HK1053934B - Portable terminal - Google Patents

Description

Mobile terminal

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a mobile terminal of a mobile phone having a display.

Background

In recent years, mobile phones such as cellular phones and PHS (personal handyphone system) devices have been widely spread in the market, and the number of users has rapidly increased, with new designs and provision of mobile terminals having improvements in various functions. As the number of users increases, various demands are made, and therefore, the effectiveness and usefulness of the mobile phone must be further improved.

Various technologies have been developed and disclosed in various documents, such as japanese unexamined patent application No. 2001-.

The additional functionality in the mobile phone provided above may improve the usefulness of the mobile phone; they are not used very often compared to existing telephone functions. Several mobile phones provide functions of detecting position information using GPS and taking a picture using a digital camera. They cannot be used normally by the user. This creates a problem in that these additional functions may not be useful to some users.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the present invention is to provide a mobile terminal having additional functions that can be frequently used by a user compared to a simple GPS function and a digital photographing function.

The mobile terminal (for example, mobile phone) of the present invention includes:

a GPS receiver for receiving location information of the mobile terminal from a GPS satellite;

a communicator for downloading a religious service schedule from a server, the religious service schedule describing at least religious service times at locations corresponding to the location information;

a memory for storing a downloaded religious service schedule;

religious service time determination means for determining whether the current time matches a religious service time described in the religious service schedule;

a religious service time notification device which notifies the user that the current time matches the religious service time when the religious service time determination device determines that the current time matches the religious service time;

an orientation detector for detecting an orientation to generate orientation information;

wherein, when the religious service time determination device determines that the current time matches the religious service time, the position detector and the GPS receiver are activated, and therefore, the position detector generates position information, and the GPS receiver receives the location information;

a display processor for displaying a direction toward a specified place calculated from the azimuth information and the position information;

direction matching determination means for determining whether or not a direction specified by a prescribed portion of the body of the mobile terminal matches a direction toward a prescribed place, the direction of the prescribed place being calculated based on the azimuth information and the position information;

and the direction matching notification device is used for notifying the user of the matching of the specified direction and the direction towards the specified place.

The correlation between the area location and the pilgrim time is described in pilgrim timetable, which is pre-existing in the mobile terminal or can be downloaded from a defined server over the network. Pilgrimage time is determined based on location information and date information (e.g., calendar data) that can be automatically corrected with the date at the time of entry.

The mobile phone may be set to a phone priority mode or a religious service priority mode, which is selected by a user operating a predetermined mode switch key. When the religious service mode is selected, the mobile phone does not transmit and receive signals for a predetermined time from the religious service time.

In addition, the mobile terminal may be used as a direction detector, so that a user may search for a predetermined direction. When a user holds the mobile terminal and moves clockwise or counterclockwise, an antenna attached to the upper end of the mobile terminal device moves accordingly. When the direction in which the antenna is pointed matches a predetermined direction, the mobile terminal automatically generates information describing the direction match.

In this way, the user, particularly a muslim who is praying, can reliably maintain the direction to mecca at a predetermined religious service time, precisely anywhere on the earth.

Drawings

These and other objects, aspects and embodiments of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the following drawings, in which:

fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the general structure of a mobile phone of the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing select functional blocks for a mobile phone for indicating a predetermined direction to a predetermined user maintaining religious services;

fig. 3 is a plan view showing an external appearance of the mobile phone;

FIG. 4 is an example of information displayed on a display screen of a mobile phone;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating a religious service time announcement method;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a religious service time announcement method performed by the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a religious service time search method;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a Mecca direction display method;

fig. 9 is a flowchart showing the mecca direction search method.

Detailed Description

The present invention is further illustrated by examples in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall structure of a mobile terminal according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Numeral 1 denotes a CPU, which generally executes a telephone control program to control blocks and sections of the mobile terminal. Incidentally, the mobile terminal is not necessarily limited to a mobile phone; therefore, it may include PHS devices, PDA (personal digital terminal) devices, and the like.

The communicator 2 having the antenna 2a performs modulation of a transmission signal and demodulation of a reception signal, and a random access memory 3(RAM) is used for reading and writing data, and in particular, it stores data set by a user, and the like. A read only memory 4(ROM) stores respective telephone control programs concerning signal transmission and reception of an incoming call, which is executed by the CPU 1. The communicator 2 performs transmission of an outgoing call signal and reception of an incoming call signal, and transmission and reception of character information, such as electronic mail (or e-mail), through the antenna 2 a.

The voice processor 5 converts the reception data generated by the communicator 2 demodulating the reception signal through the antenna 2a into an analog voice signal output by the microphone 6. In addition, the speech processor 5 compression-encodes the speech signal picked up by the microphone 7. The communicator 2 transmits corresponding voice data through the antenna 2 a. In addition, the voice processor 5 has a function of supplying the microphone 6a with pre-recorded voice data representing music, announcements, and vocal information such as the karaoke, which is stored in the information memory, as shown in fig. 2.

The manual input section 8 of the operator is constituted by numeric keys representing "0" to "9" and function keys K1, K2, and K3 (see fig. 3). This allows the user to manually enter a telephone number to manually specify various functions. In response to the letters of the numeric keys manually operated by the user and the function keys of the manual operation input section 8, a display (e.g., a small-sized liquid crystal display) 9 displays a telephone function menu and various data such as characters.

The sound generator 10 of the incoming call continues to generate incoming call sound at the loudspeaker 6a upon reception of the control signal relating to the incoming call by the communicator 2. Numeral 11 denotes a geomagnetic sensor, and numeral 12 denotes a GPS receiver.

The mobile phone of the present embodiment is characterized by providing a new function of indicating a predetermined direction (e.g., mecca) in addition to the generally existing telephone functions. Therefore, this mobile phone is particularly useful for islamic religious services. Typically, muslims pray (worship) five times a day, particularly 7 months and 1 day 2002, and at tokyo, islamic prayer times are 2:40 (morning prayer) in the morning, 11:45 (noon prayer), 3:34 (afternoon prayer), 7:01 (sunset prayer) in the afternoon, and 8:49 (evening prayer) in the afternoon. These services should be directed towards mecca. Therefore, a mobile phone like a cellular phone, which is widely spread in the market and all over the world, can be effectively used by muslim prayers, and is improved in efficiency and usability since a direction (or an arrow) can be displayed in a prescribed direction at a prescribed time.

Fig. 2 shows selection function blocks of the mobile phone, which are used for a religious service of a predetermined user. That is, the mobile phone is additionally provided with a geomagnetic sensor (or a direction detector) 11 that detects the geomagnetic field to generate azimuth information. The azimuth information is supplied to a calculation unit 13 installed in the CPU 11. In addition, the mobile phone is provided with a GPS receiver (or position detector) 12 which receives electromagnetic waves and signals (not shown) of GPS satellites through a GPS antenna 12a and sends position information to a calculation unit 13. Either the geomagnetic sensor 11 or the GPS receiver 12 is now a known technology.

The calculation unit 13 performs a prescribed calculation to determine the direction of mecca, based on the azimuth information from the geomagnetic sensor 11 and the position information from the GPS receiver 12. The current position information is stored in the RAM 3. Specifically, the calculation unit 13 calculates the north-seeking direction as a reference azimuth from the azimuth information from the geomagnetic sensor 11, and calculates an azimuth with respect to the mecca direction from this reference azimuth. The calculation result of the calculation unit 13 is sent to the display processor 14, which then controls the display 9 to indicate the target direction of mecca on the screen. Fig. 3 shows an example of an image displayed on the screen of the display 9. That is, the display processor 14 processes the result calculated by the calculation unit 13 to create an image of an arrow 15 pointing in the mecca direction on the display screen 9. Incidentally, predetermined position information of mecca (i.e., latitude 21:21:00, longitude 039:48:00) is prestored in the ROM 4.

Numeral 16 denotes an information storage, which is provided in the ROM 4. The information memory 16 is dedicated to describing predetermined information in terms of sounds and letters, an example of which is as follows:

"this is the time of prayer, the direction of Mecca being shown by the arrow". The voiced information (or sound data) is supplied to the sound processor 5, which generates the sound of the corresponding microphone 6 a. Furthermore, the character information is supplied to a display processor 14, which generates the corresponding letters to be displayed on the screen of the display 9. Fig. 4 shows an example of information displayed on the screen of the display 9.

Numeral 17 denotes a timer which outputs a start signal to the geomagnetic sensor 11 and the GPS receiver 12 at every predetermined time (for example, 6/1/2002, tokyo, 4:35a. m, 1:48p.m, 5:49p.m, 9:13p.m, and 10:43p.m), respectively, and also triggers the information memory 16 to output sound information (or sound data) and character information. This timer 17 is implemented by the function of the system clock.

At religious service time, the geomagnetic sensor 11 and the GPS receiver 12 are both activated by an output signal of the timer 17. Furthermore, the utterance information (or sound data) is read out from the information memory 16 and supplied to the microphone 6a through the sound processor 5. Further, character information is read out from the information memory 16 and supplied to the display 9 through the display processor 14.

The operator manual input section 8 is provided with the aforementioned numeric keys and function keys (i.e., K1, K2 and K3, shown in fig. 3) with the function key K2 as a mode changeover switch key. By operating the mode changeover switch key K2, the user can change over between the telephone priority mode and the religious service priority mode. When the religious service mode is selected, the mobile phone temporarily suspends a telephone function, temporarily stops transmission and reception of control signals for incoming and outgoing calls, and transmission and reception of voice signals to be compression-encoded. On the other hand, when the phone priority mode is selected, the mobile phone suspends a predetermined function with respect to the religious service. In addition, it is also possible to temporarily suspend transmission and reception of character information such as electronic mail. It is also possible to assign functions of allowing and disallowing telephone interruption during the religious service priority mode to the function keys K1 and K3.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a religious service time notification method in which a mobile phone notifies a user of a religious service time.

First, the user operates the mode switching key K2 to select the telephone priority mode or the religious service priority mode. Further, the user operates the function key K1 or K3 to allow or disallow the telephone interruption during the setting of the religious service priority mode. When a prescribed time in the religious service priority mode (i.e., religious service time) has come, the CPU 1 does not activate the communicator 2, which does not perform transmission and reception (or only reception) of a voice signal that needs to be compression-encoded until the time period during which the user takes religious activities is completely over.

Thus, it is possible to establish a religious service priority mode in which communication functions, such as conversation and electronic mail, are not activated for a prescribed period of time after the religious service time has elapsed, so that the user's religious activities are not interrupted by the transmission and reception of signals.

At step S1, it is determined whether a religious service time has come, and particularly, whether the time calculated by the system clock matches a religious service time specified in the pre-existing ROM 4. If "No," the religious service time announcement method is restarted, and the aforementioned determination step S1 is repeated again. If YES, the flow proceeds to step S2.

In step S2, the CPU 1 controls the loudspeaker bell. In addition, it controls the display 9 to display the aforementioned information on the display screen shown in fig. 4. That is, a ring tone is generated when information is displayed on a screen, and a user reliably notifies religious service time by a mobile phone.

In step S3, the CPU 1 activates the geomagnetic sensor 11, and its output is supplied to the calculation unit 13, and then proceeds to step S4.

In step S4, the CPU 1 activates the GPS receiver 12, and its output signal is supplied to the calculation unit 13, and then proceeds to step S5.

In step S5, the CPU 1 controls the display 9 to display an arrow indicating the direction of mecca on the screen (see fig. 1). This allows the user to confirm the mecca direction indicated by the arrow 15 displayed on the screen of the display 9 at any floor position, and then proceeds to step S6.

In step S6, the mobile phone generates specific music and announcements about religious services. Thereafter, the religious service time announcement process ends or resumes. Thus, the user can perform religious activities while facing his/her head toward mecca. It is possible to regenerate a groundword instead of a predetermined announcement on the mobile phone.

The aforementioned step S6 can be modified to cause automatic calling of muslim friends located at the address book where the mobile phone exists and to announce their religious service times. In this case, the mobile phone automatically calls the phones of the muslim friends or automatically emails them.

In the foregoing embodiment, the GPS receiver 12 is automatically activated to detect the current ground position of the mobile phone at religious service time, and the geomagnetic sensor 11 is also activated to detect the bearing representing the current direction of the mobile phone. Then, the CPU 1 performs a calculation to determine the direction of mecca relative to the current position of the mobile phone, and the display processor 14 controls the display 9 to display the arrow 15 accordingly. In this way, the user of the mobile phone can reliably and accurately determine the direction of mecca.

When displaying an arrow indicating the direction in which the user is applied to the screen, the display 9 also displays prescribed information (see fig. 4) under the control of the display processor 14, which wakes up the time of the user religious service. In addition, the mobile phone generates predetermined music and/or announcement on the microphone at religious service time. This helps the user to reliably hold religious activities with the mobile phone. Thus, the user can take religious activities without any problem.

As described above, when it is time for religious service, the mobile phone automatically displays an arrow 15 on the screen of the display 9, indicating the direction of mecca, while generating a sound representing predetermined information on the microphone 6 a. This enables the user to determine his/her location and orientation of mecca in a timely and accurate manner. Therefore, the user can also know religious service time. Furthermore, the mobile phone can also help the user to take a religious activity by means of generating predetermined music and/or announcements in the loudspeaker 6 a. This may increase the frequency of use of the mobile phone by, inter alia, the user of the pilgrims in islamic, which may constitute an improvement in the usefulness of the mobile phone.

Next, a display mode of the mecca direction of the mobile phone will be described with reference to fig. 8, in which the user manually operates keys to instruct the mobile phone to display the mecca direction on the screen of the display 9.

The mobile phone of the present embodiment provides two modes, i.e., a religious service priority mode and a telephone service priority mode, each of which allows the user to set the mecca directional display mode by operating a prescribed key, such as the mode changeover key K3 or the toggle key K2.

In step S30, it is determined whether the user has a mcplus direction display request. In particular, it is determined whether the mecca direction display mode is set by the user; that is, it is determined whether the mode switching key K3 or K2 is operated by the user to select the mecca direction display mode. If "no", it returns to step S30 again to repeat the aforementioned determination step, and if "yes", it proceeds to step S31.

In step S31, the CPU 1 activates the geomagnetic sensor 11, and its output signal is supplied to the calculation unit 13. Then, the process proceeds to step S32.

At step S32, the CPU 1 activates the GPS receiver 12, and its output signal is supplied to the calculation unit 13. Then, the process proceeds to step S33.

In step S33, the display processor 14 controls the display 9 based on the calculation result of the calculation unit, so that the arrow 15 indicating the mecca direction is displayed on the screen. That is, the user can know the mecca direction indicated by the arrow displayed on the screen with a simple operation.

Therefore, the user simply turns on the mode switching key K3 to set the mobile phone in the mecca direction display mode and start the procedure of the mecca direction display of fig. 8. I.e. the user can easily place the mobile phone in a function as a detector for detecting the mecca direction. If a user, such as muslim, pilgrims, usually takes a religious activity at a predetermined location, the user is required to simply perform this function once to detect the mecca direction. The user then no longer needs to repeatedly perform this function on the mobile phone; i.e., the user only needs to sit waiting for the religious service time announced by the ring tone. Therefore, the mobile phone of the present embodiment is convenient and useful for a predetermined user, such as mush style of pilgrimage.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention, which is substantially the same in appearance and structure as the first embodiment, will be described with reference to fig. 1 to 3, and fig. 6 and 7. Unlike the first embodiment, the mobile phone of the second embodiment is not designed to employ the display of mecca orientation with arrow 15 on the screen of the display 9 (see fig. 3). The second embodiment is designed such that when a user holds the mobile phone body (or terminal body) T, which is mounted on the upper end of the mobile phone 2a, and rotates the screen of the display 9 upward and clockwise or counterclockwise, the mobile phone automatically generates predetermined music and/or announcement when the direction of the antenna 2a substantially matches the mecca direction, which can be kept horizontal by the user. Thus, when the mobile phone is horizontally held and rotated clockwise or counterclockwise to search for the mecca direction, the user is informed of the mecca direction.

Further, the mobile phone of the second embodiment is automatically set to the religious service priority mode when it is time for religious service, wherein when the user inputs an end instruction, which is implemented by the off key K2, the mobile phone goes to the phone priority mode. In the religious service priority mode, when a prescribed time (i.e., religious service time) arrives, the CPU 1 does not activate the communicator 2, and thus does not perform transmission and reception of control signals regarding incoming and outgoing calls, and transmission and reception (or reception only) of voice signals subject to compression coding, and transmission and reception of character information, such as e-mail, until the time at which the religious activity is held is completely ended.

Thus, when the religious service time comes, the mobile phone is placed in the religious service priority mode, temporarily interrupting transmission and reception of signals for a predetermined time period from the religious service time. I.e. the religious activity time of the user is no longer interrupted by the signal transmission and reception in the mobile phone.

The mobile phone of the second embodiment performs a religious service announcement procedure as will be described with reference to fig. 6.

In step S9, the CPU 1 searches for the next religious service time, which is retrieved from the religious service schedule, the details of which will be described below. The flow then advances to step S10.

In step S10, it is determined whether it is time for religious service. This determination is made by whether the time calculated by the system clock reaches the time of the religious service schedule. If "yes", that is, when the religious service time arrives, the flow advances to step S12; if "No," i.e., the time is before religious service time, the flow returns to step S9.

At step S12, the CPU 1 controls the microphone to sound a predetermined ringtone, or it controls the display 9 to display predetermined information. For example, the display 9 displays the following information on its screen to remind the user of religious service time.

"this is the time when religious activities are held, please search for directions to mecca". The mobile phone independently makes a ring tone or additionally displays the above information on the screen, which can effectively remind the user of religious service time. Incidentally, both sound information (or sound data) representing a ringtone and character information representing the information are prestored in the information memory 16.

In step S13, the CPU 1 activates the geomagnetic sensor 11, and its output signal is supplied to the calculation unit 13, and the flow proceeds to step S14.

In step S14, the CPU 1 activates the GPS receiver 12, its output signal is supplied to the calculation unit 13, and the flow proceeds to step S15.

In step S15, it is determined whether the user has operated the mobile phone to issue an end instruction. When the user intends to end the religious service, the user turns off the key K2 to issue an end instruction. In response to the end instruction, the mobile phone is placed in a phone priority mode. If "YES" in step S15, that is, when the user operates the mobile phone to issue an end instruction, the flow returns to step S9. If "no", that is, when the end instruction is not issued, the flow advances to step S16.

At step S16, it is determined whether the direction in which the user holds the finger of the mobile phone matches the direction of the predetermined mecca, this determination being made on the condition that the user holds the display screen of the mobile phone and rotates clockwise or counterclockwise, so that the CPU 1 makes a decision as to whether the direction indicated by the antenna 2a substantially matches the mecca direction.

Fig. 3 shows an example in which the antenna 2a is mounted on the upper end of a mobile phone and can be contracted and extended. The aforementioned determination does not need to be performed in correspondence with the direction of the antenna 2 a. I.e. the determination can be made with other parts of the mobile phone, such as the bottom side of the mobile phone.

If "yes" in step S16, i.e., when the orientation of the mobile phone determined by the CPU 1 substantially matches the mecca direction, the flow advances to step S17. If "no", the mobile phone direction does not match the mecca direction, the flow advances to step S18.

In step S17, in order to announce to the user that the orientation of the mobile phone substantially matches the mecca orientation, the mobile phone automatically generates music and/or announcements on the microphone, and then the flow proceeds to step S18. In step S17, the mobile phone generates notification information such as

"this is the Mecca direction".

Also, reciting the Koran may be generated along with the predetermined music. Furthermore, it is possible to display the aforementioned information on the screen of the display 9. Incidentally, sound information (or sound data) representing music and announcement and character information representing the information are stored in the information memory 16.

In step S18, it is determined whether the user has operated the mobile phone to issue an end instruction. If "yes", the flow advances to step S19, and if "no", the flow returns to step S16.

In step S19, the mobile phone suspends music and announcement generation, and then the flow returns to the beginning of the present process.

Next, a religious service time search process (corresponding to step S9 in fig. 6) will be described with reference to fig. 7. Generally, religious service time in islamic is determined according to sunrise and sunset times, and thus religious activity time differs depending on location and time, and date and year, even in the same country. To this end, the present invention uses a special processing method for accurately indicating religious activity time throughout the year regardless of location.

In step S20, the mobile phone detects the date and year and the current position, i.e., the current position, from the position information of the GPS receiver 12, and the date and year are determined by the time calculated by the system clock from the calendar data (or date information) stored in the ROM 4. Then, the flow advances to step S21.

In step 21, CPU 1 specifies a religious activity schedule, which is stored in RAM 3. In particular, the religious activity schedule contains digital tables relating to specific locations and dates, so one of these tables is suitably selected and read in response to the location information from the GPS receiver 12 and the date information of the calendar table. Assuming that the current location is tokyo and the date is 2001, 6/month, 1 (week 1), the CPU 1 automatically instructs the following table describing the time of five activities

Religious activity timetable (Tokyo)

Date	Day(s)	Morning prayer	Praying at noon	Afternoon prayer	Sunset praying device	Praying at night
							2002/7/1	Monday	2:40a.m.	11:45a.m.	3:34p.m.	7:01p.m.	8:49p.m.

The aforementioned religious activity schedule may be provided in "sunrise activity" time data. The mobile phone of the present embodiment allows the user to easily correct the time data of the religious activity schedule even if the user's current position is different from the position specified by the current religious activity time indicated by the CPU 1, i.e., the user inputs sunrise time data read from a newspaper or the like to the mobile phone, whereupon it calculates the difference between the input sunrise time and the sunrise time in the religious activity schedule, causing the CPU 1 to automatically correct the contents of the religious activity schedule. Thus, the user can control the mobile phone to calculate the accurate religious activity time at any location and at any time.

Further, the mobile phone can be modified in such a way that the next religious activity time is automatically calculated as needed corresponding to the current position and date information, so that the calculation result is written into the RAM 3 at any time. In addition, the mobile phone can be connected to a network to download contents related to religious activity schedules in various countries from a prescribed server, i.e., a user accesses the server through the network to download contents corresponding to religious activity schedules according to the determination of the current location and date of the mobile phone. Here, the download data may be collected from a daily unit, a monthly unit, or a yearly unit, respectively.

In step S22, it is determined whether the date has changed. This process requires specifying a reference section of the religious activity schedule. If the date has not changed, the CPU 1 can make a reference to a predetermined religious activity time. However, if the date is changed, it must update the old religious activity schedule with the new one, if "yes" indicates that the date is changed, the flow advances to step S23, and if "no", the flow advances to step S24.

In step S23, the CPU 1 replaces the old religious activity schedule with a new one corresponding to the changed date.

At step S24, it is determined whether the position has changed, and in particular, whether the position information obtained from the GPS receiver 12 and stored in the RAM 3 has changed by predetermined longitude and latitude values. This process is required when a user travels to another regional location and takes a religious activity at the correct time. If "yes", the flow advances to step S25, and if "no", the flow advances to step S26. In step S25, the CPU 1 changes the religious activity schedule with a schedule suitable for the user' S current area position. Then, the flow advances to step S26.

In step S26, the CPU 1 loads the next religious activity time from the religious activity schedule corresponding to the system clock.

When the religious activity time described in the religious activity schedule is reached, the flow advances to step S21, followed by step S10 in fig. 6, in which the mobile phone rings a ring tone in the microphone 6a, which also displays the following information on the screen of the display 9.

"this is the time for a religious activity; please search for the direction of mecca ".

The user then holds the display of the mobile phone up and rotates clockwise or counterclockwise. At this time, both the geomagnetic sensor 11 and the GPS receiver 12 are activated in the preceding steps S13 and S14. When the direction in which the antenna 2a is pointed (the antenna 2a is usually placed at the upper end of the mobile phone) matches the mecca direction, the mobile phone automatically generates predetermined music and/or announcements, while it also displays the following information on the screen of the display 9.

"this is the Mecca direction".

In this way, the user can confirm that the direction indicated by the upper part of the mobile phone body T substantially matches the mecca direction.

As a result, the user can reliably hold a religious activity at a specified religious activity time while his/her head is directed in the mecca direction at the current position.

After the religious activity is completed, the user operates the key K2 to cause the CPU 1 to interrupt the generation of predetermined music and/or announcements. The user may then wait for the next religious activity time, which will be notified by the mobile phone.

As described above, the second embodiment is characterized in that a special process is provided by the geomagnetic sensor 11 and the GPS sensor 12, in which it is determined whether the direction indicated by the antenna 2a installed at the upper part of the mobile phone body matches the mecca direction, and when matching, the mobile phone automatically generates predetermined music and/or announcement. Thus, the second embodiment allows the user to easily recognize the mecca direction.

Further, the second embodiment has a feature of providing an accurate setting of the religious activity time, which is automatically calculated based on the current position information and azimuth information detected by the geomagnetic sensor 11 and the GPS receiver 12, and the calendar information. Thus, the user no longer needs to alert the religious activity that the time has been reached. I.e. the user can automatically and accurately identify the zone activity time, which is automatically announced by the mobile phone. Thus, the user can reliably hold a religious activity in a predetermined direction at the current position.

Next, a description will be given of a procedure of searching for the mecca direction, which is to notify the user of the direction toward mecca when the user manually operates the mobile phone of the second embodiment to set the mecca direction notification mode.

The mobile phone of the second embodiment provides the aforementioned two modes, i.e., the phone priority mode and the religious service priority mode. In either of these two modes, the user can operate a prescribed key (e.g., K2 or K3) to set the Mecca directional annunciation mode.

In step S40, it is determined whether the user has operated the mobile phone to issue a request for a message of mecca direction. In particular, it is determined whether the user operates the key K2 or K3 to set the mecca direction notification mode, and if "no", the flow returns to step S46 again, and the aforementioned determination is repeatedly performed. If "yes," the flow advances to step S41.

In step S41, the CPU 1 activates the geomagnetic sensor 11, and the output thereof is supplied to the calculation unit 13. The flow then advances to step S42.

In step S42, the CPU 1 activates the GPS receiver 12, the output thereof is supplied to the calculation unit 13, and the flow proceeds to step S43.

In step S43, it is determined whether the direction indicated by the mobile phone matches the mecca direction. This is done in the case where the user holds the mobile phone and rotates the screen of the display 9 upward and clockwise or counterclockwise, wherein it is determined whether the direction indicated by the antenna 2a of the mobile phone matches the direction of mecca.

Of course, the user can indicate any direction with other parts than the antenna 2 a.

If yes in step S43, i.e., when the direction indicated by the mobile phone substantially matches the mecca direction, the flow advances to step S44, and if no, i.e., when the direction indicated by the mobile phone does not match the mecca direction, the flow advances to step S45.

At step S44, the mobile phone generates predetermined music and/or announcement on the microphone 6a to announce the user about the matching of mecca directions. Then, the flow advances to step S45. For example, the sound of a mobile phone automatically making a predetermined announcement is as follows:

"this is the direction of mecca".

Moreover, it may be possible to produce a recitable with music. Furthermore, it is possible to display the aforementioned information on the screen of the display 9. All the sound information representing music and announcements and the character information representing and representing the information are stored in the information memory 16.

In step S45, it is determined whether an end instruction has been issued, and if yes, indicating that an end instruction has been issued, the flow advances to step S45, and if no, the flow returns to step S43.

At step S46, the mobile phone discontinues producing music and announcements, and the flow then returns to the beginning of the process.

As described above, the user can easily set the mecca direction notification mode with simply turning on the K3 key; thus, the mecca direction announcement process automatically starts. The mecca direction announcement procedure enables the user to search for the direction of mecca, which is easily detected by holding the mobile phone and turning it clockwise or counter-clockwise, and automatically generates music and/or announcements when matched, i.e. the user can operate the mobile phone like a detector for detecting mecca direction. If the user usually holds religious activities in the specified area, the user only needs to search for the direction of Mecca once; thereafter, the user simply waits for the ring tone automatically generated at each religious activity time. Thus, the mobile phone of the present invention is very convenient and easy for the user to operate.

The present invention is not limited to the foregoing embodiments, and therefore, it may provide various modifications and/or changes in the design of a mobile phone terminal (e.g., a mobile phone). For example, the first embodiment in which the predetermined religious service time is pre-stored in the ROM4 may modify or the religious service time pre-stored in the ROM4 may be modified corresponding to the location information and the date information to calculate the "accurate" religious activity time. Of course, the first embodiment can be redesigned to have religious activity schedules stored in the RAM 3 similarly to the second embodiment, one of them being sufficient for the CPU to give an indication corresponding to the position information and date information. In this regard, it may describe additional sunrise time information to the religious activity schedule, so that when a user enters a sunrise time (which may be read from a newspaper or the like), the religious activity schedule is automatically modified in response to the difference between the entered sunrise time and the current time given in the religious activity schedule. In this way, the mobile phone is typically able to calculate religious activity times that accurately correspond to the user's current location.

In addition, it can calculate the time of the next religious activity at the current position of the user and an appropriate time, and the calculation result is stored in the RAM 3. After completing the determination of the user's current location and time, it can download the religious activity schedule from a server over a network, the server storing content on the religious activity schedule of each country. Among these, the contents of the religious activity schedule may be downloaded to the mobile phone in daily units, monthly units, or yearly units, respectively.

The second embodiment can be modified similarly to the first embodiment so that an arrow 15 indicating the mecca direction is displayed on the screen of the display 9.

The foregoing embodiment is designed to make mode changes using the keys K2 and K3. Of course, the user is free to select any key in the mobile phone for use as a mode change.

The foregoing methods and functions need not be implemented by a hardware structure but may be implemented by a software process, which may be recorded on a digital storage medium such as a memory card. Therefore, a computer-readable medium storing a predetermined program may be used in the present invention.

As mentioned above, the present invention has many effects and technical characteristics, which will be described below.

(1) The mobile terminal (such as a mobile phone) of the present invention provides a position detector for detecting a current position; and the direction detector is used for detecting the direction indicated by the current mobile phone. According to the detection result, the mobile terminal calculates the direction of a predetermined place (such as Mecca), and the calculated direction is displayed on the display screen. Thus, the user of mobile communication can easily know the direction of the predetermined place.

(2) When the direction of the predetermined place is displayed, the corresponding information is generated from the preset pronunciation, which can help the user to perform a predetermined action (e.g., religious event), i.e., the user, especially muslim user who wants to pray, can perform religious celebration without any problem.

(3) The direction of each predetermined time, predetermined place is automatically displayed on the display screen and the corresponding information is automatically generated by the microphone. Therefore, even if the user is allowed to take a religious activity every predetermined time, the user can normally and accurately know the direction of the predetermined place. In addition, the user is reliably informed of a predetermined time (e.g., religious activity time), and the informed sounding information is generated by the microphone. The foregoing spoken and displayed information effectively assists the user in holding a religious activity at the right time. This can increase the frequency of use of the mobile terminal, improving usability.

(4) When the religious service time is reached, the mobile terminal automatically displays a direction toward a predetermined place. Therefore, the user can clearly recognize the direction toward the predetermined place at each religious activity time.

(5) The mobile terminal can additionally provide a determination process of determining whether the direction indicated by the user's hold and the body of the mobile terminal matches the direction to a predetermined place. Then, the user is informed of the determination result to know whether the direction of the body of the mobile phone matches the direction of the predetermined place.

(6) In the foregoing, the user can accurately determine the religious activity time without reminding whether the religious activity time has come. Therefore, the user can hold religious activities toward a predetermined place at an accurate religious activity time with ease without feeling nervous tension.

(7) The mobile terminal may be set in a phone priority mode or a religious service priority mode. When the user selects the religious service priority mode, the mobile terminal automatically cuts off signal transmission and reception for a predetermined time period. This reliably avoids the user interrupting the religious activity due to the reception of an incoming call, which is undesirable when a religious activity is being held.

(8) In particular, by using the mobile terminal of the present invention, muslims who are praying can concentrate on religious activities performed every day.

As the present invention may be embodied in several forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, the present embodiments are therefore not to be limited, since the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the description thereof, and all changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

Claims (10)

1. A mobile terminal, comprising:

a GPS receiver for receiving location information of the mobile terminal from a GPS satellite;

a communicator for downloading a religious service schedule from a server, the religious service schedule describing at least religious service times at locations corresponding to the location information;

a memory for storing a downloaded religious service schedule;

religious service time determination means for determining whether the current time matches a religious service time described in the religious service schedule;

a religious service time notification device which notifies the user that the current time matches the religious service time when the religious service time determination device determines that the current time matches the religious service time;

an orientation detector for detecting an orientation to generate orientation information;

wherein, when the religious service time determination device determines that the current time matches the religious service time, the position detector and the GPS receiver are activated, and therefore, the position detector generates position information, and the GPS receiver receives the location information;

a display processor for displaying a direction toward a specified place calculated from the azimuth information and the position information;

direction matching determination means for determining whether or not a direction specified by a prescribed portion of the body of the mobile terminal matches a direction toward a prescribed place, the direction of the prescribed place being calculated based on the azimuth information and the position information;

and the direction matching notification device is used for notifying the user of the matching of the specified direction and the direction towards the specified place.

2. A mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the memory stores information relating to the orientation displayed on the display.

3. A mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the defined portion of the body of the mobile terminal corresponds to an antenna for transmitting and receiving signals.

4. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the religious service time announcement means announces that the user's current time matches the religious service time through at least one of audio and displayed images.

5. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein said direction matching announcing means announces that the user-specified direction matches the direction toward the predetermined place by at least one of audio and displayed image.

6. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the communicator downloads the religious service schedule from the server based on the location information and the time information detected by the GPS receiver.

7. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the memory stores a plurality of religious service schedules downloaded by the communicator, each religious service schedule describing a relationship between a location, a date, and a religious service time, and wherein the religious service time determination means selects the religious service time from the plurality of religious service schedules based on location information detected in advance by the GPS receiver and date information representing a current date.

8. A mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the orientation detector is a geomagnetic sensor.

9. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the communicator downloads a religious service schedule of a prescribed location from the server, the prescribed location corresponding to the location information detected by the GPS receiver.

10. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the communicator downloads a religious service schedule for use on each unit of day, each unit of month, or each unit of year.