MOBILE TERMINAL AND MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

• US 20010045886A1
• Filed: 06/29/1998
• Published: 11/29/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1997
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: MINOWA, YOSHIKI
• Application Number:
  US09/106,795
• Publication Number:
  US 20010045886A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/7.45
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/022 One-way selective calling networks, e.g. wide area paging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/022 Selective call receivers

Abstract

A mobile terminal receives a paging call signal including call identification information defining identification conditions and when at least one piece of reference identification information thereof fulfills the identification conditions, the mobile terminal identifies that the received paging call signal is a call signal intended for the same. The at least one piece of reference identification information includes variable identification information. The mobile terminal receives GPS signals to determine the position of the same for changing the variable identification information based on a result of the determination of the position thereof. A mobile communications system using the mobile terminal is also provided.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal comprising:

call signal-receiving means for receiving a paging call signal including call identification information defining identification conditions;

memory means for storing at least one piece of reference identification information of said mobile terminal, said at least one piece of reference identification information including variable identification information;

GPS signal-receiving means for receiving GPS signals;

position-determining means for determining a position of said mobile terminal based on said GPS signals;

variable identification information-changing means for changing said variable identification information according to a result of said determination of said position of said mobile terminal by said position-determining means;

determination means for determining whether or not one of said at least one piece of reference identification information fulfills said identification conditions; and

identification means for identifying that said paging call signal received is a call signal intended for said mobile terminal when it is determined by said determination means that said one of said at least one piece of reference identification information fulfills said identification conditions.

2. A mobile terminal according to

claim 1

, including message-extracting means for extracting message information, if said message information is included in said paging call signal received by said call signal-receiving means, when it is determined by said determination means that said one of said at least one piece of reference identification information fulfills said identification conditions.

3. A mobile terminal according to

claim 2

, wherein said call identification information and said reference identification information are each formed as encoded information, and

wherein said determination means, said identification means, said position-determining means, and said variable identification information-changing means are implemented by an information processing unit for carrying out various kinds of information processing in response to said received GPS signals and said paging call signal.

4. A mobile terminal according to

claim 3

, further including position information-producing means for producing encoded position information based on said result of said determination of said position of said mobile terminal by said position-determining means, and

wherein said variable identification information includes said position information.

5. A mobile terminal according to

claim 1

, wherein said identification conditions of said call identification information include designation of a destination area, and

wherein said mobile terminal further includes call information-storing means for sequentially storing said call identification information of a received paging call signal, and if message information corresponding to said call identification information exists, said message information, and message-extracting means for extracting message information corresponding to any piece of said call identification information stored in said call information-storing means, when said variable identification information fulfills said identification conditions of said any piece of said call identification information.

6. A mobile terminal according to

claim 5

, including receiving area information-producing means for producing receiving area information that defines a receiving area based on said result of said determination of said position of said mobile terminal, and overlapping area-determining means for determining whether or not said destination area and said receiving area at least partially overlap each other, and

wherein when it is determined by said overlapping area-determining means that said destination area and said receiving area at least partially overlap each other, said call information-storing means stores said call identification information, and if said message information corresponding to said call identification information exits, said message information.

7. A mobile terminal according to

claim 6

, wherein said receiving area information includes a deviation value defining said receiving area with reference to a starting point set to said position of said mobile terminal determined by said position-determining means.

8. A mobile terminal according to

claim 6

, wherein said receiving area information includes at least one of a lower limit value and an upper limit value of location information of said receiving area.

9. A mobile terminal according to

claim 6

, wherein said receiving area information includes location information hierarchically expressing said receiving area.

10. A mobile terminal according to

claim 6

, wherein said receiving area is defined as an area to which said mobile terminal can be moved from a latest position thereof determined by said position-determining means within a predetermined time period.

11. A mobile terminal according to

claim 10

, wherein said predetermined time period is changed according to an amount of at least one of said call identification information and said message information sequentially stored within a unit time period.

12. A mobile terminal according to

claim 10

, wherein said call identification information and said message information corresponding to said call identification information are stored only for said predetermined time period from a time point of receiving said call identification information.

13. A mobile terminal according to

claim 6

, wherein at least one of a moving speed and a direction of travel of said mobile terminal is further calculated from said received GPS signals, and wherein said receiving area is defined based on said position of said mobile terminal and said at least one of said moving speed and said direction of travel of said mobile terminal.

14. A mobile terminal according to

claim 13

, wherein said at least one of said moving speed and said direction of travel of said mobile terminal is determined from Doppler information of said received GPS signals.

15. A mobile terminal according to

claim 13

, wherein a plurality of pieces of position information produced based on results of said determination of said position of said mobile terminal carried out at respective different time points are stored, and wherein said at least one of said moving speed and said direction of travel of said mobile terminal is determined from said pieces of position information stored.

16. A mobile terminal according to

claim 5

, wherein said variable identification information includes position information produced based on a result of a latest execution of said determination of said position of said mobile terminal.

17. A mobile terminal comprising:

call signal-receiving means for receiving a paging call signal including call identification information defining identification conditions;

memory means for storing a plurality of kinds of reference identification information of said mobile terminal;

GPS signal-receiving means for receiving GPS signals;

position-determining means for determining a position of said mobile terminal based on said GPS signals;

reference identification information-selecting means for selecting one of said plurality of kinds of reference identification information based on a result of said determination of said position of said mobile terminal by said position-determining means;

determination means for determining whether or not said selected one of said plurality of kinds of reference identification information fulfills said identification conditions; and

identification means for identifying that said paging call signal received is a call signal intended for said mobile terminal when it is determined by said determination means that said selected one of said plurality of kinds of reference identification information fulfills said identification conditions.

18. A mobile terminal according to

claim 17

, wherein said call identification information and said reference identification information are formed as encoded information, and

wherein said determination means, said identification means, said position-determining means, and said reference identification information-selecting means are implemented by an information processing unit for carrying out various kinds of information processing in response to said received GPS signals and said paging call signal.

19. A mobile terminal comprising:

call signal-receiving means for receiving a paging call signal including call identification information defining identification conditions and message information corresponding to said call identification information, said identification conditions including designation of a destination area;

GPS signal-receiving means for receiving GPS signals;

position-determining means for determining a position of said mobile terminal based on said GPS signals;

receiving area-defining means for defining a receiving area including said position of said mobile terminal based on a result of said determination of said position of said mobile terminal by said position-determining means;

determination means for determining whether or not said receiving area and said destination area designated in said call identification information at least partially overlap each other;

message-extracting means for extracting said message information corresponding to said call identification information when it is determined by said determination means that said receiving area and said destination area designated in said call identification information at least partially overlap each other; and

receiving area size-changing means for changing a size of said receiving area as desired.

20. A mobile communications system comprising:

a paging communications network for transmitting a plurality of paging call signals including respective pieces of call identification information each defining identification conditions; and

a plurality of mobile terminals;

each of said mobile terminals comprising;

call signal-receiving means for receiving said paging call signals;

memory means for storing at least one piece of reference identification information of said mobile terminal, said at least one piece of reference identification information including variable identification information;

GPS signal-receiving means for receiving GPS signals;

position-determining means for determining a position of said each of said mobile terminals based on said GPS signals;

variable identification information-changing means for changing said variable identification information based on a result of said determination of said position of said each of said mobile terminals by said position-determining means;

determination means for determining whether or not one of said at least one piece of reference identification information fulfills said identification conditions of a received one of said paging call signals; and

identification means for identifying that said received one of said paging call signals is a call signal intended for said each of said mobile terminals when it is determined by said determination means that said one of said at least one piece of reference identification information of said paging call signal received fulfills said identification conditions of said received one of said paging call signals.

21. A mobile communications system according to

claim 20

, wherein said each of said mobile terminals includes message-extracting means for extracting message information, if said message information is included in said received one of said paging call signals, when it is determined by said determination means that said one of said at least one piece of reference identification information fulfills said identification conditions of said received one of said paging call signals.

22. A mobile communications system according to

claim 20

, wherein said pieces of call identification information include a piece of destination area-designating call identification information that permits said identification conditions thereof to be fulfilled only when said each of said mobile terminals is located in a designated destination area.

23. A mobile communications system according to

claim 20

, wherein said each of said mobile terminals further includes position information-producing means for producing position information encoded based on said result of said determination of said position of said each of said mobile terminals by said position-determining means, and

wherein said variable identification information includes said encoded position information.

24. A mobile communications system according to

claim 20

, wherein said pieces of call identification information include a piece of destination area-designating call identification information that permits said identification conditions thereof to be fulfilled only when said each of said mobile terminals is located in a designated destination area, said each of said mobile terminal further including call information-storing means for sequentially storing said call identification information of each received paging call signal, and if message information corresponding to said call identification information exits, said message information, and message-extracting means for extracting any piece of said stored message information corresponding to any piece of said stored call identification information when said variable identification information fulfills said identification conditions of said any piece of said stored call identification information.

27. A mobile communications system according to any of

claim 22

,

24

or 26, wherein said piece of destination area-designating call identification information includes at least one of a lower limit value and an upper limit value of location information of said designated destination area.

28. A mobile communications system according to

claim 22

or

24

, wherein said piece of destination area-designating call identification information includes a deviation value from a defined starting point.

29. A mobile communications system according to

claim 22

or

24

, wherein said piece of destination area-designating call identification information includes position information that hierarchically expresses said designated destination area.

30. A mobile communications system according to

claim 22

, wherein said piece of destination area-designating call identification information includes regional characteristics identification information that defines regional characteristics of said designated destination area.

31. A mobile communications system according to

claim 22

, wherein said piece of destination area-designating call identification information includes terminal-by-terminal characteristics identification information that defines terminal-by-terminal characteristics of said mobile terminal.

32. A mobile communications system according to

claim 22

, wherein relaxation information that relaxes part of said identification conditions defined in a predetermined format is determined for being included in said piece of destination area-designating call identification information.

33. A mobile communications system according to

claim 22

, wherein said piece of destination area-designating call identification information includes identification condition-defining information that defines a plurality of identification conditions of an identical kind or of different kinds, and condition-setting information selectively designating whether each of said plurality of identification conditions is effective or not.

34. A mobile communications system according to

claim 22

or

24

, wherein said pieces of call identification information include at least one of personal identification information as call identification information that designates each individual mobile terminal and group identification information as call identification information that designates each group consisting of a plurality of mobile terminals.

35. A mobile communications system according to any of

claim 22

,

24

, or 26, wherein said each of said paging call signals is transmitted based on a POCSAG protocol or a FLEX-TD protocol or a combination of said POCSAG protocol and said FLEX-TD protocol.

36. A mobile communications system according to

claim 22

or

24

, wherein said paging communications network includes:

radio stations for transmitting said paging call signals, and

a control center for connecting said radio stations and a telephone network and carrying our various kinds of information processing.

37. A mobile communications system according to

claim 22

or

24

, wherein said paging communications network has differential correction information of said GPS signals and transmits said paging call signals with said differential correction information included therein, and

wherein said each of said mobile terminals corrects said result of said determination of said position of said each of said mobile terminals based on said differential correction information.

25. A mobile communications system comprising:

a paging communications network for sending a plurality of paging call signals including respective pieces of call identification information each defining identification conditions; and

a plurality of mobile terminals;

each of said mobile terminals comprising;

call signal-receiving means for receiving said paging call signals;

memory means for storing a plurality of kinds of reference identification information of said each of said mobile terminals;

GPS signal-receiving means for receiving GPS signals;

position-determining means for determining a position of said each of said mobile terminals based on said GPS signals;

reference identification information-selecting means for selecting one of said plurality of kinds of reference identification information based on a result of said determination of said position of said each of said mobile terminals by said position-determining means;

determination means for determining whether or not said selected one of said plurality of kinds of reference identification information fulfills said identification conditions of a received one of said paging call signals; and

identification means for identifying that said received one of said paging call signals is a call signal intended for said each of said mobile terminals when it is determined by said determination means that said selected one of said plurality of kinds of reference identification information fulfills said identification conditions of said received one of said paging call signals.

26. A mobile communications system according to

claim 25

, wherein said pieces of call identification information include a piece of destination area-designating call identification information that permits said identification conditions to be fulfilled only when said each of said mobile terminals is located in a designated destination area.