KR20050068663A - Method and appratus for user operating interface using camera function of mobile communication unit - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal, and more particularly to a user operation interface technology of the mobile communication terminal.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a user manipulation interface method of a mobile communication terminal using a camera function, the method comprising: storing a bit pattern for recognizing a screen center from reference camera image data, receiving new camera image data, and Analyzing the camera image data to find the stored bit pattern, determining a position at which the bit pattern for recognizing the center of the screen of the reference camera image data is moved on the screen of the new camera image data; Determining a moving direction of the terminal, generating direction key manipulation data corresponding to the movement direction of the mobile communication terminal, and controlling a corresponding application operation by using the generated direction key manipulation data; Characterized in that The.

Description

TECHNICAL AND APPRATUS FOR USER OPERATING INTERFACE USING CAMERA FUNCTION OF MOBILE COMMUNICATION UNIT}

The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal, and more particularly to a user operation interface technology of the mobile communication terminal.

Since the mobile communication terminal was developed as a portable device, the operation unit also has a smaller operating area than other electronic products (eg, a PC), and a narrow distance between the keypads.

However, in general, a command key input technique for controlling an application operation greatly depends on a user's finger manipulation. That is, the user feels uncomfortable and tired because he has to keep pressing the keypad in a narrow space for almost all operations (e.g. text writing, dialing, list / cursor / character orientation, etc.).

On the other hand, electronic products such as PCs and the like are provided with a separate mouse device for direction selection. According to such a user manipulation interface, the user seeks the convenience of the user's key operation by operating the keyboard and simultaneously operating the mouse separately for direction selection.

However, providing a separate (dedicated) mouse device in the mobile communication terminal is practically difficult in terms of size increase, weight increase, design, and the like.

The mobile terminal supports various application operations in addition to the basic call operation. For example, it supports text writing applications, wireless Internet search, various list selections, and games.

In using such an application, the user inputs direction key manipulation data to select cursor movement, icon selection, list selection, character movement direction, and the like.

However, according to the conventional mobile communication terminals, a technique for receiving direction key manipulation data is limited to pressing corresponding key buttons (up, down, left, and right keys) provided in the manipulation unit.

In the game of the conventional mobile communication terminal, the game proceeds while the characters in the game move in the desired direction by using the up, down, left, right keys of the navigation keys or "2", "4", "6", and "8" keys of the numeric keypad. . In this case, both the one hand to select the direction and the other hand to play the shooting role must be used on the cramped keypad, which is inconvenient to operate. In addition, the possibility that other keys are pressed at a narrow interval from the other keys increases. In addition, users who are familiar with general computer games feel uncomfortable with the operation of the mobile communication terminal, and the conventional technology in which the user selects a direction by pressing a corresponding key with a finger has been an obstacle to game activation of the mobile communication terminal. .

The present invention has been made in such a situation, by using the camera function of the mobile terminal to use the mobile terminal itself as a mouse, to provide a user operation interface that can facilitate the key input for direction selection The purpose is to do that.

The present invention for achieving the above object is characterized by analyzing the camera image data from the existing camera unit to determine the movement direction of the mobile communication terminal according to the direction key operation data generated according to the control of the application operation.

Accordingly, when the user presses the corresponding key with a finger as in the related art, the direction key manipulation data corresponding thereto is not generated. In the present invention, when the user moves the mobile communication terminal up, down, left, and right like a known mouse, the corresponding direction key operation data is generated, and the corresponding application operation is controlled using the generated direction key operation data. Accordingly, in the present invention, by using the camera function of the mobile communication terminal so that the mobile communication terminal itself can be used as a mouse, it is possible to provide a user operation interface that can conveniently perform key input for direction selection.

The foregoing and further aspects of the present invention will become more apparent through the following embodiments. Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments described with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily understand and reproduce.

1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a mobile communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The radio processing unit 107 radio-processes signals transmitted / received between base stations (not shown). For example, the wireless processing unit 107 shifts the baseband transmission signal to a high frequency for wireless output (may go through an intermediate frequency conversion step), amplifies it, and wirelessly outputs it through the antenna, and receives the high frequency received from the antenna. Transmit the frequency band to the base band (which may go through an intermediate frequency conversion step).

The voice processor 109 transmits the voice transmission signal that the user talks through the microphone to the controller 110 by performing a corresponding process including voice encoding, and demodulates the voice signal received by the controller 110 (the other side). Voice) to perform a corresponding process including voice decoding and output through the speaker. In general, the voice processing unit 109 includes a vocoder (not shown) that performs compression and decompression on voice data, analog circuits such as amplifiers and filters, and analog / digital conversion circuits and digital / analog conversion circuits. .

The controller 110 demodulates the received radio signal and modulates the transmitted signal and transmits the modulated signal to the radio processor 107. In this case, the controller 110 performs a modulation / demodulation operation in a manner preset for mobile communication. For example, the controller 110 may perform a CDMA modulation / demodulation operation such as channel coding / decoding and orthogonal code / decoding.

In addition, the controller 110 controls the overall operation of the mobile communication terminal. The control unit 110 analyzes the signal received from the base station, and controls the operation unit 101, the radio processing unit 107, and the voice processing unit 109 correspondingly. In addition, the control unit 110 controls the components 103, 105, 107, 109, 111, etc. of the mobile communication terminal in response to the operation data input from the operation unit 101. In addition, the controller 110 performs an operation of controlling a user operation interface method of the mobile communication terminal using a camera function.

The operation unit 101 is implemented as a means for inputting a user's operation, and may be a keypad, a side key, a touch panel, a handwriting input unit, a voice recognition unit, etc., which are composed of numeric keys and function keys.

The display unit 103 displays a program progress status of the mobile communication terminal, a user's menu selection screen, a call screen, and the like. In addition, the display unit 103 has a graphics processing function and can display various video data. In addition, the display unit 103 displays a corresponding application screen corresponding to the direction key manipulation data generated according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The camera unit 105 generates camera image data by converting light received through the lens into an electrical signal. For example, each pixel included in the camera unit 105 converts light received through the lens into electric charge. A capacitor or a transistor is provided for each pixel to accumulate the corresponding charge or convert it to a voltage. The camera unit 105 generates camera image data using the position of each pixel and the magnitude of the charge or voltage.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in the operation of a pre-view or the like, the camera image data generated by the camera unit 105 is used to determine the movement direction of the mobile communication terminal.

The storage 111 stores various operation programs and system programs of the controller 110. The above program is normally stored in a ROM area included in the storage 111 and can be erased as necessary. Examples of electrically erasable ROMs include EPIROM and flash memory. In addition, the storage 111 may include a RAM for temporarily storing data generated while executing various operation programs. In addition, the storage unit 111 stores program data describing a user manipulation interface method of the mobile communication terminal using a camera function according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of providing a user operation interface of a mobile communication terminal using a camera function according to an embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, a description will be given with reference to FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in the user manipulation interface method of a mobile communication terminal using a camera function, a bit for recognizing a screen center from reference camera image data is provided. Storing a pattern (201), receiving new camera image data (203), analyzing the new camera image data (203), and finding the stored bit pattern (203); Determining a position where the bit pattern for recognizing the center of the screen is moved on the screen of the new camera image data (205); determining a moving direction of the mobile communication terminal (207); and movement of the mobile communication terminal. In response to a direction, generating (209) direction key manipulation data; and generating the direction key manipulation Using the data, it is characterized in that comprises a step 211 for controlling the application operation.

When the user operation interface method of the mobile communication terminal using the camera function is executed according to the present invention, the camera unit 105 performs a known preview operation, for example, to generate camera image data.

When the controller 110 receives predetermined camera image data from the camera unit 105, the controller 110 uses reference camera image data for determining a movement direction of the mobile communication terminal, and sets a bit pattern for recognizing the center of the screen of the camera image data. Save (201). For example, as illustrated in FIG. 3, the controller 110 may store the bit pattern of the scanned low data and may also store the bit pattern of the scanned column data. In some cases, the controller 110 may store a bit pattern of data near the center of the screen. In some cases, the entire bit of the reference camera image data may be stored.

The controller 110 receives new camera image data from the camera unit 105, analyzes the new camera image data, and finds the stored bit pattern in the new camera image data (203). That is, the controller 110 searches for the same bit pattern in the new camera image data as the bit pattern stored in the reference camera image data to recognize the screen center.

For example, suppose that the reference camera image data is FIG. 3A, the bit pattern for recognizing the center of the screen includes at least "01010101, 11001100, 10101010". If the new camera image data is shown in FIG. 3B, the controller 110 searches for the bit patterns “01010101, 11001100, 10101010” in the new camera image data.

In operation 205, the controller 110 determines a position where a bit pattern for recognizing a screen center of the reference camera image data is moved on the screen of the new camera image data. That is, according to the embodiment of FIG. 3B, the bit pattern has moved to the left on the screen of the new camera image data.

In this case, the controller 110 determines that the moving direction of the mobile communication terminal has moved to the right (207). As another example, if the bit pattern is moved upward on the screen of the new camera image data, the controller 110 may determine that the movement direction of the mobile communication terminal is moved downward.

The controller 110 generates direction key manipulation data corresponding to the determined movement direction of the mobile communication terminal (209). The control unit 110 controls the application operation using the generated direction key manipulation data (211).

That is, in the present invention, when the user presses the corresponding key with his or her finger, the direction key manipulation data corresponding thereto is not generated. In the present invention, when the user moves the mobile communication terminal up, down, left, and right like a known mouse, the corresponding direction key operation data is generated, and the corresponding application operation is controlled using the generated direction key operation data. Accordingly, in the present invention, by using the camera function of the mobile communication terminal so that the mobile communication terminal itself can be used as a mouse, it is possible to provide a user operation interface that can conveniently perform key input for direction selection.

On the other hand, according to the auxiliary aspect of the present invention, the control unit 110 performs the control step (201, 203, 205, 207, 209, 211) by using the new camera image data as the reference camera image data. Characterized in that.

This characteristic aspect is for continually enabling the user manipulation interface method according to the invention.

According to an auxiliary aspect of the present invention, the direction key input data is at least one of cursor movement key data, icon selection key data, list selection key data, and character movement direction selection key data.

The user key manipulation interface of the present invention can be applied to any application that requires a user's direction selection operation in a mobile communication terminal.

For example, the direction key input data may be cursor movement key data.

That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the user may move the cursor 401 provided in the sentence creation screen window to a desired place by slightly moving the mobile communication terminal up, down, left, and right without using a finger operation as in the related art. There is a number.

Also, for example, the direction key input data may be icon selection key data.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the user may move the mobile communication terminal up, down, left, and right slightly without using a finger operation as in the related art, so that a wireless data communication screen window (eg, for purchasing a product at a specific wireless portal site) may be used. A desired icon 501 can be selected from icons provided on the screen window.

Also, for example, the direction key input data may be list selection key data.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the user moves the mobile communication terminal up, down, left, and right slightly without using a finger operation as in the related art, thereby allowing a list screen window (eg, sentence) to confirm a specific content or select a lower menu. A desired list 601 can be selected from the library list window.

Also, for example, the direction key input data may be the movement direction selection key data of the (game for mobile communication terminal) character.

That is, as shown in FIG. 7, the user can select a moving direction of the character 701 by slightly moving the mobile communication terminal up, down, left, and right without using a finger operation as in the related art.

Meanwhile, according to an additional aspect of the present invention, the control unit 110 adds and stores reference point data (see “111” bit of FIG. 6A) corresponding to the center of the screen to a bit pattern for recognizing the center of the screen. Further performing the step (not shown in FIG. 2), and determining the position where the bit pattern for recognizing the screen center of the reference camera image data is moved on the screen of the new camera image data (205), The position of the center of the screen of the reference camera image is moved on the screen of the new camera image by using the additional reference point data corresponding to the center of the screen.

Features of this aspect will be described.

For example, the controller 110 adds “111” to, for example, the “11001100” bit corresponding to the center of the screen. Then, the controller 110 may recognize a specific position indicating the center of gravity on the reference screen (ie, a portion marked with "+" on the screen).

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when it is assumed that one horizontal data is used as the reference bit pattern, it is difficult to accurately determine whether the reference bit pattern has moved left or right on a new screen. Can be generated.

Therefore, the controller 110 can recognize the movement direction of the mobile communication terminal accurately and precisely based on the reference point data when determining the position movement of the bit pattern.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, when the user presses the corresponding key with a finger as in the related art, the corresponding direction key manipulation data is not generated. In the present invention, when the user moves the mobile communication terminal up, down, left, and right like a known mouse, the corresponding direction key operation data is generated, and the corresponding application operation is controlled using the generated direction key operation data. Accordingly, in the present invention, by using the camera function of the mobile communication terminal so that the mobile communication terminal itself can be used as a mouse, it is possible to provide a user operation interface that can conveniently perform key input for direction selection.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the accompanying drawings, it should not be construed as being limited thereto, but should be construed to cover many modifications that are obvious from this.

1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a mobile communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of providing a user operation interface of a mobile communication terminal using a camera function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3A and 3B illustrate a process for determining a movement direction of a mobile communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an application screen to which the direction key manipulation data generated according to the present invention is applied.

5 is a diagram illustrating another example of an application screen to which the direction key manipulation data generated according to the present invention is applied.

6 illustrates another example of an application screen to which the direction key manipulation data generated according to the present invention is applied.

7 is a view showing another example of an application screen to which the direction key operation data generated in accordance with the present invention is applied.

Claims (8)

In the user operation interface method of the mobile communication terminal using a camera function, Storing a bit pattern for recognizing the center of the screen in the reference camera image data; Receiving new camera image data; Analyzing the new camera image data to find the stored bit pattern; Determining a position where a bit pattern for recognizing a screen center of the reference camera image data is moved on the screen of the new camera image data; Determining a moving direction of the mobile communication terminal; Generating direction key manipulation data corresponding to a movement direction of the mobile communication terminal; And And controlling a corresponding application operation by using the generated direction key manipulation data. The method according to claim 1, And setting the new camera image data as the reference camera image data, and repeatedly performing the control step. The method according to claim 1, The direction key input data, At least one of a cursor movement key data, an icon selection key data, a list selection key data, and a character movement direction selection key data; and a user function interface method of a mobile communication terminal using a camera function. The method according to claim 1, And adding and storing reference point data corresponding to the center of the screen to the bit pattern for recognizing the center of the screen; Determining a position at which a bit pattern for recognizing a screen center of the reference camera image data is moved on the screen of the new camera image data; Determining the position of the center of the screen of the reference camera image on the screen of the new camera image by using additional reference point data corresponding to the center of the screen; Operation interface method. In the user interface device of the mobile communication terminal using the camera function, A camera unit generating camera image data; Receiving the camera image data, storing a bit pattern for recognizing a screen center from reference camera image data, analyzing new camera image data to find the stored bit pattern, and recognizing a screen center of the reference camera image data Determine the movement direction of the mobile communication terminal by determining the position of the bit pattern on the screen of the new camera image data, generate direction key input data corresponding to the movement direction of the mobile communication terminal, and generate the generated direction key input. A control unit for controlling a corresponding application operation using data; And And a display unit configured to receive the direction key input data from the controller and perform a screen display operation. The method according to claim 5, The control unit, Repeating the bit pattern storage operation, the stored bit pattern search operation, the position determination operation, the camera movement direction determination operation, the direction key input data generation operation, and the corresponding application control operation by using the new camera image data as the reference camera image data And a user manipulation interface device of a mobile communication terminal using a camera function. The method according to claim 5, The direction key input data, And at least one of cursor movement key data, icon selection key data, list selection key data, and character movement direction selection key data. The method according to claim 5, The control unit, Performing operation of adding and storing reference point data corresponding to the center of the screen to a bit pattern for recognizing the center of the screen; Determining a position where a bit pattern for recognizing a screen center of the reference camera image data of the controller is moved on the screen of the new camera image data, Determining the position of the center of the screen of the reference camera image on the screen of the new camera image by using additional reference point data corresponding to the center of the screen; Operation interface device.