Portable telephone

• US 6,766,018 B1
• Filed: 05/11/2000
• Issued: 07/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
• Original Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
• Inventors: Morita, Kugo
• Primary Examiner(s): Harvey, Minsun Oh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Swerdlow, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US09/569,270
• Time in Patent Office: 1,531 Days
• Field of Search: 379/100.14, 379/355.01, 379/355.09, 455/564
• US Class Current: 379/355.09
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27475 using interactive graphical means or pictorial representations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/576 associated with a pictorial or graphical representation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones

Abstract

A portable telephone has a phone-book capability of storing and searching plural pieces of receiver information including character information and image information and comprises phone-book memory means for registering plural pieces of receiver information including character information and image information associated with each other; decoding means for decoding the image information stored in the phone-book memory means; display means for displaying the character information and the image information stored in the phone-book memory means; operation means for outputting a select signal in accordance with an external operation; and control means for controlling the phone-book memory means, the decoding means, the display means, and the operation means. The control means performs such control that when a plurality of select signals for selecting different pieces of receiver information from that receiver information which is currently displayed on the display means are output from the operation means continuously or over a given period of time, those character information which are included in the selected pieces of receiver information are sequentially displayed on the display means in accordance with the select signals and only that image information which corresponds to a last select signal output is decoded by the decoding means and is displayed on the display means.

Claims

1. A portable telephone having a phone-book capability of displaying at least one piece of receiver information from plural pieces of receiver information including character information and image information associated with each other in accordance with key operation,

wherein at a time pieces of receiver information are displayed in order in accordance with key operations, those pieces of character information which are included in said pieces of receiver information are sequentially displayed during a continuous key operation and image information which corresponds to character information which is currently displayed is displayed only if the continuous key operation has been stopped.

2. The portable telephone according to claim 1, wherein image information which does not depend on receiver information is displayed until that image information which corresponds to said character information is displayed.

3. The portable telephone according to claim 1, wherein a screen for displaying image information is turned off or is darkened until that image information which corresponds to said character information is displayed.

4. A portable telephone comprising:

phone-book memory means for registering plural pieces of receiver information including character information and image information associated with each other;

decoding means for decoding said image information stored in said phone-book memory means;

display means for displaying said character information and said image information stored in said phone-book memory means;

operation means for outputting a select signal in accordance with a user operation; and

control means for controlling said phone-book memory means, said decoding means, said display means, and said operation means, and performing such control that when pieces of receiver information are displayed on said display means in accordance with operations of said operation means, are those character information which are included in said pieces of receiver information are sequentially displayed on said display means during said operation means is continuously operated and image information which corresponds to character information which is currently displayed on said display means is decoded by said decoding means and is displayed on said display means only if the operations of said operation means have been stopped.

5. The portable telephone according to claim 4, wherein said control means displays image information which does not depend on receiver information on said display means until that image information which corresponds to said character information is decoded by said decoding means and is displayed on said display means.

6. The portable telephone according to claim 4, wherein said display means has a character-information display section for displaying character information and an image information display section for displaying image information, and said control means turns off or darkens said image information display section until that image information which corresponds to said character information is decoded by said decoding means and is displayed on said display means.

7. The portable telephone according to claim 4, wherein when image information which is to be decoded by said decoding means, said decoding means decodes the latter image information.

8. A portable telephone having a phone-book capability of storing and searching plural pieces of receiver information including character information and image information associated with each other, comprising:

operation means for inputting instruction information for searching a phone book;

measuring means for measuring an input interval between the release of said operation means and the subsequent depression of said operation means; and

control means for controlling a time for starting decoding image information in accordance with said input interval.

9. A portable telephone having a phone-book capability of storing and searching plural pieces of receiver information including character information and coded image information associated with each other, comprising:

operation means having an operation key or a plurality of buttons;

image decoding means for performing a decoding process on image information;

control means for controlling said portable telephone such that when detecting that an operation of said operation means which is carrying out a search operation is stopped at a time said phone book is searched, said image decoding means starts said decoding process on that image information which corresponds to a search result; and

a timer for measuring a predetermined time that determines the beginning of image decoding,

wherein said control means performs such control as to activate said timer when detecting that said operation of said operation means is stopped and as to start said decoding process on that image information which corresponds to said search result when said timer measures said predetermined time.

10. A portable telephone comprising:

phone-book memory means for registering plural pieces of receiver information including character information and image information associated with each other;

display means for displaying said character information and said image information stored in said phone-book memory means;

operation means for outputting a select signal in accordance with a user operation;

detection means for detecting if image information corresponding to character information in that receiver information which has been selected by an operation of said operation means is registered; and

control means for outputting a display to the effect that said image information corresponding to said character information in said selected receiver information is not registered to said display means when said detection means outputs information indicating that said image information corresponding to said character information in said selected receiver information is not registered.

13. The portable telephone according to claim 10 or 11, wherein at least one of said display information indicating that said image information corresponding to character information in said selected receiver information is not registered and said display information indicating that said image information corresponding to character information in said selected receiver information is registered is character information.

14. The portable telephone according to claim 10 or 13, wherein said phone-book memory means is storing index information about how said receiver information and said image information are registered, and based on said index information, said detection means detects if image information is registered in said receiver information selected by said operation of said operation means.

11. A portable telephone comprising:

phone-book memory means for registering plural pieces of receiver information including character information and image information associated with each other;

display means for displaying said character information and said image information stored in said phone-book memory means;

operation means for outputting a select signal in accordance with a user operation;

detection means for detecting if image information corresponding to character information in that receiver information which has been selected by an operation of said operation means is registered;

display-information memory means for storing display information indicating that said image information corresponding to character information in said selected receiver information is not registered and display information indicating that said image information corresponding to character information in said selected receiver information is registered; and

control means for selecting either one of said display information stored in said display-information memory means based on an output of said detection means and displaying said selected display information on said display means.

12. The portable telephone according to claim 11, wherein said control means outputs said display information indicating that said image information corresponding to character information in said selected receiver information is registered to said display means until said image information corresponding to said character information is output to said display means.

15. A portable telephone, comprising:

phone-book memory means for registering plural pieces of receiver information including character information and image information associated with each other;

decoding means for decoding said image information stored in said phone-book memory means;

display means for displaying said character information and said image information stored in said phone-book memory means;

operation means for outputting a select signal in accordance with a user operation; and

control means for controlling said portable telephone such that when pieces of receiver information are displayed on said display means in accordance with operations of said operation means, those character information which are included in said pieces of receiver information are sequentially displayed on said display means during said operation means is continuously operated and image information which corresponds to character information which is currently displayed on said display means is decoded by said decoding means and is displayed on said display means only if continuous operations of said operation means have been stopped,

wherein said decoding means does not decode image information which is to be decoded by said decoding means if this image information corresponds to image information which is currently displayed on said display means.

16. A portable telephone, comprising:

phone-book memory means for registering plural pieces of receiver information including character information and image information associated with each other;

display means for displaying said character information and said image information stored in said phone-book memory means;

operation means for outputting a select signal in accordance with a user operation;

detection means for detecting if image information corresponding to character information in that receiver information which has been selected by an operation of said operation means is registered in said phone-book memory means; and

control means for outputting a display indicating that said image information corresponding to said character information is registered to said display means when said detection means outputs information indicating that said image information corresponding to said character information is registered.

17. The portable telephone according to claim 16, wherein

said control means outputs the image information corresponding to character information in the selected receiver information to said display means, after outputting the display indicating that the image information corresponding to character information in the selected receiver information is registered.

18. The portable telephone according to claim 16 or 17, wherein

the display indicating that the image information corresponding to the selected receiver information is registered, is a mark.

19. A portable telephone having a phone-book capability of storing and searching plural pieces of receiver information including character information and image information associated with each other, comprising:

operation means for inputting instruction information for searching a phone book;

measuring means for measuring an input interval between inputs of said instruction information to said operation means; and

control means for controlling a time for starting decoding image information in accordance with said input interval,

wherein said control means sets the time for starting decoding image information to the sum of a second predetermined time and the input interval if the input interval is not more than a first predetermined time, and sets the time for starting decoding image information to the second predetermined time if the input interval is longer than the first predetermined time.