This application claims priority to an application entitled “Method for Controlling Sub-device of Mobile Equipment using SIM Application Toolkit” filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Nov. 11, 2004 and assigned Serial No. 2004-91943, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control method of mobile equipment, and more particularly to a method for controlling a sub-device of mobile equipment (‘ME’), which can control various sub-devices by use of an SAT allowing various interfaces to be performed between an SIM and the ME.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a Subscriber Identity Module (‘SIM’) Application Toolkit (‘SAT’) denotes series of commands and procedures used when a network operator provides its specific service to the users of mobile communication terminals. Further, the SAT functions as an interface for mutual communication between a SIM and an ME (Mobile Equipment excluding the SIM).
Such a SAT can be used only when both the SIM and the ME support the SAT. In a SAT section, the SIM transmits a processing command to the ME and starts communication with the user of a mobile communication terminal. A command for operating the SAT, such as a 3GPPTS 31.111 USIM Application Toolkit (USAT) and a 3GPP TS 11.14 Specification of the SIM Application Toolkit for the Subscriber Identity Module-Mobile Equipment (SIM-ME) interface, includes a proactive command from an SIM to an ME and an Envelope command from an ME to a SIM.
Specifically, the conventional proactive command includes Display Text, Get Inkey, Get Input, More Time, Play Tone, Poll Interval, Refresh, Set Up Menu, Select Item, Send Short Message (SM), Send Supplementary Service (SS), Send Unstructured Supplementary Services Data (USSD), Set Up Call, Polling Off, Provide Local Information, Set Up Even List, Perform Card Application Protocol Data Unit (APDU), Power Off Card, Power On Card, Get Reader Status, Timer Management, Set Up Idle Mode Text, Run At Command, Send Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF), Language Notification, Launch Browser, Open Channel, Close Channel, Send Data, Get Channel Status, Service Search, Get Service Information, Declare Service, etc. Further, the Envelope command includes Data download to SIM, Menu Selection, Call Control by SIM, Timer Expiration, Event Download, etc.
Carriers combine such commands with each other and transmit/receive the combined commands through a Short Message Service (SMS) to provide specific information services. Carriers usually develop their own specific services such as connection of a call to a specific service number through the combination of the commands and provide SIM Applications. Mobile communication, user terminals have developed into multi-function mobile composite devices. Some designs attach various sub-devices [e.g., MP3 players, dynamic image (e.g., MPEG4) recorders/reproducers, digital cameras, identification apparatuses for an E-commerce] to the basic mobile communication terminal.
Accordingly, it is necessary to control various Sub-device Modules (e.g., Key Pads, LCDs, Speakers, Digital Cameras, Dynamic Image Players, MP3 Players, IrDas, BlueTooths, TV receivers, Multi-Media Cards, Radio receivers, etc.) provided to 3G terminals as well as future composite devices.
As described above, since interface protocols between the SIM and the ME are not described in the conventional 3GPP specification, there is a limitation in using the SAT for user terminals. In other words, the prior art has only a monotonous interface using commands such as Display Text, Get Inkey, Get Input, Play Tone, etc., between the SIM and the ME.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method for controlling a sub-device in a mobile equipment, that controls various devices in the mobile equipment by use of a SAT and further, allows various interfaces to be provided between a SIM and an ME.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for controlling a sub-device of a mobile equipment (ME) by means of a subscriber identity module (SIM) application toolkit (SAT), the method including the steps of coding by a subscriber identity module (SIM) information for controlling the sub-device of the mobile equipment according to a predetermined format and transmitting a proactive command to the mobile equipment; determining by the mobile equipment whether or not the proactive command is a command for controlling the sub-device in response to transmission of the proactive command; and analyzing by the mobile equipment the proactive command and operating the sub-device according to a result obtained by analyzing the proactive command, when the proactive command is the command for controlling the sub-device.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configuration incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention unclear.
In the present invention, various interface functions are provided between an ME and a SIM supporting a SAT. For this, the present invention provides a combination of commands enabling easy control of a sub-device attached to an ME by use of a SAT.
Hereinafter, flow of command transmission between a SIM and an ME will be described with reference to
For instance, when the SIM 100 transmits a command for “TV OFF” 130 to the ME 110, the ME 110 transmits a Terminal Response 140 corresponding to the transmitted command to the SIM 100. Specifically, the SIM 100 determines whether or not information should be transmitted to the ME 110. If there is, the SIM 100 permits transmission of a corresponding command. When the command transmitted from the SIM 100 arrives at the ME 110, the ME 110 analyzes the information contained in the corresponding command. If the received command is “TV OFF”, the ME 110 controls the power of a corresponding device module (i.e., TV module) to be turned off. In this way, a response from the ME 110 to the SIM 100 is accomplished.
The command signal of the SAT includes the proactive command transmitted from the SIM 100 to the ME 110 and an envelope command transmitted from the ME 110 to the SIM 100. Each command signal has a TLV structure where T is a Tag for representing the type of a command, L is a Length representing the length of the command, and V is a Value containing actual information for executing the command.
In the TLV structure for the command of the SAT, the proactive command, from the SIM 100 to the ME 110 has the structure as shown in
Specifically, the proactive command includes the one bit “proactive UICC command tag” 200 having command number information, a predetermined bit “Length” A+B+C+D+E+F 210 corresponding to length information of the detail command, A bit “Command details” 230 having the detail information of the command, B bit “Device identities” 240 representing the device numbers of a source and a destination, a C bit “Alpha identifier” 250 for indicating the execution state of the command as a character, etc (D bit, E bit, F bit).
The command in
The “Command details” 230 of the detail command 220 will now be described. As shown in
Further, the third to the fifth byte are the “Command number” 233, the “Type of command” 234 and the “Command Qualifier” 235, respectively. The “Command number” 233 represents identification numbers used for distinguishing the SIM processing commands (i.e., proactive commands) from each other when the proactive commands are simultaneously transmitted. The “Type of command” 234 represents the type of a command ordering a predetermined operation. The “Command Qualifier” 235 represents qualification, such as an operation sequence.
Hereinafter, the “Device identities” 240 of the detail command 220 will now be described. As shown in
As Band 2C. The envelope command from the ME 110 to the SIM 100 has the construction as shown in
The command constructed as describe above may be reconstructed as follows to detain a command for enabling the SIM to operate a sub-device of the ME. As shown in
Hereinafter, the “Command details” 430 of the detail commands 420 are described. The “Command details” 430 has a total length of five bytes as shown in
For example, referring to Table 1, when the code value ‘01’ is set in the “Command Qualifier” 450, the code value ‘01’ denotes “POWER OFF”. To control a reproduction operation in the sub-device of the ME, the code value ‘02’ may be set in the “Command Qualifier” 450. Further, a code value ‘50’ may be set in a “Type of command” 445 to denote a “PERFORM DEVICE MODULE”.
Hereinafter, the “Device identities” 440 will now be described. The “Device identities” 440 has a length of four bytes as shown in
Referring to Table 2, when the code value ‘34’ is set in “Destination device identity” 460, the code value ‘34’ indicates control for the radio receiver. Accordingly, when a user wants to operate a desired device with a SAT function, a code value corresponding to the desired corresponding device is set in the “Destination device identity” 460. The “Source device identity” 455 denotes a source including the corresponding device. For example, when a camera is mounted on the ME, the third and the fourth byte have a value of ‘8137’. Herein, ‘81’ means that a command is transmitted to the camera in the ME and ‘37’ means that the device to operate is the digital camera.
When each command name PERFORM DEVICE MODULE is used for the same purpose, the name can be replaced with other names. When more detailed information is required according to the characteristics of a device used in the ME, a separate command portion may be added or deleted.
Hereinafter, the invention will be described in further detail with reference to FIGS. 5 to 8. First, it is assumed that the ME includes not only a TV reception function, and a dynamic image Player function capable of reproducing and recording received images.
When a user wants to automatically record TV broadcasting at a desired time, the SIM provides the ME with commands for turning on a TV receiver, selecting a desired channel, recording the TV broadcasting through a dynamic image Player, and for stopping the operation of the dynamic image Player.
First, since the TV receiver should be powered on to record the TV broadcasting, the SIM transmits the command for turning on the TV receiver to the ME. Preferably, the transmitted command has a structure as shown in
Specifically, in the command for turning on the TV receiver, a code value ‘D0’ is set in the “proactive UICC command tag”, 400 meaning that the command for turning on the TV receiver is a command from the SIM. Further, the sum of an entire length of the detail commands 430 and 440 is set in the length 410. That is, the sum (9 bytes) of the entire length of the “Command details” 430 (5 bytes) and the “Device identities” 440 (4 bytes) is set in the length 410.
The ‘Command details’ 430 is divided into a tag, a length and a value. A code value ‘01’ is set in the tag, and a code value ‘03’ (3 bytes), that is, remaining bytes excluding the tag and the length from the total of 5 bytes, is set in the length. A code value ‘50’ representing a device operation is set in the “Type of command” 445 , and a code value ‘00’ representing a power on is set in the ‘Command Qualifier’ 450.
The “Device identities” 440 is divided into a tag, a length and a value as well. A code value ‘02’ reporting a start portion of a device identities command is set in the tag, and a code value ‘02’ (2 bytes), that is, remaining bytes excluding the tag and the length from the 4 bytes total is set in the length. Further, a code value ‘81’ for allowing the command to be transmitted to a corresponding device in the ME is set in the ‘Source device identity’ 455, and a code value ‘33’ indicating that the corresponding device is the TV receiver is set in the ‘Destination device identity’ 460.
In the command for turning off the TV receiver, a code value ‘01’ representing a power off is set in the ‘Command Qualifier’ 450. The other values are set like the command structure as shown in
When the command as shown in
After setting the TV channel a recording function is started. Accordingly, a command as shown in
Accordingly, as shown in
As described above, the SIM controls a sub-device the ME via the SAT by transmitting, a corresponding command to the ME. To do so, the SIM first encodes information for controlling the sub-device according to the coding method described above and transmits the Proactive Command to the ME. At the receiving end, the ME determines whether or not the received corresponds Proactive Command is a command for controlling the sub-device. To do so, the ME determines whether a “proactive UICC command tag” is the Proactive Command is included. If it is, it indicates that the received command includes information for controlling the sub-device, and the ME performs a process of analyzing the detail command of the Proactive Command according to the received information.
Analysis of the detail command is as follows. First, the ME determines whether a ‘Command details Tag’ is input or not. As a result of the determination, when the ‘Command details Tag’ is input, the ME recognizes that control information for the sub-device is contained in the Proactive Command and deciphers the detail information elements for the control information.
Then, the ME determines whether a “Device identities tag” is input or not. As a result of the determination, when the “Device identities tag” is input, the ME recognizes that detail information for the sub-device to operate is contained in the Proactive Command and deciphers detail information elements for a Device identities portion. In this way, the ME analyzes the received Proactive Command. Further, the ME operates the corresponding sub-device according to the control contents based on the analyzed result.
For a more detailed description of the above process, a case of recording a TV broadcast will be described as an example. When the TV broadcasting is recorded, the transmission flow of a corresponding command signal in each step is as shown in
As shown in
After the corresponding channel is set, the SIM 100 transmits a recording command, which enables a dynamic image player to operate and actually record the broadcast, to the ME 110 in step 930. Then, the ME 110 performs a recording function for the broadcast until the ME 110 receives the command for stopping the function of the dynamic image player from the SIM 100, in step 940.
The SIM 100 then transmits a command for turning off the power of the TV to the ME 110 in step 950 when the TV broadcast recording is completed.
As described above, according to the present invention, a mobile communication terminal includes various sub-devices having a plurality of composite functions with a SAT, so that it is possible to provide a function allowing a SIM to directly control each device of an ME. Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to realize various SAT functions. In other words, it is possible to provide various interfaces between an ME and a SIM supporting a SAT.
Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims, including the full scope of equivalents thereof.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2004-0091943 | Nov 2004 | KR | national |