Method and Apparatus for Length Dependent Selective Call Message Handling

This invention relates in general to communications receivers, and in particular to a method and apparatus for message handling in selective call receivers.

Communications receivers, such as selective call receivers, receive selective call signals and demodulate and decode the signals to derive selective call messages addressed to the receiver. To determine whether the selective call signal is directed to the receiver, the address of the message is correlated with one or more addresses assigned to the selective call receiver. When an address of the receiver is positively correlated, the message is decoded.

Typically, the selective call message types comprise numeric or alphanumeric information. The decoded message information is provided to a memory for storage and to a display driver for immediate display or user selectable display, the user being advised of the arrival of the message by activation of a user perceptible alert.

Recently, selective call message types have been expanded to include facsimile messages and graphic messages, in addition to lengthy alphanumeric messages. The display driver may not be able to handle the lengthy messages. Furthermore, in utilization of some selective call receivers, the longer alphanumeric messages or the graphic messages may be more appropriate for handling by a peripheral device than by the display drive of the selective call receiver.

Thus, what is needed is a message handling method and apparatus which can handle both normal selective call messages and lengthier selective call messages.

Accordingly, in one form, there is provided a method in a selective call receiver for handling a selective call message. The method comprises the steps of measuring a parameter of the selective call message and selecting whether to provide the selective call message to a display or a communications port in response to measuring the parameter of the selective call message.

In another form, there is provided a communications receiver for receiving a selective call signal. The communications receiver comprises receiver circuitry for receiving and demodulating the selective call signal to recover a message and a controller coupled to the receiver circuitry for determining parameters of the message, and wherein the controller operates the communications receiver either as a pager or as a radio frequency (RF) modem in response to the parameters measured.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a selective call message system in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the selective call receiver of the selective call messaging system of FIG. 1 in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the operation of the controller of the selective call receiver of FIG. 2 in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a selective call system, in accordance with the present invention, comprises a selective call terminal 10 which provides selective call signals to a transmitter 15 for transmission to at least one selective call receiver 20. The selective call signals are selective call messages which have been encoded into radio frequency (RF) signals by the selective call terminal 10.

The information comprising the selective call messages may be information received from a telephone 25 via the public switched telephone network. Additionally, the information may be received from an information service provider 30. The information service provider 30 collects information on sports, stocks, world finance, and other areas of interest to the public. Finally, the information may be received from another input device 35, e.g., a personal computer or electronic mail service, via a modem 40. The selective call terminal 10 encodes the information received from the telephone 25, the information service provider 30, or the modem 40 for transmission as selective call signals from the transmitter 15.

The selective call receiver 20 receives the selective call signal and decodes the signal to recover the selective call message. The selective call message can then be fed as data to an external electronic device 50 such as a laptop computer or other such computing device for utilization thereby. Additionally, or alternatively, the external electronic device could be a printer or facsimile machine for printing received messages.

Referring to FIG. 2, the selective call receiver 20 receives the selective call signal via an antenna 60 for provision to receiver circuitry 62. The receiver circuitry 62 receives and demodulates the signal and provides the demodulated signal to a microprocessor 64.

The microprocessor 64 comprises a controller 66, an address correlator 68, and a decoder 70. The controller 66 controls the processing of the signal and other functions of the selective call receiver 20. The decoder 70 decodes the demodulated signal and provides the decoded signal to the controller 66.

The address correlator 68 is coupled to the controller for receiving addresses assigned to the selective call receiver 20 therefrom, the addresses stored in a code plug memory 72 and retrieved therefrom by the controller 66. The address correlator utilizes the addresses for examining the demodulated signal by attempting to correlate the addresses with the signal to determine whether one of the addresses is present therein. If one of the addresses assigned to the selective call receiver 20 is identified, the address correlator 68 signals the controller 66.

In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, the code plug memory 72 stores a routing table comprising entries associated with each of the addresses assigned to the selective call receiver 20. The routing table shown in the code plug 72 comprises a message length threshold for each address. The routing table could comprise additional parameters associated with each address, such as message content or time of day information.

When a decoded message is received, the controller 66 determines the parameters of the message, such as the length of the message or the time the message was received. A real time clock 76 is implemented in the controller 66 for the purposes of determining the time of message receipt. Thereafter, the controller 66 handles the message in accordance with the address received with the message and the parameters of the message. In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, if the length of the decoded message is less than the message length threshold associated with the correlated address, the controller 66 provides the decoded message to a display driver 78 for presentation on a display 80 and to a random access memory (RAM) 82 for storage therein. The controller 66 also sends a signal to an alert device 84, such as an audible alert generator, a vibrator, or a visual alert generator, to activate a sensible message alert to advise a user that the message has been received and can be presented by activation of the user controls 86.

Additionally, in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, if the length of the decoded message is more than the message length threshold associated with the correlated address, the controller 66 provides the decoded message to a communications port 88, such as a serial port, for provision to the external electronic device 50 (FIG. 1), such as a printer or a laptop computer. The controller sends a signal to the alert device 84 to activate a sensible data alert to advise a user that a lengthy data message has been received and has been forwarded to the electronic device 50 via the serial port 88. Preferably, the data alert is different than the message alert, such as a short audible chirp to announce a data message and a longer audible alert to announce a selective call message. If the selective call receiver 20 is not coupled to an external device 50, the chirp reminds the user to couple the selective call receiver to, for example, a printer to print out a received message.

In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, if the length of the decoded message is less than the message length threshold associated with the correlated address, the controller 66 provides the decoded message to both the display driver 78 for presentation on the display 80 and to the serial port 88 for provision to the external electronic device 50 (FIG. 1).

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the controller 66 examines the demodulated signal on line 87 to determine whether a protocol recognizable as a selective call signaling protocol is present. If a recognizable protocol is not present, the controller 66 provides the signal to the serial port 88 for provision to the external electronic device 50 (FIG. 1).

Referring next to FIG. 3, a flow chart of the operation of the controller 66 after message reception is shown. After powering up 100 the selective call receiver, the message reception routine waits for receipt of a message 102. The controller 66 determines that a message is received when the address correlator 68 (FIG. 2) signals the controller 66 that an address assigned to the selective call receiver 20 is detected in the received and demodulated signal.

The controller 66 looks at the signal on line 87 (FIG. 2) to determine if the message is a non-protocol message 104, i.e., whether the protocol of the message is recognized as a protocol for which the decoder 70 (FIG. 2) is programmed to decode. If the message is a non-protocol message 104, the message is provided 106 to the serial port 88 and the alert device 84 (FIG. 2) is activated to present the data alert 108, such as the audible chirp described above. Processing then returns to await reception of a next message 102.

If the message has a recognizable protocol 104, the controller 66 examines the output of the decoder 70 to receive the decoded message 110, and the number of characters in the message, N, are counted 112. Additional parameters of the received message could also be measured at step 112. For example, the controller 66 could determine the time of day that the message is received by reading the output of the real time clock 76 (FIG. 2) when the signal from the address correlator 68 indicating message receipt is received.

Next, the controller 66 retrieves 114 the information to determine the message length threshold (THRESHOLD (A)) in response to the address correlated (ADDRESS A). The routing table stored in the code plug 72 (FIG. 2) associates various message parameters with the address. One of the parameters is message length threshold. Other parameters could be stored in the code plug and those parameters would be retrieved at step 114. The parameter measurement taken at step 112 is compared to the parameter retrieved from the routing table at step 114 to determine whether the measured parameter is outside the established parameters stored 116. For example, the length of the message, N, is compared to the message length threshold (THRESHOLD(A)) 116.

If the length N is greater than the message length threshold 116 (i.e., the message length is outside the stored parameter), the decoded message is provided 106 to the serial port 88 (FIG. 2) for provision to the external electronic device 50 (FIG. 1), and the data alert is activated 108. Processing then returns to await reception of a next message 102.

If the length N is not greater than the message length threshold 116 (i.e., the message length is within the stored parameter), the decoded message is provided 118 to the display driver 78 (FIG. 2) and stored 120 in the RAM 82 (FIG. 2). The distinctive selective call message alert is activated 122 to notify the user that a selective call message is received. The order of the steps is not important; the decoded message is treated as a selective call message and handled in accordance with conventional selective call message handling techniques.

Alternatively, in accordance with the second aspect of the present invention, if the length N is not greater than the message length threshold 116, the decoded message may be provided 118 to the display driver 78 and the serial communications port 88 (FIG. 2).

After the alert is activated 122, processing returns to await reception of a next message 102.

Thus it can be seen that selective call message handling in accordance with the present invention allows a selective call receiver 20 to act as a conventional pager or as a radio frequency (RF) modem. The selection of RE modem or pager operation is made automatically in response to measured parameters of a received message and stored parameters. The stored parameters may be individualized to particular addresses. Thus, in operation, a user may program the code plug 72 to treat messages received on individual addresses as selective call messages unless they are too long for easy presentation on the display 80 (FIG. 2). The selective call receiver 20 could be coupled to a printer and messages received on the individual address exceeding the stored message length would be printed on the printer. Likewise, certain information services addresses could have time parameters stored in the routing table. At the end of the work day, the user could couple the selective call receiver 20 to a computing device 50. The selective call receiver 20 would act as an RF modem and any messages received on the indicated addresses after work (i.e., the addresses having, for example, "5:00" stored therewith) would be stored in the computing device 50.

In accordance with the second aspect of the present invention, an RF modem receives and decodes selective call messages and provides those messages to an external electronic device 50. Additionally, if the length of the received selective call message is short enough to be accommodated on the display of the RF modem, the message is also displayed.

By now it should be appreciated that there has been provided a message handling method and apparatus which can handle both normal selective call messages and lengthier selective call messages.