MOBILE TERMINAL AND SCREEN DISPLAY METHOD THEREOF

• US 20080119237A1
• Filed: 11/15/2007
• Published: 05/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: KIM, Jin-Woong
• Granted Patent: US 8,217,904 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/566
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0235 Slidable or telescopic telephones, i.e. with a relative translation movement of the body parts; Telephones using a combination of translation and other relative motions of the body parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72427 for supporting games or graphical animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/52 including functional features of a camera constructional features concerning the integration of cameras in portable phones H04M1/0264

Abstract

A mobile terminal and a screen display method of the mobile terminal are disclosed. The mobile terminal includes: a display that comprises a user interface display region and an information display region; and a controller that changes positions of display regions and displaying the changed positions on the display according to a user selection.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal comprising:

a display that displays at least one graphical user interface; and

a controller that changes a display position of the at least one graphical user interface according to a user selection.

2. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a plurality of graphical control keys each defined to perform a particular function.

3. The terminal of claim 1, wherein a plurality of graphical user interfaces is displayed at different positions on the display.

4. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the user selection is a touch event generated according to a pre-set value for an active region allocated to the display.

5. The terminal of claim 4, wherein the pre-set value is related to at least one of a touch duration, a touch input, and the number of touches.

6. The terminal of claim 4, wherein the touch event occurs at an active region on which the graphical user interface is to be displayed.

7. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the display comprises a touch screen that receives a user input via user contact thereon.

8. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the display comprises:

a user interface display region that displays the graphical user interface; and

an information display region that displays a state and a result of an operation of the mobile terminal.

9. The terminal of claim 8, wherein, if the information display region comprises a main screen portion and a sub-screen portion, the graphical user interface comprises first and second graphical user interface regions that allow the user to perform control operations with respect to the main screen portion and the sub-screen portion, and the first and second graphical user interface regions are displayed at respectively different positions of the display.

10. The terminal of claim 8, wherein when a drag input is detected at a boundary between the information display region and the user interface display region, the user interface display region is adjusted to match a size of a region dragged from the boundary.

11. The terminal of claim 10, wherein the information display region is respectively contracted or expanded according to respective expansion or contraction of the user interface display region.

12. The terminal of claim 8, wherein if a user input is not detected on the graphical user interface for a certain time period, the graphical user interface disappears and the information display region expands to cover an entire screen portion of the display.

13. The terminal of claim 1, further comprising:

a sensing unit that senses a physical orientation of the mobile terminal.

14. The terminal of claim 13, wherein the graphical user interface is displayed in the same directional manner regardless of a change in the sensed physical orientation of the mobile terminal.

15. The terminal of claim 13, wherein the controller re-adjusts the position of the graphical user interface according to a rotational amount of the mobile terminal detected by the sensing unit.

16. A screen display method of a mobile terminal comprising:

receiving a user input that selects a certain region of a display; and

displaying a graphical user interface on the user selected region.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the certain region is one or more display regions allocated for displaying the graphical user interface.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one other remaining region excluding the certain region comprises a main screen portion and a sub-screen portion on the display, and graphical user interfaces that allow the user to control the main screen portion and the sub-screen portion are displayed.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the selection of the certain region is based on a touch input detected on a touch screen.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

allocating at least one active region defined to display the graphical user interface to the display,

wherein, in selecting the certain region of the display, a touch event is detected based on a pre-set value related to the at least one active region.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the pre-set value is related to at least one of a touch duration, a touch pressure, and the number of touches.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein, in displaying the graphical user interface on the selected region, the graphical user interface is displayed on a particular active region where the touch event has occurred.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

allocating a corresponding region as a user interface display region when the corresponding certain region is selected, and allocating one other remaining region as an information display region.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

adjusting a size of the user interface display region to match a size of a region dragged from a boundary, when a drag input is detected at the boundary between the information display region and the user interface display region.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

removing the user interface and expanding the information display region to cover the entire screen of the display, if a user input is not detected on the user interface for a certain time period.

26. The method of claim 16, wherein the displaying of the user interface comprises:

detecting a physical orientation of the mobile terminal; and

displaying the user interface on the certain region in the same screen orientation format regardless of the detected orientation.

27. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

calculating rotational movement of the mobile terminal; and

changing a display position of the user interface according to the calculated rotational movement.