RADIO COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE, UNIVERSAL INTEGRATED CIRCUIT CARD AND RELATED METHOD AND COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE

• US 20100248748A1
• Filed: 12/12/2008
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Innovations Ltd Hong Kong (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Dong, Olivier
• Granted Patent: US 8,437,801 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.600
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/03 Cooperating elements; Interaction or communication between different cooperating elements or between cooperating elements and receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/08 between user and terminal device

Abstract

The present invention provides for a UICC interface and related interfacing method, for use in a mobile radio communications device and including means enabling the UICC to provide an indication that at least one service requiring location data is present in the UICC, means for UICC to receive notification that a source of location data is available, means for allowing the UICC to initiate transfer of location data thereto, means for the actual transfer of the location data to the UICC, and means enabling the UICC to terminate the transfer of the location data, and wherein the location data can be provided from a GPS module or remotely in a contact-less manner.

Claims

1. A mobile radio communications device comprising:

a source of geographical location data;

means for notifying a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) that a source of geographical location data is present;

means for receiving, from the UICC, a signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data;

means for retrieving geographical location data from said source of geographical location data, and for generating a signal carrying the retrieved geographical location data, in response to receipt of said signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data; and

means for sending the generated signal carrying the retrieved geographical location data to the UICC.

2. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said source of geographical location data is adapted to provide geographical location data acquired from a device which is external to the mobile radio communications device.

3. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 2 wherein said source of geographical location data comprises means for retrieving said geographical location data in a wireless manner from said external device.

4. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said source of geographical location data is adapted to provide geographical location data acquired using a positioning module in the mobile radio communications device.

5. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 4 wherein said positioning module comprises a global positioning system (GPS) module.

6. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 2 wherein said signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data comprises an activation command and said mobile radio communications device comprises means for activating said device or module in response to said activation command.

7. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 6 wherein said receiving means is adapted to receive a further signal indicating that the device or module should be deactivated and wherein said mobile radio communications device comprises means for deactivating said device or module in response to receipt of said signal indicating that the device or module should be deactivated.

8. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 7 wherein said signal indicating that the device or module should be deactivated comprises a further activation command.

9. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data is adapted to serve as a request to the mobile radio communications device to send geographical location data to the UICC.

10. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the notifying means is adapted to provide a static notification that a source of geographical location data is present.

11. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the notifying means is adapted to provide said notification by modifying the Terminal Profile command.

12. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 11 wherein the notifying means is adapted to provide said static notification by setting at least one bit of the terminal profile.

13. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the notifying means is adapted to provide a dynamic notification that a source of geographical location data is present.

14. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 13 wherein the dynamic notification that a source of geographical location data is present comprises a specific command adapted to be sent from the mobile radio communications device to the UICC.

15. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the signal carrying the retrieved geographical location data comprises a USAT Envelope command.

16. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 15 wherein the Envelope command comprises a data object carrying said geographical location data.

17. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 15 wherein the envelope command comprises a tag indicating the envelope command carries geographical location data.

18. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said receiving means is adapted to receive a signal indicating that an application requiring geographical location data is present within the UICC.

19. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 18 wherein the indication that an application requiring geographical location data is present within the UICC is achieved using an interface byte of the Answer To Reset (ATR).

20. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 1 adapted to use a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) Application Toolkit (USAT) based interface for communication with said UICC.

21. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 20 wherein the signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data comprises a USAT command.

22. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 20 wherein the signal carrying the retrieved geographical location data comprises a USAT envelope command.

23. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 1 adapted to use a universal serial bus (USB) based interface for communication with said UICC.

24. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 1 comprising means for informing the UICC regarding the availability of the source of geographical information.

25. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 1 comprising means for extending an event list defined in the USAT by adding a new event.

26. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 25 wherein said notifying means is adapted to extend the event list by using said extending means to add an event to the event list, said event being adapted to notify said UICC that a source of geographical location data is present;

wherein said receiving means is adapted to register to the newly added event; and

wherein said notifying means is adapted to send an Envelope Event Download command in response to the registered newly defined event.

27. A mobile radio communications device as claimed in claim 25 comprising means for informing the UICC regarding the availability of the source of geographical information;

wherein said informing means is adapted to extend the event list by using said extending means to add an event to the event list, said event being adapted to inform said UICC of the availability of said source of geographical location data;

wherein said receiving means is adapted to receive a command for registering the newly added event in the UICC; and

wherein said informing means is adapted to send an Envelope Event Download command relating to said newly added event in response to the registering command.

28. A method performed by a mobile radio communications device having a source of geographical location data, of providing said geographical location data to a universal integrated circuit card (UICC), the method comprising:

notifying the UICC that said source of geographical location data is present;

receiving, from the UICC, a signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data;

retrieving geographical location data from said source of geographical location data, and generating a signal carrying the retrieved geographical location data, in response to receipt of said signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data; and

sending the generated signal carrying the retrieved geographical location data to the UICC.

44. A computer program product comprising computer implementable instructions which when implemented on a programmable computer device realise a method according to claim 28.

29. A mobile radio communications device comprising:

a source of geographical location data;

a notifier operable to notify the UICC that a source of geographical location data is present;

a receiver operable to receive a signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data from the UICC;

a data handler operable to retrieve geographical location data from said source of geographical location data, and to generate a signal carrying the retrieved geographical location data, in response to receipt of said signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data; and

a transmitter operable to send the generated signal carrying the retrieved geographical location data to the UICC.

30. A universal integrated circuit card (UICC) comprising:

means for receiving notification that a source of geographical location data is available in a mobile radio communications device;

means for generating a signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data;

means for sending said generated signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data to the mobile radio communications device;

means for receiving a signal carrying the required geographical location data from the mobile radio communications device.

31. A universal integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 30 wherein the signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data is adapted to serve as a request to the mobile radio communications device to send geographical location data to the UICC.

32. A universal integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 30 wherein the receiving means is adapted to receive said notification via the Terminal Profile command.

33. A universal integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 30, wherein the signal carrying the retrieved geographical location data comprises a USAT Envelope command comprising a data object carrying said geographical location data.

34. A universal integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 30 adapted to use a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) Application Toolkit (USAT) based interface for communication with said mobile radio communications device.

35. A universal integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 34 wherein the signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data comprises a USAT command.

36. A universal integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 34 wherein the signal carrying the retrieved geographical location data comprises a USAT envelope command.

37. A method performed by a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) of obtaining geographical location data from a mobile radio communications device, the method comprising:

receiving notification that a source of geographical location data is available in the mobile radio communications device;

generating a signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data;

sending said generated signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data to the mobile radio communications device;

receiving a signal carrying the required geographical location data from the mobile radio communications device.

47. A computer program product comprising computer implementable instructions which when implemented on a programmable computer device realise a method according to claim 37.

38. A universal integrated circuit card (UICC) comprising:

a receiver operable to receive notification that a source of geographical location data is available in a mobile radio communications device;

a generator operable to generate a signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data;

a transmitter operable to send said generated signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data to the mobile radio communications device;

a receiver operable to receive a signal carrying the required geographical location data from the mobile radio communications device.

39. A universal integrated circuit card (UICC) interface for use in a mobile radio communications device, the interface comprising:

means for enabling the mobile radio communications device to notify the UICC that a source of geographical location data is present in said mobile radio communications device;

means for enabling the mobile radio communications device to receive a signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data;

means for enabling the mobile radio communications device to send a signal carrying said geographical location data to said UICC.

40. A universal integrated circuit card interface as claimed in claim 39 comprising a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) Application Toolkit (USAT) based interface.

41. A universal integrated circuit card interface as claimed in claim 40 wherein the signal indicating that said UICC requires geographical location data comprises a USAT command.

42. A universal integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 39 wherein the signal carrying the retrieved geographical location data comprises a USAT envelope command.

43. A universal integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 39 said means for enabling the mobile radio communications device to notify the UICC that a source of geographical location data is present in said mobile radio communications device is adapted to do so using the Terminal Profile command.

48. A computer program product comprising computer implementable instructions which when implemented on a programmable computer device implement a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) interface according to claim 39.

45. A signal configured for transmission from a mobile radio communications device to a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) and configured for carrying geographical location data to the UICC.

46. A signal configured for transmission from a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) to a mobile radio communications device and configured for indicating that the UICC requires geographical location data from the mobile radio communications device.