Mobile terminal using contact information from a social network service and method thereof

• US 8,954,031 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2012
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kwon, Arim, Lee, Sunah, Kwon, Yunmi
• Primary Examiner(s): Brandt, Christopher M
• Application Number:
  US13/705,507
• Publication Number:
  US 20130149989A1
• Time in Patent Office: 797 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.1, 455/404.2, 455/414.1, 455/415, 455/416, 455/566
• US Class Current: 455/404.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27453 Directories allowing storage of additional subscriber data, e.g. metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27457 Management thereof, e.g. manual editing of data
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72418 for supporting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72439 for image or video messaging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management

Abstract

There is disclosed a mobile terminal for providing a convenient and effective contact management function by providing differentiated services for two or more connected contacts, respectively. To this end, there is provided an operation control method of a mobile terminal, and the method may include displaying a contact list containing a plurality of contacts; designating a first contact in the contact list as a first recipient according to a user'"'"'s input; designating at least one second contact as a second recipient when there exists the at least one second contact connected to the first contact; and performing a first operation for the first recipient, and performing a second operation subordinate to the first operation for the second recipient.

Claims

1. A method of operating a mobile terminal comprising:

selecting an item from a social network service (SNS), where the item includes a first contact information and a second contact information; and

determining whether at least one of the first or second contact information matches a plurality of contacts stored in a mobile terminal, wherein

when there are matches to the first and second contact information to the contacts stored in the mobile device, a first contact corresponding to the first contact information is associated with a second contact corresponding second contact information, and when the first contact is selected, additional information of the first contact is displayed and the additional information includes information of the second contact,

when there is no match, adding a the first contact information as a first contact and associating the second contact information as a second contact with the first contact and when the first contact is selected, additional information of the first contact is displayed and the additional information includes information of the second contact, or

when only the first contact information matches a first contact stored in the mobile device, the second contact information is associated with the first contact as a second contact, and when the first contact is selected, additional information of the first contact is displayed and the additional information includes information of the second contact.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting the first contact to perform a prescribed operation by the mobile terminal;

automatically selecting the second contact based on the second contact being linked to the first contact; and

performing the prescribed operation by the mobile terminal, wherein a first result of the prescribed operation for the first contact is different from a second result of the prescribed operation for second contact.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the prescribed operation is an e-mail operation, and the first result of the e-mail operation is sending the e-mail to the first contact as the primary recipient, and the second result of the e-mail operation is sending the e-mail to the second contact as a reference to the e-mail.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein first result of the prescribed operation is transmitting a message to the first contact using a Multimedia Messaging System (MMS), and a second result is of the prescribed operation is transmitting a message to the second using a Short Message Service (SMS).

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the first result of the prescribed operation is performing a call with the first contact using a video communication scheme, and the second result of the prescribed operation is performing a call with the second contact using a voice communication scheme.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the first result of the prescribed operation is placing an emergency call to the first contact, and the second result of the prescribed operation is sending location information of the mobile terminal to the second contact.

7. A method of operating a mobile terminal, the method comprising:

displaying a display screen a bulletin list having a plurality of items from a social network service (SNS);

displaying a working area on the display screen;

dragging an item having a first contact information and a second contact information from the bulletin list into a working area;

extracting the first contact information and the second contact information from the item dragged into the working area; and

performing a linking operation of at least two contacts by storing the first contact information as a first contact with the second contact information as a second contact which is linked to the first contact.