WO2000067503A1

WO2000067503A1 - Method and configuration for operating an electronic device

Info

Publication number: WO2000067503A1
Application number: PCT/DE2000/001006
Authority: WO
Inventors: Martin Kugler
Original assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Priority date: 1999-04-30
Filing date: 2000-04-03
Publication date: 2000-11-09

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of operating an electronic device (1), especially a mobile radiotelephone terminal, that is controlled externally via a command computer (2) by means of a predetermined operations set (C/2) that contains optional operations. The operations set of the command computer comprises an interrogation command (CA) for outputting to the command computer a list (C/1) of the operations of the operations set or of a operations type that are supported by the electronic device.

Description

description

Method and / arrangement for operating an electronic device

The invention relates to a method for operating an electronic device according to the preamble of / claim 1 and an arrangement for performing this method.

As part of the advancing at high speed

Linking computer technology with communication technology and so-called consumer electronics (in particular audio, video and photo technology) devices are increasingly being developed and offered in the latter areas which offer the possibility of external operation (remote control) via a computer connected to a serial interface , such as a laptop or handheld PC. In particular, this possibility exists with higher quality mobile terminals.

The corresponding communication protocols include the conventional modem commands according to AT-Hayes and - in the case of mobile radio terminals - mobile radio-specific extensions of the command set. For mobile radio terminals that work according to the GSM standard, these extensions are specified in the ETSI GSM 07.05 and GSM 07.07 specifications of the system standard. Some of the commands specified in the specifications are declared there as optional, i.e. A mobile terminal that can be operated externally can support these commands, but does not have to.

In the case of a PC application which uses the mobile radio-specific command set, however, it must be known which of the specified commands are actually supported by a connected mobile radio terminal. According to the state of the art, obtaining this information requires an individual case check (“trying out”) whether the individual commands transmitted from the operating or control computer to the mobile radio terminal are acknowledged with “OK” or “ERROR”. The command set, command by command, relevant for the respective application in communication with the mobile radio terminal must therefore be verified. On the one hand, this method requires a great deal of time to issue and verify the individual commands and, moreover, requires that the complete set of commands of the respective application is known. In addition, in the case of an "ERROR" acknowledgment, it is not immediately clear whether the command entered is not supported by the connected device or whether there was only a syntax error when entering the command.

A solution to avoid these problems is to limit the applications to the mandatory commands. Under certain circumstances, however, this means that there is no need to use additional implemented commands and thus possibly very useful functions of the device operated via the control computer. With this solution, considerable disadvantages in use value are accepted.

Another solution is to create device-specific applications in which ab initio specifically uses the commands supported by the respective device. This is associated with a very high development effort, which naturally leads to high costs.

The invention is therefore based on the object of providing a method and an arrangement for operating externally controllable electronic devices which enable the device functions to be exhausted via the external control in a time-saving and cost-saving manner. This object is achieved with regard to its method aspect by a method with the features of claim 1 and with regard to the arrangement aspect by an arrangement with the features of claim 5.

The invention includes the basic technical teaching of providing a special command in the command set of the communication protocol for the external control of the relevant electronic devices, on which a list of all commands supported by the device or of all supported commands of a specific command type is output. On the basis of this command list, the application can be adapted (automatically or currently to be carried out by the user) so that only the commands from the list are used. The user is therefore not offered services in the application in an unnecessary and misleading manner that are not supported by the connected device, especially the mobile radio terminal.

The proposed solution enables - within the framework of the protocol specification - the creation of universal applications that can communicate with protocol-compliant devices from any manufacturer. These applications can be created without knowledge of the specific command repertoire of individual devices to be connected. On the other hand, the application can be designed so flexibly from the outset that optional, manufacturer-specific commands are taken into account to extend the functionality, and when verifying them based on the list of commands supported by the device, the extended functionality is easily implemented.

With the proposed solution, the required information about the command set supported by the connected device is obtained in a time-saving and reliable manner, and without the user having to have extensive knowledge of the command set used in the application. This also reduces the error rate for the remote control.

In a preferred embodiment, a modification of the query command is provided which initiates an output of the number of commands supported by the device. The queried command list is expediently stored in the control computer and automatically taken into account when an application is started. The user is relieved of any adaptation effort and needs practically no knowledge of the specific command set.

Advantages and practicalities of the invention result from the subclaims and the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the figures. Of these show:

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an arrangement for carrying out the invention and

Fig. 2 shows a syntax description of the proposed new command.

1 shows in schematic form an arrangement in which a laptop 2 is connected as an external control computer to a mobile radio terminal 1 via its serial interface 1 a. The heart of the laptop 2 is a microprocessor 2a, which controls the communication with the mobile radio terminal 1, especially with regard to the implementation of the invention. A general command set C / 2 (which contains optional commands which are not supported by every connectable mobile radio terminal) for controlling an application of the mobile radio terminal 1 via the laptop 2 is stored in a command list memory area M of the laptop 2. This command set contains the new query command C _A proposed by the invention. As soon as the program sequence control (the microprocessor) 2a of the laptop stops the output of this query has caused give fehls C _A to the mobile terminal 1, via ^¬ averages it to the laptop a list C / 1 it supports commands of the command set C / 2, which is displayed on the display of the laptop and ls- listen at the same time in the BEFE Memory area M is taken over and is automatically taken into account by the microprocessor 2a in the further execution of the application mentioned.

The new command, which must be introduced in the corresponding communication standards - specifically the ETSI GSM 07.07 specification of the GSM mobile radio standard - is "AT + CCMD". A syntax description of this new command is given in FIG.

If you enter AT + CCMD =? the application can determine how large the number of supported commands for the respective command categories is.

By entering AT + CCMD = <n> a list of the supported commands of the respective category <n> is output.

If the number 0 is used for <n> or only AT + CCMD is entered, all supported commands are output. The underlined number 0 in the syntax description indicates the mode 'all supported commands' as the default setting if no mode is explicitly passed as a parameter.

Below are four examples of communication processes between the control computer and a connected device. 1st example:

Input: AT + CCMD =?

Output:

+ CCMD: (6,10,8,13)

Explanation: There will be

6 AT Hayes commands

10 GSM commands after 07.07

8 GSM commands after 07.05

13 manufacturer-specific commands supported. Each category is specified in alphanumeric order; this also applies to the following examples.

2nd example:

Entry: AT + CCMD = 2

Output:

+ CCMD: 2, "+ CREG" + CCMD: 2, "+ CPIN" + CCMD: 2, "+ CPBR"

+ CCMD: 2, "+ CLCK"

3rd example:

Entry: AT + CCMD = 3 Output:

+ CCMD: 3, "+ CMGL" + CCMD: 3, "+ CMGR" + CCMD: 3, "+ CNMI"

+ CCMD: 3, "+ CMGC"

4. Example:

Input:

AT + CCMD = 0 or AT + CCMD

Output:

+ CCMD: 1, "E"

+ CCMD: 1, "& V"

+ CCMD: 1, "& F" + CCMD: 2, "+ CREG"

+ CCMD: 2, "+ CPIN"

+ CCMD: 2, "+ CPBR"

+ CCMD: 2, "+ CLCK"

+ CCMD: 3, "+ CMGL"

+ CCMD: 3, "+ CMGR"

+ CCMD: 3, "+ CNMI"

+ CCMD: 4, "+ CMGC"

+ CCMD: 4, "+ XXXX" + CCMD: 4, "+ YYYY"

+ CCMD: 4, "+ ZZZZ" The embodiment of the invention is not limited to the examples mentioned, but - also with a view to devices other than mobile radio terminals - is possible in a large number of modifications. It is essential that the new command (which, depending on the application, can also originate from a command set other than the command set used here according to the ETSI-GSM specification) is fixed in the respectively binding communication protocol.

Claims

claims

1. A method for operating an externally via a control computer (2) controllable electronic device (1), in particular a mobile terminal, by means of a predetermined command set (C / 2) containing optional commands, characterized in that the command set of the control computer one Query command (C _A ) for outputting a list (C / 1) of the commands of the command set or a command type supported by the electronic device to the control computer.

2. The method of claim 1, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t that the command set comprises a query command to output the number of commands of the command set or a command type supported by the electronic device to the control computer (2).

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t that the list (C / 1) and optionally the number of supported

Commands are stored in the control computer (2).

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, so that only the commands contained in the stored list (C / 1) are implemented in an application implemented by the control computer (2).

5. Arrangement for carrying out the method according to one of the preceding claims, with a serial interface (la) for external control electronic device (1) and a connectable via the interface control computer (2), characterized in that in a communication protocol Arrangement of the query Fail (C _A ) to output a list (C / 1) of the commands of the command set or a command type supported by the electronic device to the control computer.

6. Arrangement according to claim 5, so that a command list memory area (M) for storing the list of supported commands (C / 1) is provided in a memory of the control computer.

7. Arrangement according to claim 6, characterized in that the control computer (2) has a program sequence control (2a) which for issuing the query command (C _A ) when connecting the control computer to the electronic device (1) and

Storage of the list of supported commands output in response to the query in the command list memory area (M) and to query the command list memory area when a device-related application is started.