Mobile terminal and communication history providing method using the same

• US 8,351,904 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2009
• Issued: 01/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Kyung Jin, Chun, Jee Young, Park, Sae Kyu, Park, Yong Man, Kim, Ji Hyun
• Primary Examiner(s): Gonzalez, Amancio
• Application Number:
  US12/427,235
• Publication Number:
  US 20100075637A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,358 Days
• Field of Search: 455/550.1, 455/566, 455/412.1, 455/412.2, 455/414.1, 379/142.04, 379/93.23
• US Class Current: 455/412.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication

Abstract

A mobile terminal including a communication unit configured to provide a communication function including at least one of an outgoing communication function and an incoming communication function, a controller configured to acquire surrounding data including at least one of image data or sound data corresponding to a surrounding of where the communication function is performed, and to match the acquired surrounding data with communication information indicating a first party of the outgoing function or a second party of the incoming communication function, and a display unit configured to display a communication history including the communication information matched with the surrounding data. In addition, the controller is further configured to acquire the surrounding data selectively based on a) a manual operation of the terminal or b) automatically without user intervention.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal, comprising:

a communication unit configured to provide a communication function including at least one of an outgoing communication function and an incoming communication function;

a controller configured to acquire surrounding data including at least one of image data or sound data corresponding to a surrounding of where the mobile terminal is located when the communication function is performed, and to match the acquired surrounding data with communication information indicating a first party of the outgoing communication function or a second party of the incoming communication function, wherein the first party and the second party are another party different from a user of the mobile terminal; and

a display unit,

wherein the communication history includes the communication information matched with the surrounding data,

wherein the controller is further configured to acquire the surrounding data selectively based on a) a manual operation of the terminal or b) automatically without user intervention,

wherein the controller is further configured to simultaneously display a communication history and the surrounding data in the form of a list including a plurality of communication items respectively corresponding to a plurality of other parties different from the user of the mobile terminal on the display unit when the communication history is retrieved in response to a command from the user, and

wherein the controller is further configured to display the plurality of communication items such that the each communication item includes the corresponding communication information and the corresponding surrounding data.

2. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the surrounding data includes at least one of still image data, moving image data and audio data.

3. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the communication information further indicates at least one of a time of the outgoing communication function or the incoming communication function, and a duration of the outgoing communication function or the incoming communication function.

4. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the communication function includes at least one of a messaging function, a calling function and a called function.

5. The mobile terminal of claim 4, wherein when the communication function includes the calling function or called function, the communication history includes at least one of a dialed call item, a received call item and a missed call item, and

wherein when the communication function includes the messaging function, the communication history includes at least one of a sent message item and a received message item.

6. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to control the display unit to display a tracking history including the communication history for outgoing or incoming calls for a particular party of the outgoing or incoming communication function when the outgoing or incoming communication is performed.

7. The mobile terminal of claim 6, wherein the displayed communication history for the outgoing or incoming calls for the particular party includes all outgoing and incoming calls.

8. The mobile terminal of claim 6, wherein the displayed communication history for the outgoing or incoming calls for the particular party includes only outgoing and incoming calls for a particular time period the outgoing or incoming communication function is performed.

9. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to control the display unit to display the communication information and the surrounding data to be transparently overlapped with each other.

10. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the surrounding data includes image data and the controller is further configured to control the display unit to display a plurality of acquired images for a single communication function.

21. The mobile terminal of claim 2, wherein the controller is further configured to reproduce the surrounding data included in a specific communication item when the specific communication item of the plurality of communication items is selected.

23. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein when the communication function is performed, the controller is further configured to acquire the surrounding data without first displaying previously stored history information.

11. A method of controlling a mobile terminal, the method comprising:

acquiring surrounding data including at least one of image data or sound data corresponding to a surrounding of where the mobile terminal is located when a communication function is performed on the terminal, said communication function including at least one of an outgoing communication function and an incoming communication function;

matching the acquired surrounding data with communication information indicating a first party of the outgoing communication function or a second party of the incoming communication function, wherein the first party and the second party are another party different from a user of the mobile terminal; and

displaying a communication history and the surrounding data at the same time,

wherein the communication history includes the communication information matched with the surrounding data,

wherein the acquiring step acquires the surrounding data selectively based on a) a manual operation of the terminal or b) automatically without user intervention, and

wherein the displaying step further comprises;

simultaneously displaying the communication history and the surrounding data in the form of a list including a plurality of communication items respectively corresponding to a plurality of other parties different from the user of the mobile terminal when the communication history is retrieved in response to a command from the user; and

displaying the plurality of communication items such that the each communication item includes the corresponding communication information and the corresponding surrounding data.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the surrounding data includes at least one of still image data, moving image data and audio data.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the communication information further indicates at least one of a time of the outgoing communication function or the incoming communication function, and a duration of the outgoing communication function or the incoming communication function.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the communication function includes at least one of a messaging function, a calling function and a called function.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein when the communication function includes the calling function or called function, the communication history includes at least one of a dialed call item, a received call item and a missed call item, and

wherein when the communication function includes the messaging function, the communication history includes at least one of a sent message item and a received message item.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the displaying step further comprises displaying a tracking history including the communication history for outgoing or incoming calls for a particular party of the outgoing or incoming communication function when the outgoing or incoming communication is performed.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the displayed communication history for the outgoing or incoming calls for the particular party includes all outgoing and incoming calls.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the displayed communication history for the outgoing or incoming calls for the particular party includes only outgoing and incoming calls for a particular time period the outgoing or incoming communication function is performed.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the displaying step further comprises displaying the communication information and the surrounding data to be transparently overlapped with each other.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the surrounding data includes image data and displaying step further comprises displaying a plurality of acquired images for a single communication function.

22. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

reproducing the surrounding data included in a specific communication item when the specific communication item of the plurality of communication items is selected.

24. The method of claim 11, wherein when the communication function is performed, the acquiring step acquires the surrounding data without first displaying previously stored history information.