Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M1/00—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers
  • H04M1/72—Mobile telephones; Cordless telephones, i.e. devices for establishing wireless links to base stations without route selection
  • H04M1/724—User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
  • H04M1/72469—User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M1/00—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers
  • H04M1/26—Devices for calling a subscriber
  • H04M1/27—Devices whereby a plurality of signals may be stored simultaneously
  • H04M1/274—Devices whereby a plurality of signals may be stored simultaneously with provision for storing more than one subscriber number at a time, e.g. using toothed disc
  • H04M1/2745—Devices whereby a plurality of signals may be stored simultaneously with provision for storing more than one subscriber number at a time, e.g. using toothed disc using static electronic memories, e.g. chips
  • H04M1/27467—Methods of retrieving data
  • H04M1/2748—Methods of retrieving data by matching character strings
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M1/00—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers
  • H04M1/72—Mobile telephones; Cordless telephones, i.e. devices for establishing wireless links to base stations without route selection
  • H04M1/724—User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
  • H04M1/72403—User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M1/00—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers
  • H04M1/72—Mobile telephones; Cordless telephones, i.e. devices for establishing wireless links to base stations without route selection
  • H04M1/724—User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
  • H04M1/72403—User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
  • H04M1/72427—User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality for supporting games or graphical animations

Definitions

• the present invention generally relates to mobile terminals, and more particularly to a method and apparatus that can easily retrieve various menus or contents provided in a mobile terminal, contents provided in a memory connected to the mobile terminal, and the like and that can display or reproduce the menus or contents.
• the rapid development of mobile terminals not only improves communication quality through the mobile terminals, but also leads to improvement in the performance of a processor provided therein and an increase in resources of a memory provided therein, such that various functions as well as communication may be provided.
• functions provided in the mobile terminal are diverse, the number of menus of the mobile terminal is rapidly increasing.
• menus are configured in a unique menu display format of each terminal . It is complicated to manipulate multiple keys for selecting a menu in the menu structure. There is a problem in that an integrated search is impossible for contents of downloaded video or audio files and captured image files .
• An object of the present invention is to provide a search method and apparatus for use in a mobile terminal that can perform an integrated search for various menus and various types of contents provided in a mobile phone.
• Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for one-click execution in a mobile terminal that can receive a command for displaying and/or executing or reproducing menus or contents retrieved by an integrated search in one click to perform a corresponding function.
• the present invention provides a search method for use in a mobile terminal, including the steps of: receiving a search term input through a user interface of the mobile terminal; retrieving whether menus or contents including the search term are present in menus of the mobile terminal and contents stored in a memory when the search term is input; and providing search results when the menus or contents including the search term are retrieved.
• the present invention provides a search apparatus for use in a mobile terminal, including: a user interface for receiving various information input from a user; a controller for representing search results in a list by retrieving a search term input through the user interface from menus and contents of a memory and performing shortcut execution of a corresponding item in response to one click of the user; and an output unit for receiving result data processed through the controller and displaying the data on a display.
• the present invention can provide users with differentiated services by performing an integrated search for various menus and various types of contents provided in a mobile phone and receiving a command for displaying and/or executing or reproducing menus or contents retrieved by the integrated search in one click to perform a corresponding function.
• FIG. 1 illustrates a structure of a mobile terminal to which the present invention is applicable.
• FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a search method for use in the mobile terminal in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
• FIGS. 3 to 5 illustrate examples of images displayed on the mobile terminal in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
• the mobile terminal to which the present invention is applicable is provided with a controller 100, a user interface 104, a memory 105, an external device interface 106, an external memory 107, an output unit 108, a display 112, a speaker 113, and a mobile communication function unit 114.
• the controller 100 is provided with a search engine 101, a result processor 102, and an execution processor 103.
• the output unit 108 is provided with a graphic processing and output unit 109, a video processing and output unit 110, and an audio processing and output unit 111.
• the controller 100 controls an overall operation of the mobile terminal, performs an integrated search for menus and contents through the search engine 101 in response to a search request of a user in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, arranges search results in order of numbers/vowels and consonants/alphabets in the result processor 102, provides list data and other information to the output unit 108, and displays the data and information through the display 112 along with notification sound through the speaker 113.
• the display 112 can use a liquid crystal display (LCD) module.
• LCD liquid crystal display
• the controller 100 provides the output unit 108 with data to execute a corresponding menu or display a detailed menu of the corresponding menu in the execution processor 103 of the controller 100 if the selected item is the menu, and outputs the data through the speaker 113 and the display 112.
• the execution processor 103 performs a display or reproduction operation on the basis of a contents type. For example, a corresponding image or photo is displayed when an image or photo item is selected and a reproduction operation is performed through the display 112 and the speaker 113 when an MP3 file or video item is selected.
• the user interface 104 is a keypad, a touch screen, a microphone, or the like, and provides the controller 100 with information related to an input of the user.
• the memory 105 stores various information and contents such as photo, image, audio and video contents capable of being stored in the mobile terminal, data, schedule and memo contents capable of being stored in a phone book, and short message service (SMS) , multimedia message service (MMS) and E-mail messages, and the like. Items of titles, names or others of the contents and data stored in the memory 105 become targets to be retrieved by the search engine 101.
• SMS short message service
• MMS multimedia message service
• E-mail messages and the like.
• the external device interface 106 provides an interface between the controller 100 and various external devices such as the external memory 107 and the like.
• the external memory 107 stores various contents of images, videos, and the like. At the time of the integrated search, items of titles, names or others of the contents and data stored in the external memory 107 become targets to be retrieved by the search engine 101.
• the output unit 108 can be divided into the graphic processing and output unit 109, the video processing and output unit 110, and the audio processing and output unit 111 .
• the graphic processing and output unit 109 receives result data from the result processor 102 of the controller 100 and outputs the received data through the display 112 and the speaker 113.
• the video processing and output unit 110 receives and processes video data under control of the controller 100 and outputs the processed video data to the display 112 and the speaker 113.
• the audio processing and output unit 111 receives and processes audio data and outputs the processed audio data to the speaker 113.
• the mobile communication function unit 114 provides not only a proper communication function of the mobile terminal but also other functions .
• the controller 100 checks whether the user makes a search request through the user interface 104 (step 200) .
• the controller 100 displays a search term input window for inputting a search term on the display 112 as illustrated in FIG. 3 (step 202) .
• the user can input a target search term to be retrieved through the search term input window and the user interface 104.
• the controller 100 checks whether the user inputs a predetermined search term to the search input window (step 204) . If the search term is input, the search engine 101 of the controller 100 retrieves menus or contents including the search term from menus and contents stored in the memory 105 and the external memory 107 (step 206) .
• the controller 100 provides the output unit 108 with notification that menus or contents including the input search terminal are absent and outputs the notification through the display 112 and the speaker 113 (step 210), and returns to step 202.
• the execution processor 103 of the controller 100 checks whether the user selects one item from the displayed search result list through the user interface 104 (step 214) .
• the execution processor 103 of the controller 100 checks whether the selected item is a menu (step 216) .
• the execution processor 103 executes the menu corresponding to the selected item if the selected item is the menu or provides the output unit 108 with data for displaying a lower menu of the corresponding menu if the selected item is a higher-layer menu and displays the data on the display 112 (step 218) . Otherwise, if the selected item is not a menu, the execution processor 103 determines that the selected item is contents and displays or reproduces the contents corresponding to the selected item through the graphic processing and output unit 109, the video processing and output unit 110, or the audio processing and output unit 111 of the output unit 108 (step 220) .
• the present invention can provide users with differentiated services by performing an integrated search for various menus and various types of contents provided in a mobile phone and receiving a command for displaying and/or executing or reproducing menus or contents retrieved by the integrated search in one click to perform a corresponding function.
• Embodiments of the present invention relate to computer readable media that include program instructions for performing various computer-implemented operations .
• the media may also include, alone or in combination with the program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like.
• the program instructions of the media may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present invention, or they may be available to those having skill in the computer software arts. While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain embodiments and drawings, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• User Interface Of Digital Computer (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=38181388

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (2)

Cited By (2)

Citations (4)

Family Cites Families (5)

• 2006
  • 2006-02-13 KR KR1020060013789A patent/KR100704694B1/ko not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2006-08-11 WO PCT/KR2006/003147 patent/WO2007094536A1/en active Application Filing

Patent Citations (4)

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