Selective Call Receiver With Independent Control of Displayed Service Area Data and Selected Radio Channel

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to a selective call receiver, and in particular to a selective call receiver which is usable in a plurality of service areas.

2. Description of the Related Art

With the widespread use of selective call receivers, the desire to use it in different service areas grows more and more. To satisfy these needs, there has been proposed a selective call receiver which is usable in a plurality of service areas. Such a selective call receiver is provided with a frequency selector for selecting one from a plurality of receiving frequencies assigned to the selective call receiver in the respective service areas. When a single receiving frequency is selected, the channel number and the service area name corresponding the selected receiving frequency are displayed on screen so that its user can confirm which channel is being selected. A selective call receiver like this is disclosed in Japanese patent Unexamined publication No. 64-68036.

In the above selective call receiver, however, the channel number and the service area name on screen are associated with the selected receiving frequency. Therefore, the displayed information is changed depending on which channel is selected by the frequency selector. Since the respective receiving frequencies are predetermined in the service areas, the user cannot see the information of another service area without changing a receiving frequency.

Further, in a selective call system covering a plurality of service areas, a different call number or ID (identification) number is previously assigned to the selective call receiver for each service area. Since the conventional selective call receiver is designed to display only the channel number and the service area name associated with the selected receiving frequency, the user cannot inform another person, for instance, a customer being in another service area, of the call number corresponding to that service area without knowing the respective call numbers for service areas by heart.

An object of the present invention is to provide a selective call receiver which enables selectively displaying a plurality of call numbers and the respective service area names corresponding the call numbers.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a selective call receiver which enables selectively displaying a plurality of call numbers and the respective service area names corresponding the call numbers independently of channel selection.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a selective call receiver which enables its user to easily confirm the call number predetermined in another service area.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a selective call receiver is provided with a relational data memory and a displayed data selector in addition to a service area selector. The relational data memory stores a plurality of data groups each corresponding to a different service area. The displayed data selector selects a data group from the relational data memory according to the user's instruction. Attribute data such as a call number and a service area name of the selected data group is displayed on screen.

Therefore, a call number of each service area can be displayed on screen by the user's instruction. Since the receiving channel is determined by the service area selector selecting a data group independently of the displayed data selector, the confirmation of the call numbers is performed by the user without changing the selected receiving channel. It is preferable that at first the displayed data selector selects the same data group as that selected by the service area selector.

More specifically, a data group is comprised of a service area name, a call number or identification number, and channel data, which are all associated with a single service area. As an example, the service area selector selects a first data group and transfers the channel data to the receiver and the call number to a call processor including a decoder.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a selective call receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a data table stored in a memory provided in the selective call receiver;

FIG. 3A is a schematic diagram showing an example of displayed information of the selective call receiver;

FIG. 3B is a schematic diagram showing another example of displayed information of the selective call receiver; and

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a call number display control according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a receiver 101 receives a radio signal from an antenna and outputs a demodulated received signal to a call processor 102. The call processor 102 compares a call number of the received signal to a selected call number CALL.sub.s, and if they are identical, then the call processor 102 outputs received data to a display controller 103. The display controller 103 controls a display 104 such as a liquid crystal display so that the received data is displayed on screen.

A receiving channel or receiving frequency of the receiver 101 is determined by a local frequency received from a channel selector 105. The channel selector 105 which is a frequency synthesizer in this embodiment generates the local frequency according to a channel designation signal received from a service area switch controller 106. When a user pressing an area select key 107, the service area switch controller 106 sequentially reads out relational data groups from a memory 108 through a memory controller 109 and outputs a selected channel designation signal to the channel selector 105, a selected call number CALL.sub.s to the call processor 102, and a selected area number AREA.sub.s to a call number display processor 110. The channel selection may be performed automatically or sequentially every pressing the area select key 107. As described later, a relational data group includes an area number AREA.sub.i, an area name NAME.sub.i, a call number CALL.sub.i and channel data CH.sub.i which are grouped under a single service area.

The call number display processor 110 performs a call number display operation by the user pressing a display select key 111. When the display select key 111 is pressed, the call number display processor 110, referring to the selected area number AREA.sub.s received from the service area switch controller 106, reads a call number CALL.sub.i and the relational area name NAME.sub.i from the memory 108 through the memory controller 109 and displays them on the display 104 through the display controller 103. The call number display operation will be described in detail later.

As shown in FIG. 2, the memory 108 stores a relational table containing relational data groups each including an area number AREA.sub.i, an area name NAME.sub.i, a call number CALL.sub.i and channel data CH.sub.i which are grouped under a single service area. For example, the 1st relational data group REC.sub.1 relates to the TOKYO service area, consisting of area number "AREA.sub.1 ", area name "TOKYO", call number "03-0000-1111", and channel data "CH.sub.1 ". Similarly, the 2nd relational data group REC.sub.2 relates to the OSAKA service area, consisting of area number "AREA.sub.2 ", area name "OSAKA", call number "06-222-3333", and channel data "CH.sub.2 ". The jth relational data group REC.sub.j relates to non-registered service area, consisting of call number "aa-bbb-cccc" and channel data "CH.sub.1 ". The area number and area name are not registered in the jth relational data group REC.sub.j.

SERVICE AREA SELECTION CONTROL

Assuming that the user is in a service area whose area number is AREA.sub.i, the user presses the area select key 107 to select an appropriate receiving channel. More specifically, when the user presses the area select key 107, the service area switch controller 106 reads one relational data group REC.sub.i from the memory 108 and transfers a channel designation signal corresponding to the channel data CH.sub.i to the channel selector 105, the call number CALL.sub.i to the call processor 102, and the area number AREA.sub.i to the call number display processor 110. The service area switch controller 106 repeats such a data reading operation automatically until the appropriate receiving channel is found. This data reading operation may be performed every the user presses the area select key 107.

After the appropriate receiving channel has been determined, the service area switch controller 106 is providing the selected call number CALL.sub.s and the selected area number AREA.sub.s which are associated with the appropriate receiving channel to the call processor 102 and the call number display processor 110, respectively. The call processor 102 uses the selected call number CALL.sub.s to extract data of its own from the received signal. Since the respective call numbers are uniquely predetermined in the service areas, the selective call can be achieved in all the service areas by selecting an appropriate receiving channel as mentioned above.

CALL NUMBER DISPLAY CONTROL

As illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B, in cases where a full data group such as the ith relational data group REC.sub.i and the (i+1)th relational data group REC.sub.i+1 is read from the memory 108 to the call number display processor 110, both the call number and the area name are displayed on screen as shown in FIG. 3A. On the other hand, when an area number is not registered as in the jth relational data group REC.sub.j, only its call number is displayed as shown in FIG. 3B. By the user pressing the display select key 111, the call number display processor 110 performs the call number displaying without changing the receiving channel. This will be described in detail hereinafter.

Referring to FIG. 4, when the user presses the display select key 111 (YES in step S201), the call number display processor 110 reads one relational data group REC.sub.i including an area number AREA.sub.i, an area name NAME.sub.i, and a call number CALL.sub.i from the memory 108 (step S202) and then checks whether the area number AREA.sub.i is registered already (S203).

When the area number AREA.sub.i is not registered as the relational data group REC.sub.j (NO in step S203), then the call number display processor 110 transfers only the call number CALL.sub.i to the display controller 103 to display it on the display 104 (step S204). Subsequently, the call number display processor 110 waits for next pressing of the display select key 111 until a time-out occurs (steps S205 and S206). When the user presses the display select key 111 (YES in step S205), the call number display processor 110 reads the subsequent relational data group REC.sub.i+1, including an area number AREA.sub.i+1, an area name NAME.sub.i+1, and a call number CALL.sub.i+1 from the memory 108 (step S207) and then returns to the step S203.

When the area number AREA.sub.i is registered as the relational data groups REC.sub.1 and REC.sub.2 (YES in step S203), then the call number display processor 110 compares the read area number AREA.sub.i to the selected area number AREA.sub.s which is received from the service area switch controller 106 (step S208). If they are different (NO in step S209), the call number display processor 110 reads the subsequent relational data group REC.sub.i+1 including an area number AREA.sub.i+1, an area name NAME.sub.i+1, and a call number CALL.sub.i+1 from the memory 108 (step S207) and then automatically repeats the steps S203-S209 until a read area number becomes identical to the selected area number AREA.sub.s.

When the read area number AREA.sub.i is identical to the selected area number AREA.sub.s (YES in step S209), the call number display processor 110 transfers the area name AREA.sub.i and the call number CALL.sub.i to the display controller 103 to display them on the display 104 (step S210). Subsequently, the call number display processor 110 waits for next pressing of the display select key 111 until a time-out occurs (steps S211 and S212). When the user presses the display select key 111 (YES in step S211), the call number display processor 110 reads the subsequent relational data group REC.sub.i+1 including an area number AREA.sub.i+1, an area name NAME.sub.i+1, and a call number CALL.sub.i+1 from the memory 108 (step S213) and then returns to the step S203. When a time-out occurs (YES in steps S206 and S212), the call number display processor 110 instructs the display controller 103 to terminate the displaying operation (step S214).