KR20120056754A - User interface apparatus and method of controlling mobile terminal using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A user interface device and a mobile terminal controlling method using the same are provided to increase the convenience of a user without activating a touch screen for the execution of a specific application of a mobile terminal. CONSTITUTION: An oscillating wave detecting unit(210) detects an oscillating wave which is generated in a mobile terminal by touch of a user. A storing unit(220) stores oscillating wave corresponding to a control signal. A controlling unit(250) analyzes oscillating wave information. The controlling unit generates the control signal for control of the mobile terminal.

Description

USER INTERFACE APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING MOBILE TERMINAL USING THE SAME}

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a user interface device and a method for controlling a mobile terminal using the same, and more particularly, to a user interface device for enabling simple and quick input and a method for controlling a mobile terminal using the same.

A user interface (UI) refers to a physical and virtual medium that enables communication between a user and a computer.

In other words, the user interface serves as an input means for allowing a user to operate the system and an output means for displaying a result of the system being operated by the user.

Among various types of user interfaces, interfaces as input means applied to mobile terminals such as smartphones and tablet PCs generally include a command line interface and a touch interface.

The command line interface refers to a method in which a user inputs a command string using a computer keyboard and the like, and the touch interface refers to a method in which a user directly touches a screen to input a command.

Currently, the touch interface is the most simple and direct way to communicate between the user and the computer, replacing the existing command line interface, and is applied to most mobile terminals.

On the other hand, despite the usefulness, accessibility, and the like of the touch interface, the inconvenience as a user interface for the mobile terminal is still inherent.

In other words, the touch interface requires a process of activating the touch screen to execute simple functions of an application installed in a mobile terminal, and the user executes sequential touch input on the touch screen to navigate to a menu having a required function. Should give.

In addition, there is an inconvenience to go through the above process for the execution of the frequently used functions of the user, this process is also disadvantageous in terms of battery efficiency of the mobile terminal.

In particular, the user has to take the mobile terminal out of the pocket for touch input, and the current touch interface is mostly capacitive, and there is a problem that the user needs to remove his gloves and find and execute a necessary function even in a cold winter.

This inconvenience is seen in the existing command line interface.

In order to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, the present invention is to propose a user interface device and a mobile terminal control method using the same to enable simpler and faster input.

Other objects of the present invention may be derived by those skilled in the art through the following examples.

According to an embodiment of the present invention to achieve the above object, in the user interface device for controlling a mobile terminal, a vibration wave detection unit for detecting the vibration wave generated in the mobile terminal by the user's touch, the A storage unit for storing information on vibration waves corresponding to control signals for controlling the mobile terminal, and a controller for analyzing the detected vibration waves and information about the stored vibration waves and generating control signals for controlling the mobile terminal. A user interface device is provided that includes.

The vibration wave corresponding to the control signal for controlling the mobile terminal may be a vibration file corresponding to the vibration wave generated by at least two consecutive touches.

The user interface apparatus may further include a user input unit configured to receive a predetermined vibration wave corresponding to a control signal for controlling the mobile terminal from a user, and the information about the vibration wave stored in the storage unit may be predetermined. The vibration wave may be stored in a database.

The input predetermined vibration wave may be a vibration file generated by at least two continuous touches.

The user interface device further includes an information collection unit for collecting information on the number of times of execution of the application installed in the mobile terminal to generate a favorites list for the application, wherein the user input unit is any of the favorites list. A user may receive a predetermined vibration wave corresponding to a control signal for controlling the execution of one application.

The user interface device may further include an A / D converter configured to convert the vibration wave detected by the vibration wave detector into a digital signal, and a noise remover to remove noise of the converted digital signal.

The vibration wave detection unit may include a vibration member mounted on one surface of the mobile terminal and capable of vibrating by a user's touch, and a vibration sensor converting vibration of the vibration member into an electrical signal.

Further, according to another embodiment of the present invention, in the method for controlling a mobile terminal, detecting the vibration wave generated in the mobile terminal by the user's touch and the control of the detected vibration wave and the mobile terminal A method of controlling a mobile terminal is provided, the method including generating information about a control signal for controlling the mobile terminal by analyzing information about a vibration wave stored in advance in correspondence with a control signal.

The method of controlling a mobile terminal may further include receiving a predetermined vibration wave corresponding to a control signal for controlling the mobile terminal from a user and storing the received predetermined vibration wave in a database, wherein the pre-stored The information about the vibration wave may be information about the vibration wave stored by the storing.

The method for controlling a mobile terminal further includes collecting information on the number of times of execution of the application installed in the mobile terminal and generating a bookmark list for the application by using the collected information. The step of receiving a predetermined vibration wave may be inputting a predetermined vibration wave corresponding to a control signal for controlling the execution of any one application of the favorite list from the user.

According to the present invention, in operating the mobile terminal, the inconvenience of the existing touch interface can be compensated for, thereby allowing simpler and faster input.

In addition, according to the present invention, there is no need to activate the touch screen for the execution of a specific application installed in the mobile terminal has the advantage that can increase the convenience of the user.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a user interface device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied to a mobile terminal.
2 is a diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a user interface device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a vibration wave detector according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a flowchart illustrating a function of a controller according to an embodiment of the present invention over time when a vibration wave corresponding to a control signal for controlling a mobile terminal is preset.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a function of a controller according to an embodiment of the present invention when a vibration wave corresponding to a control signal for controlling a mobile terminal is set by a user.
6 is a flowchart illustrating the overall flow of a method for controlling a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As the invention allows for various changes and numerous embodiments, particular embodiments will be illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the written description. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention. Like reference numerals are used for like elements in describing each drawing.

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

1 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a user interface device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied to a mobile terminal 102.

As shown in FIG. 1, the user interface device 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is mounted on the mobile terminal 102 to control the mobile terminal 102 by receiving a vibration wave by a touch from a user. To generate a control signal.

The user interface device 100 may be mounted on the front side of the mobile terminal 102 together with the touch screen 104 which is a conventional touch interface, or may be mounted on the rear side to perform a function.

The mobile terminal 102 may be any one of small electronic products such as a smartphone, a tablet PC, a mobile phone, an MP3 player, a PMP PDA, and the like.

Control according to an embodiment of the present invention may be control associated with the basic functions of the mobile terminal 102, such as vibration mode setting / release or touch lock setting / release of the touch screen 104, and the execution / end of the music player and Likewise, the control may be related to the execution of a specific application installed in the mobile terminal 102.

On the other hand, the touch by the user means a touch for vibrating the vibration medium of the user interface device 100 mounted on the mobile terminal (102). That is, unlike the touch performed on the capacitive or resistive touch screen 104, it means a touch accompanied by a physical blow.

In this case, the vibration wave generated by the touch has different amplitudes and wavelengths according to the touch state of the user, that is, the number of continuous touches, the intensity of the touches, or the touch tool, and the different amplitudes and wavelengths are different from each other by the user's touch signal transmission means. It can be used as.

As described above, the user interface device 100 according to the present invention uses the vibration wave generated by the user's touch as a signal for controlling the mobile terminal 102, unlike the existing touch interface.

This has the advantage of enabling a simpler and faster input than the conventional interface.

Hereinafter, the configuration of the user interface device 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

2 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of the user interface device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, the user interface apparatus 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include a vibration wave detector 210, a storage 220, a user input 230, an information collector 240, and a controller. 250 may be included. Hereinafter, the function of each component will be described in detail.

First, the vibration wave detector 210 detects vibration waves generated by the mobile terminal 102 by a user's touch.

In order to detect the vibration wave, the vibration wave detection unit 210 according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in Figure 3, the vibration of the vibration member 302 and the vibration member 302 that can vibrate by touch It may include a vibration sensor 304 for converting into an electrical signal.

The vibrating member 302 is mounted on one surface of the mobile terminal 102 to vibrate by a user's touch. That is, the vibrating member 302 may be a diaphragm having a thin film shape as a vibrating plate capable of vibrating by physical pressure.

The vibration sensor 304 converts the vibration of the vibration member 302 into an electrical signal. In other words, the vibration sensor 304 may perform a role of converting physical vibration into an electrical signal by using a change amount of current or a change amount of voltage generated by the vibration of the vibrating member 302.

As is already known, the amount of change in current may be derived from a magnet installed in the vibrating member 302 vibrating in the coil, and the amount of change in voltage may be derived by a change in capacitance due to the vibration of the vibrating member 302. Can be.

Since the user interface device 100 should be mounted on the mobile terminal 102, it is advantageous to miniaturize the user interface device 100 when using the amount of change in voltage.

As such, since the structure for converting the physical vibration into an electrical signal is a well-known technique, the present invention will not be described in detail with respect to the structure for converting the electrical vibration into an electrical signal, and various structures capable of converting the physical vibration into an electrical signal. May be applied to the vibration sensor 304 of the present invention.

Hereinafter, for convenience of description, it will be described on the assumption that the vibration sensor 304 has a structure for converting the vibration of the vibration member 302 into an electrical signal using the amount of change in voltage. However, the present invention is not limited thereto.

Meanwhile, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the pre-processing process by the A / D converter (not shown) and the noise removing unit (not shown) may be performed on the vibration wave detected by the vibration wave detection unit 210. .

That is, the electrical signal converted by the vibration sensor 304 is an analog signal, and can be converted into a digital signal that can be processed by a computer by sampling and quantization of an A / D converter (not shown). The noise generated by may be removed by a noise removing unit (not shown).

The sampling process refers to a process of extracting only a necessary object from a plurality of consecutive signals, and the quantization process refers to approximating an input signal to a finite number, that is, 0 and 1.

2, the storage unit 220 according to an embodiment of the present invention stores the information on the vibration wave corresponding to the control signal for controlling the mobile terminal (102).

In more detail, the storage unit 220 serves as a database for analyzing the vibration wave of the controller 250 by storing information about the vibration wave corresponding to the control signal for controlling the mobile terminal 102.

That is, when the control unit 250 analyzes the vibration wave generated by the user's touch, the storage unit 220 may provide a database.

At this time, the vibration wave corresponding to the control signal according to an embodiment of the present invention may be a vibration file corresponding to the vibration wave that can be generated by at least two consecutive touches.

This is to use at least two or more continuous touches as input signals, in view of the fact that vibration waves can also be generated during normal use of the mobile terminal 102.

Thereby, the possibility of malfunction of the mobile terminal 102 can be eliminated from the vibration wave caused by an unintended touch of the user or the vibration wave caused by an external factor.

In the above description, the information about the vibration wave stored in the storage unit 220 has been previously set corresponding to the control signal for controlling the mobile terminal 102. However, according to another embodiment of the present invention, the information about the vibration wave It may be set arbitrarily by the user.

The user input unit 230 according to an embodiment of the present invention may perform a role of receiving a predetermined vibration wave corresponding to a control signal for controlling the mobile terminal 102 from the user.

In this case, as described above, the control of the mobile terminal 102 may be control related to the basic functions of the mobile terminal 102 or control related to the execution of a specific application installed in the mobile terminal 102.

That is, according to the present invention, the user sets a predetermined vibration wave for the basic function of the frequently used mobile terminal 102 or the function of a specific application installed in the mobile terminal 102, and moves by the set vibration wave. Terminal 102 may be controlled.

The predetermined vibration wave may be a vibration file generated by at least two continuous touches, in order to remove a fear of malfunction of the mobile terminal 102, similarly to the information about the vibration wave previously stored in the storage 220.

As described above, the predetermined vibration wave input from the user may be converted into a database and stored in the storage 220 to be used as data for analyzing the vibration wave of the controller 250.

Meanwhile, the predetermined vibration wave input from the user may be detected by the vibration wave detection unit 210 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and may be detected by an A / D converter (not shown) and a noise removing unit (not shown). After the preprocessing is performed, the database may be stored.

Subsequently, the information collection unit 240 according to an embodiment of the present invention collects information about the number of times executed by the user of the application installed in the mobile terminal 102 and generates a bookmark list for the application. Can be done.

The favorites list is a list of applications that are frequently executed by the user.

That is, the information collecting unit 240 may serve as a guide by presenting information about frequently executed applications to the user so that a function frequently used may be set to a predetermined vibration wave.

For example, when a lot of music playback programs, video playback programs, and Internet access programs are executed by a user, the information collection unit 240 may generate a favorite list in which the programs are sequentially listed.

The user selects an application for setting the vibration wave pattern by referring to the favorite list.

In this case, the user interface device 100 according to the present invention may present the phrase "Please select an application program to set the vibration wave pattern" with the favorites list.

Finally, the control unit 250 according to an embodiment of the present invention analyzes the vibration wave detected by the vibration wave detection unit 210 and the information about the vibration wave stored in the storage unit 220 to control the mobile terminal 102. Generate a control signal for.

Preferably, the vibration wave analysis by the control unit 250 is the detected vibration wave is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter (not shown), the noise present on the digital signal to the noise removing unit (not shown) May be performed after removal.

More specifically, the controller 250 determines whether the control signal is generated by analyzing whether the vibration wave generated by the user's touch has the same pattern as the vibration wave corresponding to the control signal for controlling the mobile terminal 102. .

That is, the controller 250 may generate a corresponding control signal when a vibration wave having a pattern similar to the vibration wave generated by at least two continuous touches is input.

4 and 5, a process of generating a control signal by the controller 250 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a function of the controller 250 according to an embodiment of the present invention when a vibration wave corresponding to a control signal for controlling the mobile terminal 102 is preset.

Hereinafter, for convenience of description, the control of the mobile terminal 102 will be described on the assumption that it is a control for releasing the touch lock of the smartphone. However, the present invention is not limited thereto.

First, in operation S402, the controller 250 may receive information about a vibration wave generated by a user's touch.

In this case, the information about the vibration wave refers to the digital signal about the vibration wave after the pre-processing by the A / D converter (not shown) and the noise removing unit (not shown) as described above.

Subsequently, in step S404, the controller 250 determines whether the vibration wave generated by the user's touch is the same as the pattern of the vibration wave preset in response to the touch unlocking function.

As a result of the determination, when the same within the valid error range, the controller 250 may generate a control signal to release the touch lock function of the smartphone (S406).

5 is a flowchart illustrating a function of the controller 250 according to an embodiment of the present invention when the vibration wave corresponding to the control signal for controlling the mobile terminal 102 is set by the user.

When a predetermined vibration wave is set by the user, the control of the mobile terminal 102 according to an embodiment of the present invention may be control related to the execution of a specific application installed in the mobile terminal 102.

In addition, the specific application according to an embodiment of the present invention may be an application arbitrarily selected by the user among the applications installed in the mobile terminal 102, and selected by the user from a favorites list generated by the information collecting unit 240. It may be an application.

Hereinafter, for convenience of description, it is assumed that the execution of a specific application installed in the mobile terminal 102 set by the user is the execution of a music playback program.

First, in step S502, the controller 250 receives information about the vibration wave generated by the user's touch.

In this case, the information about the vibration wave may also mean a digital signal about the vibration wave after the preprocessing by the A / D converter (not shown) and the noise removing unit (not shown) as described above. .

In operation S504, the controller 250 determines whether the vibration wave generated by the user's touch is the same as the pattern of the vibration wave set by the user. That is, it is determined whether the digital signal related to the vibration wave generated by the user's touch is the same as the digital signal stored in the storage 220.

As a result of the determination, when the same within the valid error range, the controller 250 may generate a control signal so that the music is reproduced in the mobile terminal 102 (S506).

As such, the user interface device 100 according to the present invention has an advantage of enabling simple and quick input compared to the existing interface by simplifying an input process for controlling the mobile terminal 102, and installed in the mobile terminal. There is no need to activate the touch screen to execute a specific application has the advantage that can increase the user's convenience.

6 is a flowchart illustrating the overall flow of the method for controlling the mobile terminal 102 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As described above, the control of the mobile terminal 102 may be control related to basic functions of the mobile terminal 102 or control related to execution of a specific application installed in the mobile terminal 102.

Hereinafter, for convenience of description, it will be assumed that the control of the mobile terminal 102 is a control related to the execution of a specific application installed in the mobile terminal 102. However, the present invention is not limited thereto.

First, in step S610 according to an embodiment of the present invention, information about the number of times executed by a user of an application installed in the mobile terminal 102 is collected.

In more detail, step S610 may be performed in a manner of counting the number of times executed by a user of a specific application.

Next, in step S620 according to an embodiment of the present invention, a list of favorites for an application is generated using the collected information.

The favorite list serves as a guide for providing a user with information about a frequently executed application, so that the user can set a predetermined vibration wave for the application that is executed frequently.

Subsequently, in step S630 according to an embodiment of the present invention, a predetermined vibration wave corresponding to a control signal for controlling the execution of any one application from the favorites list is received from the user.

In this case, the predetermined vibration wave may be a vibration file generated by at least two continuous touches to increase the recognition rate of the mobile terminal control.

For example, the user may input two consecutive touches, which are predetermined vibration waves, for the execution of the music reproduction program in the favorites list.

In step S640, the received predetermined vibration wave is stored in a database.

Meanwhile, according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, steps S610 to S620 may be omitted.

That is, the user is not limited to the control of the application execution of any one of the favorites list, and the user applies a predetermined vibration wave corresponding to the control signal for controlling the application execution arbitrarily specified by the user among the applications installed in the mobile terminal 102. It can also be input from.

In step S650, the vibration wave of the mobile terminal 102 generated by the user's touch is detected.

In this case, the detected vibration wave may be converted into a digital signal, and after the noise generated in the conversion process is removed, it is used in step S660.

Finally, in step S660 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a control signal for controlling the mobile terminal 102 is generated by analyzing information about the detected vibration wave and the previously stored vibration wave.

That is, in step S660, it is determined whether the noise-free digital signal is the same as the information about the preset vibration wave in response to a control signal for controlling the execution of a specific application installed in the mobile terminal 102.

As a result of the determination, when the same within the effective error range, it is possible to generate a control signal corresponding to the vibration wave generated in the mobile terminal 102 by the user's touch.

As described above, the method for controlling the mobile terminal 102 according to the present invention has the advantage of enabling a simpler and faster input of the user and increasing the user's convenience in controlling the mobile terminal 102.

The embodiments of the method for controlling the mobile terminal 102 according to the present invention have been described so far, and the configuration of the user interface device 100 described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5 can be applied to the present embodiment as it is. Hereinafter, a detailed description will be omitted.

In addition, embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in the form of program instructions that may be executed by various computer means to be recorded on a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the medium may be those specially designed and constructed for the present invention or may be available to those skilled in the art of computer software. Examples of computer-readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape, optical media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, and magnetic disks, such as floppy disks. Examples of program instructions such as magneto-optical, ROM, RAM, flash memory, etc. may be executed by a computer using an interpreter as well as machine code such as produced by a compiler. Contains high-level language codes. The hardware device described above may be configured to operate as at least one software module to perform the operations of one embodiment of the present invention, and vice versa.

In the present invention as described above has been described by the specific embodiments, such as specific components and limited embodiments and drawings, but this is provided to help a more general understanding of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. For those skilled in the art, various modifications and variations are possible from these descriptions. Therefore, the spirit of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, and all of the equivalents or equivalents of the claims as well as the claims to be described later will belong to the scope of the present invention. .

100: user interface device 102: mobile terminal
104: touch screen 210: vibration wave detection unit
220: storage unit 230: user input unit
240: information collecting unit 250: control unit
302: vibration member 304: vibration sensor

Claims (10)

In the user interface device for controlling a mobile terminal,
Vibration wave detection unit for detecting the vibration wave generated in the mobile terminal by the user's touch;
A storage unit for storing information on vibration waves corresponding to control signals for controlling the mobile terminal; And
A controller configured to analyze the detected vibration wave and the information on the stored vibration wave to generate a control signal for controlling the mobile terminal
User interface device comprising a. The method of claim 1,
And a vibration wave corresponding to a control signal for controlling the mobile terminal is a vibration wave corresponding to the vibration wave generated by at least two continuous touches. The method of claim 1,
User input unit for receiving a predetermined vibration wave corresponding to the control signal for controlling the mobile terminal from the user
Further comprising:
The information on the vibration wave stored in the storage unit is a user interface device, characterized in that the predetermined vibration wave received from the user is stored in a database. The method of claim 3,
And the predetermined vibration wave received is a vibration wave generated by at least two continuous touches. The method of claim 3,
An information collection unit for collecting information on the number of times of execution by the user of an application installed in the mobile terminal to generate a favorite list for the application;
Further comprising:
And the user input unit receives a predetermined vibration wave corresponding to a control signal for controlling application execution of any one of the favorites list from the user. The method of claim 1,
An A / D converter converting the vibration wave detected by the vibration wave detection unit into a digital signal; And
Noise removing unit for removing noise of the converted digital signal
The user interface device further comprises. The method of claim 1,
The vibration wave detection unit
A vibration member mounted on one surface of the mobile terminal and vibrating by a user's touch; And
Vibration sensor for converting the vibration of the vibration member into an electrical signal
User interface device comprising a. In the method for controlling a mobile terminal,
Detecting vibration waves generated in the mobile terminal by a user's touch; And
Generating a control signal for controlling the mobile terminal by analyzing information about a vibration wave previously stored corresponding to the detected vibration wave and a control signal for controlling the mobile terminal;
Mobile terminal control method comprising a. The method of claim 8,
Receiving a predetermined vibration wave corresponding to a control signal for controlling the mobile terminal from a user; And
Storing the received predetermined vibration wave as a database
Further comprising:
And the information on the pre-stored vibration wave is information on the stored vibration wave by the storing step. The method of claim 8,
Collecting information about the number of times executed by a user of an application installed in the mobile terminal; And
Generating a favorites list for the application using the collected information;
Further comprising:
The receiving of the predetermined vibration wave may include receiving a predetermined vibration wave corresponding to a control signal for controlling the execution of any one of the favorites list from the user.

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