JP2008098733A - Portable terminal and display control method of icon in portable terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible for a user to recognize existence of an application under actuation while suppressing the storage capacity and lessening the burden on the user. <P>SOLUTION: When one of a plurality of application programs is actuated, a control section 15 determines whether the application programs being actuated is a second type of application program. If it is a second type of application program and an icon has been displayed at a display section 13 before the application programs is actuated, the operation is controlled to sustain display of the icon. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a mobile terminal device and an icon display control method in a mobile terminal device that notify a user by pictographic (icon) display that an application program is being activated.

In recent years, multifunctional mobile terminal devices with abundant applications have become widespread. In the mobile terminal device described above, during operation of an application program (hereinafter simply referred to as an application) such as a navigation or music player, an icon (hereinafter referred to as “application running”) is displayed in the pictogram area provided at the top of the effective screen. The state was indicated by lighting or blinking.
This is achieved by controlling the application manager that manages the application independently of the OS (Operating System) to turn on the pict when starting the application and to turn off the pict when closing the application. Was.

For example, Patent Literature 1 shown below is known as a technique for displaying a pictograph corresponding to an application in operation. According to FIG. 10 of this Patent Literature 1 and paragraph “0043”, according to a television application. An example of a pictogram display is disclosed.
JP 2006-2111394 A

By the way, recently, there has been an increased opportunity to display an alert screen while the above-described application is running. For example, there are many notification screens for mail received in the background (interrupt event occurrence), billing confirmation screen by user operation, lock number input screen, app termination confirmation screen, etc.
Conventionally, all the above-mentioned alert screens that are predicted to occur are prepared for each application, and when the alert screen is displayed, a pictograph indicating that the application is running Control was made so that lighting (flashing) continued.

On the other hand, the types of apps with pictograms (flashing) are increasing, and the types of alerts are increasing, as TV viewing is controlled under app monitoring. The number of has become something that can not be ignored.
Therefore, the provision of all the alert screens by the application has disadvantages in that it adversely affects the storage capacity, increases the number of design steps, and increases the burden on the programmer.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and allows a user to be aware of the presence of an active application while suppressing a storage capacity and reducing a burden on a programmer. An object is to provide an icon display control method in an apparatus.

  The portable terminal device according to the first aspect of the present invention selectively switches and executes a display unit and a plurality of application programs, and when the application program to be executed is the first type of application program, A control unit that controls the display unit to display a related icon, and when the one of the plurality of application programs is activated, the control unit is a second type of application program. If the application program is determined to be the second type application program and the icon is displayed on the display unit before the application program is started, Continue to display the icon To control to so that.

  The portable terminal device according to the second aspect of the present invention selectively executes a display unit and a plurality of application programs, and when the application program to be executed is the first type of application program, the application program And a control unit that controls the display unit to display an icon related to the operation, and attribute information that identifies the application program to be executed when any one of the plurality of application programs is executed by the control unit. A storage unit that is stacked, and when the one of the plurality of application programs is activated, the control unit determines whether the application program to be activated is a second type of application program, and Application program to be started When the program is the second type of application program, the storage unit is referred to, and the application program specified by the attribute information stacked immediately before the attribute information related to the application program is the first type of application program. In the case of a program, the display unit is controlled to display the icon.

  In the mobile terminal device according to the third aspect of the present invention, any one of the plurality of application programs is executed by the display unit, a control unit that selectively switches and executes a plurality of application programs, and the control unit. A storage unit on which attribute information for identifying the application program to be executed is stacked, and the control unit includes attribute information stacked on the storage unit when one of the plurality of application programs is activated. If the latest startup application program is the first type of application program, control is performed to display an icon related to the operation of the application program on the display unit, and the latest startup application program is the second type of application program. If it is an application program The controls to continue the display of the icon based on the application program specified by the attribute information which is stacked just before the attribute information of the application program.

  Preferably, the control unit determines whether or not the application program to be activated is a second type application program based on one activation of the plurality of application programs, and is not the second type application program. If it is determined, control is performed so that the icon displayed on the display unit is updated to an icon display corresponding to the activated application program.

  Preferably, the second type of application program is an application program that is activated during the activation of the first application program and displays a warning on the display unit.

  Preferably, when the new application program is started, the control unit interrupts execution of the running application program while the attribute information based on the running application program is stacked in the storage unit, and the new application program is started. The attribute information based on the application program is stacked in the storage unit, and control is performed so that the new application program is activated.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a plurality of application programs are selectively switched and executed. When the application program to be executed is the first type of application program, icons related to the operation of the application program are displayed on the display unit. The display control method of the icon in the mobile terminal device to be controlled as described above, and when one of the plurality of application programs is activated, it is determined whether the activated application program is a second type application program And when the application program is determined to be the second type application program and the icon is displayed on the display unit before the application program is started, A second step of controlling so as to continue the view, the.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to display the presence of a running application while reducing the storage capacity and reducing the burden on the programmer.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a mobile terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, a mobile phone is illustrated as the mobile terminal device.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the mobile phone includes a communication unit 11, an operation unit 12, a display unit 13, a storage unit 14, a control unit 15, an audio processing unit 16, a speaker 17, and a microphone 18. Composed.

  The communication unit 11 performs wireless communication with a base station (not shown) connected to the communication network. For example, the transmission data supplied from the control unit 15 is subjected to predetermined modulation processing to be converted into a radio signal, and is transmitted via an antenna (not shown). In addition, the radio signal from the base station received by the antenna is subjected to a predetermined demodulation process to be converted into reception data and output to the control unit 15.

  The operation unit 12 includes keys to which various functions such as a power key, a call key, a numeric key, a character key, a selection key, and a determination key are assigned, and these keys are operated by the user. Then, a signal corresponding to the operation content is generated and input to the control unit 15 as a user instruction.

The display unit 13 is configured using a display device such as a liquid crystal display panel or an organic EL (Electro-Luminescence) panel, for example, and displays an image corresponding to the video signal generated by the control unit 15. For example, the phone number of the callee at the time of outgoing call, the phone number of the other party at the time of incoming call, the contents of received mail and outgoing mail, date, time, remaining battery level, standby screen, and various information and images such as pictograph indicate.
Here, as shown in the display screen area in FIG. 2, a main area 131 in which an image corresponding to the video signal is displayed in the center of the screen, and status information of the mobile phone is displayed in the upper part of the screen. In the pictogram area 132 and the lower part of the screen, a soft key area for displaying a sub-function is assigned and displayed.

Various types of data used for processing in the control unit 15 are stored in the storage unit 14. For example, a computer program provided in the control unit 15, an address book for managing personal information such as a telephone number of a communication partner and an e-mail address, an audio file for playing a ringtone or an alarm sound, an image file for a standby screen, Various setting data and temporary data used in the process of the program are stored.
Here, for each application executed by the control unit 15 described later, a stack area (hereinafter referred to as an application activation stack 140) in which attribute information for specifying the application is stacked is allocated and held. FIG. 3 shows an example of the data structure of the attribute information held in the application activation stack 140.

As shown in FIG. 3, the attribute information includes information related to an application ID 141, an application name 142, an application type 143, and an application characteristic 144. Here, the “application characteristics” 144 refers to information referred to by the control unit 15 in order to determine whether the application corresponding to the ID is a first type application or a second type application. Further, the “second type application” refers to an application (hereinafter referred to as a pop-up application) that is activated while the first type application is activated and displays a warning on the display unit 13. An application that calls a seed application.
The above-described storage unit 14 is configured by, for example, a nonvolatile storage device (nonvolatile semiconductor memory, hard disk device, optical disk device, etc.), a randomly accessible storage device (eg, SRAM, DRAM), or the like.

The control unit 15 comprehensively controls the overall operation of the mobile phone. That is, various processes of the mobile phone (voice calls performed via a circuit switching network, creation and transmission / reception of e-mail, browsing of the Internet Web (World Wide Web) site, etc.) are input via the operation unit 12. The operation of each block described above (transmission / reception of signals in the communication unit 11, display of images on the display unit 13, etc.) is controlled so as to be executed according to an appropriate procedure.
The control unit 15 includes a computer (microprocessor) that executes processing based on a program (OS, application manager, application, etc.) stored in the storage unit 14, and the processing described above according to the procedure instructed in this program. Execute. That is, the instruction code is sequentially read from the program stored in the storage unit 14 and the process is executed.

The control unit 15 executes a part of the various processes described above by an application that operates under a predetermined execution environment (platform). For example, the application executes processing such as browsing an Internet website or displaying an image in the standby mode. That is, when a predetermined event occurs in response to a key input from the operation unit 12 or the like, the control unit 15 activates a predetermined application corresponding to the event and executes a specific process.
Here, when one of the plurality of applications is activated, the control unit 15 refers to the attribute information stored in the storage unit 14 to determine the characteristics of the activated application, and the application is a specific application. The pictographic display is continued on the condition that the pictographic display indicating that the app being executed immediately before the activation of the app is being activated has been performed on the display unit 13. It has a function to control. Details will be described later.

  Note that the audio processing unit 16 processes an audio signal output from the speaker 17 and an audio signal input from the microphone 18. That is, the sound input from the microphone 18 is amplified, analog-to-digital converted, and further subjected to signal processing such as encoding, converted into digital sound data, and output to the control unit 15. In addition, the audio data output from the control unit 15 is subjected to signal processing such as decoding, digital-analog conversion, amplification, and the like, converted into an analog audio signal, and output to the speaker 17.

Specifically, the mobile phone described above is composed of a CPU and a peripheral LSI including a memory, and the function of the control unit 15 serving as a control center is that the CPU sequentially reads and executes a program recorded in the memory. It is realized by.
The functions of the communication unit 11, the operation unit 12, the display unit 13, and the audio processing unit 16 are realized by a peripheral LSI that is programmable controlled by the CPU, and is controlled via an input / output port (not shown). 15 is connected to a CPU that realizes the functions of 15. In addition, the memory | storage part 14 shall be allocated and memorize | stored in memory.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart quoted for explaining the operation of the portable terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
Hereinafter, the operation of the mobile terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When a predetermined event occurs in response to a key input from the operation unit 12 or the like, the control unit 15 selects a predetermined application corresponding to the event (hereinafter referred to as a startup application), and executes a startup start process of the startup application (S401). In this activation start process, the control unit 15 acquires the activation application ID (S402). Based on the ID, the application characteristic information 144 is obtained by referring to the storage unit 14, and the attribute information is stacked on the application activation stack 140 (S403).
Next, the control unit 15 determines whether or not the application is a pop-up application from the acquired application characteristic information of the start-up application (S404). It is determined that it is a top visible (TOP-Visible) (S405).

Subsequently, the control unit 15 determines whether or not the activated application is a pictographic display target (S406). If it is determined that it is a display target, the control unit 15 clears the pictographic display area 132 of the display unit 13 ( S407), the pictorial display of the startup application is performed (S408), and the startup process of the startup application is completed (S412).
If the activation application is not a display target, the pictograph display is cleared (S409), and the activation process of the activation application is completed (S412). As described above, when it is determined that the activation application is not a pop-up application, the control unit 15 updates the pictograph displayed on the display unit 14 to a pictographic display corresponding to the activation application.

  On the other hand, in the pop-up determination process of S404, when it is determined that the start-up application is a pop-up application, the start-up application stacked immediately before being the pop-up application caller is determined as top visible (S410). Then, the pictogram display already executed by the caller activation application is maintained (S411), and the application activation process is completed (S412).

  In addition, when a user who has finished watching the alarm notification or the like in a state where the pop-up app is activated as a top visible, when the pop-up app is terminated, the pictograph display is based on the first type app that was originally activated immediately before. Therefore, it is not particularly necessary to update the pictogram display.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the transition of the application activation stack 140 as an operation concept diagram. In FIG. 5, the upper row shows the transition of the application activation stack 140 held in the storage unit 14, and the lower row shows the transition of the screen displayed on the display unit 13.
Here, as a kind of application, a standby application, an application A (for example, a navigation application) as a first type application, and a sub application B (for example, an email notification application) as a second type application are illustrated. It is assumed that the standby application is top visible in the initial state (1). In addition, the application having the attribute information stacked at the top of the application activation stack 140 is the latest activation application.

When the control unit 15 selects navigation from the standby screen in response to a key input from the operation unit 12 or the like, the control unit 15 starts the activation process of the application A corresponding to the event, but this new application (application A) is activated. At that time, the execution of the standby application is interrupted while the attribute information based on the running application (standby) is stacked on the application activation stack 140, the attribute information based on the application A is stacked on the application activation stack 140, and the application A is activated. Control to do. Then, the application A is set as a top visible (2).
Further, the control unit 15 confirms that the app A is a pictograph display (displays that the app A is being activated) and controls the display unit 13, thereby causing the pict to be turned on from the standby screen. Transition to the screen where app A is running (3).

When application A is running and there is an incoming mail in the background and a sub-app (mail notification application) is activated, the application A is executed with the attribute information based on the application A being executed being stacked on the application activation stack 140. The processing is interrupted, and attribute information based on the sub application B is stacked on the application activation stack 140 (4), and control is performed so that the sub application B is activated.
At this time, based on the flowchart of FIG. 4, the control unit 15 determines that the calling application A that has been stacked immediately before is not the sub application B as the top visible, and thus the pictogram display of the application A is maintained ( Five).

  According to the portable terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention described above, when one of the plurality of applications is activated, the control unit 15 determines whether the activated application is the second type application (pop-up application). When the application to be activated is a second type application, the storage unit 14 (application activation stack 140) is referred to and specified by the attribute information stacked immediately before the attribute information related to the second type application. When the application to be performed is a first type application (caller activation application), the display unit 13 is controlled to display icons, thereby suppressing the storage capacity of the storage unit 14 and various variations. Assuming that all pop-ups are considered for all first-class apps, it is not necessary to create a program, so the user is running while reducing the burden on the programmer. It is realized that is aware of the presence of pre.

Specifically, the control unit 15 monitors the application activation stack 140 held in the storage unit 14, and when the popup application is activated while the first type application is activated, regards the popup application as a top visible application. The pictographic display disappears and the caller's first type app is displayed as a top visible app without any misunderstanding that there is no active first type app. Medium) can continue.
This eliminates the need to prepare all the alert screens for each application. Therefore, the storage capacity is reduced, and various pop-ups are considered for all first-class applications, assuming various variations, and a program is created. Since it is not necessary, the user can be made aware of the top visible application while reducing the burden on the programmer.
Therefore, the user can always be aware that there is a first type application being activated, even while the pop-up application is being activated. Can be prevented, and inadvertent operations that can occur when the user cannot recognize the presence of the active application, such as deleting the sentence being edited in the first type application, can be prevented.

In addition, the flowchart shown in FIG. 4 and the operation | movement conceptual diagram shown in FIG. 5 also show each process (step) which the display control method of the icon in the portable terminal device of this invention has.
That is, the icon display control method in the portable terminal device of the present invention selectively executes switching between the display unit 14 and a plurality of application programs, and when the application program to be executed is the first type application program, An icon display control method in a portable terminal device, comprising: a control unit 15 configured to control an icon related to an operation to be displayed on the display unit 14, wherein the control unit 15 is activated by one of a plurality of application programs. A first step (S404) for determining whether or not the activated application program is the second type application program, and it is determined that the application program is the second type application program, and the application program When the display unit 14 displays an icon has been performed before starting the second step of controlling so as to continue the display of the icons (S410, S411), and has a.

  According to the icon display control method in the band terminal device according to the above-described embodiment of the present invention, when the control unit 15 activates one of the plurality of application programs, the activated application program is the second type application. Whether or not it is a program is determined. If it is determined that the application program is the second type application program and the icon is displayed on the display unit 14 before the application program is started, the icon display is continued. By controlling, it is not necessary to prepare all of the alert screens for each application program, so that the user can be aware of the application program being activated while reducing the storage capacity and reducing the burden on the programmer. .

In addition, according to the mobile terminal device related to the above-described embodiment, the mobile phone is exemplified as the mobile terminal device. However, the same applies when applied to a PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), a game machine, a navigation system, and the like. An effect is obtained.
In addition, the functions of the constituent blocks of the mobile terminal device of the present invention may be realized entirely by software, or at least a part thereof may be realized by hardware. For example, the processing in the control unit 15 and the data processing in the communication unit 11 and the voice processing unit 16 may be realized on a computer by one or a plurality of programs, and at least a part thereof is realized by hardware. Also good.

It is a block diagram which shows the internal structure of the portable terminal device concerning embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen structure of the display part used in the portable terminal device concerning embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the data structure of the memory | storage part used in the portable terminal device concerning embodiment of this invention. It is the flowchart quoted in order to demonstrate operation | movement of the portable terminal device concerning embodiment of this invention. It is an operation | movement conceptual diagram quoted in order to demonstrate operation | movement of the portable terminal device in connection with embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Communication part, 12 ... Operation part, 13 ... Display part, 14 ... Memory | storage part, 15 ... Control part, 16 ... Sounding part, 17 ... Speaker, 18 ... Microphone, 131 ... Main area | region, 132 ... Picto area | region, 133 ... Soft key area, 140 ... application activation stack.

Claims (7)

A display unit;
A plurality of application programs are selectively switched and executed, and when the application program to be executed is the first type of application program, control is performed so that icons related to the operation of the application program are displayed on the display unit, and When one of the application programs is activated, it is determined whether the application program to be activated is the second type application program, the application program is determined to be the second type application program, When the icon is displayed on the display unit before the application program is started, a control unit that controls the display of the icon to be continued;
A portable terminal device comprising: A display unit;
A control unit that selectively switches and executes a plurality of application programs, and controls so that an icon related to the operation of the application program is displayed on the display unit when the application program to be executed is the first type of application program; ,
A storage unit on which attribute information for specifying the application program to be executed is stacked when any of the plurality of application programs is executed by the control unit;
The controller is
When one of the plurality of application programs is activated, it is determined whether the activated application program is a second type application program, and the activated application program is the second type application program. When the application program identified by the attribute information stacked immediately before the attribute information related to the application program is the first type application program with reference to the storage unit, the display unit A portable terminal device that controls to display an icon. A display unit;
A control unit for selectively switching and executing a plurality of application programs;
A storage unit on which attribute information for specifying the application program to be executed is stacked when any of the plurality of application programs is executed by the control unit;
The controller is
When one of the plurality of application programs is activated, the attribute information stacked in the storage unit is referred to. When the latest activated application program is the first type application program, an icon related to the operation of the application program To display on the display unit,
When the latest startup application program is the second type application program, the display of the icon based on the application program specified by the attribute information stacked immediately before the attribute information of the application program is continued. The portable terminal device characterized by controlling as follows. The controller is
Based on one activation of the plurality of application programs, it is determined whether or not the application program to be activated is a second type application program. If it is determined that the application program is not the second type application program, the display The mobile terminal device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an icon displayed on the unit is controlled to be updated to an icon display corresponding to the activated application program. The second type of application program is:
The portable terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the portable terminal device is an application program that is activated while the first application program is activated and that displays a warning on the display unit. The controller is
When a new application program is activated, the execution of the application program being executed is interrupted while the attribute information based on the application program being executed is stacked in the storage unit, and the attribute information based on the new application program is stored in the memory The mobile terminal device according to claim 3, wherein the mobile terminal device is controlled to be stacked in a unit and to start the new application program. An icon in a portable terminal device that controls to selectively display an icon related to the operation of the application program when the application program to be executed is a first type application program by selectively switching and executing a plurality of application programs. Display control method,
A first step of determining whether or not the activated application program is a second type of application program when one of the plurality of application programs is activated;
When the application program is determined to be the second type application program and the icon is displayed on the display unit before the application program is started, the control is performed to continue displaying the icon. A second step of:
The display control method of the icon in the portable terminal device characterized by having.

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