Communications terminal, communication control method and program

• US 20050255835A1
• Filed: 04/29/2005
• Published: 11/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Goto, Yoshihiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,328,002 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set

Abstract

Wireless electronic payment of a cellular phone to a commercial company for commodities and/or services, received from the company, through the company'"'"'s register and a non-contact IC of the cellular phone is protected from being hindered by an incoming call or mail received by the cellular phone. To this end, an RF block of the cellular phone detects the incoming call or mail received externally over a communication line. The non-contact IC pays wirelessly and electronically for the commodities and/or services received from the company. If a CPU of the cellular phone is responsive to the RF block detecting the incoming call or mail when the non-contact IC is not performing the paying process for going to a telephone-call establishment process based on an off-hook operation in response to the incoming call. The CPU also automatically answers an external incoming call or mail when the non-contact IC is performing the paying process for producing a hold tone and sends it to the other party, thereby preventing going to a telephone-call establishment process for the incoming call.

Claims

1. A communications terminal comprising:

means for detecting an incoming call or e-mail received externally over a predetermined communication line;

paying means for wirelessly and electronically performing a paying process for a commercial enterprise, which provided commodities and/or services for a user of the communications terminal, at the request of the commercial enterprise;

control means, responsive to the detecting means detecting an incoming call or e-mail received externally when the paying means is not performing the paying process, for causing the communications terminal to go to a communication establishment process between the communications terminal and the other party and responsive to the detecting means detecting an incoming call or e-mail received externally when the paying means is performing the paying process, for inhibiting the communications terminal from going to the communication establishment process for the incoming call received externally.

2. The communications terminal of claim 1, wherein the control means stops the incoming call or e-mail detecting means from detecting the incoming call or e-mail when the paying means is performing the paying process.

3. The communications terminal of claim 1, wherein the control means is responsive to the incoming call or e-mail detecting means detecting the incoming call or e-mail when the paying means is performing the paying process for performing an auto-answering process on the incoming call or e-mail to connect a relevant telephone line to the other party and then sending specified information to the other party.

4. The communications terminal of claim 3, wherein the control means is responsive to the paying means terminating the paying process before the other party cuts the telephone line for going to communication with the other party.

5. The communications terminal of claim 1, further comprising:

a storage device that comprises a first area and a second area;

second control means for storing in the first area receipt data involved in the paying process received from the commercial enterprise in the paying process performed by the paying means, and for accumulatively storing in the second area payment data included in the receipt data when the receipt data is stored in the first area; and

means for deleting part of the receipt data stored in the first area in accordance with a first delete command and for deleting the payment data accumulatively stored in the second area in accordance with a second delete command.

6. The communications terminal of claim 5, wherein the data deleting means is responsive to a term being specified for deleting receipt data involved in the specified term.

7. The communications terminal of claim 5, wherein the data deleting means is responsive to a commercial-enterprise category being specified for deleting receipt data involving all commercial enterprises of the specified category.

8. The communications terminal of claim 5, wherein after the part of receipt data stored in the first area and the payment data accumulatively stored in the second area are deleted by the data deleting means, the second control means sums up the payments involved in the receipt data stored in the first area in accordance with a summation command and for storing data on the summed-up payment in the second area.

9. The communications terminal of claim 5, further comprising:

means for selecting commercial enterprises of a specified category from among the receipt data stored in the first area; and

means for displaying on a display the summed-up payment included in the receipt data involving the selected enterprises of the specified category.

10. The communications terminal of claim 1, further:

comprising storage control means for storing in a predetermined storage device campaign information and information on the position of the commercial enterprise received from the enterprise in the paying process;

means for detecting the present position of the communications terminal;

means for determining whether the distance between the present position of the communications terminal detected by the determining means and the position of the enterprise is in a predetermined range; and

display control means, responsive to the determining means determining that the distance between the present position of the communications terminal and the position of the enterprise is in the predetermined range, for displaying on the display the campaign information provided by the enterprise.

11. The communications terminal of claim 10, further comprising means for checking whether the present date is within a campaign term indicated by the campaign information stored in the storage device, and wherein the determining means is responsive to the checking means checking that the present date is within the campaign term indicated by the campaign information for determining whether the distance between the position of the commercial enterprise and the present position of the communications terminal is in the predetermined range.

12. The communications terminal of claim 11, wherein the storage control means has stored in the storage device a calendar including the campaign term that is included in the campaign information received from the commercial enterprise, and the checking means checks whether the present date is within the campaign term based on the calendar stored in the storage device.

13. The communications terminal of claim 10, wherein the display control means acquires from map information storage means map information indicative of the present position of the communications terminal detected by the present position detecting means and displays the map information along with the campaign information on the display.

14. The communications terminal of claim 10, further comprising means for communicating with any particular commercial enterprise that provides campaign information over a predetermined communication network, and wherein the storage control means stores in the storage device the campaign information provided by the particular commercial enterprise over the communication network.

15. A communication control method comprising the steps of:

wirelessly and electronically performing a paying process for a commercial enterprise, which provided commodities and/or services for a user of the communications terminal, at the request of the commercial enterprise;

responsive to detecting an incoming call or e-mail received externally over a predetermined communication line when the paying process is not being performed, causing the communications terminal to go to a communication establishment process between the communications terminal and the other party, and responsive to detecting an incoming call or e-mail received externally when the paying process is being performed, inhibiting the communications terminal from going to the communication establishment process between the communications terminal and the other party.

16. A program for use in a communications terminal with means for detecting an incoming call received externally over a communication line, the program executing the steps of:

wirelessly and electronically performing a paying process for a commercial enterprise, which provided commodities and/or services for a user of the communications terminal, at the request of the commercial enterprise;

responsive to the detecting means detecting an incoming call or e-mail received externally when the paying process is not being performed, causing the communications terminal to go to a communication establishment process between the communications terminal and the other party, and responsive to the detecting means detecting an incoming call or e-mail received externally when the paying process is being performed, inhibiting the communications terminal from going to the communication establishment process between the communications terminal and the other party.