KR20070047899A - Key lockable type mobile communication terminal and method for controlling the same terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a key-locking mobile communication terminal, and when the user lifts the terminal body by hand, the keypad is automatically unlocked at the moment when the user's finger touches the keypad. The present invention provides a key-locking mobile terminal and a method of controlling the same, which can easily perform key lock and key lock release of a keypad easily without the troublesome key input operation.

Key-locked mobile communication terminal according to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object, including a keypad exposed to the outside from the terminal body, provided on one side of the terminal body, the human body for detecting contact with the human body And a touch detecting unit and a control unit releasing key lock of the keypad when the human body detecting unit detects contact with the human body in the key lock state of the keypad.

Key lock, unlock, human body, temperature sensor, keypad, contact, control unit, fingerprint

Description

KEY LOCKABLE TYPE MOBILE COMMUNICATION TERMINAL AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME TERMINAL}

1 is a perspective view showing a mobile communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram schematically showing a control configuration of the mobile communication terminal shown in FIG.

3 is a block diagram illustrating in more detail the control unit illustrated in FIG. 2.

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining the key lock / release action of the mobile communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 5 is a schematic diagram for explaining the key lock / release action of the mobile communication terminal according to another embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a control method of a mobile communication terminal according to the present invention;

<Code Description of Main Parts of Drawing>

110: key input unit 112: keypad

120: human body contact detection unit 122: temperature sensor

127: fingerprint detection sensor 130: display unit

132: key lock display 150: control unit

154: key lock processing unit 156: lock display processing unit

The present invention relates to a key-locking mobile communication terminal, and more particularly, to a mobile communication terminal in which a key lock is released only when the user grips the terminal body or further, the user touches the keypad with a finger. It is about.

Typically, in the mobile communication terminal, a keypad that forms part of a key input unit is formed outside the body. In order to protect the keypad from the external environment, a mobile communication terminal such as a folding type, a slide type or a flip type, which selectively opens and closes the keypad, has been known.

Recently, as the weight of a mobile communication terminal decreases, interest in a bar type mobile communication terminal in which the entire keypad is exposed to the outside is increasing. In addition, the slide-type mobile communication terminal is additionally provided with a keypad that is partially exposed to the outside while the keypad is selectively exposed to perform more key input.

In a mobile communication terminal in which the keypad is entirely or partially exposed to the outside, the mobile communication terminal is frequently operated by pressing a key button of the keypad regardless of the user's intention. For example, when a user carries a mobile communication terminal in a bag or a pocket, a keypad of the mobile communication terminal is pressed against an external article, causing the mobile communication terminal to perform an undesired operation. Since the operation of the mobile terminal is different from the will of the user, it requires special attention of the user, and also causes unnecessary problems of unnecessary charging power consumption and, moreover, the need for the user to bear unnecessary call charges and / or communication charges. do.

On the other hand, conventionally, a mobile communication terminal capable of performing key lock and / or unlock of a keypad through a complicated key input operation such as a password input has been developed. However, such a conventional mobile communication terminal has been inconvenient and hassle in using the key lock and / or key unlock only through a complicated key input operation. In addition, the conventional mobile communication terminal also has a problem of causing unnecessary consumption of battery charging power by increasing the number of key input irrelevant to the performance of the original function.

Therefore, an object of the present invention, when the user lifts the terminal body by hand, furthermore, the moment the user's finger touches the keypad, the keypad is automatically unlocked, cumbersome key input operation such as password input It is to provide a key-locking mobile communication terminal and a method of controlling the same, which can easily perform key lock and key lock release of a keypad easily without a key.

In addition, another object of the present invention, depending on whether or not contact with the human body, in particular, depending on whether the user touches the keypad, the key lock and release of the keypad is selectively made, in particular, to inform the key lock state of the keypad An indication is provided on the display unit to provide a key-locking mobile communication terminal and a control method thereof, which allow a user to use the key lock function more conveniently through confirmation of the indication.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention discloses a mobile communication terminal including a keypad exposed to the outside from the terminal body, the mobile communication terminal according to the present invention, provided on one side of the terminal body, A human body touch sensing unit sensing a touch; A controller for releasing a key lock of the keypad when the human body touch sensor detects contact with the human body; Including the key lock and release is automatically made according to the contact of the terminal body (especially the keypad) with the human body.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the human body contact sensing unit is preferably provided on the keypad to detect a contact between the keypad and the human body. In this case, the human body contact detection unit preferably includes a temperature sensor for measuring a micro thermal change generated in contact with the human body, more preferably, in addition to the temperature sensor, the human body contact by sensing the bending of the finger fingerprint. The apparatus may further include a fingerprint detection sensor to determine whether or not.

In addition, the mobile communication terminal according to the present invention further includes a display unit for displaying a key lock state under the control of the control unit, and such a display unit allows a user to visually check whether the key is locked by the mobile communication terminal. It is possible to use the key lock / unlock function of the above-described mobile communication terminal.

In addition, the method for controlling a mobile communication terminal according to the present invention comprises the steps of: locking a key of a keypad; detecting a contact between a terminal body and a human body in a state where the key lock is made; and a terminal body and a human body. Releasing the key lock of the keypad when there is contact between the keys; Include.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<Example>

1 is a perspective view illustrating a mobile communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which a main part is shown in a schematic enlarged cross-sectional view.

As shown in FIG. 1, the mobile communication terminal 100 according to the present embodiment includes a terminal body 102 and a keypad 112 exposed to the outside from the terminal body 102. The keypad 112 is provided with a plurality of key buttons to function as key input means of the key input unit 110 (see FIG. 2).

In the description of the embodiment of FIG. 1, the bar-type mobile communication terminal 100 in which the entire keypad 112 is always exposed to the outside is described as a preferred embodiment of the present invention. For example, like the slide-type mobile communication terminal, the keypad Only some are always exposed to the outside and the remaining keypads are also within the scope of the present invention.

Referring to the enlarged view of FIG. 1, a film type temperature sensor 122 is formed on an upper surface of the keypad 112. The temperature sensor 122 according to the present embodiment forms a structure in which a flexible resin surrounds the thin film thermistor and the conductive pattern electrode connected to the thin film thermistor so as not to impair the flexibility of the keypad. Is already known, so a detailed description thereof will be omitted. In addition, the temperature sensor 122 may be modified in various forms in addition to the film structure and / or thermistor structure described above. For example, it may be considered to form a semiconductor thermistor directly on each of the key buttons of the keypad 112. have.

The temperature sensor 122 forms a part of the human body contact detecting unit 120 (see FIG. 2) which will be described in detail below. The small temperature change of the keypad 112 is measured, and the measured temperature information is transmitted to the controller 150 (see FIG. 2) described below.

On the other hand, the mobile communication terminal 100 according to the present embodiment, as described in detail below, is configured to automatically lock the key and unlock the key, in addition, the user through the display unit 130 It has a key lock confirmation function that allows you to check the key lock status with your own eyes. The key lock confirmation function may be implemented by a key lock display 132 (eg, a lock display) provided to the display unit 130 under the control of the controller 150.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a control configuration of the mobile communication terminal illustrated in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, the mobile communication terminal 100 according to the present embodiment includes a key input unit 110 including a plurality of key buttons, a display unit 130 for providing various display information to a user, and Key lock, including a storage unit 140 that stores a program for performing various functions, a controller 150 for overall control of the above components, the above-described temperature sensor 122 (see Fig. 1), etc. And it includes a human body contact detection unit 120 to enable the implementation of the key lock release function.

The key input unit 110 transmits an input signal for performing the overall function of the mobile communication terminal 100 desired by the user to the controller 150. In particular, the key input unit 110 according to the present embodiment is configured to selectively lock or unlock the key input function by the control unit 150, such a key lock / release is selectively on / off by the control unit 150 By a key lock switch 117 (see FIG. 4). In addition, the above-described key lock can also prevent generation of key input sounds generated during key input.

The display unit 130 is a part in which various mobile communication service information such as a key input telephone number and / or a caller's telephone number, an SMS message, a memo pad, a video, a picture, a picture, and the like are displayed. In particular, the display unit 130 according to the present embodiment has a key lock display function that shows the key lock state to the user in association with the key lock function. Such a function may be implemented by the controller 150 determining the case when the human body does not touch the keypad and displaying the key lock display 132 (see FIG. 1) on the display unit 130.

The storage unit 140 according to the present embodiment is a type of ROM in which a coded program is stored for implementing various functions provided by the mobile communication terminal 100. In particular, the human body described below Reference temperature information determined as a reference range or threshold is stored for key lock and key unlock according to contact. The reference temperature information is used as comparison data with respect to the received temperature information when the controller 150 performs the key lock and key unlock function using the temperature information received from the outside.

As mentioned above, the human body contact detecting unit 120 serves to transmit temperature information generated when the user touches the keypad 112 to the control unit 150. The human body has a body temperature within a range that is different from an inanimate article, which causes a temperature change when the human body contacts the keypad 112. Therefore, the human body contact sensor 120 transmits such temperature information to the controller 150 to allow the controller 150 to perform the control of releasing the key lock only when the user uses the mobile communication terminal.

In addition, the mobile communication terminal 100 according to the present embodiment includes an RF unit 160, a voice processing unit 170, a speaker 182, a microphone 184, etc. to perform basic wireless communication functions. . The RF unit 160 converts a signal output from the controller 150 into a radio signal, and also converts a radio signal received through the antenna ANT into a desired signal and outputs the signal. The voice processing unit 170 modulates the voice signal input from the microphone 184 and converts the voice signal into voice data, and demodulates the voice data input from the RF unit 160 into the voice signal through the speaker 182. Output audio

3 is a block diagram showing in more detail the configuration of the controller 150 according to the present embodiment.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the controller 150 includes a mobile communication processor 151 for performing signal processing for performing a wireless communication service, and a key recognition unit 152 for recognizing a key input signal. And the like. The controller 150 also includes a key lock processor 154 and a lock display processor 156 in relation to the above-described key lock function.

When the key input is recognized through the key recognition unit 152, the controller 150 configured as described above performs control of various terminal functions corresponding to the key input. In particular, when the key recognition unit 152 recognizes a key input value related to mobile communication, the mobile communication processing unit 151 processes the mobile communication function, which is an inherent function of the mobile communication terminal, according to the recognized key input value.

In particular, the key lock processing unit 154 receives the temperature information measured by the human body contact detection unit 120, compares the temperature information with the reference temperature information stored in the storage unit 140, and as a result of the comparison, the keypad is If it is determined that the human body is in contact, it is responsible for the control to release the key lock. In addition, the key lock processing unit 154, if it is determined that the keypad is not in contact with the human body as a result of the comparison of the reference temperature information and the measured temperature information, and keeps the key lock state of the mobile communication terminal.

In addition, the lock display processing unit 156 displays a key lock display 132 (see FIG. 1) showing the key lock state on the display unit 130 in the key lock state, so that the user can safely carry the bag or the mobile communication terminal 100. The display unit 130 is controlled to be stored in the pocket or the like. The key lock display 132 informs the user whether the key lock and key release functions are properly performed, and allows the user to easily check whether the mobile communication terminal associated with the key lock function is broken. For example, when the key lock display 132 is displayed when there is no contact between the keypad and the human body, or when the key lock display 132 is displayed even when there is contact between the keypad and the human body, it means that there is a problem with the key lock function. May immediately request troubleshooting of the mobile communication terminal to solve this problem.

4 is a schematic diagram for explaining the key lock / key lock release action of the mobile communication terminal in more detail.

As shown in FIG. 4, at the moment the user presses a key button on the keypad 112, the user's finger contacts the temperature sensor 122 of the human body contact sensor. The temperature sensor 122 measures a temperature change transmitted to the keypad 112 by a finger, and transmits the temperature information to the key lock processing unit 154 provided in the controller. The key lock processing unit 154 compares the preset reference temperature information with the measured temperature information to determine that the user's finger has touched the keypad 112.

Thereafter, the key lock processing unit 154 controls the key lock switch 117 in the key lock state to release the key lock. At this time, the key lock switch 117 serves to selectively block the transmission of the key input signal between the key input unit 110, in particular, the keypad 112 and the key recognition unit 152. Although not shown, the key lock processing unit 154 may also perform a process of blocking the power supply to the key input unit 110 to block the key input sound, for example.

5 is a view for explaining the operation of the mobile communication terminal using the fingerprint information of the finger with the temperature information of the human body for key lock / unlock according to another embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 5, in the present embodiment, it can be seen that the fingerprint sensor 127 together with the temperature sensor 122 is further included as a component of the human body contact sensor. The fingerprint sensor 127 includes a light source 127a for irradiating light toward a key button of the keypad 112 that is transparent or translucent, and the keypad 112 with the user's finger positioned on the keypad 112. It includes a light receiving unit 127b for receiving the light reflected from.

Fingers of the human body are curved by a fingerprint, and the pattern of light reflected through the keypad 112 near the curved part of the finger is mostly different from the pattern of light reflected after hitting various articles having no or different bends. . The fingerprint sensor 127, using this principle, is enough to detect that the human finger is located on the keypad 112, and does not require accurate fingerprint matching of each user.

As described above, when the temperature sensor 122 and the fingerprint detection sensor 127 are used for key lock / unlock, the human body contact detection unit 120 compensates for the shortcomings of the two sensors and is more reliable for the keypad 112. It can detect whether or not human contact. For example, when the temperature sensor 122 is unable to accurately measure the temperature due to the external environment, the fingerprint sensor 127 may compensate for this.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a control method of a mobile communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6, in particular, FIG. 6, a method of controlling a key lock of a mobile communication terminal is described. Will be described.

The controller 150 performs a key lock function on the key input unit 110 (S201). This key lock function is performed by itself, the key input unit 110, in particular, the keypad 112 is not in contact with the human body. In this state, a key lock display is displayed on the display unit 130.

At this time, the human body contact sensor 120 performs a human body touch detection function that continuously detects the temperature change and / or the presence of a fingerprint on the keypad (S203). The controller 150 determines whether the keypad is in contact with a part of the human body, in particular, a finger, by using the signal detected by the human body touch sensor 120 and prestored information (S205).

If it is determined that the human body is in contact with the keypad 112, the controller 150 performs control to release the key lock of the key input unit 110 in the locked state (S207). By this control, various key inputs are immediately available through the key input unit 110, and thus, the user can use various functions of the mobile communication terminal.

In the mobile communication terminal according to the present invention, the human body contact detecting unit 120 may be formed on the keypad 112 as a whole, or may be formed only on a predetermined key button. When the human body touch sensor 120 is formed only on a predetermined key button, the key lock is released by pressing the key button on which the touch sensor 120 is formed. In this case, the key lock is made when there is no key input for a predetermined time, whereby the key lock can be automatically performed without user's manipulation.

Since the key lock is released immediately at the moment of key input through the key input unit 110 and the key lock is performed immediately after the key input is stopped, the key lock for the key input unit 110 is performed without performing complicated key input such as a password input. And key unlocking can be performed automatically. Therefore, the mobile communication terminal can prevent an unintentional key press that may occur while storing the mobile communication terminal in a bag or a pocket.

In the above description of the embodiments, the structures of the temperature sensor and the fingerprint detection sensor constituting the human body contact detection unit 120 have been described in a limited manner, but this is only an exemplary embodiment of the present invention and various sensor structures may be applied to the present invention. Of course. Furthermore, in addition to the temperature sensor and the fingerprint sensor, other types of sensors for detecting a microcurrent change on the keypad due to human contact may be used as the sensor of the human body touch sensor 120.

In addition, as the most preferred embodiment, it has been described that the human body contact sensing unit is formed on the keypad, it is also provided to provide a human body contact sensing unit on one side of the terminal body including the other part that is in contact with the user's body, that is, the keypad. May be considered.

 While the invention has been described above with reference to specific embodiments, various modifications, changes or modifications may be made in the art within the spirit of the invention and the appended claims, and thus, the foregoing description and drawings It should be construed as illustrating the present invention rather than limiting the technical spirit of the present invention.

As described above, the present invention solves the problem of a key exposure type mobile communication terminal in which an externally exposed key is pressed regardless of the user's intention. In particular, the present invention allows the key lock and key unlock to be automatically performed without complicated and cumbersome key input operation such as a password, thereby allowing the user to use the key lock function more conveniently.

 Furthermore, the present invention can prevent unnecessary consumption of battery charging power, and also provide an effect of preempting the communication connection by unintentional key input, the communication fee by the call connection, and the call fee in advance.

In addition, the present invention makes it easier for the user to use the above-described key lock / unlock function by an indication informing the user of the key lock in the key lock state. By informing the user whether it is being made, there is an effect of allowing the user to easily recognize whether or not the failure of the mobile communication terminal associated with the function.

Claims (9)

In the mobile communication terminal comprising a keypad exposed to the outside from the terminal body, A human body contact sensing unit provided at one side of the terminal body to sense contact with a human body; A controller for releasing a key lock of the keypad when the human body touch sensor detects contact with the human body; Key-lock mobile communication terminal comprising a. The key lock type mobile communication terminal of claim 1, wherein the human body contact sensing unit is provided on the keypad to sense a contact between the keypad and the human body. The key lock type mobile communication terminal according to claim 2, wherein the human body contact detection unit includes a temperature sensor for measuring a minute reverse change occurring in contact with the human body. The key lock type mobile communication terminal according to claim 3, wherein the human body touch detection unit further comprises a fingerprint detection sensor which detects the curvature of the finger fingerprint to determine whether the human body contacts the human body. The key lock type mobile communication terminal according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising a display unit for displaying a key lock state under the control of the control unit. Key lock of the keypad; A human body contact sensing step of sensing whether the terminal body contacts the human body in the state where the key lock is made; Releasing the key lock of the keypad when there is contact between the terminal body and the human body; Control method of a key-locking mobile communication terminal comprising a. The method of claim 6, wherein the detecting of the human body contact comprises measuring a micro thermal change generated when the human body contacts the terminal body. The method of claim 7, wherein the detecting of the human body contact further comprises detecting a bend of a finger fingerprint in contact with the terminal body. The method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, further comprising the step of displaying a key lock state of the keypad on a display unit.

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