Build message communication system utilizing data tables containing message defining data and corresponding codes

Abstract

A communication paging device whereby the coding mechanism allows messages to be constructed using bit-stream syntax blocks. Each syntax block is designated with a category such as a sentence format, subject, verb, location modifier, location, date modifier, date, time, and etc. Within each syntax block category is a set of variable code values that will translate into a screen display of alphanumeric characters to form both words and graphical screen elements. By using the coding mechanism, the syntax blocks are concatenated to form meaningful sentences with words arranged in a logical syntax order for that particular language. The conjugation of words in the sentence are easier and require less Boolean type functions to arrive at the conjugate word. The use of syntax blocks gives flexibility to allow conversion of statement sentences to question sentences, and question sentences into statement sentences. The use of syntax blocks also allow sentence structure conversion from a pager of one language into a receiving pager of a different language. The use of syntax blocks also reduces the amount of memory, and transmission bandwidth needed to transmit the data.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. Message communication terminal device comprising:

means for storing a data table denoting a relationship between a plurality of message defining data and corresponding codes, the plurality of message defining data including a plurality of category data indicative of a category of a message and a plurality of grammatical data indicative of a grammatical feature of a message;

means for displaying the plurality of category data and the plurality of grammatical data included in the first data table;

means for selecting several category data and several grammatical data among the plurality of category data and the plurality of grammatical data displayed by said displaying means;

means for transmitting a series of codes corresponding to the several category data and the several grammatical data selected by said selecting means;

means for receiving a series of codes transmitted from another device; and

means for converting the series of codes received by said receiving means into a message with reference to the data table.

2. The device according to claim 1, in which said message defining data includes format data indicating whether the message is a statement or a question.

3. The device according to claim 1, in which said message defining data includes tense data indicative of a tense of verb of the message.

4. The device according to claim 1, in which said message defining data includes time data indicative of time specified by the message.

5. The device according to claim 1, in which said message defining data includes location data indicative of location specified by the message.

6. The device according to claim 1, in which said displaying means comprises a display screen including plural lines and said selecting means comprises plural keys corresponding to the plural lines of the display screen.

7. The device according to claim 6, in which said displaying means comprises a display screen including plural lines for displaying format, statement/question format, category, subcategory, verb tense, location clause, date/time clause, and means for changing contents of display in response to an interactive operation.

8. The device according to claim 1, further comprising means for building a reply message by converting a question to a statement.

9. The device according to claim 1, further comprising means for building a reply message by converting a statement to a question.

10. Build message communication system comprising:

a transmitter device for transmitting message defining data including category data indicative of a category of a message and grammatical data indicative of a grammatical feature of the message, the transmitter device comprising:

means for storing a first data table denoting a relationship between a plurality of message defining data and corresponding codes;

means for displaying the plurality of message defining data included in the first data table;

means for selecting several message defining data among the plurality of message defining data displayed by said displaying means; and

means for transmitting a series of codes corresponding to the several message defining data selected by said selecting means;

a receiver device for receiving the message defining data transmitted from said transmitter device and reproducing the message based on the message defining data received, the receiver device comprising:

means for storing a second data table denoting the relationship between the plurality of message defining data and the corresponding codes which is indicated by said first data table;

means for receiving the series of codes transmitted from said transmitter device; and

means for decoding the series of codes received by said receiving means into a message with reference to the second table.

11. The system according to claim 10, in which said message defining data includes format data indicating whether the message is a statement or a question, and said receiver means comprises means for producing a reply message by converting the format data included in the received message and indicating that the message is a question into format data indicating that the message is a statement.

12. The system according to claim 10, in which said message defining data includes format data indicating whether the message is a statement or a question, and said receiver means comprises means for producing a reply message by converting the format data included in the received message and indicating that the message is a statement into format data indicating that the message is a question.

13. The system according to claim 10, in which said message defining data includes tense data indicative of a tense of verb of the message.

14. The system according to claim 10, in which said message defining data includes time data indicative of time specified by the message.

15. The system according to claim 10, in which said message defining data includes location data indicative of location specified by the message.

16. The system according to claim 10, in which said transmitting device comprises means for conjugating the message.

17. Build message communication system comprising:

a transmitter device for transmitting message defining data including category data indicative of a category of a message and grammatical data indicative of a grammatical feature of the message, the transmitter device comprising:

means for storing a first data table denoting a relationship between a plurality of message defining data in a first language and corresponding codes, the message defining data including category data indicative of a category of a first language message and grammatical data indicative of a grammatical feature of the first language message;

means for displaying the plurality of message defining data included in the first data table;

means for selecting several message defining data among the plurality of message defining data displayed by said displaying means; and

means for transmitting a series of codes corresponding to the several message defining data selected by said selecting means;

a receiver device for receiving the message defining data transmitted from said transmitter device and reproducing the message based on the message defining data received, the receiver device comprising:

means for storing a second data table denoting a relationship between a plurality of message defining data in a second language and corresponding codes, the message defining data including category data indicative of a category of a second language message corresponding to the first language message and grammatical data indicative of a grammatical feature of the second language message;

means for receiving the series of codes transmitted from said transmitter device; and

means for decoding the series of codes received by said receiving means into a message in the second language with reference to the second table.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a build message communication system and more particularly to a message communication terminal device such as a portable two-way pager device used in a two-way paging system.

2. Description of the Related Art

As an example of a prior art message communicating pager, a paging receiver with display is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,256 (Nagata). The prior art uses a coding mechanism that reads message data from a message table with a fixed column order to designate syntax order. Under each table column, there is a list of words consisting of a mixed category of subject, verb, location, date, and time. Therefore, certain same words need to be repeated across multiple columns in order to construct statement sentence messages as well as question sentence messages because syntax order is different between statement sentences and question sentences. This also opens the possibility that non-meaningful sentence structures can be created, therefore resulting in possible miscommunication.

There is another prior art in which it is required that each sentence be constructed by keying in each character one at a time to build words that will then build the sentence message. This requires more manual interaction from the user, opens the possibility that spelling errors may occur, requires more memory to be allocated and built into the paging device, uses more data and thus, increases the bandwidth needed for transmission making the process costly and time consuming.

The prior art has disadvantages in building messages. The usual method of building a sentence structure has typically made the use of fixed tables where the first word in the sentence is extracted from the first column in the table, the second word in the sentence is extracted from the second column, and so forth. This sets up a rigid sentence structure where the syntax order is fixed; for example, into subject noun that goes into the first column, verb that goes into the second column, location modifier that goes into the third column, location that goes into the fourth column, date modifier that goes into the fifth column, date that goes into the sixth column, and time that goes into the seventh column. If any sentence should fall out of this rigid syntax order, the sentence can still be constructed, but with the addition of repeated words placed into each column category of the table to make up for the different syntax order. This results in a clutter of words using up valuable memory space, and requiring the coding mechanism to search each category for the correct word, then determining if that word is even available in that category, and then conjugating that word. This method becomes a time-consuming process.

The prior art has disadvantages in conjugating messages. The conjugation of subject nouns with their respective verbs, locations, dates, times, modifiers, format, negation, etc. is difficult, if not impossible, because there would be too many repeated words to conjugate, and there are no fixed categories to direct the coding mechanism to find and reference as to which words are to be conjugated. The manner in how the words are conjugated also means relying on other related words within the sentence, and if there are no fixed categories under which the related words are grouped, then the coding mechanism cannot find and reference the subject noun that directs how the other words are to be conjugated. This requires using many Boolean type functions, that therefore makes conjugation of words a difficult and time-consuming task.

The prior art has disadvantages in transposing messages. The prior art coding mechanism also makes converting statement sentences into question sentences, and question sentences into statement sentences difficult. Relating specifically to a two-way communication system such as a two-way (receiving/transmitting) paging system, formulating the reply to a question statement would require the user to rebuild a reply statement response word by word because the coding mechanism cannot detect nor translate the meaning of the question statement. The user needs to accommodate this weakness in the coding mechanism by telling the paging device exactly what words and what syntax order to use to build the message. Thus, the user spends valuable time manually keying in information.

The prior art has disadvantages in translating messages. The use of a fixed table coding mechanism makes language translation difficult. If any sentence requires more than the designated number of columns allocated for this particular table, as in the case of translation into another language which may have a different and lengthy syntax structure, then the sentence cannot be constructed completely and may lose its meaning. The prior art coding mechanism would only allow for words in the columns to be translated, but this does not result in translating a meaningful message, as conjugation, prefixes, suffixes, and syntax order vary between languages. Again, miscommunication may result, or the sentence simply cannot be translated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed towards a paging device using a meaning-based syntax block coding mechanism to transmit and receive messages.

The present invention can be a portable unit to be carried with an individual person or vehicle, or a station based unit to reside at a location.

Also, the present invention can have a variety of embodiments such as a paging receiver, two-way paging receiver/transmitter, computer platform, etc. that transmit messages over a communication network.

The present invention is a communication pager for use in the home, office, school, hospital, laboratory, etc., either onsite or traveling offsite.

The present invention is useful for alerting another party of an event, confirming an event, for eliciting a response to contact the caller, and other events where the receiving user does not necessarily have to simultaneously respond with the caller in order to get the message.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved paging device by allowing the user to build meaningful messages, to transpose messages to formulate automatic replies, and to translate messages between different languages. The user does not necessarily need to learn another language to read a message from another language because the paging device translates that message into the user's paging device language.

The paging device allows the user to read new, saved, and sent messages. The paging device also allows the user to build message sentences, select a paging number, and send the message. Moreover, the paging device allows the user to add entries to the phonebook, check battery level, and other system functions.

The paging device is preset with common message sentences for faster and convenient message building and replying, but with open parameters that enable the user to enter personal information for added flexibility.

According to the present invention, there is provided a build message communication system comprising a transmitter device for transmitting message defining data including category data indicative of a category of a message and grammatical data indicative of a grammatical feature of the message, and a receiver device for receiving the message defining data transmitted from said transmitter device and reproducing the message based on the message defining data received.

According to the present invention, the coding mechanism uses juxtaposable syntax blocks to form meaningful sentences based upon proper syntax order that allows the user to read messages, build statement sentences and question sentences with automatic conjugation of words to send messages, to formulate an automatic reply to an incoming message, and to translate messages from one language pager into a different language pager.

The present invention builds meaningful messages and reduces the chance of building non-meaningful sentences, uses less memory space, uses a coding mechanism comprised of syntax blocks, branching paths, and Boolean functions to transpose sentences to formulate automatic responses, and translates messages between different languages by reading universal code values that the paging device screen displays as sentences of a different language.

The present invention also reduces user interaction so that instead of typing in one character at a time to form words and build a sentence, the user simply selects buttons containing words or groups of words (phrases) to build a sentence. This also has the advantage that more information can be appended with fewer bits of data information and in less time.

The present invention has advantages in building messages. The ability to build meaningful but concise sentences is made possible through preprogrammed words and phrases found in each syntax block category. The user selects from the list of choices, and presses a button that corresponds to that choice to enter the selection. Essentially, the user selects a choice, which brings the user to a sub-level menu list of choices. The levels of submenus continue until a completed sentence is constructed. The use of syntax blocks serve as a reference point so that Boolean functions are possible.

The present invention has advantages in conjugating messages. With the use of Boolean functions, the amount of user typing is reduced as the coding mechanism simply processes a series of Yes or No multiple-choice responses entered by the user. The coding mechanism gives the ability to conjugate sentences by adding word suffixes, or to modify the body of a word in order to fit the sentence context and tense. The branching paths allow the coding mechanism to route responses toward syntax blocks and append words and phrases that are contained in each syntax block category. Contracting words to fit the conversational language is also made possible.

The present invention has advantages in transposing messages. The ability to build a message as a response to another message is made possible through the invoking of the Boolean functions that perform the juxtapositions of the syntax block order. For example, in the present invention only the basic format of the message needs to be inverted (question sentence to statement sentence, or statement sentence to question sentence), along with the subject, if any ("you" to "I", or "I` to "you`) and the location ("at my" to "at your", or "at your" to "at my"), to provide most of the structure for an answer.

The present invention has advantages in translating messages. The ability to translate a message into another language message is made possible through reading a universal set of code values that correspond to the alphanumeric characters for that particular language in a screen display. The use of syntax blocks allows a logical and organized order to be set up for code values which then allow another paging device to read the same code values and use Boolean functions to structure and display the message as translated for that particular paging device's language.

The very same transmission of data from an English paging device can send the same message to another language paging device without having the sending user modify the sentence. Also, a French paging device, for example, can send that same message from the English paging device to yet another language paging device. The automatic translation by the paging device has the added benefit in that a user need not necessarily learn another language in order to read messages because the paging device translates the messages. Thus, communication is only limited by the language screen displays that are built into a paging device. In an embodiment in a personal computer, the coding mechanism can be a very powerful tool to allow more complex messages to be sent, read, and translated, especially through electronic mail linkages to communication networks.

Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the present invention.

The objects and advantages of the present invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate presently preferred embodiments of the present invention and, together with the general description given above and the detailed description of the preferred embodiments given below, serve to explain the principles of the present invention in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a front view of a first embodiment of a two-way pager according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the first embodiment;

FIG. 3 shows a relationship between values of the syntax block codes shown in FIG. 7 and definitions thereof;

FIG. 4 shows a relationship between values of the syntax block codes shown in FIG. 7 and definitions thereof;

FIG. 5 shows a relationship between values of the syntax block codes shown in FIG. 7 and definitions thereof;

FIG. 6 shows a relationship between values of the syntax block codes shown in FIG. 7 and definitions thereof;

FIG. 7 shows a data format of a message formed of a series of syntax block codes;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the first embodiment showing a change in a menu display;

FIGS. 9A to 9F show examples of various menu displays included in the flowchart of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of the first embodiment showing a "build message" procedure;

FIGS. 11A to 11C show examples of various menu displays included in the flowchart of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the details of a "conjugation" procedure of FIG. 10;

FIGS. 13A and 13B show examples of various menu displays included in the flowchart of FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 shows a detailed flowchart showing a change in a menu display in a "build message" procedure;

FIG. 15 shows a detailed flowchart showing a change in a menu display in a "build message" procedure;

FIG. 16 shows a detailed flowchart showing a change in a menu display in a "build message" procedure;

FIG. 17 shows a detailed flowchart showing a change in a menu display in a "send message" procedure;

FIG. 18 shows a detailed flowchart showing a change in a menu display in a "read message" procedure;

FIG. 19 shows a detailed flowchart showing a change in a menu display in a "read message" procedure;

FIG. 20 shows a detailed flowchart showing a "display" process;

FIG. 21 shows a detailed flowchart showing a "display" process;

FIG. 22 shows a detailed flowchart showing a "display" process;

FIG. 23 shows a detailed flowchart showing a "display" process;

FIG. 24 shows a detailed flowchart showing a "display" process; and

FIG. 25 shows a detailed flowchart showing a "display" process.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A preferred embodiment of a build message communication system according to the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. A two-way pager will be described hereinafter as the first embodiment of the build message communication system according to the present invention. However, as described later, the present invention is not limited to the two-way pager system.

The two-way pager terminal device is comprised of two parts: a coding mechanism and a user interface.

FIG. 1 shows the user interface of the two-way pager according to the first embodiment. The user interface is based upon a hardware housing 10. The housing 10 is in the form of a portable paging unit, a computer system, etc. The housing 10 can be constructed of material such as plastic, glass, metal, wood, composites, etc. that is suitable for its particular embodiment. The housing protects the interior parts of the paging device as well as offers a surface with which the user can interact.

Input mechanisms such as buttons, keyboard keys, mouse pointers, etc. allow the user to input data to the coding mechanism to construct, send and receive messages, maintain an address phonebook, check the battery level, etc. The function of the buttons depend on the displayed menu selections. One embodiment of the present invention has four function buttons such as function-1 (Fn 1) button 20 to read messages, function-2 (Fn 2) button 22 to send messages, function-3 (Fn 3) button 24 to maintain the device, and function-4 (Fn 4) button 26 to be used as an open parameter. An up arrow button 30 scrolls up to the top of the list of choices and a down arrow button 32 scrolls down to the bottom of the list of choices. An exit/enter button 34 is used to back out of the present screen display 12. Other embodiments of the input mechanisms can include any combination of function buttons, function buttons and keyboard, function buttons and mouse, keyboard, mouse, or function buttons and keyboard and mouse.

The user interface 10 also has a screen display 12 to display messages, button function messages, and graphical icons. The messages to be read or sent are displayed on the screen display 12 alphanumerically. Four lines (the fourth line is blank in this example) are displayed in alphanumeric characters and diacritical marks, and correspond to the function buttons. The graphical icons include, for example, a new message icon (70; shown in FIG. 9B) indicating that a new message has been received, a battery level icon indicating the battery energy level of the paging device, and up arrow icon and down arrow icon (scroll triangles) indicating if there are more choices available than what the screen can display. The screen display 12 may be formed of an LCD, a CRT, etc.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a circuit configuration of the two-way pager of the first embodiment. A transmitter/reception antenna 50 is connected to a transmitter 52 or a receiver 54 through a selector switch 56. Transmitter 52 transmits messages to a base station of the two-way pager system (not shown) via a radio channel. The messages transmitted from the base station are received by the receiver 54. A CPU (central processing unit) 58 is provided to control the whole operation including a message building process, a message reading process, and a message sending process, etc. The transmitter 52, the receiver 54, and the CPU 58 are connected to a system bus 60. The screen display 12 and the key input mechanism 62 are connected to the system bus 60. Further, a code table 64, a read only memory (ROM) 66, and a random access memory (RAM) 68 are connected to the system bus 60. The code table 64 stores codes of the messages communicated in this embodiment.

The coding mechanism which is the second part of the present invention will be described hereinafter. The coding mechanism is the core of the present invention, and comprises syntax blocks which encode the meanings of various parts of a message in the form of a code stream, and a mechanism which translates the code stream input into alphanumeric screen displays.

Given the syntax block structure, the coding mechanism can derive words, conjugations of words, and concatenation of words into a logical sentence syntax order. The phrases, words, and diacritical marks are preprogrammed into the paging device so that all syntax block combinations consistently lead to an appropriate phrase, word, or diacritical mark.

An important point of the coding scheme is that it is independent of the language used; i.e., the meanings of the codes can be expressed in different languages. For paging devices of a language other than English, the coding mechanism reads the same numeric code stream and uses a similar mechanism to translate the numeric code into a screen display for that particular language, as built into the receiving page device. Therefore, according to the present invention, an English speaker can send an English message by using an English pager device, and a French speaker can receive the message by using a French pager device in which the received message is displayed in French.

The basic coding mechanism is a series of codes used to express the meaning of a particular desired message, and a mechanism for concatenating strings of phrases, words, and diacritical marks to display the content of a message. The code table 64 (FIG. 2) stores the code table as shown in FIGS. 3 to 6. The table comprises four columns: syntax block category, code value, display, sub-code value. The syntax block category is comprised of, as shown in FIG. 7, format, statement (question) format, category, subcategory (subject), verb tense, location clause, date modifier, date unit, date value, time modifier, time (hours), and time (minutes).

Most of the elements in the table are descriptions of semantic characteristics of a message; for example, whether the message is a question, and what form of a question. The intent of selecting from preprogrammed choices is to simplify and expedite message building, and guarantee consistent communication, rather than trying to accommodate all possible sentence variations in a given language.

The value of assigning code values to what a word or phrase means is that the present invention is not directly dependent on tables of ASCII characters. This results, amongst other things, in the present invention being applicable to communication between different languages. The present invention also makes creation of messages straight-forward, without forcing the user to refer to large tables of data to construct a message character-by-character or word-by-word.

FIGS. 3 to 6 show a list of the preprogrammed choices for each syntax block. The code values are assigned to each phrase, word, and diacritical mark and these codes are the information that direct the coding mechanism how to perform. It is to be noted that the subcategory only applies to some categories; in cases where it does not apply, the value is unused and undefined. The code values for the location clause illustrates how values may be selected to help in compressing the resulting code. The location clause code is derived by adding the value of the primary code value (office, site, custom, etc.) to the value of the secondary code (at the, at my, etc.), resulting in a value between zero (0) and thirty one (31), inclusive. This is not required by the build message mechanism, but does show how the invention lends itself to compression.

The following shows examples with the corresponding message display and code values. The steps to display a message are as follows:

1) Read in the code stream and extract the category and subcategory values. These two values determine the subject noun, and the verb, of the message.

2) Extract format, statement/question format and verb tense values from the code stream. These, between them, determine the proper word order and verb conjugation of the message.

3) Extract the location clause value from the code stream. This adds a location prepositional phrase to the message, if indicated. If a custom location is indicated, extract a 12-character ASCII word from the code stream.

4) Extract the date and time clause values from the code stream. These add a date/time prepositional phrase to the message, if indicated.

Three examples of code values and displays are described below.

EXAMPLE 1

English Question Sentence

Screen display string: WILL THE MEETING BE AT YOUR OFFICE TUESDAY @3:00 PM?

Syntax block category order:

1. Format ›1!

2. Question format ›3!

3. Category ›0!

4. Subcategory ›X!(is unused and undefined in this example)

5. Verb tense ›2!

6. Location ›3!

7. Date modifier ›0!

8. Date unit ›2!

9. Date value ›2!

10. Time modifier ›1!

11. Time (hours) ›3!

12. Time (minutes) ›0!

Code values:

›1!& ›3!& ›O!& ›X!& ›2!& ›3!& ›O!& ›2!& ›2!& ›1!& ›3!& ›O!

Binary code stream:

1.11.000.X.010.00011.00.010.0010.1.0011.00

EXAMPLE 2

English Statement Sentence

Screen display string: THE MEETING WILL BE AT MY OFFICE TUESDAY @3:00 PM.

Syntax block category order:

1. Format ›0!

2. Statement format ›1!

3. Category ›0!

4. Subcategory ›X!

5. Verb tense ›2!

6. Location ›2!

7. Date modifier ›0!

8. Date unit ›2!

9. Date value ›2!

10. Time modifier ›1!

11. Time (hours) ›3!

12. Time (minutes) ›0!

Code values:

›0!& ›1!& ›0!& ›X!& ›2!& ›2!& ›0!& ›2!& ›2!& ›1!& ›3!& ›0!

Binary code stream:

0.01.000.X.010.00010.00.010.0010.1.0011.00

EXAMPLE 3

French Statement Sentence

Screen display string: LA RENCONTRE SERA AS MON BUREAU MARDI @15:00

Syntax block category order:

1. Format ›0!

2. Statement format ›3!

3. Category ›0!

4. Subcategory ›X!

5. Verb tense ›2!

6. Location ›2!

7. Date modifier ›0!

8. Date unit ›2!

9. Date value ›2!

10. Time modifier ›1!

11. Time (hours) ›3!

12. Time (minutes) ›0!

Code values:

›0!& ›3!& ›0!& ›X!& ›2!& ›2!& ›0!& ›2!& ›2!& ›1!& ›3!& ›0!

Binary code stream:

0.11.000.X.010.00010.00.010.0010.1.0011.00

The code values are read by the coding mechanism to determine which phrases, words, or diacritical marks will be displayed. Also, the Boolean functions determine where to direct the flow order of the syntax blocks along the branching paths. It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the process of making these Boolean functions can be executed in various ways. For example, all decisions about word selection/order could be made with a series of IF . . . THEN . . . ELSE constructs, such as:

    ______________________________________
    IF (CATEGORY == THE MEETING IS)
    THEN IF (FORMAT == STATEMENT)
    THEN IF (STATEMENT FORMAT == POSITIVE)
           THEN IF (VERB TENSE == PAST)
            SUBJECT AND VERB = The meeting was;
           ELSE IF (VERB TENSE == PRESENT)
            SUBJECT AND VERB == The meeting is;
           ELSE . . .
           END IF
    ELSE
           THEN IF (VERB TENSE == PAST)
            SUBJECT AND VERB = The meeting wasn't;
           ELSE IF (VERB TENSE == PRESENT)
            SUBJECT AND VERB = The meeting isn't;
           ELSE . . .
           END IF
    ELSE
    THEN IF (QUESTION FORMAT == WHERE)
    THEN IF (VERB TENSE == PAST)
           SUBJECT AND VERB = Where was the meeting;
    ELSE IF (VERB TENSE == PRESENT)
    SUBJECT AND VERB = Where is the meeting;
           ELSE . . .
           END IF
    ELSE IF (QUESTION FORMAT == WHEN)
    THEN IF (VERB TENSE == PAST)
    SUBJECT AND VERB = When was the meeting;
    ELSE IF (VERB TENSE == PRESENT)
    SUBJECT AND VERB = When is the meeting;
           ELSE . . .
           END IF
    ELSE . . .
    END IF
    END IF
    ELSE IF (CATEGORY == I/YOU CALL)
           THEN . . .
    ______________________________________

    ______________________________________
    GET CATEGORY FROM CODE STREAM INPUT
    IF (CATEGORY == 0)
                 /* THE MEETING (TO BE) */
    THEN
    GET FORMAT FROM CODE STREAM INPUT
    IF (FORMAT == 0)
                 /* STATEMENT */
    THEN
    GET STATEMENT FORMAT FROM CODE STREAM INPUT
    IF (STATEMENT FORMAT == 3)
                        /* POSITIVE */
    THEN
    GET VERB TENSE FROM CODE STREAM INPUT
    IF (VERB TENSE == 2)
    SUBJECT AND VERB == THE MEETING WILL BE;
    END IF
    END IF
    END IF
    END IF
    GET LOCATION CLAUSE FROM CODE STREAM INPUT
    IF (LOCATION CLAUSE > 0 & LOCATICN CLAUSE < 25) THEN
    IF (0 < LOCATION CLAUSE < 5)
    LOCATION STRING == OFFICE
    END IF
    END IF
    GET LOCATION MODIFIER FROM LOCATION CLAUSE
    IF (LOCATION MODIFIER == 1)
    LOCATION STRING == AT MY + LOCATION STRING
    END IF
    GET DATE UNIT FROM CODE STREAM INPUT
    IF (DATE UNIT == 2) THEN
    GET DATE VALUE FROM CODE STREAM INPUT
    IF (DATE VALUE == 2) THEN
    DATE STRING == TUESDAY
    END IF
    END IF
    GET DATE MODIFIER FROM CODE STREAM INPUT
    IF (DATE MODIFIER == 0) THEN
    DATE STRING ==
                 + DATE STRING
    END IF
    GET TIME HOURS FROM CODE STREAM INPUT
    IF (TIME HOURS == 3) THEN
    TIME STRING = 3:
    END IF
    GET TIME MINUTES FROM CODE STREAM INPUT
    IF (TIME MINUTES == 0) THEN
    TIME STRING = TIMESTRING + 00
    END IF
    GET TIME MODIFIER FROM CODE STREAM INPUT
    IF (TIME MODIFIER == 1) THEN
    TIME STRING = TIME STRING + PM
    END IF
    IF (FORMAT == 0) THEN
    MESSAGE STRING = subject And verb + LOCATION STRING +
    TIME STRING
    MESSAGE STRING = MESSAGE STRING +
    END IF
    ______________________________________

    ______________________________________
    ›THE MEETING! ›IS! ›AT THE! ›OFFICE! ›FRIDAY! ›@5:00 PM! ›.!
    ›THE MEETING! ›WILL BE! ›AT THE! ›OFFICE! ›FRIDAY!
    ›@5:00 PM! ›.!
    ›THE MEETING! ›WAS! ›AT THE! ›OFFICE! ›FRIDAY! ›@5:00 PM!
    ›.!
    ›THE MEETING! ›ISN'T! ›AT MY! ›HOME! ›TUESDAY! ›@2:00 PM!
    ›.!
    ›THE PACKAGE! ›WONT BE! ›AT MY! ›HOME! ›TUESDAY! ›@2:00
    PM! ›.!
    ›THE PACKAGE! ›WASN'T! ›AT MY! ›HOME! ›TUESDAY! ›@2:00
    PM! ›.!
    ›THE MEETING! ›IS! ›AT YOUR! ›SITE! ›WEDNESDAY! ›@9:30
    AM! ›.!
    ›THE MEETING! ›WILL BE! ›AT YOUR! ›SITE! ›WEDNESDAY!
    ›@9:30 AM! ›.!
    ›THE MEETING! ›WAS! ›AT
    YOUR! ›SITE! ›WEDNESDAY! ›@9:30AM! ›.!
    ›I! ›AM! ›AT THE! ›CLUB! ›TODAY! ›@6:15 PM! ›.!
    ›I! ›WILL BE! ›AT THE! ›CLUB! ›TODAY! ›@6:15 PM! ›.!
    ›I! ›WAS! ›AT THE! ›CLUB! ›TODAY! ›@6:15 PM! ›.!
    ›YOU! ›AREN'T! ›AT THE! ›PLANT! ›TOMORROW! ›@8:45 AM! ›.!
    ›YOU! ›WON'T BE! ›AT THE! ›PLANT! ›TOMORROW! ›@8:45 AM!
    ›.!
    ›YOU! ›WEREN'T! ›AT THE! ›PLANT! ›YESTERDAY! ›@8:45 AM!
    ›.!
    ______________________________________

    ______________________________________
    ›IS! ›THE MEETING! ›AT THE! ›OFFICE! ›FRIDAY! ›@5:00 PM! ›?!
    ›WILL (BE)! ›THE MEETING BE! ›AT
    THE! ›OFFICE! ›NEXT! ›FRIDAY!
    ›@5:00 PM! ›?!
    ›WAS! ›THE MEETING! ›AT THE! ›OFFICE! ›LAST! ›FRIDAY!
    ›@5:00 PM! ›?!
    ›IS! ›THE MEETING! ›AT YOUR! ›SITE! ›WEDNESDAY! ›@9:30
    AM!!›?!
    ›WILL (BE)! ›THE MEETING BE! ›AT YOUR! ›SITE! ›NEXT!
    ›WEDNESDAY! ›@9:30 AM! ›?!
    ›WAS! ›THE MEETING! ›AT YOUR! ›SITE! ›WEDNESDAY! ›@9:30
    AM! ›?!
    ›AM! ›I! ›AT THE! ›CLUB! ›TODAY! ›@6:15 PM! ›?!
    ›WILL BE! ›I! ›AT THE! ›CLUB! ›TODAY! ›@6:15 PM! ›?!
    ›WAS! ›I! ›AT THE! ›CLUB! ›TODAY! ›@6:15 PM! ›?!
    ›WHERE IS! ›THE MEETING! ›TODAY! ›?!
    ›WHERE WILL (BE)! ›THE MEETING BE! ›NEXT! ›FRIDAY! ›?!
    ›WHERE WAS! ›THE MEETING! ›LAST! ›MONTH! ›?!
    ›WHEN IS! ›THE MEETING! ›AT YOUR! ›SITE! ›?!
    ›WHEN WILL (BE)! ›THE MEETING BE! ›AT! ›HOSPITAL! ›?!
    ›WHEN WAS! ›THE MEETING! ›AT THE! ›SCHOOL! ›?!
    ›WHERE & WHEN IS! ›THE MEETING! ›?!
    ›WHERE & WHEN WILL (BE)! ›THE MEETING BE! ›?!
    ›WHERE & WHEN WAS! ›THE MEETING! ›?!
    ›COULD (BE)! ›THE MEETING BE! ›AT YOUR! ›OFFICE!
    ›@2:30 PM! ›?!
    ›SHOULD (BE)! ›THE MEETING BE! ›AT YOUR! ›OFFICE!
    ›@2:30 PM! ›?!
    ›WHERE IS! ›THE PACKAGE! ›?!
    ›WHERE WILL (BE)! ›THE PACKAGE BE! ›?!
    ›WHERE WAS! ›THE PACKAGE! ›?!
    ›WHEN IS! ›THE PACKAGE! ›AT YOUR! ›OFFICE! ›?!
    ›WHEN WILL (BE)! ›THE PACKAGE BE! ›AT MY! ›HOME! ›?!
    ›WHEN WAS! ›THE PACKAGE! ›HERE! ›?!
    ›WHERE ARE! ›YOU! ›?!
    ›WHERE WILL (BE)! ›YOU BE! ›?!
    ›WHERE WERE! ›YOU! ›?!
    ›CAN (BE)! ›YOU BE! ›AT! ›HOME! ›TODAY! ›?!
    ›WHERE & WHEN WILL (BE)! ›YOU BE! ›?!
    ›CAN (BE)! ›THE MEETING BE! ›AT MY! ›OFFICE! ›NEXT!
    ›MONDAY! ›@9:45 AM! ›?!
    ______________________________________

    ______________________________________
    IF FORMAT = 0
    IF SUBJECT CATERGORY = 0
    THEN VERB = ›THE MEETING WAS, THE MEETING IS,
    THE MEETING WILL BE, THE MEETING SHOULD BE, THE
    MEETING SHOULD BE!
    Else IF CATEGORY = 2
    THEN IF SUBCATEGORY = 0
    VERB = ›I WAS, I AM, I WILL BE, I SHOULD BE,
    COULD BE!
    ELSE
    VERB = ›YOU WERE, YOU ARE, YOU WILL BE, YOU
    SHOULD BE, COULD BE!
    END IF
    ELSE . . .
    ______________________________________

    ______________________________________
    Code Value Name    Code Bits
    ______________________________________
    Format             1
    Statement/Question Format
                       2
    Category           3
    Subcategory        1
    Verb Tense         3
    Location Clause    5
    Date Modifier      2
    Date Unit          3
    Date Value         4
    Date Value         2
    Time (Hours)       1
    Time (Minutes)     2
    Time Modifier      1
    Total Message Bits 31
    Optional Custom Location
                       72
    Worst Case Total   103
    ______________________________________

• Inventors
  Hall, Tracy R.;
• Assignee
  Casio Computer Co., Ltd. (Santa Clara, CA)
• Published
  Mar-16-1999
• Current US Classes:
  340/7.21
  704/8
  715/536
• Application #
  631760
• International Classes
  G06F 017/20; G06F 017/28
• Field of Search
  704/1 704/2 704/3 704/7 704/8 704/9 707/530 707/531 707/532 707/536 707/535 340/825.44 455/31.2 455/31.3
• Examiner
  Thomas; Joseph
• Agent
  Skjerven,Morrill,MacPherson, Franklin and Friel, MacPherson; Alan H., Marino; Fabio E.
• US Patent References:
  4382256
  4870402
  4974191
  5001633
  5182772
  5268839
  5434777
  5664126
  5675817
  5693076