JPH04225629A - Selective calling receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To display even message information longer than the number of the display digits of a display means easily and clearly without necessitating many switching operations, and to offer a selective calling receiver whose operability can be improved in this way. CONSTITUTION:A message length deciding means 41 which compares the number of the digits of the message information with the number of the display digits of a display device 9 at the time of the display of the message information and a message display control means 42 are provided, and when the number of the digits of the message information is decided to be smaller than the number of the display digits by the message length deciding means 41, all the digits of the message information are displayed at a time on the display device 9 by this message display control means 42, and on the other hand, when the number of the digits of the message information is decided to be larger than the number of the display digits, the message information is scroll-displayed on the display device 9.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a selective call receiver having a message display function.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, some selective call receivers have a message display function. FIG. 5 is a circuit block diagram showing its configuration.

In the figure, a selective call signal sent from a base station (not shown) is received by a radio circuit 2 via an antenna 1, demodulated by a demodulation circuit 3, and introduced into a control circuit 4. In this control circuit 4, the individual number code (ID code) included in the reception selection call signal is compared with the ID code of the own machine prestored in the individual number code memory (ID-ROM) 5. . If both codes match, it is determined that a call has occurred to your own machine, and
A call notification signal is supplied from the control circuit 4 to the speaker drive circuit 6. Therefore, a ringing sound is generated from the speaker 7, and the ringing sound notifies the holder that a call has occurred. The ringing sound is stopped when the holder who confirms the call presses the stop switch 11 or when a certain period of time has elapsed.

[0004] Furthermore, if the reception selection call signal includes a message code, the control circuit 4 first performs error correction and decoding of this message code. Then, display data corresponding to the decoded message code is supplied to a display drive circuit 8, and the display drive circuit 8 displays a message corresponding to the message code on a liquid crystal display (LCD) 9. This displayed message is erased when the stop switch 11 is pressed or when a certain display time has elapsed. Further, the received message code is transferred from the control circuit 4 to a message memory (M-RAM) 10 and stored therein. The message code stored in the message memory 10 is read out from the message memory 10 and redisplayed on the display 9 when the display switch 12 is operated by the holder after the message has been displayed. Ru.

By the way, in this type of receiver, when a message longer than the number of display digits of the display 9 is received, conventionally the message is displayed as follows, for example. That is, the message to be displayed is divided into a plurality of message blocks for each number of digits displayed on the display 9 from the beginning, and these message blocks are stored in the message memory 10 each time the display switch 12 is pressed.
The data are sequentially read out from the beginning and displayed on the display 9. Furthermore, when displaying these message blocks, if there are any subsequent message blocks, a mark or the like indicating this is also displayed on the display 9. In this way, even relatively long messages can be sufficiently displayed using a small display.

[0006]

However, in such a conventional selective call receiver, the display switch 12 must be operated each time to display one message block. Therefore, if the message is long, the number of operations of the display switch 12 increases, making the operation very troublesome for the user.

[0007] Therefore, the present invention enables message information that is longer than the number of digits displayed by the display means to be displayed easily and clearly without requiring many switch operations, thereby improving operability. The purpose is to provide a receiver.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a comparison means for comparing the number of digits of message information and the number of digits displayed by a display means when displaying message information, and a message display control. means, when the comparison means determines that the number of digits of the message information is less than the number of display digits, the message display control means displays all digits of the message information on the display means at once. On the other hand, if it is determined that the number of digits of the message information is greater than the number of digits displayed, the message information is scroll-displayed on the display means.

Further, in the present invention, when displaying message information having more digits than the number of digits displayed by the display means, a predetermined number of leading digits of this message information are displayed at once on the display means, and after a certain period of time, the above-mentioned 1 subsequent digit of message information
Another feature is that the display is scrolled digit by digit.

0010

[Operation] As a result, according to the present invention, if the message information is long, the message information is automatically scrolled and displayed, so the user can check the entire message information just by looking at the display means. It becomes possible to do so. Therefore, the user does not need to operate the display switch, thereby improving operability. In addition, if the message information is a short text, the entire text is displayed on the display at once, so you can check the entire text almost at the same time as it is displayed. can be confirmed in a short time.

Furthermore, when displaying long message information, first a predetermined number of digits at the beginning of this message information are displayed at once on the display means, and after a certain period of time has elapsed, subsequent digits of the message information are scrolled one by one. By displaying, for example, you can simply display the message information from the beginning.
You can check the entire message in a shorter time than when scrolling digit by digit.

0012

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of a selective call receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, the same parts as those in FIG. 5 are given the same reference numerals and detailed explanations will be omitted.

The control circuit 40 is equipped with, for example, a microcomputer as a main control unit, and has normal control functions such as reception control means, ID code verification means, and call notification control means, as well as message length determination. It has means 41 and message display control means 42.

When displaying a message, the message length determining means 41 compares the number of digits of this message with the number of digits displayed on the display 9 and determines whether the number of digits of the message is within the number of displayed digits N. judge.

The message display control means 42 displays the entire message on the display 9 at once if the number of message digits is within the number of display digits N, according to the determination result of the message length determination means 41, On the other hand, if the number of digits in the message exceeds the number of display digits N, first display the first N digits of this message on the display 9 at once, then display the remaining digits one by one from right to left on the display 9. The display is scrolled digit by digit.

Next, the operation of the selective calling receiver configured as described above will be explained according to the control procedure of the control circuit 40. In the call standby state, the control circuit 40 repeatedly monitors the operation of the display switch 12 and the occurrence of a call in steps 2a and 2b, respectively, as shown in FIG. In this state, when a call occurs, the control circuit 40 moves to step 2c and first supplies a sound signal to the speaker drive circuit 6, thereby causing the speaker 7 to generate a sound. Further, if the received selective call signal includes a message code, step 2d
This message code is then stored in the message memory 10. Then, display control of the message that has just been received is executed.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3, for example, the control circuit 40 selects the latest message code just stored in step 3a, and reads this message code from the message memory 10 in step 3b. After this message code is decoded in step 3c, the number of digits of this decoded message is displayed on the display 9 in step 3d.
Determine whether the number of digits is less than or equal to the number of displayed digits. Assuming that the received message is relatively short, such as a telephone number, it is determined in step 3d that the number of digits is less than or equal to the number N of digits displayed on the display 9. Then, the control circuit 40 moves to step 3e and displays the entire text of the message on the display 9 at once. Therefore, the holder can check the entire text of the above message at a glance.

On the other hand, if the message is long, such as a message, and is longer than the number of digits N displayed on the display 9, the control circuit 40 moves from step 3d to step 3f, where the message is first read. The first N digits are read out from the message memory 10 and displayed on the display 9. In this state, step 3g waits for a certain period of time (for example, 2 to 3 seconds) t1 to elapse from the display start point, and when t1 has elapsed, step 3h shows the display 9.
Shifts the displayed message one digit from right to left,
In addition, one subsequent undisplayed digit is read out from the message memory 10 and displayed in the display area at the right end of the display 9 which has become vacant due to this shift. Then, in this state, wait for a certain period of time (for example, 1 second) t2 to elapse in step 3i,
When t2 has elapsed, it is determined in step 3j whether the entire text of the message currently being displayed has been displayed. and,
If there is an undisplayed part, return to step 3g, shift the message displayed on the display 9 one digit to the left, and store the next undisplayed digit in the empty area in the message memory 1.
Read and display from 0. Similarly, the above display operation is repeated until there are no more undisplayed parts. That is, the message is scrolled from right to left on the display 9 one digit at a time at intervals of t2.

When the display of the entire message is completed, the control circuit 40 monitors the operation of the display switch 12 and monitors the progress of the display time t3 in steps 3k and 3l, respectively, as shown in FIG. Then, when the display time (for example, 20 seconds) t3 has elapsed, step 3m
At this point, the message display on the display 9 is stopped and the call standby state is returned. Thus, a display of the message received at the time the call occurred is provided.

On the other hand, when the holder presses the display switch 12 in order to redisplay a message already stored in the message memory 10 in the call standby state, the control shown in FIG. Message display control is performed according to the procedure. Note that this re-display is different from the above-mentioned call occurrence in that not only the recently received message but also previously received messages may be displayed.

That is, assume that the holder presses the display switch 12 while the latest message is displayed. Then, the control circuit 40 detects this operation in step 3k shown in FIG. 4, moves to step 3n, and selects the undisplayed message code stored in the message memory 10 with the next latest reception timing. And Figure 3
Returning to step 3b, message display control is executed in steps 3b to 3j. That is, it is determined whether the number of digits of the message is less than or equal to the number N of display digits on the display 9, and if the number of digits of the message is less than or equal to the number N of display digits, the message is displayed on the display 9 at once. On the other hand, if the number of digits in the message is greater than the number of displayed digits N,
First, the first N digits of this message are displayed on the display 9 at once, and then the remaining digits are scrolled one digit at a time from right to left on the display 9 at intervals of t2. Similarly, each time the display switch 12 is pressed while a message is being displayed,
Each message code is read out from the message memory 10 in the order of the most recent reception timing, and is displayed on the display 9 according to its length.

In this way, in this embodiment, when displaying a message, it is determined whether the number of digits is less than or equal to the number N of digits displayed on the display 9, and the number of digits of the message is determined as the number of digits displayed. N
If the number of messages exceeds , the message is scrolled and displayed on the display 9, so even if the message is too long to be displayed at once on the display 9, the user can see the entire message information just by looking at the display means. can be confirmed. Therefore, the user does not need to operate the display switch 12 many times, thereby improving operability.

Furthermore, when displaying the long message, first the first N digits of this message are displayed on the display 9 at once, and then the display is scrolled one digit at a time, so that, for example, from the beginning of the message The time required to confirm the entire message can be reduced compared to the case where the display is scrolled one digit at a time.

Furthermore, if the number of digits of the message is less than or equal to the number of digits displayed on the display 9, the entire message is displayed at once without scrolling, so the user can read the short message. The message can be checked almost simultaneously with the display, which makes it possible to check the message in a shorter time than, for example, when scrolling and displaying the message one digit at a time.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. For example, in the above embodiment, the message memory 1
When displaying a plurality of messages stored in 0, each time the display switch 12 is pressed, one message is read out and displayed according to its length.
All the messages may be sequentially read out and displayed according to their respective lengths by pressing the display switch 12 once for the first time.

Furthermore, in the embodiment described above, when displaying a message longer than the number N of display digits on the display 9, the message is scrolled by shifting one digit from the right to the left on the display 9. The message may be divided into N digits and scroll-displayed in units of N digits. Furthermore, in this case, if the message is unconditionally divided into N digits each, the words and phrases will be separated in the middle, making it difficult to recognize, so the message may be displayed in units of words or phrases.

Furthermore, in the embodiment described above, the message is displayed using the same control procedure when a call occurs and when it is redisplayed, but these may be different, or may be applied only when redisplaying. It's okay. In addition, the message length determination method, the control procedure and control contents of the message display control means, etc. can be modified in various ways without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0028]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, when message information is displayed, a comparison means for comparing the number of digits of the message information and the number of digits displayed by the display means, and a message display control means are provided. The message display control means causes all digits of the message information to be displayed at once on the display means when the comparison means determines that the number of digits of the message information is less than the number of display digits; On the other hand, if it is determined that the number of digits in the message information is greater than the number of digits displayed, the message information is scroll-displayed on the display means, so that even if the message information is longer than the number of digits displayed on the display means, , can be displayed easily and clearly without requiring many switch operations,
This makes it possible to provide a selective calling receiver that can improve operability.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of a selective call receiver in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a call standby control procedure and control contents by the control circuit of the selective call receiver shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a display control procedure and control contents by the control circuit of the selective call receiver shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a display control procedure and control contents by the control circuit of the selective call receiver shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a circuit block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional selective call receiver.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Antenna, 2...Radio circuit, 3...Demodulation circuit, 5...Individual number code memory (ID-ROM), 6...Speaker drive circuit, 7...Speaker, 8...Display drive circuit, 9...Liquid crystal display (LCD) , 10...Message memory (M-RAM),
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11... Stop switch, 12... Display switch, 40... Control circuit, 41... Message length determination means, 42... Message display control means.

Claims (2)

[Claims] [Claim 1] A selective call system having a function of storing message information in a storage means and displaying it on a display means when a selective call signal sent from a base station includes message information addressed to the own machine. In the receiver, when displaying the message information, a comparison means compares the number of digits of the message information with the number of digits displayed by the display means, and the comparison means determines that the number of digits of the message information is smaller than the number of digits displayed. If it is determined that all digits of the message information are displayed at once on the display means, and if it is determined that the number of digits of the message information is greater than the number of digits displayed, the message information is displayed on the display means. 1. A selective call receiver comprising: message display control means for scrolling message display. 2. When it is determined that the number of digits of the message information to be displayed is greater than the number of digits displayed by the display means, the message display control means displays a predetermined number of leading digits of the message information on the display means at once. 2. The selective call receiver according to claim 1, wherein the message information is scrolled one by one after a predetermined period of time has elapsed.