Electronic device and method of controlling the same

• US 9,075,828 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2012
• Issued: 07/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Yun, Yeerang, Song, Yoomee
• Primary Examiner(s): KUDDUS, DANIEL A
• Application Number:
  US13/369,198
• Publication Number:
  US 20120239673A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,245 Days
• Field of Search: 707/915, 707/999.107, 707/758
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/50 of still image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/53 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information

Abstract

An electronic device including a communication unit configured to communicate with at least one other party; a display module configured to display a message transmitted/received with the at least one other party in a predetermined area; and a controller configured to search for an image comprising a user of the electronic device and the at least one other party and control the display module to display in the predetermined area an image found in the search.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a communication unit configured to communicate with at least one other party to form a messaging group comprising a user of the electronic device and the at least one other party;

a memory configured to store a plurality of images and contact information of each of the at least one other party;

a display module configured to display a first background image of a home screen and display a message transmitted or received with the at least one other party; and

a processor configured to;

search for an image comprising the user and the at least one other party of the messaging group; and

control the display module to display the searched image as a second background image of the home screen, and display the message to be overlapped on the second background image of the home screen, wherein the message is displayed within a predetermined distance from the user of the electronic device or the at least one other party,

wherein when the number of any one other party of the messaging group is changed, the processor is further configured to search again for an image comprising the user and the changed other party included in the messaging group, and control the display module to display the image comprising the user and the changed other party included in the messaging group as a third background image of the home screen, and

wherein the processor is further configured to perform face recognition of each of the plurality of images based on the contact information, and search for the image comprising the user of the electronic device and the at least one other party based on a result of the face recognition of each of the plurality of images.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising:

a memory configured to store a plurality of images and tag information comprising information about at least one person included in each of the plurality of images,

wherein the processor is further configured to search for the image comprising the user of the electronic device and the at least one other party based on the tag information.

3. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the memory is further configured to store contact information of each of the at least one other party, and

wherein the processor is further configured to search for the image comprising the user of the electronic device and the at least one other party by comparing the contact information with the tag information.

4. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein when the image comprising the user of the electronic device and the at least one other party does not exist, the processor is further configured to search for at least one image comprising at least some of the user of the electronic device and the at least one other party, and control the display module to display in the predetermined area at least one image found in the search.

5. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising:

a memory configured to store a plurality of images,

wherein the processor is further configured to search for the image comprising the user of the electronic device and the at least one other party among the plurality of images stored in the memory.

6. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the communication unit is further configured to connect to at least one social network service server, and

wherein the processor is further configured to search for the image comprising the user of the electronic device and the at least one other party among a plurality of images stored in the at least one social network service server.

7. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein when a plurality of images comprising the user of the electronic device and at least one other party are searched for, the processor is further configured to select one image of the plurality of images based on a generation time of each of the plurality of images, and control the display module to display the selected image in the predetermined area.

8. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to control the display module to display a portion of the image comprising the user of the electronic device and the at least one other party in the predetermined area.

9. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the message is an instant message (IM).

10. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to remove a specific party from the messaging group based on a touch gesture for the specific party displayed in the image.

11. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein when a specific touch gesture for a specific party of the at least one other party displayed in the image is input, the processor is further configured to generate a messaging group comprising the specific party.

12. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein when one of a plurality of messaging groups is selected, the processor is further configured to display in the predetermined area an image comprising the user of the electronic device and at least one other party included in the selected messaging group.

13. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein when a messaging group communicating using a message transmitted or received through the communication unit is plural, the processor is further configured to search for an image comprising at least one other party and the user of the electronic device corresponding to each of the plurality of messaging groups and divide the predetermined area into a plurality of areas in order to display found images in different areas.

14. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein when a specific touch gesture for any one other party of the at least one other party in the image is input, the processor is further configured to add the any one other party to another messaging group.

15. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to differently set a display characteristic of at least one person corresponding to the at least one other party included in the image from those of remaining persons.

16. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

acquire an area in which the at least one other party is displayed from the image; and

control the display module to display the message within a predetermined distance from the area.

17. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to acquire state information of the at least one other party, and wherein the state information is information representing a state of at least one of a log in, seat absence, on the phone, or other business of the at least one other party.

18. A method of controlling an electronic device, the method comprising:

communicating, via a communication unit of the electronic device, with at least one other party to form a messaging group comprising a user of the electronic device and the at least one other party;

storing, in a memory, a plurality of images and contact information of each of the at least one other party;

displaying a first background image of a home screen;

displaying a message transmitted or received with the at least one other party in the first background image of the home screen;

receiving a touch input to the message;

searching, via a processor of the electronic device, for an image comprising the user and the at least one other party of the messaging group among a plurality of images; and

displaying, via a display module of the electronic device, the searched image as a second background image of the home screen, and display the message to be overlapped on the second background image of the home screen, wherein the message is displayed within a predetermined distance from the user of the electronic device of the at least one other party,

wherein, when the number of any one other party of the messaging group is changed, the searching step searches again for an image comprising the user and the changed other party included in the messaging group, and the displaying step displays the image comprising the user and the changed other party included in the messaging group as a third background image of the home screen, and

wherein the processor performs face recognition of each of the plurality of images based on the contact information, and searches for the image comprising the user of the electronic device and the at least one other party based on a result of the face recognition of each of the plurality of images.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

acquiring an area in which the at least one other party is displayed from the image; and

displaying the message within a predetermined distance from the area.