WO1990013213A1

WO1990013213A1 - Radio pagers

Info

Publication number: WO1990013213A1
Application number: PCT/GB1990/000588
Authority: WO
Inventors: Michael George Gloster; Nicholas Simon. MYERS
Original assignee: Blick Communications Limited; Psion Plc
Priority date: 1989-04-14
Filing date: 1990-04-17
Publication date: 1990-11-01
Also published as: GB9120275D0; GB2247810B; GB2247810A; GB8908513D0

Abstract

A radio pager (1) comprises an aerial (2) connected to a radio receiver (3) for receiving information transmitted by a radio paging network (4). Information received by the radio pager (1) can be communicated to a micro-computer (9) linked with a portable computer (10). The micro-computer (9) and so-called portable computer (10) are operative for processing information received by the radio pager (1) and operative for manipulating data contained within the transmitted information and for responding to the data in dependence upon whether part or all of the data satisfies a desired condition.

Description

RADIO PAGERS

This invention relates to radio pagers for use in conjunction with radio paging networks.

Conventional radio pagers which are presently available merely receive and display transmitted data in the form it is received, the display being in audio, visual or hard copy form. This limits the versatility of conventional radio pagers.

It is an aim of the present invention to provide a radio pager which can perform an operational function on received data thereby offering a greater degree of flexibility in the way the transmitted data is received and displayed.

According to the present invention there is provided a radio pager for use on a radio paging network, the radio pager comprising: a receiver for receiving the information transmitted via the network; comparison means for comparing an address signal contained within the transmitted information with an address code(s) stored within the radio pager which identifies the radio pager; a processor means for processing the data when the address signal corresponds to the address code(s), for manipulating data contained within the transmitted information, and for responding to the data in dependence upon whether part or all of the data satisfies a desired condition; and an interface connector for enabling detachable connection of the processor to a portable computer.

By "manipulating the data" it is meant that the processor means carries out an operational function on the received data.

Embodiments of the invention have the advantage that they are able flexibly to manipulate and process information received, before the information is displayed. Conventional radio pagers do not have this capability. Embodiments of the invention can therefore perform a range of additional tasks not available to conventional radio pagers.

In embodiments of the invention, when the received data satisfies the desired condition, a programme may be caused to run. Running of the programme can facilitate manipulation of the data, the manipulative function being determined by the form of the programme. The programme may be stored in the processor.

In a preferred embodiment, the portable computer is operative for receiving the data from the processor and for generating instruction signals for instructing the processor to respond in a predetermined manner when par or all of the data satisfies the desired condition. That is to say, the portable computer may conduct a manipulative function on the data either alone or in addition with the processor.

The portable computer is preferably programmable thereby enabling variation of the desired condition which must be met before .the data is manipulated and the processor carries out the response, and/or enabling variation of the manipulated function carried out on the data, and/or variation of the nature of the response made by the processor.

In preferred embodiments, the characteristics of the "desired condition", the processing and manipulative function, and the response are contained or defined in the programming software.

In preferred embodiments of the invention, communications between the radio pager and the portable computer are synchronised with transmissions received by the radio pager. That is to say, the radio pager is operative for switching off or for reducing the activity of the portable computer during receipt of transmissions and for switching the portable computer on again when there are no transmissions received by the radio pager. The purpose of this is to eliminate or at least reduce the risk of interference occurring between the portable computer and the radio pager.

If a radio pager which has an internal aerial for receiving transmissions is connected to or placed near computer based equipment, its performance may be severely impaired by the radio frequency emissions from the computing equipment. By controlling embodiments of the invention so that operation of the portable computer is conducted during the period when signals are not received by the radio pager, the need to provide the radio pager and/or portable computer with extensive screening and filtering is at least substantially eliminated.

As would be apparent to a skilled man in the art, a pocket radio pager employs battery economising techniques which cause the radio pager to be turned off during periods where transmission has no relevance to that pager (ie. during periods where address or message code words are intended for other pagers). The portable computer is preferably arranged to operate during these periods.

In radio paging systems using the " POCSAG" coding system, batches of calls are sent out on a regular cycle of, for example once every fifteen seconds. As only a proportion of this cycle is used up for the transmission of data, the portable computer can be operational during the remaining time. If the regular cycle is predetermined or can be deduced by monitoring the transmissions over a period of time, the portable computer can be activated during the period when no transmissions are expected to be received by the radio pager.

The transfer of data between the radio pager and the portable computer is also effected during the periods that the radio receiver of the pager is turned off (ie. not receiving transmitted information).

A visual display may be provided on the radio pager and/or the portable computer for displaying data received and processed by the radio pager.

The radio_t pager may be provided with a memory for storing data contained in the transmitted information when the address signal corresponds to the address code.

The processor of the radio pager and the portable computer may be programmed so that the desired condition is recognised to occur when data received by the radio pager has a predetermined relationship (such as form and sequence) with information stored in the memory of the radio pager or a memory within the portable computer, the portable computer being operative for, for example: maintaining (in the memory of the radio pager or memory of the personal computer) independent databases for storing messages; selectively searching, deleting, saving and displaying data stored in the databases; or updating the information stored in the memory by the received data.

The "desired condition" may be for example, data relating to a particular subject, eg. stock market information. Receipt of this information is recognised by the radio pager or portable computer and initiates running of a sub-programme stored in the pager or computer. The sub-programme can be such as to update, for example, stock market prices which are already stored in a memory of the radio pager or portable computer. Hence, in this case, the operational function or manipulation is the act of updating the stock market prices in the memory.

The programming of the processor and/or portable computer may be such that the radio pager is capable of responding to received data in other ways: A) by identifying a particular form of received data as relating to an appointment date and time, and in response to the identification, entering the appointment time and date into an electronic diary contained within the radio pager or portable computer;

B) by identifying a particular form of received data as relating to the setting of an alarm to activate a beeper and/or a sub-programme at a future time;

C) to allow the invention to receive, process and display encripted, compressed or binary data; ^•

D) to allow information received to be date stamped;

E) by disabling future operation of the radio pager or of certain programmed functions thereof when predetermined data is received.

The radio pager may comprise software store means for storing programming software which can be transmitted or "loaded down" to the portable computer when the radio pager is connected thereto via the interface. The programming software may be such as to set up or programme the portable computer so that it is capable of receiving data from the processor of the radio pager. The software may be such as to enable the portable computer to generate appropriate instruction signals, thereby enabling the processor to respond in an appropriate manner when the received data satisfies the desired condition.

The portable computer may also comprise computation means and an alpha-numeric keyboard for performing mathematical computational functions.

An indicator means (for example a bleeper) may be provided within the radio pager or portable computer for indicating to the user receipt of data which satisfies the desired condition or one of several possible desired conditions.

The processor of the radio pager or the portable computer may be operative for running sub-programmes in response to one or more particular identification codes (or Radio Identity Codes RIC). For example, as discussed above the sub-programme may relate to a specialist operation such as the presentation of specialist information (ie. stock market share prices) transmitted from a radio paging transmitter network.

The radio pager or portable computer may comprise a further sub-programme which is run when the radio pager receives a corresponding identification code in the received signal. This further sub-programme may be operative for changing or deleting one or more of the identification codes or Radio Identity Codes stored in the pager. It is therefore possible to enable or disable one or more pagers in a group of pagers from receiving particular specialist information.

This may be applied in the case where, for example, it is desired to control the pagers which can receive say share prices of the top thirty shares in the stock market. Receipt of this information would be recognised by the radio pager upon receipt of one of the identification codes. This would set up the sub-programme which would run therefore enabling the radio pager and portable computer to respond to this information and update share prices stored in the memory of the radio pager or personal computer and display the new share prices accordingly. If it were desired that a given radio pager should no longer receive this particular information (for example, for security reasons or because the owner of the pager has not paid his bill) the transmitting party would be able to instruct that pager to set up the further sub-programme upon receipt of another identification code. This further sub-programme would be operative for changing or erasing the identification code corresponding to the stock market service from the pager. Once this is done, the radio pager could no longer receive stock market information until the further sub-programme is run again and instructed by the information received by the radio pager to reinstate the identification code corresponding to the stock market information.

This identification code may be a Radio Identity Code but may alternatively be a specific form and sequence of data (for example "A;") which is held in a table within the memory of the pager.

Numerous applications of this facility can be envisaged. For example, a group of radio pagers may be capable for running sub-programmes in response to receipt a of predetermined identification code, or RIC or, for example a sequence or data such as "A;", which sub-programmes (when run) would validate or invalidate credit card numbers held within the memory of the radio pager or portable computer. In the event that it were desired to invalidate a credit card number stored in the memory of the radio pager, the appropriate identification code could be transmitted to specified radio pagers so as to run the sub-programme whereupon the credit card could be validated or invalidated according to the form of the data received by the radio pager.

Embodiments of the invention have the advantage that they are capable of acting upon information received to perform a pre-programmed data manipulating function thereby providing a radio pager having a considerable degree of flexibility.

The invention will now be further described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing which illustrates a schematic radio pager embodying the present invention.

A radio pager 1 comprises an aerial 2 connected to a radio receiver 3 for receiving information transmitted by a radio paging transmitter network 4. The network 4 receives information from a radio paging input infrastructure 5, the network 4 and infrastructure 5 operating according to principles known in the art. The radio information is transmitted by an aerial 6 and may use one of many standard radio paging coding formats, for example, CCIR radio paging code number 1 transmitted at 512 or 1200 baud. The transmissions may occur with a frequency band of, for example, 130 to 150 MHz.

The radio pager 1 includes a radio paging address decoder 7 for decoding radio paging signals received by the radio receiver 3 and for comparing an address signal contained in the received radio paging information with an address code (ie. identification code) which identifies the radio pager 1. The address code is stored in an address non-volatile memory 8 of the radio pager 1. In the event that the address code is identical to the address signal code transmitted, the radio paging address decoder 7 activates the radio pager 1 so that the transmitted data can be received by a microcomputer 9. The microcomputer 9 can communicate with a portable computer 10 which is detachably connected to an interface connector 11 of the radio pager 1.

The radio pager 1 is provided with a down-loadable software PROM.12 which is operative for programming the portable computer 10 when the interface connector 11 is connected to the portable computer.

The portable computer 10 may be, for example, a "Psion Organiser II" (trade mark of Psion PLC). In this case, the radio pager is plugged into the "top slot" facility of the Organiser II. The portable computer 10 is provided with a display 13 for displaying data received by the radio pager 1. The portable computer 10 is operative for performing the mathematical, and other data manipulative functions of a conventional electronic computer. Naturally, the portable computer 10 is provided with an alpha-numeric keyboard. In addition to this, the portable computer 10 is capable of performing the following functions:

1. processing and storing of information in a number of different storage media;

2. interface with varied other input devices such as magnetic swipe readers or bar code readers;

3. interfacing with varied other output devices such as printers or modems;

4. executing computer programmes written on or for the portable computer;

5. maintaining a real time clock.

The radio pager 1 is provided with control lines 4 for transmitting information relating to their status (ie. whether transmissions are being received) of the radio receiver. This information is transmitted to the microcomputer 9 which is operative for controlling activation of the portable computer 10 in such a manner that the portable computer 10 is activated when the radio receiver 3 is not receiving transmissions from the transmitter network 4.

Claims

CLAI MS

1. A radio pager for use on a radio paging network, the radio pager comprising: a receiver for receiving the information transmitted via the network; comparison means for comparing an address signal contained within the transmitted information with an address code(s) stored within the radio pager which identifies the radio pager; a processor means for processing the data when the address signal corresponds to the address code(s), for manipulating data contained within the transmitted information, and for responding to the data in dependence upon whether part or all of the data satisfies a desired condition; and an interface connector for enabling detachable connection of the processor to a portable computer.

2. A radio pager according to claim 1 wherein the processor means is operative for running a programme for facilitating the manipulation of the data, the manipulative function being determined by the form of the programme.

3. A radio pager according to claim 2, wherein the programme is stored in the processor means.

4. A radio pager according to claim 2, wherein the characteristics of the desired condition, the processing and manipulative function, and the response are contained or defined in the programming software.

5. A radio pager according to any one of the preceding claims comprising a memory for storing data contained in the transmitted information when the address signal corresponds to the address code.

6. A radio pager according to any one of claims 1 to 5 comprising means for determining whether transmissions are being received by the radio pager and for controlling operation of the portable computer so as to switch off or at least reduce the activity of the portable computer when transmissions are received by the radio pager and so as to switch on the portable computer when no transmissions are received.

7. A portable computer in combination with a radio pager according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the portable computer is operative for receiving the data from the processor means and for generating instruction signals for instructing the processor means to respond in a predetermined manner when part or all of the data satisfies the desired condition, and is programmable thereby enabling variation of the desired condition which must be met before the data is manipulated and the processor means carries out the response, and/or enabling variation of the manipulated function carried out on the data, and/or variation of the nature of the response made by the processor.

8. A portable computer in combination with a radio pager according to claim 7, the combination being programmable so that the desired condition is recognised to occur when data received by the radio pager has a predetermined relationship with information stored in the memory of the radio pager or a memory within the portable computer, the portable computer being operative for maintaining independent data bases for: storing messages; selectively searching, deleting, saving and displaying data stored in the data pager; or updating the information stored in the memory by the received data.

9. A portable computer in combination with a radio pager according to claim 8, wherein the desired condition is data relating to stock market information.

10. A portable computer in combination with a radio pager according to claim 9, wherein receipt of the stock market information is recognised by the radio pager or portable computer and initiates running of a sub-programme stored in the pager or computer, the sub-programme being such as to update stock market prices which are already stored in a memory of the radio pager or portable computer.

11. A portable computer in combination with a radio pager according to any one of claims 7 to 10, wherein the combination is capable of responding to received data in any one of the following ways:

(a) by identifying a particular form of received data as relating to an appointment date and time, and in response to the identification, entering the appointment time and date into an electronic diary contained within the radio pager or portable computer;

(b) by identifying a particular form of received data as relating to the setting of an alarm to activate a bleeper and/or a sub-programme at a future time;

(c) to allow the combination to receive, process and display encripted, compressed or binary data;

(d) to allow information received to be date stamped;

(e) to disable future operation of the radio pager or of certain programmed functions thereof when predetermined data is received.

12. A portable computer in combination with a radio pager according to any one of claims 7 to 11, comprising software store means for storing programming software which can be transmitted or "loaded down" to the portable computer when the radio pager is connected thereto via the interface.

13. A portable computer in combination with a radio pager according to claim 12, wherein the programming software is such as to set up or programme the portable computer so that it is capable of receiving data from the processor means or the radio pager.

14. A radio pager and portable computer combination according to claim 12 or 13, wherein the software is such as to enable the portable computer to generate appropriate instruction signals, thereby enabling the processor means to respond in an appropriate manner when the received data satisfies the desired condition.

15. A radio pager and portable computer combination according to any one of claims 7 to 14, comprising computation means and an alpha-numeric keyboard for performing mathematical computational functions.

16. A radio pager substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing.

17. A radio pager and portable computer combination substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing.