Step counter usable as pocket paging receiver and method for controlling the same

Claim 1

A step counter for counting the number of steps when a user is walking and a pager function operative while carrying the step counter, comprising: an antenna for receiving a signal indicative of a message for radio paging; a radio frequency amplifier circuit for amplifying a radio frequency component of the signal received by the antenna; a mixer circuit for mixing the amplified radio frequency signal from the radio frequency amplifier circuit with an oscillation signal generated from an oscillator circuit and converting the resultant signal into an intermediate frequency signal; an intermediate frequency detector circuit for detecting the intermediate frequency signal from the mixer circuit and amplifying it; a decoder circuit for decoding the intermediate frequency signal detected by the intermediate frequency detector circuit and thereby generating a signal processable in an operating system of the step counter; a battery for supplying electric power; a step-counting sensor circuit for sensing walking data generated when the user carrying the step counter is walking, accumulatively counting the number of steps upon sensing the walking data, and sending the resultant value to a control circuit; a selection switch circuit for selecting one of a step-counting function and a radio-paging function in accordance with a user's desire; a memory circuit, under the control of a control circuit, wherein said control circuit refers to an identifier stored in said memory circuit, for discriminating whether the received message is required to be stored in the control circuit; the control circuit for controlling the overall system processing operation of the step counter, storing the output signal from the decoder circuit when the received message corresponds to the identifier stored in the memory circuit, and storing the counted value from the step-counting sensor circuit; and a display for selectively informing a user of the data stored in said control circuit indicative of the received message and the counted number of steps, under control of the control circuit.

Claim 3

A method for controlling a step counter having a radio-paging function, comprising the steps of: (a) receiving input paging or step counting data and determining whether input data received in the step counter being at a power-on state is data for a radio-paging mode or data for a step-counting mode; (b) determining whether the input data corresponds to an identifier stored in a memory circuit equipped in the step counter when the input data has been determined as the data for the radio-paging mode at the step (a) and storing the input data when it corresponds to the identifier; (c) sensing the input data as walking data when the input data has been determined as the data for the step-counting mode at the step (a), accumulatively counting the number of steps, and storing the resultant value; and (d) determining whether the step counter operates in the radio-paging mode or the step-counting mode, and transmitting the stored data corresponding to the determined mode to a display equipped in the step counter.

Claim 4

A method for controlling a step counter having a radio-paging function, comprising the steps of: (a) receiving input paging or step counting data and determining whether input data received in the step counter being at a power-on state is data for a radio-paging mode or data for a step-counting mode; (b) determining whether the input data corresponds to an identifier stored in a memory circuit equipped in the step counter when the input data has been determined as the data for the radio-paging mode at the step (a) and storing the input data when it corresponds to the identifier; (c) sensing the input data as walking data when the input data has been determined as the data for the step-counting mode at the step (a), accumulatively counting the number of steps, and storing the resultant value; and (d) determining whether the step counter operates in the radio-paging mode or the step-counting mode, and transmitting the stored data corresponding to the determined mode to a display equipped in the step counter.