MOBILE RADIO RECEIVER

Abstract: Mobile radio receivers nowadays comprise for example R(B)DS to give the possibility to listen to one station when travelling over the coverage range of a FM-transmitter. To improve the mobile radio receiver the invention concerned supplies a mobile radio receiver, which makes use of means for determining the position of the receiver.

Description: Mobile radio receiver. The invention relates to a mobile radio receiver. The invention further relates to a method for receiving a radio channel. The invention further relates to means for determining the position for use in a mobile radio receiver. Mobile radio receivers are known in the art. Radio receivers are usually equipped with a number of preset possibilities to store the relevant transmitters. When these presets are used in a FM-mobile radio receiver (portable, car etc.) the user is confronted with the phenomenon that FM-transmitters only have a very limited coverage. With modern techniques like R(B)DS and fast responding tuners a kind of following system may be implemented. For slow responding tuners there is currently no switch option available. From the European patent application EP-A-0 462 116 a method and a radio receiver using RDS is known. It is inter alia an object of the invention to obtain a mobile radio receiver and a method for receiving a radio channel that overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art. To this end a first aspect of the invention provides a mobile radio receiver as defined in claim 1. A second aspect of the invention provides a method for receiving a radio channel as defined in claim 6. An advantage of a mobile radio receiver comprising means for determining the position of the receiver is that the mobile radio receiver can use this information by selecting the strongest FM-transmitter, for example. The performance of the radio receiver is improved considerably because now the radio receiver can switch over before the FM-transmitter is weakening whereas with the normal RDS system the radio receiver is switching over when it is detected that another FM- transmitter is received stronger than the present one. An embodiment of a mobile radio receiver according to the invention comprising the features as defined in claim 2. A further embodiment of a mobile radio receiver comprises the features as defined in claim 3. When a radio receiver comprises cellular (for example GSM) or GPS equipment it is possible to use the information from the cellular or GPS equipment when choosing the strongest FM-transmitter. By using this information in an array-like structure in the radio receiver preset system, the user can create his own follow system based on so-called position awareness. Combining this information also with the R(B)DS information even further enhances the possibilities not only for slow tuning systems but also may improve the R(B)DS follow behaviour for fast tuning systems. It is to be noticed here that the invention concerned can also be used for the so- called DARC-system as used for data in for example Japan and USA. Further embodiments of the invention are defined in the dependent claims. The invention and additional features, which may be optionally used to advantage, will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the examples described below hereinafter and shown in the figures. Herein shows: Figure 1 a block-schematic example of a mobile radio receiver according to the invention, Figure 2 examples of a preset list. Figure 1 shows a block-schematic example of a mobile radio receiver according to the invention. Rather than using one preset array the mobile radio receiver will in this example be equipped with a matrix of preset arrays, where the extra one side of the matrix is loaded with (provision) information. For similar equipment this position information may come from the transmitted cell information (e.g. REGIO040). For GPS this position information may be generated by the receiver itself through a learning system based on GPS co-ordinates. Through this learning system the receiver creates its own cells. Further there are two control possibilities. Hereafter first a manual control will be described and later on an automatic control will be described. The user manually stores his favourite stations under the various preset keys. A second parameter is the position information, which may be used automatically or manually (REGION XX). By loading his favourite stations in each array cell the radio receiver may use this information by automatically switching over between corresponding presets when the position information changes. Figure 2a shows an example of a manual control whereby an array of preset numbers 1, 2.... is filled in, whereby for each region (REGION 1, REGION 2, etc.) the different FM transmitter frequencies are filled in. When the user now moves from REGION 1 to REGION 2 the radio receiver will automatically switch from 88.2 to 92.6 (if the user was listening to preset 1). To further improve the position awareness and to facilitate the operation by the user figure 2 shows an example of an automatic control whereby the PI (program information) code information from the R(B)DS system is added to the information flow, it is no longer necessary to use a uniform sequence. Within a couple of hundred milliseconds after tuning to a transmitter (which also broadcasts R(B)DS data), the Pi-code information is also stored in the preset array (together with the frequency information). By checking not only the position information but also the Pi-code information the radio receiver can directly switch over to the corresponding station. The Pi-code information is shown in Figure 2b between brackets as for example (8202), (8203). When the user now moves from REGION 1 to REGION 2, the radio receiver will automatically switch from 88.2 to 92.6 (if the user was listening to preset 1 in REGION 1). The performance of the radio receiver is improved considerably because now the radio receiver can switch over before the FM-transmitter is weakening whereas with the normal RDS system the radio receiver is switching over when it is detected that another FM- transmitter is received stronger than the present one. It is to be noticed that above mobile radio receiver and a method of the invention are described on the basis of an example. A man skilled in the art will be well aware of a lot of variations, which fall within the scope of the present invention. As mentioned earlier the invention concerned can also be used for the so-called DARC-system as used for data in for example Japan and USA.

Claims: CLAIMS: 1. Mobile radio receiver comprising means for determining the position of the receiver. 2. Mobile radio receiver as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the means for determining the position of the receiver comprises means to detect in which cell the receiver is during operation. 3. Mobile radio receiver as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the means for determining the position of the receiver comprises global positioning means. 4. Mobile radio receiver as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the receiver comprises means to manually store at least one station. 5. Mobile radio receiver as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the receiver comprises automatic storing means. 6. Method for receiving a radio channel having a step of determining the position of the receiver whereby on the basis of the determined position the frequency of the received radio channel is chosen. 7. Means for determining the position for use in a mobile radio receiver as claimed in claim 1.

Inventors: BEUNDERS JOHAN W, HOVIUS CORNELIS A, KIANUSH KAVEH, BEUNDERS, JOHAN, W., HOVIUS, CORNELIS, A., KIANUSH, KAVEH
Applicants: KONINKL PHILIPS ELECTRONICS NV, KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS N.V.
Application year: 2000
Main classification: G01S5
IPC codes: G01S5, H03J5, H04B1, H04H20, H04H60, H04Q7