Mobile terminal having an LED backlight unit

• US 8,224,391 B2
• Filed: 02/25/2010
• Issued: 07/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Sang Joon, Lee, Byung Hyun
• Primary Examiner(s): Milord, Marceau
• Application Number:
  US12/712,576
• Publication Number:
  US 20110014955A1
• Time in Patent Office: 873 Days
• Field of Search: 455/566, 455/90.3, 455/575.1, 455/556.1, 359/15, 345/107, 345/169, 349/141, 349/106, 362/618, 362/625
• US Class Current: 455/566
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133601 for spatial active dimming
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133603 with LEDs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0626 for control of overall brightness
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0686 with two or more screen areas displaying information with different brightness or colours
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/022 in absence of operation, e.g. no data being entered during a predetermined time
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 Aspects of interface with display user
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3426 the different display panel areas being distributed in two dimensions, e.g. matrix
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/22 Illumination; Arrangements for improving the visibility of characters on dials
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector

Abstract

A mobile terminal having a display unit provided with an LED backlight and controlling method thereof are disclosed. The present invention includes a housing, a display unit including a liquid crystal display provided to one side of the housing and a backlight unit including a plurality of light emitting diodes for a backlight provided to a backside of the liquid crystal display and a control unit controlling the backlight unit to selectively adjust brightness of the light emitting diodes in part. Accordingly, a mobile terminal according to at least one of embodiments of the present invention controls light emission of an LED backlight locally, thereby providing more various display visual effects. And, a mobile terminal according to one embodiment of the present invention is able to use at least one portion of the light emitted from an LED BLU of a display unit as an illumination of a main body without using a separate light source for external illumination. Moreover, the illumination of the main body is able to play a role as a transmitter in a visible light communication.

Claims

1. A terminal comprising:

a housing;

a display comprising;

a liquid crystal display provided to one side of the housing; and

a backlight including a plurality of light emitting diodes for outputting backlight provided to a backside of the liquid crystal display; and

a controller adapted to control the backlight to selectively adjust brightness of the light emitting diodes, wherein the controller is to control one or more objects to be displayed on the display and to selectively control the brightness of at least one of the light emitting diodes corresponding to the one or more objects, wherein the controller is to control at least one of the light emitting diodes located at a first distance from a reference point to emit light by a first brightness and to control one or more light emitting diodes located more than the first distance relative to the reference point to emit light by a second brightness.

2. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the display comprises a touch-screen and wherein the reference point corresponds to a touched position on the touch-screen, the touched position on the screen corresponding to at least one of the one or more objects.

3. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to control said at least one of the light emitting diodes located to be turned off and wherein the first distance is farther away from the reference point than the second distance.

4. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the display includes a touch screen which is adapted to recognize a contact touch or a proximity touch by discriminating the contact touch or proximity touch from each other and wherein the controller is adapted to control the brightness of said at least one of the light emitting diodes to differ according to a presence of the contact touch or the proximity touch.

5. The terminal of claim 4, wherein the display includes a touch screen which is adapted to discriminatively recognize the proximity touch by at least two steps according to a proximity distance and to control the backlight to differently set the adjusted brightness of the at least one of the light emitting diodes according to each of the at least two steps.

6. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to control the backlight to control the brightness of light to said at least one or more objects to be different from the brightness of light to at least one other object.

7. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the reference point corresponds to a touched position on a touch screen, wherein the one or more objects corresponds to text including a plurality of rows, and wherein the controller is adapted to control brightness of said at least one of the light emitting diodes at a location.

8. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the terminal is a mobile terminal.

9. A terminal comprising:

a display screen;

a backlight including light emitting diodes to emit light towards the screen; and

a controller to selectively control brightness of light from the light emitting diodes, wherein the controller is to control a first light emitting diode to emit a first level of light and a second light emitting diode to simultaneously emit a second level of light, wherein the first level of light is to illuminate an object on the screen and the second level of light is to illuminate an area on the screen which does not include said object, wherein the first level of light is brighter than the second level of light, wherein the first level of light illuminates the object which includes a first icon having a first preference and the second level of light illuminates said area which includes a second icon having a second preference, and wherein the first preference is greater than the second preference.

10. The terminal of claim 9, wherein the controller controls the first light emitting diode to emit the first level of light to illuminate the object in response to a touch on the screen at a position which corresponds to the object.

11. The terminal of claim 10, wherein the controller controls the first light emitted from the second light emitting diode to decrease from a greater level to the second level after said touch on the screen.

12. The terminal of claim 11, wherein the greater level at least substantially corresponds to the first level of light emitted by the first light emitting diode.

13. The terminal of claim 10, wherein the touch includes any one of a touch at a point, a drag, or a trace.

14. The terminal of claim 10, wherein the touch is a contact touch or a proximity touch.

15. The terminal of claim 9, wherein the object is an icon.

16. The terminal of claim 9, wherein the object is located in a first predetermined region of the screen and the area is in a second predetermined region of the screen exclusive of the first predetermined region.