WO1991004640A1

WO1991004640A1 - Selective call receiver

Info

Publication number: WO1991004640A1
Application number: PCT/US1990/004432
Authority: WO
Inventors: Randi Faith Weitzen; Joseph Edward Laviana
Original assignee: Motorola, Inc.
Priority date: 1989-09-11
Filing date: 1990-08-09
Publication date: 1991-04-04
Also published as: AU6274490A

Abstract

A selective call receiver having a four direction control (207, 206, 208, 209) for locating an indicator on an information display (202).

Description

SELECTIVE CALL RECEIVER

Field of the Invention

This invention relates in general to selective call receivers and more particularly to the operational control of a selective call receiver.

Background of the Invention

Selective call receivers for displaying or presenting information are well known. To provide access to receiver control functions, for example, reading, protecting, or deleting received messages, contemporary receivers use a single switch that linearly advances a function pointer in a single direction or scrolls through a predetermined set of functions. The scope of the selection mechanism is limited to serially sequencing through all available options. Should a user mistakenly bypass a desired selection, the user must sequence through the remaining choices until their desired choice reappears. This is a time consuming and wasteful process. Thus, what is needed is a selective call receiver control mechanism that provides direct control function access.

Summary of the Invention

In carrying out the above and other objects of the invention in one form, there is provided a selective call receiver with a display for presenting at least two symbols representing received messages and operational parameters of the selective call receiver and a control means coupled to the display for moving an indicator capable of moving in four directions for identifying at least one of the symbols for selection. Brief Description of the Drawings

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a prior art selective call receiver system. Fig. 2 through Fig. 6 are drawings of a selective call receiver in accordance with a preferred embodiment.

Description of a Preferred Embodiment

Referring to Fig. 1, pager circuitry 102 provides an alert 105 and a message on the display 103 in response to an RF signal received by the antenna 101. The user selects one or more functions by activating controls 104. The selective call receiver shown in Fig. 1 is well known to those skilled in the art.

Referring to Fig. 2, the selective call receiver 201 preferably comprises a display 202, a function activator 203, a read activator 204, a reset activator 205, and directional controls 206, 207, 208, 209. The display 202 uses a first portion 211 to show a set of symbols 210 representing functions of the selective call receiver and a second portion 211 to show received message symbols 212, locked (protected from accidental deletion) message symbols 213, and a selected symbol 214 comprising in this example a message symbol identified by an indicator control means. The selected symbol or character is highlighted, that is, distinctly contrasted from non-selected symbols and characters, preferably, by at least one of the following methods: flashing, inverting the visual contrast, or using a pointer such as a underscore cursor or an arrow head. In order to more clearly understand the utility of the directional controls, the sequence of un-protecting a locked received message will be discussed.

Referring to Fig. 3, the indicator has been moved from the selected message 214 in Fig. 2. to the locked message symbol 301 by suitable activation of the controls (eg. activating the left directional control 302 three times then the down directional control 303 once) . Referring to Fig. 4, the "home" symbol 401 is highlighted by activating the function activator 402. This takes the selective call receiver out of the standby mode (all selective call receivers normally operate in this mode when waiting for a message) and puts it in a status/function mode. Activating the reset activator 403 while in any mode will return the receiver to the standby mode. When in the status/function mode, the directional controls 404, 405, can be used to move the indicator to the right or left of the "home" symbol for selecting a symbol. The symbols shown 401, 406, 408, are arranged in two groups according to f nctionality. The symbols shown in Fig. 4 are associated with receiver configuration functions 406 or received messages 408. The symbols associated with receiver configuration functions 406 are reffered to as "status/function mode" symbols, and the symbols associated with received messages 408 and are referred to as "message mode" symbols. If the symbol selected is in the message mode set 406, the last message selected 407 is operated on according to the action associated with the selected symbol. If the symbol selected is in the status/function mode set 408, the action associated with the selected symbol is performed. In all cases, the "home" symbol 401 is a null operator that indicates selection of the status/function mode. Referring to Fig. 5, the highlighted symbol is preferably advanced from the "home" symbol 501 to the locked message symbol 502 by activating the right directional control 503 once. When the locked message symbol 502 is highlighted, its associated action is activated by actuating the function activator 505 once. In this case, the previously selected locked message 504 is un-protected by activating the function activator 505.

Referring to Fig. 6, the selected message symbol 601 is now unlocked as shown by the replacement of the lock symbol from Fig. 5 with a selected message symbol. The user can now read the message by activating the read activator 602. If the message contains more information than can be displayed on a single screen, the up 603 and down 604 directional controls can be used to page (moving one message screen at a time) or scroll (moving one message line at a time) through the information.

As can be understood from the preceding example, using a directional control mechanism for accessing and selecting selective call receiver functions greatly simplifies the design of the user interface (user interface being not only the mechanics but the display layout and overall device ergonomics) . The elimination of "shifted" operators as on a calculator or typewriter, allows the user to freely navigate to a desired message or function without the need to memorize complex operational control sequences. The "user friendly" attributes of this configuration lend themselves to intuitive operation within selected functions, for example, when setting a digital clock you would navigate to the digit to change using the "right" or "left" arrow and press the "up" control to increment the digit.

Claims

1. A selective call receiver comprising: a display for presenting at least two symbols representing received messages and operational parameters of said selective call receiver; and control means coupled to said display for moving an indicator capable of moving in four directions for identifying at least one of said symbols for selection.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein identifying at least one of said symbols comprises providing a distinct contrast in appearance between said symbol to be identifying and any remaining symbols.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said symbols are identifying by selectively moving a indicator in at least two dimensions.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3 wherein said indicator is characterized by a highlighted region at the current position of the indicator.

5. In a selective call receiver capable of receiving and storing at least one message and having a display means, a method for controlling the selective call receiver, comprising the steps of: positioning an indicator capable of moving in four directions for selecting, on a first portion of the display, at least one of a set of symbols representing received messages prior to viewing one or more of the received messages on the display means, and positioning the selection indicator on a second portion of the display means having a plurality of a contemporaneously displayed characters each representing one function of the selective call receiver prior to activating an operational parameter thereof; and selecting the symbol or character identified by the selection indicator.

6. The method according to claim 5 further comprising the step of displaying at least a portion of a received message associated by one of the symbols representing received messages when a received message has been selected, and displaying information to facilitate activation or modification of an operational parameter of the selective call receiver when one of the characters, representing a function of the selective call receiver has been selected.

7. The method according to claim 6 wherein said positioning step comprises the step of moving said selection pointer in at least one of two or more directions.

8. The method according to claim 6 wherein the step of positioning the indicator comprises highlighting at least one region at the current position of the indicator.

9. The method according to claim 8 wherein said the step of highlighting at least one region comprises maintaining the legibility of a region to be highlighted while providing a distinct contrast in appearance between said region to be highlighted as compared to other regions.

10. In a selective call receiver having a display means, a method for facilitating the use of the selective call receiver, comprising the steps of: displaying at least a portion of a received message in a first portion of the display means; displaying a set of symbols representing functions for controlling the selective call receiver in a second portion of the display means; and identifying one of the symbols by positioning an indicator capable of moving in four directions in the second portion of the display means to activate or modify one of an operational parameter of the selective call receiver and an attribute of the displayed message.

11. In a selective call receiver capable of operating in at least a status/function mode and a message reading mode, a method of controlling the selective call receiver, comprising the steps of: selecting a symbol from a set of symbols representing functions and received messages via interactive operation of a display and an indicator directional control means operative to move an indicator in two dimensions within the display; and operating in the message reading mode to display at least a portion of a received message when an indicator representing a received message has been selected, and operating in the status/function mode to activate or modify an operational parameter of the selective call receiver when an indicator representing a function of the selective call receiver has been selected.

12. The method according to claim 11 wherein the step of selecting a symbol further comprises the step of moving the indicator up, down, left and right.

13. A selective call receiver capable of operating in at least a status/function mode and a message reading mode, comprising: means for selecting a symbol from a set of symbols representing functions and received messages via interactive operation of a display and an indicator directional control means operative to move an indicator capable of moving in four directions within the display; and means for operating in the message reading mode to display at least a portion of a received message when a symbol representing a received message has been selected, and operating in the status/function mode to activate an operational parameter of the selective call receiver when a symbol representing a function of the selective call receiver has been selected.