Paging receiver equipped with a display

Abstract: In a paging receiver equipped with a display (10) said display informing a user, when a paging number involved in received data is coincident with a paging number allocated to itself, of that fact with a calling ringing sound and displaying a received message, an inherent password is previously set, and when a password involved in the received data is coincident with the inherent password, an alarming and display of the message are allowed, while when both passwords are not coincident with each other, a prohibition time zone of the alarming and the display previously set, and when the operation time is within the previously set prohibition time zone, the alarming/display is allowed but when the same is out of the prohibition time zone, the alarming/display is prohibited. Further, when the prohibition time zone is completed, the alarming is effected and a message received within the prohibition time zone is displayed.

Description: The present invention relates to a paging receiver equipped with a display for displaying a received message on a screen. With recent conspicuous technical innovation of pagers, a pager with a display is playing a roll as the main current thereamong which has a function to display on a screen a message such as a telephone number of a calling party instead of a tone-only type which has a function to inform a carrier of the pager of calling through a ringing sound. In prior art practice of such a pager with the display, information is received without limitation of a calling party and a time of sending or receiving of a calling signal. Since the prior art pager is adapted to receive information without limitation of the calling party and the time of sending or receiving of any calling signal as described above, it is impossible to change the time period of limitation of calling depending upon the time for example. This makes it impossible to properly use the pager, say the use of the same for business purpose within the working hours or the use of the same outside the working hours. Accordingly, a user of the pager may be called for his business outside the working hours or if a power supply to the pager is interrupted to prevent a user from being called for his business outside the working hours, a private call for the user is prevented from being received by the pager. For solving the difficulty, the present applicant proposed one type of such pagers in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 4-326632 wherein use is made of different informing means which are operable in different time zones. In accordance with this pager, there is employed in the working hours alarming means different from that used outside the working hours or use is made of a non-ringing sound so that proper distinction is made between business calls and private calls. The pager however suffers from another problem of a carrier of the pager being not informed of business requirements outside the working hours. GB-A-2,240,864 discloses a paging device where different pager addresses are used to distinguish between different categories of calls to the pager. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a paging receiver equipped with a display wherein proper use thereof in desired time zones is ensured without interruption of a power supply to the pager together with secure information transfer at all times. The invention is defined by the appended claims. In accordance with the paging receiver with the display of the present invention, only in the case where a preset specific password is involved in a received message, alarm and display of a message are allowed, and when the specific password is different from a password inherent to a user, the alarm and display are allowed only outside a set prohibition time zone while they are prohibited within the prohibition time zone. The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.1 is a block diagram illustrating a preferred embodiment of a display-equipped paging receiver according to the present invention; FIG.2A illustrates a format of calling signals for a conventional paging receiver and FIG.2B illustrates a format of calling signals for a paging receiver of the present invention; FIG.3 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of alarming operation of reception of a password in the present preferred embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In what follows, there will be described a preferred embodiment of a paging receiver with a display according to the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. Referring to FIGs.1 and 3, there is illustrated a preferred embodiment of the present invention in the form of a block diagram and a procedure of alarm/display operation upon reception of a password in the present preferred embodiment in the form of a flowchart. As illustrated in FIG.1, a paging receiver with a display of the present embodiment is comprised of a radio portion 2 for demodulating a radio signal received through an antenna 1, an ID-ROM 4 for previously storing a paging number of the paging receiver, a paging number collator portion 5 for comparing and collating a paging number involved in a received radio signal and a paging number previously stored in the ID-ROM 4 with each other, a password storage portion 6 for previously storing a password for the paging receiver, a password collator portion 7 for comparing and collating a password involved in a received message and a stored password with each other, a prohibition time storage portion 8 for storing the commencement time and completion time of a time zone when alarming of a call and display of a message are prohibited, a clock portion 12 for generating a real time signal, a message storage portion 11 for storing a received message, an alarming portion 9 for generating a call signal for alarming, a display portion 10 for displaying a received message, and a control portion 3 for controlling the entire operation of the paging receiver. The paging receiver includes on an operating panel a mode switching button SW1, a scroll button SW2, and a setting button SW3 some of which are used to set the commencement time and completion time of the prohibition time zone. The aforementioned password may be entered with the operation of these buttons. The entered password can be confirmed by displaying it on the display portion 10. Referring to FIGs. 2A and 2B, there are illustrated formats of call signals for the paging receivers. FIG. 2A illustrates the format of a prior art call signal which comprises an ID (paging number) and a message, while FIG. 2B illustrates the format of a call signal for the paging receiver of the present invention which comprises a password in addition to an ID and a message, the password being of a numeral of four figures for example. In the following, operation of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGs. 1 and 3. As understood from FIG. 1, a radio signal received through the antenna 1 is demodulated in the radio part 2. A paging signal involved in the demodulated data is collated with a paging number of itself stored in the ID-ROM 4 in the paging number collator portion 5, and if both numbers are coincident with each other, then a character-string involved in the received message is collated with a password stored in the password storage portion 6 in the password collator portion 7. If coincidence between both passwords is attained, the alarming portion 9 informs a user of that fact. The display portion 10 displays thereon the received message (telephone number of a calling party for example) at the same time of the alarming. If the coincidence is not attained, however, it is judged whether or not the alarming is prohibited, and the alarming portion 9 executes the alarming only when the alarming is not prohibited. The control portion 3 judges whether or not the alarming is prohibited by comparing the present time clocked in the clock portion 12 with the initiation time of the alarming and the prohibition completion time of the same, both previously set. In the case where the alarming is not executed because of the alarming prohibition, the received message is stored in the message storage part 11, and the alarming is executed when the alarming prohibition is released. The control portion 3 operates as illustrated in FIG. 3 when the message is received. As measured from FIG. 3, it is judged in step S101 whether or not the password involved in the received message is coincident with the password stored in the passwaord storage portion 6, and if there is coincidence between the two passwords, then the alarming part 9 informs a user of that fact by alarming and the message is displayed on the display portion 10 in step S102. In the case where there is no coincidence between the two password, it is judged whether or not the present time is within the prohibition time zone of the alarming/display in step S103. If the present time is not within the prohibition time zone, the alarming and the message display are effected in step S104. In contrast, if the same is within the prohibition time zone, the alarming and the message display are not effected in step S105. In this case, the received message is once stored in the message storage portion 11 in step S106, and the alarming is effected after the completion of the prohibition time zone in step S107. It is noticed that with the arrival of the commencement time and completion time of the prohibition time zone, a short time ringing sound different from ordinary alarm may be issued for the alarming. According to the present invention, as described above, only in the case where a preset specific password is involved in a received message, alarming and display of a message are allowed, and when the specific password is different from a password inherent to a user, alarming and display of a message are only allowed outside a set proibition time zone while the alarming and the display of the message are prohibited within the prohibition time zone. Accordingly, calling can be limited depending upon the time, and proper use of private and business calls is ensured for further convenient use of the paging receiver by carriers.

Claims: A paging receiver equipped with an alarming/display means (9,10), said alarming/display means (9,10) being adapted to inform a user of a call with a ringing sound when a paging number in received data is coincident with a paging number allocated to the user himself and to display a received message, and time setting means for setting times of commencement and completion of alarming prohibition time zone; characterized by: a password collator means (7) for collating a password contained in the received message with a password inherent to the user himself; and alarming/display control means (3) for permitting said display to execute alarming and display when said passwords are coincident with each other, and permitting in the same manner said display to execute the alarming and display when both passwords are not coincident provided operation time of the paging receiver is out of the prohibition time zone set by said time setting means while prohibiting said display to execute the alarming and the display of a message provided the operation time of the paging receiver is within the prohibition time zone. A paging receiver equipped with an alarming/display means (9,10), said alarming/display means (9,10) being adapted to inform a user of a call with a ringing sound when a paging number in received data is coincident with a paging number allocated to the user himself and to display a received message, time setting means for setting times of commencement and completion of alarming prohibition time zone; and a prohibition time storage means for storing the times of commencement and completion of the prohibition time zone set by said time setting means; and a message storage means (11); characterized by: a password storage means (6); a password collator means (7) for collating a password contained in the received message with a password stored in said password storage means (6); and alarming/display control means (3) for permitting said display to execute alarming and display when said passwords are coincident with each other, and permitting in the same manner said display to execute the alarming and display when both passwords are not coincident provided operation time of the paging receiver is out of the prohibition time zone set by said setting means while prohibiting said display to execute the alarming and the display of a message provided the operation time of the paging receiver is within the prohibition time zone. A paging receiver according to claim 1 further comprising message storage means (11) for storing a message received within said prohibition time zone and wherein said alarming/display means (9,10) displays the message stored in said message storage means (11) after the completion of the prohibition time zone. A paging receiver according to any of claims 1 to 3 wherein said password can be given by operating buttons on a panel of the paging receiver. A paging receiver according to any of claims 1 to 4 wherein alarming is effected with a different tone at the times of commencement and completion of the prohibition time zone. A paging receiver according to any of claims 1 to 5 wherein said password can be displayed on the display (10).

Inventors: UCHIDA JUN, UCHIDA, JUN, UCHIDA, JUN, C/O NEC CORPORATION
Applicants: NIPPON ELECTRIC CO, NEC CORPORATION
Application year: 1993
Main classification: G08B5
IPC codes: H04Q7, G08B5