Information terminal device

• US 6,674,439 B1
• Filed: 05/08/2000
• Issued: 01/06/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sovereign Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Yoshida, Naoya, Shin, Hidehiko, Wada, Hiromi, Kato, Atsunobu
• Primary Examiner(s): Tung, Kee M.
• Application Number:
  US09/566,810
• Time in Patent Office: 1,338 Days
• Field of Search: 345/530, 345/501, 345/520, 345/667, 725/114, 709/217-219
• US Class Current: 345/501
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/4092 Image resolution transcoding, e.g. by using client-server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72427 for supporting games or graphical animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72445 for supporting Internet browser applications

Abstract

A mobile terminal is provided which can obtain an image from a server and change the size of the image so as to use the image as a background image. An image obtaining unit obtains an image from a server. An over-size decision unit decides whether the entirety of the image obtained by the image obtaining unit can be displayed within the display area in a screen. When the over-size decision unit provides a negative decision, an image resizing unit changes the size of the image obtained by the image obtaining unit so that it can be displayed within the display area in the screen.

Claims

1. An information terminal device operable to display a changeable background screen, said device comprising:

an obtaining unit operable to obtain, from a server, a plurality of images and a document containing storage locations of the plurality of images, each of the plurality of images being selectable as the background screen;

an extracting unit operable to extract the storage locations from the obtained document;

an image storing unit operable to store the obtained plurality of images at the extracted storage locations;

a storage location storing unit operable to store the extracted storage locations;

a selecting unit operable to select one of the storage locations stored in said storage location storing unit in response to a user instruction, and

an image displaying unit operable to read, from said image storing unit, an image stored at the selected storage location and to display the read image as the background screen,

wherein, until receiving the user instruction, said selecting unit selects the first storage location extracted by said extracting unit.

2. The information terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a list generating unit operable to generate a list containing the storage locations stored in said storage location storing unit; and

a list displaying unit operable to display the generated list,

wherein said selecting unit is further operable to select one of the storage locations contained in the displayed list in response to the user instruction, and

wherein, if no image is stored in said image storing unit at the storage location selected by said selecting unit, said image displaying unit instructs said obtaining unit to obtain an image from the server.

3. A method for changing a background screen displayed on an information terminal device, said method comprising:

obtaining, from a server, a plurality of images and a document containing storage locations of the plurality of images, each of the plurality of images being selectable as the background screen;

extracting the storage locations from the obtained document;

storing the obtained plurality of images into an image storing unit at the extracted storage locations;

storing the extracted storage locations;

selecting one of the stored storage locations in response to a user instruction; and

reading, from the image storing unit, an image stored at the selected storage location and displaying the read image as the background screen,

wherein, until receiving the user instruction, said selecting comprises selecting the first extracted storage location.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

generating a list containing the stored storage locations; and

displaying the generated list,

wherein said selecting comprises selecting one of the storage locations contained in the displayed list in response to the user instruction, and

wherein said reading comprises obtaining an image from the server if no image is stored in the image storing unit at the selected storage location.