Portable cellular phone having function of searching for operational function and method for searching for operational function in portable cellular phone

• US 20040253978A1
• Filed: 06/09/2004
• Published: 12/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Horiguchi, Masuyo
• Granted Patent: US 7,369,843 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/550.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72469 for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons

Abstract

A portable cellular phone having a search function to do a search for an operational function is provided in which a focusing search for a desired operational function by combining an icon search with a keyword search can be performed and an operational function for which a user wants to do a search can be easily and rapidly searched for by a simple operation. The search function to do the search for an operational function is implemented by a search table to store two or more keywords each corresponding to each of operational functions and icon information corresponding to the keyword and a control section to perform a focusing search by performing the icon search for an operational function and, in course of the icon search, by switching from the icon search to the keyword search and, if a targeted operational function can not be searched for, by additionally inputting an additional character to repeat the search through the search table.

Claims

1. A portable cellular phone having a search function to search for an operational function which is configured so as to store keywords each being preset in a manner that corresponds to each of two or more operational functions and to store icon information corresponding to each of said keywords and which is configured so as to do a focusing search for a desired operational function by combining a keyword search using said keywords and an icon search using said icon information,

said portable cellular phone comprising:

a search table to be used for searching operations which stores, in specified order, said keywords each being preset in a manner that corresponds to each of two or more operational functions and said icon information corresponding to each of said keywords, and

control section to do an icon search for said desired operational function and, whenever necessary, to switch the searching operation from said icon search to said keyword search in course of said icon search and to input one head character of one of said keywords corresponding to said desired operational function for searching through said search table and, if said desired operational function is unable to be searched for, to additionally input a next character for repetition of said searching through said search table to search, in a focused manner, for said desired operational function.

2. The portable cellular phone having a search function to search for an operational function according to claim 1, wherein said icon information hierarchically contains classification information about said desired operational function.

3. The portable cellular phone having a search function to search for an operational function according to claim 1, wherein said search table contains function-name reading letter information and icon information about names of operational functions.

4. The portable cellular phone having a search function to search for an operational function according to claim 3, wherein said function-name reading letter information and said icon information are associated with each other and are stored, in specified order, by using said keywords being stored in said function-name reading letter information.

5. The portable cellular phone having a search function to search for an operational function according to claim 1, wherein the searching through said search table is conducted by operations of an inputting section having a function invoking key, letter key, confirming key, and scrolling key, based on control by said control section.

6. The portable cellular phone having a search function to search for an operational function according to claim 1, wherein said search table contains function-name reading Kana letter information and icon information about names of operational functions.

7. The portable cellular phone having a search function to search for an operational function according to claim 6, wherein said function-name reading Kana letter information and said icon information are associated with each other and are stored, in specified order, by using said keywords being stored in said function-name reading Kana letter information.

8. The portable cellular phone having a search function to search for an operational function according to claim 1, wherein the searching through said search table is conducted by operations of an inputting section having a function invoking key, kana letter key, confirming key, and scrolling key, based on control by said control section.

9. A function searching method employed in a portable cellular phone having a search function to search for an operational function which is configured so as to store keywords each being preset in a manner that corresponds to each of two or more operational functions and to store icon information corresponding to each of said keywords and which is configured so as to do a focusing search for a desired operational function by combining a keyword search using said keywords and an icon search using said icon information, said function searching method comprising;

a step of storing, in specified order, said keywords each being preset in a manner that corresponds to each of two or more operational functions and icon information corresponding to each of said keywords; and

a step of doing an icon search for said desired operational function and, whenever necessary, switching the searching operation from said icon search to said keyword search in course of said icon search and inputting one head character of one of said keywords corresponding to said desired operational function for searching through said search table and, if said desired operational function is unable to be searched for, additionally inputting a next character for repetition of said searching through said search table to search, in a focused manner, for said desired operational function.