Handheld terminal device and display control method therefor

• US 7,308,277 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2004
• Issued: 12/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Innovations Ltd Hong Kong (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Yomoda, Miyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Duc M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thier; Michael
• Application Number:
  US10/893,934
• Publication Number:
  US 20050020318A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,239 Days
• Field of Search: 455/415, 455/414.1, 455/466, 455/550.1, 455/566, 455/567, 379/142.04, 379/142.06, 379/142.09
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27453 Directories allowing storage of additional subscriber data, e.g. metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/576 associated with a pictorial or graphical representation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages

Abstract

A cell phone provided with a chat dedicated message display screen, in addition to a screen for transmission and receipt of normal email messages, in order to realize the chat function, searches for an email address registered in the telephone directory in the chat dedicated message display screen and, when the search finds a digital camera registered in association with that email address, displays such digital camera image on the chat dedicated message display screen.

Claims

1. A handheld terminal device, comprising:

a display part which is configured to, when information received from an external terminal conforms to a predetermined conversation form, and identification information that represents the other-end party who is the sender of the received information has already been registered in a telephone directory and an image has also been registered in association with such other-end party, display said image on the display screen dedicated to the predetermined conversation form,

wherein said predetermined conversation form is a conversation form supported by a chat function,

wherein the display part is configured to;

display a plurality of chat messages in order of receipt, in which a most recent one of the plurality of chat messages is displayed along with the corresponding image of the other-end party that sent the most recent one of the chat messages,

wherein all other ones of the plurality of chat messages that are displayed together with the most recent one of the plurality of chat messages are displayed without their corresponding images.

2. The handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

a conversation form discriminating part which discriminates whether or not the form of the information, received by a receiving part to receive information sent from the external terminal, conforms to the predetermined conversation form.

3. The handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

a conversation form discriminating part which discriminates whether or not the form of the information, received by a receiving part to receive information sent from the external terminal, conforms to the predetermined conversation form, and

an identification information extracting part which extracts the identification information, received by said receiving part, that represents the other-end party who is the sender of the information.

4. The handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

a telephone directory data collating part which, when the received information has been determined that it conforms to the predetermined conversation form, collates said identification information with the telephone directory data registered in the telephone directory that was set up within the storing part, and

a control part which, when the condition that the data corresponding to such identification information has been registered in the telephone directory and the condition that an image related to the other-end party has been registered have both been found to be satisfied as a result of such collation by the telephone directory data collating part, displays such registered image on the display screen dedicated to the conversation form.

5. The handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

a conversation form discriminating part which discriminates whether or not the form of the received information conforms to the predetermined conversation form

an identification information extracting part which extracts the identification information that represents the other-end party who is the sender of the information received by said receiving part,

a telephone directory data collating part which, when said conversation form discriminating part determines that the received information conforms to the one predetermined conversation form, collates said identification information extracted by said identification information extracting part with the telephone directory data registered in the telephone directory that was set up within its own storing part, and

a control part which, when the condition that the data corresponding to such identification information has been registered in the telephone directory and the condition that an image related to the other-end party has been registered have both been found to be satisfied as a result of such collation by the telephone directory data collating part, displays such registered image on the display screen dedicated to said conversation form.

6. The handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 5, wherein

said control part further comprises a function to store the received information in an inbox for information not conforming to the predetermined conversation form, when said conversation form discriminating part determines that the received information does not conform to said predetermined conversation form.

7. The handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 5, wherein

said control part further comprises a function to display a predetermined alternative digital camera image, which has already been provided in said storing part, on the display screen dedicated to the predetermined conversation form, when said conversation discriminating part determines that the received information conforms to said predetermined conversation form and said telephone directory data collating part determines that said identification information does not match with any item of the telephone directory data registered in its own telephone directory.

8. The handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 5, wherein

said control part further comprises a function to display a predetermined alternative digital camera image, which has already been provided in said storing part, on the display screen dedicated to the predetermined conversation form, when said conversation discriminating part determines that the received information conforms to said predetermined conversation form and said telephone directory data collating part determines that said identification information matches with an item of the telephone directory data registered in its own telephone directory, and said matching item of the telephone directory data does not have any image registered associated therewith.

9. The handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 2, wherein said receiving part conforms to communication on a cell phone.

10. A display control method for handheld terminal, comprising the step of:

when information received from the external terminal conforms to the predetermined conversation form and identification information that represents the other-end party who is the sender of the received information has already been registered in a telephone directory and an image has also been registered in association with such other-end party, displaying said image on the display screen dedicated to said conversation form,

wherein said predetermined conversation form is a conversation form supported by a chat function,

wherein the display part is configured to;

display a plurality of chat messages in order of receipt, in which a most recent one of the plurality of chat messages is displayed along with the corresponding image of the other-end party that sent the most recent one of the chat messages,

wherein all other ones of the plurality of chat messages that are displayed together with the most recent one of the plurality of chat messages are displayed without their corresponding image.

11. The display control method for handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 10, further comprising the step of:

a conversation form discriminating part which discriminates whether or not the form of the information, received by a receiving part to receive information sent from an external terminal, conforms to the predetermined conversation form.

12. The display control method for handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

discriminating whether or not the form of the information, received by a receiving part to receive information sent from an external terminal, conforms to the one predetermined conversation form, and

extracting the identification information that represents the other-end party who is the sender of the information received.

13. The display control method for handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

when the received information has been determined that it conforms to the predetermined conversation form, collating said identification information with the telephone directory data registered in the telephone directory that was set up within the storing part, and

when the condition that the data corresponding to such identification information has been registered in the telephone directory and the condition that an image related to the other-end party has been registered have both found to be satisfied as a result of such collation by said collating step, displaying such registered image on the display screen dedicated to the conversation form.

14. The display control method for handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

discriminating whether or not the form of the information received by said receiving part conforms to the predetermined conversation form,

extracting the identification information that represents the other-end party who is the sender of the information received,

when said conversation form discriminating step determines that the received information conforms to the predetermined conversation form, collating said identification information extracted by said extracting step with the telephone directory data registered in the telephone directory that was set up within its own storing part, and

when the condition that the data corresponding to such identification information has been registered in the telephone directory and the condition that an image related to the other-end party has been registered have both found to be satisfied as a result of such collation by said collating step, displaying such registered image on the display screen dedicated to said conversation form.

15. The display control method for handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 14, wherein

said displaying step further comprises the step of storing the received information in an inbox for information not conforming to the predetermined conversation form when said discriminating step determines that the received information does not conform to the predetermined conversation form.

16. The display control method for handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 14, wherein

said displaying step further comprises the step of displaying a predetermined alternative digital camera image, which has already been provided in said storing part, on the display screen dedicated to the predetermined conversation form, when said discriminating step determines that the received information conforms to said predetermined conversation form, and said collating step determines that said identification information does not match with any item of the telephone directory data registered in its own telephone directory.

17. The display control method for handheld terminal device as set forth in claim 14, wherein

said displaying step further comprises the step of displaying a predetermined alternative digital camera image, which has already been provided in said storing part, on the display screen dedicated to the predetermined conversation form, when said discriminating step determines that the received information conforms to said predetermined conversation form and said collating step determines that said identification information matches with an item of the telephone directory data registered in its own telephone directory, and said matching item of the telephone directory data does not have any image registered associated therewith.

18. A computer readable media, encoded with a display control program, which is executed on a handheld terminal device to control display, the program causing a processor of the handheld terminal device to perform the steps of:

determining whether information received from an external terminal conforms to a predetermined conversation form,

determining whether identification information that represents the other-end party who is the sender of the received information has already been registered in a telephone directory and an image has also been registered in association with the other end party, and

if the two determining steps have determined that the information received from the external terminal conforms to the predetermined conversation form and the identification information has already been registered in the telephone directory and the image has also been registered, displaying said image on the display screen dedicated to said conversation form,

wherein said predetermined conversation form is a conversation form supported by a chat function,

wherein the display part is configured to;

display a plurality of chat messages in order of receipt, in which a most recent one of the plurality of chat messages is displayed along with the corresponding image of the other-end party that sent the most recent one of the chat messages,

wherein all other ones of the plurality of chat messages that are displayed together with the most recent one of the plurality of chat messages are displayed without their corresponding image.

19. The display control program as set forth in claim 18, further causing the processor to perform the steps of:

discriminating whether or not the form of the information received by a receiving part to receive information sent from an external terminal conforms to the one predetermined conversation form.

20. The display control program as set forth in claim 18, further causing the processor to perform the steps of:

discriminating whether or not the form of the information, received by a receiving part to receive information sent from an external terminal, conforms to the one predetermined conversation form, and

extracting the identification information that represents the other-end party who is the sender of the information received.

21. The display control program as set forth in claim 18, further causing the processor to perform the steps of:

when the received information has been determined that it conforms to the predetermined conversation form, collating said identification information with the telephone directory data registered in the telephone directory that was set up within the storing part, and

when the condition that the data corresponding to such identification information has been registered in the telephone directory and the condition that an image related to the other-end party has been registered have both been found to be satisfied as a result of such collation by said collating function, displaying such registered image on the display screen dedicated to the conversation form.

22. The display control program as set forth in claim 18, further causing the processor to perform the steps of:

discriminating whether or not the form of the information received by said receiving part conforms to the predetermined conversation form, extracting the identification information that represents the other-end party who is the sender of the information received,

when said conversation form discriminating function determines that the received information conforms to the predetermined conversation form, collating said identification information extracted by said extracting function with the telephone directory data registered in the telephone directory that was set up within its own storing part, and

when the condition that the data corresponding to such identification information has been registered in the telephone directory and the condition that an image related to the other-end party has been registered have both been found to be satisfied as a result of such collation by said collating function, displaying such registered image on the display screen dedicated to the conversation form.