to Fig. 3, a specific construction of message reception control means which is included in the control section 104 and is implemented by hardware is shown. The message reception control means, generally 20, includes an input terminal 201 allocated to the received message signal d₁ and an input terminal 202 allocated to a signal m which shows that the receiver 10 is receiving a message. First comparing means 203 compares the message signal d₁ with a predetermined first character (s₁) and, if the former is coincident with the latter, produces a first character detect signal r₁. On the other hand, second comparing means 204 compares the message signal d₁ with a predetermined second character (s₂) and, if they are coincident, outputs a second character detect signal r₂. Switch means 205 inhibits the input message signal d₁ from being fed to the display section 106 until the second character detect signal r₂ arrives at the switch means 205, regarding that the message signal d₁ is a receiver control signal. The output signal d₂ of the switch means 205 is fed out via an output terminal 206. The switch means 205 of the message reception control means 20 is shown in detail in Fig. 4. In Fig. 4, the first character detect signal r₁ and the second character detect signal r₂ are applied to input terminals 301 and 302, respectively. The signal m used for the above-mentioned purpose is applied to an input terminal 303 while the received message signal d₁ is applied to an input terminal 304. The switch means 205 includes an SR flip-flop 305, a delay circuit 306 for delaying the second character detect signal r₂ by a period of time which is associated with one character to produce a delayed signal r₃, an inverter 307, an OR gate 308, an AND gate 309, and a switch 310 for outputting the received character signal d₂ only when the output of the AND gate 309, i.e., selection signal s is active. The received character signal d₂ is delivered to an output terminal 311. The first character detect signal r₁ is fed to an R terminal of the SR flip-flop 305 while the second character detect signal r₂ is applied to the delay circuit 306 to become the delayed signal r₃ and then routed to the OR gate 308. The OR gate 308 ORs the delayed signal r₃ and the signal m which is applied thereto via the inverter 307, the resulting output of the OR gate 308 being fed to an S terminal of the flip-flop 305. The AND gate 309 produces AND of the output of the SR flip-flop 305 and the signal m to produce a section signal s which is active. The operation of the above circuitry will be described with reference also made to Fig. 5. Assume that a sequence of received character signals d₁ have arrived. The character signal sequence d₁ includes a first character signal s₁ and a second character signal s₂ which are respectively representative of the beginning and the end of a receiver control command. The signal m remains active while the character signal sequence d₁ appears. The SR flip-flop 305 is held in a set condition when no message is received. Upon the start of reception of a message, the signal m and therefore the selection signal s from the AND gate 309 becomes active. When the first comparing means 203 detects the first character signal s₁ in the signal sequence d₁, it produces the first character detect signal r₁. This signal r₁ resets the SR flip-flop 305 so that the selection signal s is made inactive. As a result, the switch 310 is turned off to prevent the signal sequence from advancing therethrough. As soon as the second comparing means 204 detects the second character signal s₂ in the signal sequence d₁, it produces the second character detect signal r₂ and delivers it to the delay circuit 306. The output r₃ of the delay circuit 306 which has been delayed by one character in terms of time is fed to the SR flip-flop 305 to reset this flip-flop 305. Consequently, the selection signal s becomes active again to turn on the switch 310 so that the received character signal d₂ is outputted. When the message is fully received, the signal m and therefore the selection signal s becomes inactive to turn off the switch 310. Referring to Fig. 6, there is shown in a flowchart the operation of the message reception control means which is included in the control section 104 and is implemented by software. The procedure shown in Fig. 6 begins when a message is inputted from the decoder section 102 after the own station's address. The control means initializes a switch flag SW to (logical) ONE in a step 601. In the subsequent step 602, the control means determines whether or not a message has ended and, if it has ended, executes receiver control processing (step 610) and message display processing (step 611). If the answer of the step 602 is NO, one character of the received message is inputted to be temporarily stored in a register C in a step 603 (The character stored in the register C will be referred to as the inputted character C). In a step 604, the inputted character C and the predetermined first character s₁ are compared and, if they are coincident, the switch flag SW is reset to (logical) ZERO in a step 605. Then, the inputted character C is compared with the predetermined second character s₂ in a step 606 and, if they are coincident, the switch flag SW is set to ONE in the step 606. The logical state of the switch flag SW is checked in a step 607. If the switch flag SW is ONE, the inputted character C is determined to be a part of a message which should be displayed and, in a step 608, stored in a display buffer. If the switch flag SW is ZERO, the character C is decided as constituting a part of a receiver control command and is stored in a receiver control command buffer (step 609). The message display processing performed in the step 611 is such that the message stored in the display buffer is read out and displayed on the display section 106 and, at the same time, the alert section 105 is driven to alert the user to the message. A specific receiver control routine will be described with reference to Fig. 7. As shown, when the first character C1 of a receiver control command is a predetermined character C on as determined in a step 701, an address designated by the second character C2 is conditioned for reception (step 702). More specifically, an address reception allow bit of the non-volatile memory 103 is set while, at the same time, the address is registered in the decoder section 102. In this condition, an information service may be received by using that particular address until an address reception inhibit command which will be described arrives. If the first character C1 of the receiver control command is a predetermined character C off , an address designated by the second character C2 is conditioned for inhibition (step 703). More specifically, an address reception inhibit bit of the memory 103 is reset and the address in the decoder section 102 is deleted. Then, the receiver is inhibited from receiving the information service by using the address until the above-mentioned address reception allow command arrives. Characters other than C on and C off for use as the first character C1 are reserved to implement future addition of extra functions, step 704. In summary, it will be seen that the present invention provides a paging receiver with a display function which allows a usual message to be displayed and a receiver control signal to be sent together in a single message format, thereby effectively promoting various kinds of information services and facilitating future addition of extra functions. Various modifications will become possible for those skilled in the art after receiving the teachings of the present disclosure without departing from the scope thereof.

Claims: A paging receiver with a display function (106), including a receiver (101) for receiving, and a demodulator (102) for decoding a carrier wave which has been modulated by a paging signal and a message signal which follows the paging signal and contains a message, means (102) for comparing the demodulated paging signal and a predetermined paging signal which is assigned to the receiver and, if the demodulated and the predetermined paging signals are coincident, enabling a message signal to be output, non-volatile memory means (103) storing the receiver's predetermined paging signal and an operation mode for the receiver, alerting means (105) for alerting a user of the receiver to the receipt of a call, display means (106) for displaying a received message, and control means (104) responsive to a signal from the demodulator (102) for controlling the alerting means (105) and causing the display means (106) to display the message, characterised in that a received character control paging signal for controlling a receiver is in the same format as an ordinary message signal, and in that the control means (104) includes means for receiving a message from the demodulator (102) after the paging signal, for determining (602) whether or not a message has ended, for processing (610) and for displaying (611) the message on the display means (106) if the message has ended and, if the message has not ended, for storing (603) one character (S₁) of the message, for comparing the one character (S₁) with a first character of the predetermined paging signal, and, if they are coincident, for comparing (606) a second character (S₂) of the message with a second character of the predetermined paging signal, for determining (607) whether the message is to be displayed or is a part of a control signal, for storing (609)(608) the signal in a buffer accordingly, for conditioning (702) an address in the demodulator (102) for reception as designated by one character of the control signal and for inhibiting (703) the receipt of a message signal by resetting the memory (103) and deleting the address in the demodualtor (102) according to another character of the control signal. A paging receiver with a display function (106), including a receiver (101) for decoding a carrier wave which has been modulated by a paging signal and a message signal which follows the paging signal and contains a message, means (102) for comparing the demodulated paging signal and a predetermined paging signal which is assigned to the receiver and, if the demodulated and the predetermined paging signals are coincident, enabling a message signal to be output, non-volatile memory means (103) storing the receiver's predetermined paging signal and an operation mode for the receiver, alerting means (105) for alerting a user of the receiver to the receipt of a call, display means (106) for displaying a received message, and control means (104) responsive to a signal from the demodulator (102) for controlling the alerting means (105) and causing the display means (106) to display the message, characterised in that a received character control paging signal for controlling the receiver is in the same format as an ordinary message signal and in that the control means (104) includes an input terminal (201) for a signal (d₁) received from the demodulation (102), a terminal (202) for a signal ( m ) which is active while the received signal (d₁) received from the demodulator (102), with a predetermined first character (S₁), the first comparator (203) producing, upon the existence of coincidence between the signals being compared, a first character detect signal (r₁), a second comparator (204) for comparing the signal (d₁) with a predetermined second character (S₂), the first and second characters (S₁)(S₂) representing the beginning and the end of a receiver control command respectively, and the second comparator (204) producing upon the existence of coincidence between the signals being compared a second character detect signal (r₂), a switch (205) to which the first and second character detect signals (r₁) and (r₂) are applied, the switch (205) inhibiting the signal (d₁) received from the demodulator (102) from being fed to the display means (106) during the period between the receipt of the first and second characters (S₁)(S₂). A paging receiver as claimed in claim 2 characterised in that the switch means (205) includes a flip-flop (305), a delay circuit (306) connected via one input of an OR gate (308) to the flip-flop (305) for delaying the second character detect signal (r₂) applied to the input to the delay circuit (306) by a period of time which is associated with one character thereby to produce a delay signal (r₃), and AND gate (309) having an input connected to the output of the flip-flop (305) and a switch (310) for outputting the received signal (d₁) to provide an output signal (d₂) only when there is an output from the AND gate (309) during the period when a selection signal (S) is active.

Inventors: SATO TOSHIFUMI, SATO, TOSHIFUMI
Applicants: NIPPON ELECTRIC CO, NEC CORPORATION
Application year: 1988
Main classification: G08B3
IPC codes: G08B5, H04W88