KR100298109B1 - Mobile wireless terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

There is provided a mobile wireless terminal capable of saving power during standby. The terminal includes an indicator 12 for displaying text or pictograms, a driver 11 for driving the indicator 12, a controller 10 for controlling the operation of the driver 11, and a call service area. Detection means (circuit) 21 for detecting information indicating inside and outside, operation means for stopping display of at least a part of the display 12 after a predetermined time has elapsed after detecting information outside the call service area; A return means for returning the display of the indicator 12 to normal operation when there is a key input or reentering the call service area at the time of stopping display of (12) is provided.

Description

Mobile wireless terminal

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mobile radio terminal, and more particularly, to a technique for prolonging the waiting time with a mobile radio terminal such as a cellular phone or a portable cellular phone with a display function.

The state in which power is supplied to and operated in the mobile radiotelephone terminal includes a busy state, a waiting state, and other states.

Busy is when you are making a call or communication using a mobile wireless telephone terminal. Waiting is a state where you can register a location with a base station in a call service area and can answer calls from the base station. Say the status.

One of several capabilities of mobile wireless telephones is available time, which includes talk time and standby time.

Talk time refers to the time to talk until the battery runs out of capacity, and standby time refers to the time to maintain the standby state until the battery runs out of capacity. Here, the technique for prolonging the waiting time will be described. The length of the waitable time is determined by how small the current consumption during standby and how large the battery capacity are.

In order to satisfy the prolongation of the usable time, a battery having a large capacity is required. However, this portable radiotelephone terminal is highly required for small size and light weight because of the importance of portability, and there is a difficulty in achieving compatibility between "small size and light weight" and "large capacity battery."

Battery capacity is limited by the size of the mobile radiotelephone terminal and by the price. In order to ensure that the price does not increase more than necessary, the capacity of the battery should be as small as possible.

As described above, the capacity of the battery that can be used is preferably determined to be large "capacity" so that the length of the "wait time" is long, but is limited by the relationship between "portability" and "price", and by these relationships Is determined.

Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the current consumption to reduce the burden on the battery.

At this time, in order to achieve a long time in the standby, low current consumption during standby, that is, power saving can be achieved.

The components of the consumption current in the atmosphere include the consumption current component required by the receiving circuit for the standby and the consumption current component required by the indicator in the mobile radiotelephone terminal having the indicator.

Advances in wireless circuit technology have resulted in lower current consumption of the current consumption components required by the receiving circuit, and in recent years there has been a demand for lower current consumption of the current required by the indicators.

Reduction of the consumption current component required by the display circuit in the atmosphere was responded by reducing the function of the display itself or adjusting the display time of the display.

For example, in the former case, in a full dot display, the display area is reduced by reducing the number of rows to be displayed, or the consumption current is reduced as a segment display having a small current consumption.

An example of adjusting the display time of the latter indicator is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-102910.

In this example, when there is no call or key input for a predetermined time, the power supply of the indicator driving circuit and the indicator control power are cut off, and when there is a call or key input during power off, power supply is resumed.

Therefore, when a mobile wireless telephone terminal is actually used, it is common to repeatedly use calls and standbys. While moving out of the call service area or resting, the terminal does not need to be visible to the user.

For this reason, in addition to the conventional system described above, low current consumption that can be adapted to the telephone system currently used is desired.

Specifically, it is desired to prolong the standby time, such as low current consumption considering the circumstances inside and outside the call service area, low current consumption considering the remaining battery power, and low current consumption corresponding to various usage conditions.

Mobile wireless telephone terminals such as mobile phones and simple portable telephones have great convenience in that the place of use is not limited to one place and can be carried.

When carrying with you, you may move inside and outside the call service area.

In particular, the range of coverage of one base station is narrow in the call service area of the simple cellular phone, and therefore, it is difficult to commercially expand the area call service area.

Of course, if it is outside the call service area, the call is not made.

Conventionally, there has been no countermeasure for low current consumption considering the telephony service area. For this reason, a low current consumption countermeasure considering the call service area is desired.

In addition, it is convenient to use while moving, but in the outdoors, when the remaining battery capacity decreases with the consumption of the battery, the remaining time available for use is concerned.

The batteries actually used in mobile phones or simple portable telephones are mainly secondary batteries. As the secondary battery, lithium ion accumulators and nickel hydrogen accumulators are mainly used.

Even when using at regular charging intervals, sometimes the timing of charging is slowed down, and when the battery is fully charged while going out, the demand for low current consumption is relatively low, but as the remaining battery capacity decreases, The demand is high.

As described above, there is no countermeasure for low current consumption corresponding to the remaining battery power. For this reason, a low current consumption countermeasure corresponding to the remaining battery power is desired.

Although the frequency of use of a mobile radio handset depends on the person using it, most of the day is in a standby state. In this case, there are many times when there is no intention to use, in other words, when the display of the indicator is unnecessary.

As a method of detecting the case where it is not used, the method of detecting the case where there is no key input more than predetermined time as a conventional example is mentioned.

However, even if there is no key input for a while, the display cannot be performed, which makes it unreasonable. For example, although a mobile wireless telephone terminal with a timer function is not used as a telephone during movement, it is inconvenient to use it freely when the indicator is used as a clock function or a stopwatch function.

Therefore, a flexible low-consumption current countermeasure, such as being able to select from the user's point of view that the display of the indicator is unnecessary under some conditions other than the state of not being used as a telephone, is desired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a mobile wireless terminal such as a portable telephone or a simple portable telephone that can further save power during standby.

A first object of the present invention is to provide a mobile wireless terminal capable of saving power during standby by putting an indicator into a power saving state by detecting information outside the call service area.

It is an object of the second invention to provide a mobile wireless terminal capable of saving power in the air by stopping display of at least a part of the indicator when the battery level drops below a predetermined value.

A third object of the present invention is to provide a mobile wireless terminal capable of saving power in the air by stopping display of at least a part of the display when it is not in use.

1 is a configuration diagram of a mobile radiotelephone terminal for explaining Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

2 is a configuration diagram for explaining a power system of a mobile radiotelephone terminal.

3 is a diagram showing display contents of an indicator of a mobile radio telephone terminal.

4 is a block diagram of a mobile radiotelephone terminal for explaining Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

5 is a diagram illustrating voltage drop characteristics of a secondary battery.

6 is a configuration diagram of a mobile radiotelephone terminal for explaining Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

1: microphone 2: audio circuit

3: modulation and demodulation circuit 4: transmission circuit

5: transmission and reception switching circuit 6: antenna

7: receiving circuit 8: speaker

9: key 10: control unit

The mobile wireless terminal of the first invention includes an indicator for displaying predetermined information, a driver for driving the indicator, a controller for controlling the operation of the driver, and a detection means for detecting information for displaying inside and outside the call service area. And the display is brought into a power saving state by the detection of the call service area external information by the detecting means, and the indicator is returned from the power save state to the normal state by the detection of the information in the call service area. Doing.

The mobile wireless terminal of the second aspect of the present invention provides an indicator for displaying characters or pictograms, a driver for driving the indicator, a controller for controlling the operation of the driver, a detection means for detecting a battery remaining amount, and a battery remaining amount. Operating means for stopping display of at least a portion of the indicator when the display is below a predetermined value, and returning means for returning the display of the indicator to normal operation when there is a call or a key input when the display is stopped. Doing.

The mobile wireless terminal of the third aspect of the present invention includes an indicator for displaying characters or pictograms, a driver for driving the indicator, a control unit for controlling the operation of the driver, a detection unit for detecting a use state, and an unused unit. Operating means for stopping the display of the indicator when the display is brought into a state, and returning means for returning the display of the indicator to normal operation when a call or key input is made when the display is stopped.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described.

Example 1

1 is a configuration diagram for explaining the operation of the first embodiment of the mobile radio telephone terminal.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a microphone, 2 is an audio circuit, 3 is a demodulation circuit, 4 is a transmission circuit, 5 is a transmission / reception switching circuit, 6 is an antenna, 7 is a reception circuit, 8 is a speaker, 9 is a key, and 10 is a control unit. , 11 is a driver, 12 is an indicator, and 21 is a call service area detection circuit.

The signal flow shown in the figure is as follows.

The electrical signal to which the input voice is converted in the microphone 1 is amplified in the audio circuit 2 and modulated in the modulation / demodulation circuit 3. This is converted and amplified by the high frequency in the transmission circuit 4 and radiated to the air from the antenna 6 through the transmission / reception switching circuit 5.

On the other hand, the high frequency received by the antenna 6 is input to the receiving circuit 7 through the transmission and reception switching circuit 5, amplified and frequency converted, demodulated by the demodulation circuit 3, and then amplified by the audio circuit 2. Sound is output from the speaker 8.

The operation of the terminal is performed by the key 9, whereby the control unit 10 can control each circuit to perform a predetermined operation.

The result of the key operation can be confirmed in the display 12 by the driver 11 controlling the display operation of the display 12 through the control unit 10.

2 shows a power system of a mobile radiotelephone terminal.

In FIG. 2, 13 is a battery, 14 is a control unit power supply, 15 is a power supply (new) switching power supply, 16 is a transmission circuit power supply, 17 is a receiving circuit power supply, 18 is a modulation / demodulation circuit power supply, 19 is an audio circuit power supply, and 20 an indicator Driver power.

The battery 13 includes a control unit power supply 14, a transmission / reception switching power supply 15, a transmission circuit power supply 16, a reception circuit power supply 17, a demodulation circuit power supply 18, an audio circuit power supply 19, an indicator / driver power supply. Supply DC power to (20).

Each power supply circuit other than the control unit power supply 14 operates by a control signal from the control unit 10.

The indicator 12 displays the operation state of the terminal.

For example, the display example is shown in FIG.

The figure shows three pictograms and ten numbers in two rows.

The glyph located at the left of the three glyphs indicates “antenna mic and electric field strength”, and the number of vertical bars (antenna bars) indicates the magnitude of the received electric field strength and the weakest electric field strength. Is shown in four stages: no antenna rod, one antenna rod, two antenna rods, and three antenna rods.

"Aerial" indicates that when the terminal is in the call service area, the location is registered by communication with the base station and is in a reception possible state.

The pictograph located at the far right of the pictograms indicates “battery remaining”, and the magnitude of the remaining capacity of the battery capacity is indicated by the number of vertical bars (battery bars). The state from the low battery level to the large state is indicated by four steps, namely, "no battery bar", "one battery bar", "two battery bars", and "three battery bars".

Therefore, in the call service area, when the terminal operates the key 9 to supply power, the battery 13 is supplied with power to the control unit power supply 14, so that the control unit 10 operates.

The control unit 10 controls the transmission / reception switching power supply 15, the transmission circuit power supply 16, the reception circuit power supply 17, the modulation and demodulation circuit power supply 18, the audio circuit power supply 19, and the indicator / driver power supply 20. Power is supplied to the transmission / reception switching circuit 5, the transmission circuit 4, the reception circuit 7, the modulation / demodulation circuit 3, the audio circuit 2, the display 12, and the driver 11.

Each circuit is in a standby state, and under the control of the control unit 10, the terminal performs a sequence operation for location registration with an adjacent base station.

The call service area detection circuit 21 confirms as a "area signal" that the control channel with the base station is established.

The control unit 10 controls the driver 11 so that the indicator 12 displays "air" when it is in a state indicating that the "area signal" is in the call service area.

Subsequently, the indicator 12 displays "air" and also displays the pictogram "antenna microphone and electric field strength" indicating the electric field strength according to the electric field strength.

The procedure of location registration is carried out in accordance with standard standards established as technical standards for mobile phones and simple mobile phones.

The call service area detection circuit 21 is shown for illustration and is actually part of the software that controls the mobile radiotelephone terminal.

When "Aerial" is displayed, the terminal can call and call. Therefore, the indicator continuously shows all states so that they are always available.

On the other hand, since the control channel is not established outside the call service area, and the "area signal" does not indicate that it is in the call service area, "air" is not displayed. In this state, call and call are not performed.

Therefore, the display of the indicator is performed only by the pictogram "battery remaining amount" display, or the "outside limit" display to indicate that it is out of the area.

When the user of the terminal is outside the call service area for a long time, the display of the indicator 12 is unnecessary because the terminal does not actually make a call.

For this reason, even if the display of the indicator 12 is partially or all stopped or intermittently operated outside the call service area, there is no big problem in using it freely.

In the call service area, it is set to "ON", and outside the call service area, "OFF", and this is set as "area signal". When the signal is sent from the call service area detection circuit 21 to the control unit 10, the control unit 10 displays it. Can be controlled.

That is, "OFF" is detected as an "area signal" outside the call service area, and when a predetermined time elapses from this detection time, the display of part or all of the indicator is stopped, or the intermittent operation of at least part of the display of the indicator is started. The power saving state is entered.

Therefore, the following display operations can be performed.

For example, in the case of the intermittent operation, when the period is set to P and the length of the display time is set to T, the display time frequency, that is, the duty ratio, is expressed by T / P × 100 (%). This duty ratio is usually 100% when "area signal" is "ON" (in call service area) and when a predetermined time elapses when "area signal" is "OFF" (out of call service area). Up to 100% of the number is reduced along with the elapsed time, so that it is possible to cope with changes in the situation near the call service area without any inconvenience in free use. This is done because the state of the "area signal" may become unstable at the end of the call service area.

However, the battery level may be checked even if the phone is out of the call service area, and if a key is input, the display is displayed again.

In addition, when it moves next to the call service area again, since the call service area detection circuit 21 establishes the control channel, it becomes " ON " indicating that the " area signal " "Air" is displayed. At this time, the standby state is accompanied by a normal display operation.

According to this embodiment, the standby current can be reduced in current consumption after a predetermined time outside the call service area, and the standby time can be extended for a long time.

Example 2

4 is a configuration diagram for explaining the operation of the second embodiment of the mobile radio telephone terminal.

In FIG. 4, 1 is a microphone, 2 is an audio circuit, 3 is a demodulation circuit, 4 is a transmission circuit, 5 is a transmission / reception switching circuit, 6 is an antenna, 7 is a reception circuit, 8 is a speaker, 9 is a key, and 10 is a control unit. 11 is a driver, 12 is an indicator, and 22 is a battery voltage and remaining battery detection circuit.

The battery voltage and remaining battery detection circuit 22 detects the battery voltage and calculates the remaining battery power, and sends a battery remaining signal to the controller 10.

Other cases are the same as those in FIG. The power meter is shown in FIG.

The voltage drop characteristic of the battery 13 is a characteristic in which the voltage decreases as the battery is discharged, that is, the output voltage monotonously decreases with the elapsed time, and the remaining battery capacity can be predicted by grasping inherent characteristics of each battery type in advance. have.

However, the voltage drop characteristic of a battery changes with kinds of batteries.

5 shows an example of the voltage drop characteristic of the battery.

In the figure, the horizontal axis represents the elapsed time, and the vertical axis represents the output voltage of the battery when the load consumption current is constant. Although shown in a straight line for the sake of simplicity, even the curve shows the same tendency.

The voltage drop characteristic under the condition that the fully charged battery 13 is used and the current consumption of the load is constant is shown in FIG.

Using the start time (t ₁₎ If continuously used up to the initial voltage (V _1), the operating limits AB of the battery (13) (始終) voltage (V ₂₎ is used at the time t _2.

However, the minimum voltage for the use of mobile radiotelephone terminals is V ₃ . In this case, the available time up to the voltage (V ₃ ) is t ₃ .

At this time, the battery remaining amount can be predicted by monitoring the voltage V ₄ .

Now, assuming that the voltage is V ₄ at any time t ₄ , the voltage drop characteristic is in a straight line, and thus the battery remaining time is calculated as follows.

Ever Use Time t ₄ -t ₁ (1)

Remaining time available t ₃ -t ₄ (2)

t ₄ = t ₁ + (t ₃ -t ₁ ) × (V ₁ -V ₄ ) / (V ₁ -V ₃ ) (3)

If t ₁ = 0, the remaining time available is expressed as:

t ₃ -t ₄ = t ₃ -t ₃ × (V ₁ -V ₄ ) / (V ₁ -V ₃ )

= t ₃ × (V ₄ -V ₃ ) / (V ₁ -V ₃ ) (4)

Here, the remaining available time (t3-t ₄ ) is represented by the available time ratio (R),

R = (t ₃ -t ₄ ) / t ₃ × 100 (%) (5)

to be.

As the battery remaining signal, it is sent to the control unit 10 using the remaining available time (t ₃ -t ₄ ) or the available time ratio (R).

For example, when the control unit 10 reaches 50%, part or all of the operation of the display 12 is stopped or the intermittent operation can be performed, so that the control signal can be sent to the driver 11.

However, there is a meaning of displaying as confirmation of the remaining battery level even in a state where the remaining battery level is low, and when the key 9 is operated, the display is performed again. In addition, even when there is a call, display is performed again.

Some terminals may have a visual display function in addition to the contents of FIG. 2 in the display contents.

In this case, intermittent operation may be performed for the entire display, or only the pictogram “battery remaining amount” indicating the remaining battery level as part of the display may be intermittently operated.

According to this embodiment, it is possible to lower the standby current when the remaining battery level becomes less than or equal to the predetermined value.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, the effect that the battery remaining amount is reduced by stopping or intermittently operating part or all of the display or the like is better than the display of the number of battery bars in the figure “battery level remaining”, and the effect can be well understood. In addition, there is an effect that can greatly feel the need for charging.

Example 3

6 is a configuration diagram for explaining the operation of the third embodiment of the mobile radio telephone terminal.

In FIG. 6, 1 is a microphone, 2 is an audio circuit, 3 is a demodulation circuit, 4 is a transmission circuit, 5 is a transmission / reception switching circuit, 6 is an antenna, 7 is a reception circuit, 8 is a speaker, 9 is a key, and 10 is a control unit. Is a driver, 12 is an indicator, and 23 is a use state detection circuit.

In the flow of the signal in the figure, the use state detection circuit 23 detects the use state and generates a use state signal.

Other things are the same as FIG. The power meter is shown in FIG.

Here, a method of detecting an unused state using a change in the received electric field strength will be described.

In a mobile radiotelephone terminal, the received electric field strength changes relatively while moving or during a call.

On the other hand, in the case where the mobile radiotelephone terminal is stopped at one place, the change in the received electric field strength is relatively small even if the surrounding environment changes.

As the use state signal, the base station unique number is continuously monitored from the use state detection circuit 23 by continuously monitoring the base station unique number using, for example, radio waves of the base station whose electric field strength can be received below a predetermined value. Send it out.

In the controller 10, if the base station can be stably received within a predetermined time, the terminal determines that the terminal is not in use, so that the controller 10 stops or intermittently operates the display of part or all of the indicator 12. 10 may transmit a control signal to the driver 11.

However, even when not in use, if there is a call or operation of the key 9, display is performed again.

According to this embodiment, for example, when there is no key input, but wants to continuously display on the display while moving, for example, it is convenient when waiting by use of a timer function or the like as described above. The effect that it can plan is obtained.

In addition, other methods may be considered for detecting the state of use.

In the terminal, although there is only one base station for location registration, it is possible to receive radio waves from a plurality of base stations and to know a plurality of base station unique numbers.

Of these, there is also a small electric field strength propagation near the reception sensitivity limit of the terminal. Therefore, it is possible to know whether or not the base station unique number has been received by paying attention to this small electric field strength propagation.

For a predetermined time, the base station unique number monitoring method that considers that the base station unique number is stationary and is not in use is considered to be unused.

As the use status signal, for example, the base station unique number is continuously transmitted from the use state detection circuit 23 to the control unit 10 by continuously monitoring the base station unique number by using the radio wave of the base station whose reception electric field strength is received below a predetermined value. do.

If the control unit 10 can stably receive the base station within a predetermined time, the terminal 10 determines that the terminal is not in use and stops or intermittently operates the display of part or all of the display 12. The control signal can be sent to (11).

However, if there is a call or operation of the key 9 even when it is not used, display is performed again.

According to this embodiment, as described above, for example, there is no key input, but when it is desired to continuously display on the indicator while moving in a train or a car, for example, it is convenient and waiting when using the timer function as described above. There is an effect that the current consumption can be reduced.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, since the display is stopped or intermittently operated for part or all of the display when it is outside the call service area, the waiting time can be extended.

In addition, when the remaining battery level is less than or equal to the predetermined value, the display is stopped or intermittently operated for part or all of the display, so that the waiting time can be extended.

In addition, when it is determined that the state of use is not used and the display is judged not to be used, the display is stopped or briefly operated for a part or all of the indicator, so that the waiting time is extended.

Since a method for responding to various application situations is followed, there is an effect that the waiting time can be extended without any inconvenience in free use.

In this way, the effect of prolonging the standby time and the same standby time can reduce the battery capacity and have the effect of miniaturization and low price.

According to the first invention, it is possible to provide a mobile wireless terminal capable of realizing power saving during standby by bringing the display to a power saving state by detecting information outside the call service area.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, a mobile wireless terminal capable of realizing power saving in the air can be provided by stopping display of at least a part of the display when the remaining battery level becomes less than a predetermined value.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide a mobile wireless terminal capable of realizing power saving in the air by stopping display of at least a part of the display when not in use.

Claims (4)

In a mobile wireless terminal having a display for displaying characters or pictograms, a driver for driving the display, and a control unit for controlling the operation of the driver, the control unit normally displays the entire display of the display unit. And controlling the driver so that the display is displayed in an area, and during power saving, the controller controls the driver to display only a specific display area of a part of the entire display area of the display. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising detecting means for detecting where the mobile wireless terminal is located in and out of the call service area, and wherein the control unit detects that the detecting means is located outside the call service area. And a means for stopping display of at least a portion of the display portion and means for returning the indicator to the full display state when detecting that the display is returned to the call service area. 2. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the mobile wireless terminal is provided with detection means for detecting a remaining battery level, and when the remaining battery level is equal to or less than a predetermined value, means for stopping display of at least a portion of the indicator, and the indicator is partially displayed. And a means for returning the indicator to the full display state when there is a call or a key input when the call is stopped. 2. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the mobile wireless terminal is provided with detection means for detecting a use state, and in the case of being in an unused state, means for stopping display of at least a part of the indicator, and the indicator stops displaying part of the display. And a means for returning the indicator to the full display state when there is a call or a key input when there is a call.

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