Mobile telephone

• US 8,422,985 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2007
• Issued: 04/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
• Inventors: Shiga, Noritake, Kato, Makoto
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Ajit
• Assistant Examiner(s): WYCHE, MYRON
• Application Number:
  US11/730,006
• Publication Number:
  US 20070232259A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,210 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.1, 455/404.2, 455/521, 379/37
• US Class Current: 455/404.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems

Abstract

A mobile telephone 2 stores a telephone number and address for data communication of an emergency service in a storage unit, and has a function for acquiring position information showing its own position. If the mobile telephone 2 is outside the range of a 1× network 4 when a telephone number of another party is designated, the mobile telephone 2 checks whether or not the designated telephone number is a telephone number of an emergency service. When the designated telephone number is confirmed to be the telephone number of an emergency service, the mobile telephone 2 retrieves the address of the emergency service from the storage unit, and sends an emergency notification that includes the position information over the EVDO network 5 with the retrieved address as the destination. The emergency notification message reaches a server 3b of the emergency service via the EVDO network 5.

Claims

1. A mobile telephone including a voice communication function for performing voice communication and a data communication function for performing data communication, the mobile telephone comprising:

a storage unit operable to store a telephone number and an address for the data communication function;

a determination unit operable to determine whether the mobile telephone located outside a range of a voice communication area;

a voice communication execution unit operable to execute processing for voice communication using the telephone number stored in the storage unit when the determination unit determines that the mobile telephone is located within the range of the voice communication area;

a retrieval unit operable to retrieve the address stored in the storage unit when the determination unit determines that the mobile telephone is located outside the range of the voice communication area; and

an execution unit operable to cause a message to be transmitted by way of the data communication function using the retrieved address as a destination.

2. The mobile telephone of claim 1, further comprising:

an acquisition unit operable to acquire position information,

wherein the execution unit performs the transmission of the message with the acquired position information incorporated in the message.

3. The mobile telephone of claim 1, wherein

the stored telephone number is a telephone number of an emergency service, and the stored address is an address of the emergency service.

4. The mobile telephone of claim 1, wherein

the execution unit executes the transmission of the message a plurality of times.

5. A notification method used by a mobile telephone that includes a voice communication function for performing voice communication and a data communication function for performing data communication, and a storage unit operable to store a telephone number and an address for the data communication function, the notification method comprising:

determining whether the mobile telephone is located outside a range of a voice communication area;

executing processing for voice communication using the telephone number stored in the storage unit when the mobile telephone is determined to be located within the range of the voice communication area;

the address stored in the storage unit when, the mobile telephone is determined to be located outside the range of the voice communication area; and

causing a message to be transmitted-by way of the data communication function using the retrieved address as a destination.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions thereon that, when executed by a mobile telephone that includes a voice communication function for performing voice communication and a data communication function for performing data communication, and a storage unit operable to store a telephone number and an address for the data communication function, perform a process of:

determining whether the mobile telephone is located outside a range of a voice communication area;

executing processing for voice communication using the telephone number stored in the storage unit when, in the determination step, the mobile telephone is determined to be located within the range of the voice communication area;

retrieving the address stored in the storage unit when the mobile telephone is determined to be located outside the range of the voice communication area; and

causing a message to be transmitted by way of the data communication function using the retrieved address as a destination.