KR20080052286A - Apparatus and method for selecting menu options from an electronic menu - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for selecting a menu option on an electronic menu and a device therefor are provided to suggest a menu option having the highest probability by analyzing probabilities selected by a user, thereby reducing the user's inputting action for selecting a menu option. If one menu option group is selected from the first set, a controller(31) configures the second set by dividing menu options included in the selected menu option group into the predetermined number of menu option groups. A display unit(7) consists of plural sub areas, and displays each of the predetermined number of the menu option groups on determined sub areas of the plural sub areas. A key pad(5) receives input for selecting one menu option group from the menu option groups.

Description

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SELECTING MENU OPTIONS FROM AN ELECTRONIC MENU}

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for selecting a menu option in an electronic menu, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for selecting a menu option in an electronic menu provided in mobile devices such as mobile phones.

Mobile devices with multiple functions are widely used. For example, mobile phones, one of the mobile devices, typically have a camera that captures images, a viewer that views stored images, a player that plays stored audio files, and a media player for playing multimedia files. Personal schedule managers such as calendars, alarms, and Internet access via wireless protocols. The mobile phone also includes an electronic menu for accessing other applications or stored data files. Typically such electronic menus are navigated using a keypad which includes alphanumeric keys and navigation keys.

As mobile phones become smaller and smaller in response to the needs of consumers, the keys that display alphanumeric characters have also become smaller and smaller accordingly. This can lead to more mistakes in wrongly pressing a small key.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to propose a method of selecting a menu option from an electronic menu using only a few keys when only a few keys need to be pressed to select one menu option in order to alleviate the above-mentioned disadvantages. .

According to another aspect of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, each set of menu option groups has two menu option groups, so that substantially binary search is performed.

The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that those skilled in the art may better understand it from the following detailed description of the invention. In addition to these features and advantages, further features and advantages of the present invention which form the subject of the claims of the present invention will be better understood from the following detailed description of the invention.

Each menu option analyzes the probability previously selected by the user to present the highest probability menu option, thereby reducing the input for selecting the menu option from the user. In addition, since a plurality of menu options are classified into two groups by a binary search method, a user may select a menu option intended by using only a few keys.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION A detailed description of preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosed concept and specific embodiments of the invention described below may be changed or modified to achieve the technical problem to be achieved by the present invention. Those skilled in the art will also recognize that concepts and structures equivalent to the concepts and structures disclosed herein do not depart from the spirit and scope of the broadest form of the invention. In the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of a related known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Preferably, the statistical analysis continues to perform menu selections, and based on the statistical analysis of the previous use, the highest probability menu list or the list of highest probability menu options is displayed as an option for user selection.

In one embodiment of the invention, the menu options are arranged in a hierarchical manner, and the menu options are displayed in one hierarchical step. In the above embodiment, preferably, the highest probability menu option among the displayed menu options is predicted based on a statistical analysis of previous use, and the highest probability menu option displayed is displayed as an option for user selection.

Preferred embodiments are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the cellular phone 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an outer case 3, a keypad 5, and a display unit 7. Here, the keypad 5 is a shift key selection key including an UP key 9a, a LEFT key 9b, a RIGHT key 9c, and a DOWN key 9d. 11); A delete key 13; A preferred content selection key 15; A cancel key 17; Switching key 19 to the scrolling mode; The spare key 21 is included.

2, main components of the mobile phone 1 include an audio codec 33, a controller 31, a radio frequency transceiver circuit 35, and a display driver. 37, a keypad 5, a subscriber identity module card (SIM Card) 39, and a memory 41. All of the above components are powered by a battery (not shown) located inside the outer case 3 of the mobile phone 1.

The audio codec 33 encodes the audio signal received from the microphone 43 and transmits the encoded audio signal to the controller 31, and decodes the encoded audio signal received from the controller 31 to generate a speaker. (Speaker) 45 is a common component to pass. The RF transmission / reception circuit 35 processes the wireless RF signal detected by the antenna 47 into a form suitable for input to the controller 31, and transmits the signal from the controller 31 through the antenna 47. Process in a form suitable for.

The display driver 37 is a general component for receiving a control signal for a desired display from the control unit 31 and converting the control signal into a drive signal in order for the display unit 7 to display the desired display.

The SIM card 39 is also a general SIM card.

The memory 41 stores firmware 49 used by the control unit 31 while the mobile phone 1 is operating. In one embodiment, the firmware 49 analyzes the use of the mobile phone 1 and User Interface Software 51 that can interact with the user via the keypad 5 and the display 7. Statistical analysis software 53. Memory 41 includes an operating system 55; The content database 57 and the work memory 59 that store application files and data files are stored.

In one embodiment, the content database 57 is stored hierarchically as shown in FIG. 3, which shows only a few folders 61 and content files 63 for convenience. The content files 63 include an application program or data file. For example, the data files may be sound files, picture files, video files, multimedia files.

Hierarchical databases are well known in the computational field. As shown in FIG. 3, each folder includes more folders or content files. For example, folder 61a includes folders 61c to 61f, the folder 61c for content file 63a, the folder 61d for folders 61i and 61j, and the folder. 61e includes folders 61k and 61l, the folder 61f includes folders 61m and 61q, and the folder 61q includes content files 63k. The folder 61a includes both folders 61c to 61f and 61i to 61q and content files 63a and 63c to 63k. Although not shown, one folder 61 may include a combination of at least one folder 61 and at least one content file 63. The hierarchical structure may have multiple levels, and the contents of one folder are at the next level of the folder. For example, referring to FIG. 3, the folders 61i and 61j are hierarchically next level with respect to the folder 61d, and similarly, the content file 63c is hierarchical with respect to the folder 61i. It can be said to be at the next level.

In this embodiment, the user interface software 51 includes an electronic menu routine, which allows the user of the mobile phone 1 to move the electronic menu using three different mechanisms. Here, the three mechanisms are Binary Search Mechanism, a first prediction mechanism that predicts the most probable of the results of the binary search based on the previous use of the mobile phone 1, the mobile phone ( The second prediction mechanism predicts the most probable of the content files based on the previous use of 1). Prediction mechanisms utilize statistical analysis performed by statistical analysis software 53. For convenience of explanation, the mechanisms will be described below as software configuration, but of course, they may be hardware configuration.

The binary search mechanism is a way to quickly search for an item in a sorted continuous list. The binary search mechanism does not compare sequentially from the beginning or end of the list to find the desired item, but compares it with the item in the middle. In an embodiment of the present invention, when the menu option is divided into two menu option groups by the binary search mechanism, and one menu option group is selected among them, the menu options belonging to the selected group are again divided into two groups. Divide. In this way, the file intended by the user can be selected. The menu option refers to a kind of content list or a content group such as content files, a folder including content files or folders, a TV channel list or a content list on the Web in the electronic menu of the present invention.

In detail, using the binary search mechanism, the controller 31 classifies the options into two groups, and receives a user input for identifying a group including a desired menu option. If the desired menu option is selected by the received user input, the controller 31 removes the group not including the desired menu option, and divides the group including the selected menu option into two new groups. In this way, the control section 31 identifies one of the plurality of options by repeating the above method until only the menu options desired by the user remain. If the number of initial menu options is large, using the binary search mechanism may require many user choices to be selected by the user until the user identifies the desired menu option. The first prediction mechanism is used to reduce the number of user choices required by indicating the option of the statistically most likely menu option.

Due to the hierarchical nature of the content database 57, if the binary search mechanism is used, the above-described selection processes must be performed several times to identify the desired content file. Thus, for quick access to the desired content file, the controller 31 provides a list of content files of the statistically highest probability using the second prediction mechanism to allow the user to select.

An example of menu selection will be described with reference to Figs. 4A to 4D, which show a case where a user of a mobile phone wants to watch a sports channel called Eurosport.

4A shows that the electronic menu is first shown on the display unit 7 when it is selected by the user of the cellular phone 1. As shown, the display portion 7 is divided into a plurality of regions. At the bottom of the display 7, menu options corresponding to the highest level of the hierarchical content database 57 are divided into a left sub-area 71 and a right sub-area 73 for the binary search mechanism. In FIG. 4A, 'Media Type' is displayed in the left sub-region 71, and 'Meta-data' is displayed in the right sub-region 73. This means that the hierarchical content database 57 has two folders labeled 'Media Type' and 'Meta-data'. Accordingly, one menu option ('media type') among the two divided menu options is displayed in the left sub-area 71, and another menu option ('meta-data') is displayed in the right sub-area 73. ') Is displayed.

The upper portion 75 of the display portion 7 has a sub region 77, which has the highest probability of menu options displayed at the bottom of the display portion 7 for the binary search mechanism. Is displayed. In other words, the sub region 77 displays the result of the first prediction mechanism. In the example shown, the control unit 31 determines that the content files corresponding to the 'media type' folder have been selected by the user more frequently than the content files corresponding to the 'meta data' folder by the statistical analysis software 53. do. Accordingly, the 'media type' is the result of the first prediction mechanism, and according to the result, the result of the first prediction mechanism in the sub-region 77 under the control of the controller 31, that is, the menu option, the 'media type' Is displayed.

The upper portion 75 of the display portion 7 also has a sub region 79, which displays a list of the most probable files among the content files to be selected under the control of the controller 31. do. As in the illustrated example, the control unit 31 determines that the content file most frequently selected by the user via the statistical analysis software 53 was to access a radio station called 'BBC Radio 4'. A content file that stores music called 'Jazz Album' is below the 'BBC Radio 4', and a SpreadSheet file named 'Account.xls' follows, and' twins.jpg Followed by an image file marked with '. This is the content file most frequently selected by 'BBC Radio 4', the next most frequently selected content file is 'Jazz Album', and the next most frequently selected content file is 'Account.xls'. , And then the 'twins.jpg' content file. Menu options corresponding to these content files are displayed as a list in the sub area 79. In the above embodiment, the content file with the highest probability is highlighted by displaying reverse font coloring (eg white letters on a black background instead of black letters on a white background). do.

However, a sports channel called Eurosports, which is a channel that the user wants to watch, is a media file not listed in the list of high probability content files displayed in the sub area 79. Thus, the user would like to select the 'Media Type' menu option. At this time, it can be processed in two ways. Firstly, the controller 31 of FIG. 2 can be used by selecting the left sub-region 71 using the binary search mechanism. In this case, this is performed by pressing the LEFT navigation key 9b (similarly, the right sub-region 73 is selected by pressing the RIGHT search key 9c). Alternatively, if the 'media type' is the highest probability menu option displayed in the sub area 77, the user can select the 'media type' menu option by pressing the OK key 11.

After selecting the 'media type' menu option, the display 7 is displayed as shown in FIG. 4B by pressing the left search key 9a or the confirm key 11.

In the above embodiment, the 'media type' folder includes 'TV', 'Video', 'Photos', 'Radio' and 'Documents' at the next level in the hierarchy of the content database 57. Suppose you include the folders 'Document)' and 'Music'. At this time, the controller 31 distributes the three options in the left sub-area 71 and the three in the right sub-area 73 so that the menu options corresponding to the 'media type' folder are displayed by the binary search mechanism. In addition, the controller 31 determines the 'music' file as the file having the highest probability of being selected from the menu options by the statistical analysis software 53, and displays the menu option 'music' in the sub area 77. To control. Since all of these content files are indirectly stored in the 'media type' folder, the list of content files displayed in the sub area 79 is not changed.

The sports channel 'Eurosport' is a TV channel, so the user would like to select the 'TV' menu option. However, this is not the highest probability menu option displayed in the sub area 77. Therefore, the user must use a binary search mechanism. Since the 'TV' menu option is in the left sub-area 71, the user presses the left search key 9b.

The display shown after pressing the left search key 9b is shown in FIG. 4C.

The left sub-area 71 of FIG. 4B includes three menu options ('TV', 'Video', 'Document'), and these three menu options are located at the bottom of the display unit 7. Is divided into two sub-regions. In particular, the lower end of the display unit 7 is changed to be divided into the upper sub-region 91 and the lower sub-region 93. The 'TV' and 'Video' menu options are located in the upper sub area 91, and the 'Document' sub option is located in the lower sub area 93. The layout of the menu options at the bottom of the changed display unit 7 is the same as the layout of the menu options in the left sub-area 71 of FIG. 4B.

By selecting the left sub-region 71 of FIG. 4B, the 'Music' menu option in the sub-region 77 is no longer the most likely menu option. Therefore, the 'Music' menu option is removed from the sub area 77. When the 'Music' menu option is removed, the new most probable menu option is displayed in the sub area 77. The control 31 uses statistical analysis software 53 to determine the new most probable menu option. By the statistical analysis software 53, the controller 31 determines 'TV' as the menu option having the highest probability of being selected, and displays the menu option in the sub area 77.

In addition, by selecting the left sub-area 71 of FIG. 4B, the menu options, 'Radio', 'Music', and 'Photos', which were in the right sub-area 73, are also deleted. ',' Jazz Album 'and' twins.jpg 'are also no more powerful menu options. Thus, a new list of the most likely content files in accordance with the new menu option is displayed in the sub area 79. In the above embodiment, 'Account.xls', 'Versailles.mpeg', 'Eurosport' and 'Euronews' are exemplified as the new list of the highest probability content files.

With the menu option 'TV' including the content file 'Eurosport' which the user wishes to watch as shown in FIG. 4C being displayed in the sub area 77, the user of the mobile phone 1 selects the TV channel 'Eurosport' It explains in detail.

First, if the TV channel 'Eurosport' is included in the list of the most probable content files, the user can select the desired content file using the 'SWITCH TO SCROLLING MODE' 19. You can choose. The 'switching key to scrolling mode' 19 is a content of the highest probability that the user has opened in the sub area 79 using the up (UP) search key 9a and the down (DOWN) search key 9d. You can scroll, or move, on files. When the user scrolls through the list of content files with the highest probability, the current selection position is highlighted by shading. The user may select a desired content file among the content files while viewing the current selection position. In this embodiment the user presses the lower search key 9d twice to highlight the 'Eurosport' menu option and presses the confirmation key 11 to show the 'Eurosport' TV channel.

Second, if 'TV' is the menu option with the highest probability, the user may press the confirmation key 11 to select 'TV'. The result is shown in FIG. 4D. In the display of FIG. 4D, menu options corresponding to the folders stored in the 'TV' folder (ie, 'Sport Channel', 'Music Channel', 'News Channel', 'Documentary') are displayed on the lower side of the display unit 7. Dispersed and displayed on the left sub-region 71 and the right sub-region 73. Here the statistically highest probability menu option is 'Sport Channel' and thus the menu option is displayed in the sub area 77. The list of content files is sorted in descending order of probability, going down to 'Eurosport', 'Euronews', 'Discovery' and 'MTV'. Accordingly, the content files are displayed with 'Eurosport' highlighted in the sub area 79. The user can select 'Eurosport' by pressing the 'preferred content selection key' 15.

If the 'Europsort' menu option is selected, the control 31 of FIG. 2 stores the selection in statistical analysis software 53 and allows it to be considered for statistical analysis used for menu selections after the selection.

In addition to the above examples, other various combinations of key presses that may be taken from the displays shown in FIGS. 4C and 4D may be considered to select 'Eurosport'. For example, 'Eurosport' can in principle be selected only by the use of a binary search mechanism. But this has to press many keys.

In this embodiment, the user can cancel the last key press at any time by pressing the delete key 13. Moreover, by pressing the cancel key 17, the user can exit the menu selection process at any time.

In summary, by performing a series of selections through the electronic menu selection process according to the embodiment, the user can select one menu option. Each selection may be a selection via binary search, may be a selection by selecting the highest probability output in the current binary search, or may be a selection by selecting the highest probability content files.

Variants and Other Embodiments

It has been described in the above embodiment that a binary search and a combination of both types of prediction based searches are used. However, although it is inconvenient to press a lot of keys until the final menu selection, only one binary search can be used. Alternatively, a combination of binary search and a form of prediction based search may be used.

The binary search of the illustrated embodiment is to distribute the possible menu options into a group of two menu options. Each of the two groups is displayed on the display unit 7 as different sub-areas, and when the user selects one of the two menu options, the other is deleted. Alternatively, the possible menu options may be distributed in one set consisting of two or more menu option groups, each of which is displayed in a different sub-area in the display 7. For example, the possible menu options may be distributed in one set consisting of four menu option groups, and are distributed and displayed in the left, right, upper and lower portions of the display portion. The user thus uses four search keys 9 to select a display sub-region containing the desired menu option.

'Menu option group' means a group of menu options at a hierarchical level of the content database 57, implicitly corresponding menu options at lower levels as well as menu options of only one group. It also means to include.

The content database need not be a hierarchical database with folders containing folders and / or content files. For example, each of the content files can be assigned properties, and a search can be performed using those properties. These attributes themselves can form a hierarchical structure.

In the illustrated embodiment, a keypad is provided for user input. However, the keypad is not essential and other user input devices, for example a touchscreen, may be used instead.

In the first embodiment, the electronic menu selection techniques of the present invention can be applied to mobile phones. Examples of cellular telephones may include cellular telephones used in a wireless cellular communication network and wireless telephones used with a local base station.

The electronic menu selection techniques of the present invention can also be applied to other electronic devices, such as multimedia players and personal digital assistants (PDAs). The electronic menu selection techniques of the present invention are particularly useful for small devices that need to reduce the number of keys to reduce the overall size of the device.

The embodiment described with reference to the drawings includes a processing apparatus and is involved in the processes performed in the processing apparatus. The invention extends to computer programs suitable for carrying out the invention, in particular computer programs on a carrier. The program may be in the form of source code, object code, intermediate code between the source code and the object code, for example partially edited form, or another form suitable for use in embodiments of the processes according to the invention. Can be.

The carrier may be any entity or device capable of carrying a program. For example, the carrier may be a ROM, for example a CD-ROM, a semiconductor ROM, or a storage such as a magnetic recording medium such as a floppy disc, a hard disc, or an optical recording medium. May include media. Moreover, the carrier may be a transmittable carrier such as an electronic or optical signal that may be transmitted via an electrical or optical cable or by wireless or other means.

The carrier may be an integrated circuit to which a program is applied. The integrated circuit is an integrated circuit suitable for performing related processes or for use in performing related processes.

While the invention has been described in the above embodiments as being implemented by software, it should be considered that the invention may alternatively be implemented by hardware devices or a combination of hardware devices and software.

1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a mobile phone according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of the main components of the mobile phone shown in FIG.

3 is a schematic illustration of a hierarchical database stored in the mobile phone shown in FIG.

4A-4D are cross-sectional views of respective display screens when selecting electronic files stored in the cellular phone shown in FIG.

Claims (37)

An apparatus for selecting menu options from an electronic menu, the apparatus comprising: If one menu option group is selected from the first set having a predetermined number of menu option groups including at least one menu option, the menu options included in the selected menu option group are converted into the predetermined number of menu option groups. A control unit that divides and constitutes a second set; A display unit configured of a plurality of sub-areas, for displaying each of the predetermined number of menu option groups in each of the plurality of sub-areas defined therein; And a key input unit which receives an input for selecting the one menu option group from among the menu option groups. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to display the set of two menu option groups distributed in two sub-areas. An apparatus for selecting menu options from an electronic menu, the apparatus comprising: A control unit for controlling the display unit to display a first set having two menu option groups, each of the first set of menu option groups being displayed in a different sub-region of the display unit, An input receiver configured to receive a user input for identifying a selected sub-region of the display unit; The control unit controls the display unit to display each of the second set of menu option groups having two menu option groups in a different sub area after receiving a user input for identifying the selected sub area, and the menu of the second set. And option groups correspond to the first set of menu option groups associated with the selected sub-areas. According to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a statistical analysis unit for statistical analysis for menu selection, The statistical analyzer determines from the displayed set of menu option groups that the menu option has the highest probability based on previous menu selections, The controller controls to display the highest probability menu option from the displayed set of menu options, And the input receiving unit receives a user input for identifying the highest probability menu option among the displayed set of menu options. The method of claim 4, wherein the statistical analyzer determines a list of menu options having the highest probability of being selected based on previous menu selections. The controller controls to display the list of the highest probability menu options, And the input receiving unit receives a user input for selecting a menu option from the list of menu options. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the input receiver receives a first user input indicating that a menu option is to be selected from a list of the most probable menu options and a second user input for selecting a menu option from the list. Menu option to select the device. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the menu options are arranged in a hierarchical system, wherein the first set of menu option groups are located at a first level of the hierarchical system, And a second set of menu option groups. The method of claim 7, further comprising a statistical analysis for menu selection, The statistical analyzer determines from the displayed set of menu option groups those that are most likely to be selected based on previous menu selections, The controller displays the displayed menu option of the highest probability, And the input receiving unit receives a user input for identifying one of the displayed high probability menu options. 9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the menu options include menu options for running an application. 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the menu options include menu options for accessing data files. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the data files are sound files, picture files, video files, or multimedia files. A method for selecting a menu option from an electronic menu, the method comprising: Displaying a first set having menu option groups, each of the first set of menu option groups being displayed in a different display sub-region, Receiving a user input identifying a selected display sub-region, After receiving a user input identifying the selected display sub-area, displaying a second set of menu option groups, wherein each menu option group in the second set is displayed in a different display sub-area, Menu options in the second set of menu option groups correspond to menu options in the menu option group associated with the selected display sub-region, thereby allowing the user to reduce the number of menu options in an iterative manner. Method of selecting a menu option characterized in that. 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the two menu options are partitioned using a binary search mechanism. A method for selecting a menu option from an electronic menu, the method comprising: Displaying a first set having two menu option groups, each menu option group of the first set being displayed in a different display sub-region, Receiving a user input identifying a selected display sub-region, After receiving a user input identifying a selected display sub-area, displaying a second set of two menu option groups, wherein each menu option group in the second set is displayed in each other display sub-area; , And the menu options in the second set correspond to the menu options in the menu option group of the first set associated with the selected sub-region. 15. The method of any one of claims 12 to 14, further comprising statistically analyzing menu selections; Determining which menu option is the highest probability menu option based on a statistical analysis of previous menu selections from the displayed set of menu option groups, Displaying the determined highest probability menu option from a set of menu options displayed as an option for user selection. 16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: determining a list of menu options to be selected with the highest probability based on previous menu selections; Displaying the list of menu options of the highest probability; Receiving a user input of selecting one menu option from a user from the list of menu options. 17. The method of claim 16, comprising receiving a first user input indicating that a menu option is to be selected from the list of highest probability menu options, and receiving a second user input for selecting a menu option from the list. To select a menu option. 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the menu options are organized in a hierarchical system, and after receipt of user input identifying a selected sub-region having one menu option at the first level of the hierarchical system, the set of menu option groups is set. And display menu options at a second level of a hierarchical file system associated with the one menu. The method of claim 18, Hierarchically analyzing the menu selections; Determining which menu option from the displayed set of menu option groups is most likely to be selected based on the hierarchical analysis of previous menu selections; And displaying the determined highest probability menu option as a user selection. 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the menu options include menu options for running an application. 21. The method of claim 20, wherein the menu options include menu options for accessing data files. 22. The method of claim 21 wherein the data files are sound files, picture files, video files or multimedia files. An apparatus for selecting menu options from an electronic menu, the apparatus comprising: In the electronic menu, groups of menu options are displayed in respective different display sub-areas, and unselected menu options in one or more display areas are deleted in response to a user input selecting the display area and And the menu options are displayed in different display areas for further user selection. An apparatus for selecting menu options from an electronic menu, the apparatus comprising: In the electronic menu, in which menu options including at least one file are arranged hierarchically, menu options at the same level are divided into two or more menu option groups, and a more preferred menu option group among the divided groups. A control unit for determining, And the display unit for displaying the at least two menu option groups and the more preferred menu option group in each of the predetermined display areas. 25. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising a key input unit for receiving a key for selecting one of the displayed menu option groups from a user. 26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the controller determines a more preferred menu option group among the divided groups based on a probability previously selected by the user. 27. The method of claim 26, wherein the controller lists the files included in the more preferred menu option group in order of high probability based on the previously selected probability, And the display unit further displays the listed files in one of the divided regions of the display area in which the more preferred menu option group is displayed. 25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the controller divides the menu option groups using a binary search mechanism. 28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein upon receiving a key input for selecting the one menu option group from the user, the control unit sets menu options that are lower than the level at which the selected menu options are located into two or more menu option groups. Menu option selector, characterized in that further division. 28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the controller selects one file from among the listed files when receiving the input for selecting the listed files from the user. A method for selecting a menu option from an electronic menu, the method comprising: Dividing menu options at the same level into two or more menu option groups in the electronic menu in which menu options including at least one file are arranged hierarchically, Determining a preferred menu option group among the divided groups; And displaying the at least two menu option groups and the more preferred menu option group in each of the predetermined display areas. 32. The method of claim 31, further comprising receiving a key from a user for selecting a menu option group from among the displayed menu option groups. 33. The method of claim 32, wherein the more preferred menu option group is determined based on a probability previously selected by the user. 34. The method of claim 33, further comprising: arranging the files included in the more preferred menu option group in the order of high probability based on the previously selected probability; And displaying the listed files in one of more divided regions of the display area in which the more preferred menu option group is displayed. 32. The method of claim 31 wherein the menu option groups are partitioned using a binary search mechanism. 35. The method of claim 34, wherein upon receiving a key input for selecting the one menu option group from the user, dividing the menu options into two or more menu option groups below the level at which the selected menu options are received. Further comprising a menu option selection method. 35. The method of claim 34, further comprising selecting one file from among the listed files when receiving an input for selecting the listed files from the user.

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