KR20070066629A - Method and system for providing independent user interface by using extensible markup language and mobile communication terminal therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and a system for providing an independent UI(User Interface), and a mobile terminal therefor are provided to allow a user to designate personally set UI or selectively apply a UI set by a mobile communication provider or a contents manufacturer to his/her mobile terminal. A key input unit(210) receives a request for executing an application from a user, and receives a key or a command for receiving information on a UI. An LCD screen display unit(220) outputs the execution result. A memory unit(270) stores XML(eXtensible Markup Language) UI data obtained by converting information on the UI into the form of the XML. When the request for executing the application is received by using the key input unit, a terminal controller(280) executes the application, extracts the information on the UI from the XML UI data, and controls the LCD screen display unit to output the execution result according to the information on the UI.

Description

Method and system for providing independent user interface using extensibility generating language, and mobile communication terminal therefor {Method and System for Providing Independent User Interface by Using Extensible Markup Language and Mobile Communication Terminal Therefor}

1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating an independent UI providing system using XML according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a mobile communication terminal having an independent UI using XML according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a flowchart illustrating an independent UI providing method using XML according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of Symbols for Main Parts of Drawings>

110: mobile communication terminal 120: mobile communication network

130: XML UI providing server 140: user terminal

150: internet 210: key input unit

220: LCD screen display unit 230: microphone

240: speaker 250: wireless communication processing unit

260: wired communication processing unit 270: memory unit

280: terminal control unit

The present invention provides a method and system for providing an independent user interface (UI) using Extensible Markup Language (XML), hereinafter called 'XML', and a mobile communication terminal therefor. It is about. More specifically, in order to easily change the UI of the application running in the mobile terminal according to the user's taste or the manufacturer's policy of the mobile terminal, the mobile terminal has an imitator for the UI. After generating the information as XML UI data or downloading the XML UI data generated by the server on the network from the mobile terminal, when the application is executed by managing the XML UI data independently, the application receives the information about the UI from the XML UI data. The present invention relates to an independent UI providing method and system using XML for outputting a screen according to extracted UI information, and a mobile communication terminal therefor.

The mobile communication terminal is a multipurpose electronic communication apparatus that performs various additional functions such as a phone book function, an electronic notebook function, a schedule management function, and a wake-up call function as well as various mobile communication functions such as voice call function, wireless data communication function, and short message transmission / reception function. Used.

When using such a mobile terminal, the user can move anywhere anytime while making a phone call with a remote party or performing data communication with a computer, a server, etc. on a network, and thus has high utilization as an information transmission medium. In addition, the mobile communication terminal can perform the various additional functions described above to provide the user with convenient information for life.

Therefore, since the mobile communication terminal has a strong characteristic as a medium for providing information, various various methods for easily and aesthetically outputting information output on the screen of the mobile communication terminal have been researched and developed. That is, the development of a UI for converting and outputting various information such as text, voice, image, video, etc. provided in a mobile communication terminal in a way that is favorable to the user is steadily progressing.

Meanwhile, as the electronic communication technology has developed, a virtual machine (VM) has been installed in the mobile communication terminal, and most of the software running in the mobile communication terminal is manufactured as an application (or application program) that can be executed by the virtual machine. do. An application is a program for driving the hardware of the mobile communication terminal, and drives the hardware of the mobile communication terminal according to a predetermined algorithm to achieve its purpose. Such an application is implemented as a single piece of program data that can be coded, compiled, and executed. Therefore, if one application is created, it cannot be divided and executed partly, and all of them must be executed.

Therefore, when executing the application in the mobile communication terminal and outputs the execution result as information, the output is made according to the UI defined in the application, and the user cannot arbitrarily change the UI. To change the UI, you need to modify the application's coding, recompile it, generate it in another application, and run it. Therefore, the procedure for changing the UI becomes complicated and difficult.

And creating an application can be a daunting task, making it difficult for ordinary users who don't have the program's expertise to make changes. As a result, users can not only find an application with the UI that suits their tastes, but also have to perform an inconvenient procedure such as downloading, storing, and executing from a server of a specific company that produces and provides the application.

In order to solve this problem, when a mobile communication terminal provides a menu of a specific application, various UI skins may be provided to provide a menu in a specific style specified by a user among a predetermined number of styles. This allows the user to specify a style that he likes from a certain number of styles, so that the choice is broadened. However, this also provides a limited UI skin so that the UI can not be freely changed.

In order to solve this problem, the present invention, in order to be able to easily change the UI of the application running on the mobile terminal according to the user's taste or the manufacturer's policy of the mobile communication terminal, using a copying machine in the mobile terminal After creating the information as XML UI data or downloading the XML UI data generated by the server on the network from the mobile terminal, when running the application by managing the XML UI data independently, the information from the UI UI data from the XML UI data in the application The purpose of the present invention is to provide an independent UI providing method and system using XML for outputting a screen according to extracted UI information, and a mobile communication terminal therefor.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a mobile communication terminal that stores a plurality of applications and outputs an execution result of the application. Key input means for receiving an input key or command; Screen display means for outputting an execution result; Storage means for storing XML UI data in which information about the UI is converted into an extensible markup language (XML); And control means for executing the application when the execution of the application is requested using the key input means, extracting information on the UI from the XML UI data, and outputting the execution result according to the information on the UI. It provides a mobile communication terminal having an independent UI using XML, characterized in that it comprises a.

According to another object of the present invention, a method of outputting an execution result in a mobile communication terminal storing a plurality of applications and outputting an execution result of the application, includes: (a) a user interface (UI) hereinafter ' Generating and storing XML UI data by receiving information about a UI 'and converting the information into a form of an extensible markup language (XML); (b) running the application; And (c) extracting information about the UI from the XML UI data and outputting an execution result according to the information about the UI.

In addition, according to another object of the present invention, in the system for providing a UI that is applied to output the execution result of the application, information about a user interface (UI) (hereinafter referred to as "UI") is scalable An XML UI providing server for converting to a form of a generation language (XML), generating, storing, and providing XML UI data; A mobile communication terminal which accesses an XML UI providing server, downloads XML UI data, and executes an application, extracts information about the UI from the XML UI data, and outputs an execution result according to the information about the UI; And providing a mobile communication service including a wireless data communication service to the mobile communication terminal, and providing a mobile communication network for relaying data transmitted and received between the mobile communication terminal and the XML UI providing server. Provide a system.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. First of all, in adding reference numerals to the components of each drawing, it should be noted that the same reference numerals are used as much as possible even if displayed on different drawings. In addition, in describing the present invention, when it is determined that a detailed description of a related known configuration or function may obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

1 is a system for providing an independent user interface (UI) using Extensible Markup Language (XML) according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as XML). Is a block diagram briefly shown.

Independent UI providing system using XML according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a mobile communication terminal 110, a mobile communication network 120, an XML UI providing server 130, a user terminal 140 and the Internet 150 do.

The mobile communication terminal 110 wirelessly performs a voice call with another mobile communication terminal or a landline phone using the mobile communication network 120, and wirelessly performs data communication with a specific server, a computer, or another mobile communication terminal on the network. A mobile communication terminal, wherein the mobile communication terminal is a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), cellular phone, PCS (Personal Communication Service) phone, Hand-Held PC (GSM), Global System for Mobile (GSM) phone, WCDMA (WCDMA) Wideband CDMA) phones, CDMA-2000 phones, Mobile Broadband System (MBS) phones and the like. Here, MBS phone refers to a mobile phone to be used in the fourth generation system currently being discussed.

The mobile communication terminal 110 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes and executes an XML emulator program that generates, edits, and simulates information about the UI of the application in the form of XML. In addition, the user receives the information on the UI from the user using the mobile terminal 110 generates the XML UI data, and specifies the application to apply the generated XML UI data.

Here, the information about the UI refers to a font size, a font color, a background color, an height and a color of an indicator of a menu output on the screen by an application, and the user may use the mobile communication terminal 110. This refers to the UI information of the menu to be applied on the screen.

In addition, when executing the application, the mobile communication terminal 110 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, if the XML UI data is specified, using the provided XML parser (parser) to extract information about the UI from the XML UI data And outputs the execution result of the application according to the information about the UI extracted on the screen.

In addition, although the mobile communication terminal 110 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention may directly generate, edit, and simulate XML data as described above, the XML UI providing server (using the mobile communication network 120) After accessing 130, the application may be designated by downloading and storing XML UI data provided by the XML UI providing server 130.

In addition, the mobile communication terminal 110 according to an embodiment of the present invention may be connected to the user terminal 140 to download and store XML UI data from the user terminal 140 to designate an application. The server 140 accesses the XML UI providing server 130 through the Internet 150 to download and store the XML UI data, and then transmits the XML UI data to the mobile communication terminal 110 for download.

The mobile communication network 120 is a network providing a mobile communication service such as a voice call service and a wireless data service to the mobile communication terminal 110, and connects the mobile communication terminal 110 with the XML UI providing server 130. It can be implemented in various mobile communication systems. The mobile communication system may be implemented as a code division multiple access (CDMA) 2000 system, a wideband CDMA (WCDMA) system, a global system for mobile communications (GSM) system, a wireless internet broadband (WiBro) system, or the like.

XML UI providing server 130 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is implemented as a conventional network server, to store a plurality of XML UI data including information on various UI, when the mobile communication terminal 110 is connected The XML UI data to be transmitted to the mobile communication terminal 110 is transmitted to the mobile communication terminal 110 by the XML UI data requested by the mobile communication terminal 110 or a push method. Also, the stored XML UI data is transmitted even when the user terminal 140 is connected.

The user terminal 140 may be a computer of a user who uses the mobile communication terminal 110, and may be a desktop computer, a notebook computer, a workstation, or the like, and access the XML UI providing server 130 using the Internet 150. Wired modems such as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) and Very High-data Rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL), memory for storing Web browsers and programs, and microprocessors for running and operating programs. Can be. In addition, the user terminal 140 synchronizes with the mobile communication terminal 110 and a wired communication means such as a universal serial bus (USB) capable of performing data communication with the mobile communication terminal 110 and performs data communication. It is provided with a communication program to perform the XML UI data is downloaded from the XML UI providing server 130 according to the user's operation and stored and then transferred to the mobile communication terminal (110).

The Internet 150 includes various services existing in the TCP / IP protocol and its upper layers, namely, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Telnet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Domain Name System (DNS), and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). , An open computer network structure that provides a simple network management protocol (SNTP), a network file service (NFS), and a network information service (NIS), and connects the XML UI providing server 130 and the user terminal 140. To enable data communication between them.

2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a mobile communication terminal having an independent UI using XML according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

A mobile communication terminal having an independent UI using XML according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a key input unit 210, a liquid crystal display unit 220, a microphone 230, a speaker 240, and a wireless communication processor 250. And a wired communication processing unit 260 and a memory unit 270.

The key input unit 210 includes a numeric button for inputting a number such as a phone number, a character button for inputting a character, a menu selection button, and the like to receive a key or a command from a user who uses the mobile communication terminal 110. Input means.

The liquid crystal display 220 displays an operation state of the mobile communication terminal 110 including a power usage state, a radio wave reception intensity, a date and time, and displays the mobile communication terminal 110 in the form of letters, numbers, and images. In the case where the information generated in the operation process of) is delivered, this information, that is, the screen display means for outputting the execution result of the application.

The microphone 230 is a voice input means for converting a voice input of a mobile communication subscriber into an electrical signal and transmitting the electrical signal. The speaker 240 is a voice output means for converting the transmitted voice signal into an audible sound and outputting the audible sound.

The wireless communication processor 250 encodes or decodes a voice signal, performs an equalizer function to remove multipath noise, and performs a digital signal processing function for performing an acoustic data processing function, and converts a signal to be transmitted and received into a baseband signal. Baseband conversion function that performs digital-to-analog conversion and analog-to-digital conversion processing, receives RF (Radio Frequency) signal and converts it into IF (Intermediate Frequency) signal, converts IF signal to RF signal, and RF signal RF signal processing function for demodulating and amplifying a signal, an antenna function for transmitting and receiving a wireless signal in the air, and the like, and are wireless communication processing means for processing wireless communication so that the mobile communication terminal 110 can perform wireless data communication.

The wired communication processor 260 has a serial port or a parallel port and is connected to the user terminal 140 using serial communication or parallel communication to process wired communication so as to perform data communication with the user terminal 140. Wired communication processing means.

The memory unit 270 may include basic software for driving the mobile communication terminal 110 and performing voice and data communication, a plurality of software for performing various additional functions, protocol software for processing messages to transmit and receive for wireless communication, It is a storage means for storing temporary data or the like generated when the software is executed. To this end, the memory unit 110 includes a nonvolatile memory such as an electrically erasable and programmable read only memory (EPEPROM), a flash memory, and a volatile memory such as a synchronous memory (SDRAM).

In addition, the memory unit 270 according to an embodiment of the present invention is an XML imitator program that is software for creating, editing, and deleting XML UI data and designating an application to apply XML UI data by receiving information about the UI; A plurality of applications necessary for the operation of the mobile communication terminal 110 are stored, and XML UI data generated or downloaded by the XML copyer program 272 is stored.

The terminal controller 280 is a control means for controlling the overall operation of the mobile communication terminal 110. The terminal controller 280 controls various software stored in the memory unit 270 to perform additional functions as well as basic functions for performing voice and data communication. Read and run In addition, when data that is not executed immediately is input, the terminal controller 280 transmits the data to the memory unit 270 to temporarily store the data.

In addition, the terminal controller 280 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention executes an XML copycater program stored in the memory unit 270 when XML management data is requested from the user through the key input unit 210. Providing an operation tool for managing XML UI data according to a predetermined algorithm of the imitator program, receiving information about the UI from the user and converting the information about the UI into XML format to generate XML UI data, After designating an application to which the XML UI data is to be applied, and upon request from the user, a preview screen is applied to the UI of the XML UI data generated by using the LCD screen display unit 220, and the user is corrected. Allows editing such as change, deletion, addition. Here, if an application to which the XML UI data is to be applied is not specified, it may be applied to all applications.

In addition, when the terminal controller 280 executes an application from a user or under the control of another program, the XML controller stored in the memory unit 270 using an XML parser provided therein. After searching and analyzing the data, the UI information is extracted and applied through the liquid crystal display 220 to apply the extracted UI information to the execution result of the application to be output on the screen.

Therefore, the user may arbitrarily change a menu or the like output on the screen through the LCD screen 220 as a result of an application executed in the mobile communication terminal 110 in a format that is specified by the user. That is, the user can simply apply the style specified to all the applications of the mobile communication terminal 110 or the selected application by simply coding and storing the style to be designated in the form of XML. Accordingly, the user may change the UI of each application by generating and specifying XML UI data for each application, or arbitrarily change the UI of all applications by generating only one XML UI data to be applied to all applications.

In addition, XML is a tool for expressing data with characteristics that ensure the independence of each element constituting the document to ensure the compatibility of the document, the independence of the contents, the ease of changing elements. Therefore, when the UI data is generated in the form of XML, it can be applied to all mobile communication terminals and can be used in all applications.

Therefore, users can design their own UI and code it in XML to generate XML UI data, and then selectively apply their own UI to an application or move various XML UI data created by a mobile carrier or a content provider. By downloading and applying to the communication terminal 110, various UIs may be selected according to the taste.

XML is different from ordinary script. XML is a type of data written to fit text into a specific grammar, and a script is a program that compiles data coded by a specific grammar. Thus, scripts are limited in the applications that can be applied. That is, the script is not applicable to all mobile communication terminals and all applications because the script is dependent on the manufacturer, version, etc. of the application. However, because XML is independent and highly compatible with all applications, it can be applied to all mobile terminals and all applications in common. And since it is not a program that compiles using a specific tool, it does not need an additional program to generate, and its syntax is not complicated, so the user can easily define the UI without any expert knowledge. Therefore, the effect that can be achieved by defining the UI in XML can be very large.

3 is a flowchart illustrating an independent UI providing method using XML according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

When the user requests the management of the XML UI data by operating the mobile terminal 110, the mobile terminal 110 executes an XML copying machine program to receive the information about the UI to convert the XML UI data into XML form Create and save In this case, the mobile communication terminal 110 may provide a preview screen to which the XML UI data generated using the XML copyer program is applied, and the user may modify, change, or delete the XML UI data after checking the preview screen. Can perform administrative tasks.

In addition, when a user manipulates the mobile communication terminal 110 to download the XML UI data without directly generating the XML UI data, the mobile communication terminal 110 accesses the XML UI providing server 130 using the mobile communication network 120. Afterwards, the XML UI data provided by the XML UI providing server 130 is downloaded and stored. In this case, the XML UI providing server 130 may configure a menu for providing XML UI data as a swap page or the like, and select and download specific XML UI data among a plurality of XML UI data.

In addition, the user accesses the XML UI providing server 130 through the Internet 150 using the user terminal 140, downloads and stores the XML UI data to the user terminal 140, and then again with the user terminal 140. The mobile terminal 110 is connected to transmit XML UI data stored in the user terminal 140 to the mobile communication terminal 110 and stored in the mobile communication terminal 110. To this end, the XML UI providing server 130 may configure a menu for providing XML UI data as a web page or the like, and select and download specific XML UI data from among a plurality of XML UI data.

That is, the mobile communication terminal 110 generates XML UI data or downloads from the XML UI providing server 130 or downloads from the user terminal 140 using the mobile communication network 120 (S310).

The mobile communication terminal 110 generating or downloading and storing XML UI data may designate XML UI data to all applications or a specific application according to a user's selection (S320). In this case, since the mobile communication terminal 110 may store a plurality of XML UI data, the mobile communication terminal 110 may selectively designate a plurality of XML UI data to a plurality of applications. Thus, a user can specify one XML UI data for every application or different XML UI data for each application.

That is, when there is one XML UI data stored in the mobile communication terminal 110 or when a plurality of XML UI data are stored but not designated as a specific application, one XML UI data or recently stored XML UI data is stored. It may be specified in the application, but is not limited thereto.

When the user manipulates the mobile communication terminal 110 to perform a specific function, the mobile communication terminal 110 executes an application for performing the corresponding function (S330).

When the application is executed in the mobile communication terminal 110, it is checked whether the XML UI data is specified in the application, and if the XML UI data is specified, the specified XML UI data or the XML UI data is not recently specified. The stored XML UI data is searched using an XML parser, and information about the UI is extracted from the searched XML UI data (S340).

When the mobile communication terminal 110 extracts the information on the UI and outputs the execution result of executing the application, the mobile terminal 110 outputs the result according to the information on the extracted UI (S350). That is, the menu of the application is output according to the UI designated by the user. Therefore, the UI, such as the font of the menu of the application, the font size, the font color, and the indicator position, is output according to the UI set by the user.

The above description is merely illustrative of the technical idea of the present invention, and those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may make various modifications and changes without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention. Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention are not intended to limit the technical idea of the present invention but to describe the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments. The protection scope of the present invention should be interpreted by the following claims, and all technical ideas within the equivalent scope should be interpreted as being included in the scope of the present invention.

As described above, according to the present invention, the user of the mobile communication terminal can arbitrarily change the menu output on the screen to a style directly set by a simple method, and thus can personalize the screen of the mobile communication terminal.

In addition, the user may designate a UI set by himself or herself and selectively apply a UI set by a mobile communication company or a content manufacturer to his mobile communication terminal.

In addition, a mobile communication company or a content manufacturer can change the UI of all mobile communication terminals uniformly, thereby making it easy to correct an error in a program.

In addition, since the user may set various UIs and specify differently for each application of the mobile communication terminal, a new UI effect may be obtained for each application.

In addition, since information about the UI to be arbitrarily changed is generated, changed, and moved in the form of XML, it can be used in all applications of all mobile communication terminals regardless of the type of mobile communication company, content manufacturer, mobile communication terminal, or application. .

In addition, the user can apply the UI of the mobile communication terminal to his or her own taste with only a simple knowledge of XML tags without the programming knowledge.

Claims (11)

In the mobile communication terminal for storing a plurality of applications to output the execution results of the application, Key input means for receiving a request for execution of the application from a user and receiving a key or command for receiving information on a user interface (UI); Screen display means for outputting the execution result; Storage means for storing XML UI data in which information about the UI is converted into an extensible markup language (XML); And When the application is requested to be executed using the key input means, the application is executed, information about the UI is extracted from the XML UI data, and the screen display means causes the execution result to be added to the information about the UI. Control means for controlling the output Mobile communication terminal having an independent UI using XML, characterized in that it comprises a. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage means, And an XML emulator program for converting the information about the UI into the XML format to generate the XML UI data. The method of claim 2, wherein the XML imitator program, And a preview screen by applying the XML UI data, and modifying, changing, and deleting the XML UI data according to the user's selection. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile communication terminal, And a wireless communication processing unit for accessing an XML UI providing server and downloading the XML UI data using wireless data communication. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile communication terminal, A mobile communication terminal having an independent UI using XML, characterized in that it further comprises a wired communication processing unit for accessing the user terminal using wired data communication to download the XML UI data. In the mobile communication terminal for storing a plurality of applications to output the execution result of the application, Method of outputting the execution result, (a) XML UI data by receiving information about a user interface (UI) and converting it into a form of extensible markup language (XML). Creating and storing; (b) running the application; And (c) extracting information about the UI from the XML UI data and outputting the execution result according to the information about the UI Independent UI providing method using XML, characterized in that it comprises a. The method of claim 6, wherein in step (c), the mobile communication terminal, An independent UI providing method using XML, characterized by extracting information on the UI from the XML UI data using an XML parser. The method of claim 6, wherein the method is After step (a) above, (a1) downloading and storing the XML UI data Independent UI providing method using XML, characterized in that it further comprises. The method of claim 6, wherein the method is After step (a) above, (a2) assigning the XML UI data to at least one of the plurality of applications; In addition, wherein, in the step (b), the application is independent UI providing method using XML, characterized in that the XML UI data is the specified application. In a system that provides a UI that is applied to output the results of running an application, Generates and stores XML UI data by converting information about a user interface (UI) to an extensibility generation language (XML). Providing an XML UI providing server; A mobile communication terminal which accesses the XML UI providing server, downloads the XML UI data, and executes the application, extracts information about the UI from the XML UI data, and outputs the execution result according to the information about the UI. ; And A mobile communication network which provides a mobile communication service including a wireless data communication service to the mobile communication terminal and relays data transmitted and received between the mobile communication terminal and the XML UI providing server. Independent UI providing system using XML, characterized in that it comprises a. The method of claim 10, wherein the XML UI providing server, Independent UI providing system using XML, characterized in that for transmitting the XML UI data to the mobile communication terminal using the mobile communication network (Push) method.

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