Apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving data in a mobile communication terminal

• US 7,742,915 B2
• Filed: 10/19/2006
• Issued: 06/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Jae-Eung
• Primary Examiner(s): MCFADDEN, SUSAN IRIS
• Application Number:
  US11/550,996
• Publication Number:
  US 20070123203A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,342 Days
• Field of Search: 704/215
• US Class Current: 704/215
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/064 Data transmission during pauses in telephone conversation

Abstract

An apparatus for transmitting data from a mobile communication terminal includes an audio codec which converts a voice signal into digital voice data, a detection unit which detects a pause in the digital voice data, and a modulator/demodulator which modulates a signal with non-voice data, converts the modulated signal into an analog non-voice signal, and outputs the analog non-voice signal to the audio codec during the pause in the digital voice data.

Claims

1. An apparatus for transmitting data from a mobile communication terminal, comprising:

an audio codec which converts a voice signal into digital voice data;

a detection unit which detects a pause in the digital voice data; and

a modulator/demodulator which modulates a signal with non-voice data, converts the modulated signal into an analog non-voice signal, and outputs the analog non-voice signal to the audio codec during the detected pause in the digital voice data, wherein the modulator/demodulator comprises;

a modulator that modulates the signal with the non-voice data during the detected pause in the digital voice data,

a D/A converter that converts the modulated signal into the analog non-voice signal,

a filter that filters the analog non-voice signal, and

a Low Pass Filter that limits a frequency band of the filtered analog non-voice signal.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the audio codec includes a switch which selectively switches the voice signal and the analog non-voice signal to the codec based on the detection of the pause in the digital voice data.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the audio codec converts the analog non-voice signal into digital non-voice data during the pause in the digital voice data.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a buffer which temporarily stores the non-voice data.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the audio codec comprises:

an amplifier which amplifies the voice signal;

a switch which switches between the amplified voice signal and the analog non-voice signal;

an A/D converter which converts the amplified voice signal to digital voice data and converts the analog non-voice signal to digital non-voice data;

a filter which filters the converted digital voice data and the converted digital non-voice data; and

a Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) compander which compresses the filtered voice data and filtered non-voice data using PCM coding.

6. An apparatus for receiving data in a mobile communication terminal, comprising:

a detector which detects a presence of non-voice data in a received data stream;

an audio codec which converts the non-voice data into an analog non-voice signal; and

a modulator/demodulator which converts the analog non-voice signal into digital non-voice data when the presence of the non-voice data is detected in the received data stream, and demodulates the converted digital non-voice data, wherein the audio codec outputs a voice signal to a speaker.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the modulator/demodulator comprises:

a Low Pass Filter which limits a frequency band of the analog non-voice signal;

an A/D which converts the frequency band-limited non-voice signal into digital non-voice data; and

a demodulator which demodulates the digital non-voice data.

8. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the audio codec comprises:

a switch which selectively switches an output to the modulator/demodulator based on the detected presence of the non-voice data in the received data stream.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the modulator/demodulator converts the analog non-voice signal into the digital non-voice data when the switch switches the output to the modulator/demodulator, and outputs the demodulated non-voice data to a display unit.

10. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the audio codec comprises:

a PCM expander which expands the received data using PCM decoding;

a Low Pass Filter which limits a frequency band of the decoded received data;

a D/A converter which converts the frequency band-limited data into an analog signal; and

a switch which switches a path of the converted analog signal.

11. The apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

a buffer which temporarily stores the received data stream.

12. A method for transmitting data from a mobile communication terminal, comprising:

converting, by an audio codec of the mobile communication terminal, a voice signal into digital voice data;

detecting, by a detector of the mobile communication terminal, a pause in the digital voice data;

modulating a signal with non-voice data, converting the modulated signal into an analog non-voice signal, and outputting the analog non-voice signal to the audio codec during the detected pause in the digital voice data; and

transmitting data from the mobile communication terminal based at least on the analog non-voice signal output to the audio codec.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:

converting, by the audio codec, the analog non-voice signal into digital non-voice data; and

selectively outputting the digital voice data and the digital non-voice data to a Processor Unit of the mobile communication terminal based on whether the pause in the digital voice data is detected.

14. A method for receiving data in a mobile communication terminal, comprising:

receiving a data stream at the mobile communication terminal;

detecting, by a detector of the mobile communication terminal, a presence of non-voice data in the data stream received by the mobile communication terminal;

converting, by an audio codec of the mobile communication terminal, the non-voice data into an analog non-voice signal;

converting, by a modulator/demodulator of the mobile communication terminal, the analog non-voice signal into digital non-voice data when the presence of the non-voice data is detected in the received stream;

demodulating, by the modulator/demodulator of the mobile communication terminal, the converted digital non-voice; and

converting voice data from the received data stream into an analog voice signal, outputting the analog voice signal to a speaker, and outputting the analog voice signal from the speaker.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the non-voice data comprises one of image data and text data.

16. The method according to claim 14, further comprising:

outputting the demodulated digital non-voice data to a display unit.

17. A mobile communication terminal, comprising:

a transceiver which transmits and receives voice data;

an audio codec which processes voice data; and

a processor that cooperates with the audio codec to insert non-voice data between certain portions of voice data transmitted by the transceiver and to detect non-voice data inserted between certain portions of the received voice data, such that the non-voice data is transmitted and received together with the voice data through a single voice communication channel, wherein the processor comprises;

an input unit which receives user input, and

a detector which detects pauses in the voice data to be transmitted, wherein the detector compares sound characteristics of a user'"'"'s voice with sound characteristics of other sounds picked up by the input unit.

18. The terminal according to claim 17, wherein the sound characteristics of the user'"'"'s voice relate to at least one of amplitude, frequency, pitch, tone, intonation and speed of speech.

19. The terminal according to claim 17, wherein the processor further comprises:

a text processor which receives text data from a user via the input unit, and cooperates with the modulator/demodulator and the detector to insert at least a portion of the received text data during the pauses in the voice data.

20. The terminal according to claim 19, further comprising a storage unit which stores the received text data for subsequent retrieval.