Apparatus and method for providing wallpaper

• US 20080186332A1
• Filed: 01/03/2008
• Published: 08/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Park, Chan-Woo, An, Jong-Hyun, Choi, Kyu-Ok, Kim, Soon-Ok, Choi, Do-Hwan
• Granted Patent: US 8,044,975 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/634
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1613 for portable computers cooling arrangements therefor G06F1/203; constructional details or arrangements for pocket calculators, electronic agendas or books G06F15/0216; constructional details of portable telephone sets: with several bodies H04M1/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1684 Constructional details or arrangements related to integrated I/O peripherals not covered by groups G06F1/1635 - G06F1/1675
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• 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 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/60 of natural phenomena, e.g. rain, snow, water or plants
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/80 2D [Two Dimensional] animation, e.g. using sprites
• 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

Abstract

Disclosed are an apparatus and a method for providing a wallpaper. To this end, a current state of a mobile terminal is detected, particle images and fluid image reflecting the detected current state of the mobile terminal are generated, and the generated particles and the generated fluid are displayed on a preset wallpaper so as to generate a wallpaper. Then, user motion is detected, acceleration and movement amount are extracted from the detected user motion, and movement amounts and movement directions of the particles and the fluid are determined based on the extracted acceleration and movement amount. Then, the particles and fluid are displayed in reflection of the gravity on movement amounts and movement directions of particles and fluid. Accordingly, it is possible to provide a wallpaper having an effect as if an actual snow globe is moved.

Claims

1. An apparatus for providing a wallpaper in a mobile terminal, the apparatus comprising:

a memory module for storing images of a preset basic frame;

a terminal state detection module for detecting at least one state of the mobile terminal;

a display module for displaying a fluid image and particle images by including an image generation module for generating the fluid image and the particle images reflecting a detected result of the mobile terminal;

a motion detection module for detecting a movement amount and a movement direction of the mobile terminal; and

a controller for controlling the image generation module so that a wallpaper is generated based on the images of the basic frame, and the fluid image and the particle images are generated to be displayed within the basic frame, setting image movement amounts and image movement directions of the particle images and the fluid image according to a result detected by the motion detection module, and controlling the display module so that the fluid image and the particle images are displayed to move according to the set movement amounts and the set movement directions.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the images of the basic frame include at least one of a round-shaped image, a polygon-shaped image, and a snow globe-shaped image.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the terminal state detection module detects at least one of a remaining battery power of the mobile terminal, an amount of the phone calls of a current user, a total number of current received messages, a number of the addresses stored in a current address book, a reception sensitivity of current calls, an available amount of memory space, a usage frequency of the memory space, a current residual time in a preset alarm time, and an occurrence of an indicating event.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the indicating event includes one of a notification of an unconfirmed message reception, a notification of calls on absence, and a notification of low battery power.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the controller controls the image generation module so that different states of the mobile terminal can be reflected on the particle images and the fluid image.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the controller controls the image generation module so that one or more of the particle images are changed into an icon corresponding to the indicating event when the indicating event is generated.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the motion detection module includes a gravity sensor capable of detecting a direction of current gravity.

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the controller sets the image movement amounts and the image movement directions of the particle images and the fluid image by reflecting both a detected gravity direction and a preset gravity magnitude on the movement amount and the movement direction calculated based on the result detected by the motion detection module, and controls the display module so that the fluid image and the particle images can move according to one of the set image movement amounts and one of the image movement directions due to the reflection of the gravity direction and the gravity magnitude.

9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the controller determines if the wallpaper is rotated, and then changes a fluid image display direction when the wallpaper has rotated.

10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the controller compares the fluid image display direction with the detected gravity direction, thereby detecting if the wallpaper is rotated, according to a result of the comparison.

11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a timer for checking an amount of time set for the image movement amounts and the image movement directions for each of the fluid and particle images.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the controller checks the amount of time set for the image movement amounts and the image movement directions of each of the particle images, and decreases the image movement amounts according to the amount of time.

13. A method for providing a wallpaper in a mobile terminal, the method comprising:

generating a background image by using images of a preset basic frame;

generating particle images and a fluid image reflecting at least one state of the mobile terminal;

displaying the generated particle images and the generated fluid image within the basic frame;

detecting a movement amount and a movement direction of the mobile terminal;

setting image movement amounts and image movement directions of the particle images and the fluid image according to the detected movement amount and movement direction of the mobile terminal; and

reflecting the set image movement amounts and the set image movement directions on the particle images and the fluid image so that the particle images and the fluid image can move according to the set image movement amounts and the set image movement directions.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the basic frame includes one of a round shape, a polygon, and a snow globe-like shape.

15. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein generating particle images and a fluid image comprises:

detecting one or more preset states of the mobile terminal in order to reflect a detected state on the particle images and the fluid image;

determining a number of the particle images and a size of the fluid image according to a result of the state detection; and

generating the particle images and the fluid image according to the determined size of the fluid image and the determined number of the particle images.

16. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein displaying the generated particle images and the generated fluid image comprises:

setting the image movement amounts and the image movement directions of the particle images and the fluid image; and

displaying the particle images and the fluid image moving according to the set image movement amounts and the set image movement directions.

17. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein displaying the generated particle images and the generated fluid image further comprises:

detecting an indicating event; and

changing one or more of the generated particles into an icon corresponding to the indicating event when the indicating event is generated.

18. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein setting the image movement amounts and the image movement directions of the particle images and the fluid image comprises:

checking if there are a preset movement amount and a preset movement direction; and

applying a first movement amount and a first movement direction, which reflect a gravity influence direction and a gravity magnitude in addition to the preset movement amount and the present movement direction, to the particle images and the fluid image when there are the preset movement amount and the preset movement direction, and applying a second movement amount and a second movement direction, which reflect only the gravity influence direction and the gravity magnitude, to the particle images and the fluid image when there is no preset movement amount and movement direction detected.

19. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein detecting the movement amount and the movement direction of the mobile terminal further comprises:

determining if there are the image movement amounts of the particle images and the fluid image, when there is no detected the movement amount and the movement direction;

checking an amount of time set for the image movement amounts of the particle images and the fluid image when there are the image movement amounts of the particle images and the fluid image; and

decreasing the image movement amounts, currently set for the particle images and the fluid image, according to the amount of time.

20. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein setting the image movement amounts and the image movement directions of the particle images and the fluid image further comprises:

determining if the background image is rotated; and

changing a display direction of the fluid image by a rotated angle of the background image when the background image is rotated.

21. The method as claimed in claim 20, wherein determining if the background image is rotated comprises:

calculating a difference value between a preset gravity direction and a lower limit of a current direction of the background image;

determining if there is a difference between the calculated difference value and a pre-stored difference value; and

determining that the background image is rotated, when there is the difference between the calculated difference value and the pre-stored difference value.

22. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein reflecting the set image movement amounts and the image movement directions on the particle images and the fluid image comprises:

applying a second image movement amount and a second image movement direction, which are obtained by reflecting both a gravity influence direction and a gravity magnitude on the detected movement amount and movement direction, to the particle images and the fluid image; and

moving the particle images and the fluid image according to the second image movement amount and the second image movement direction.