Character input method for adding visual effect to character when character is input and mobile station therefor

• US 20060276234A1
• Filed: 06/01/2006
• Published: 12/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Dong-Uk, Lee, Chang-Hoon, Seo, Jin-Gyu, Kang, Tae-Young, Hong, Nho-Kyung, Han, Myoung-Hwan
• Granted Patent: US 8,049,755 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/566
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/109 Font handling; Temporal or kinetic typography
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/203 Drawing of straight lines or curves
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72427 for supporting games or graphical animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72448 with means for adapting the functionality of the device according to specific conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/70 methods for entering alphabetical characters, e.g. multi-tap or dictionary disambiguation methods for entering alphabetical characters per se G06F3/0237

Abstract

Disclosed is a apparatus and a method for displaying various character effects on a character input screen of a mobile station using a differentiated graphic element according to a key input signal. In the method a visual character theme set by a user is displayed in a character input mode, and a character input effect corresponding to the visual character theme is shown according to a key input signal. Accordingly, since the mobile station can show a visual character input effect in every key input sequence by allowing the user to select a desired visual character theme in advance, an entertaining effect is added to a user interface of the mobile station.

Claims

1. A character input method for adding a visual effect to a character when the character is input to a mobile station, the method comprising the steps of:

selecting a visual character theme for adding a visual effect to the character and displaying a background image according to the selected visual character theme on a screen of the mobile station;

receiving a request for displaying the character;

adding the visual effect corresponding to the selected visual character theme to the character; and

displaying the visual character to which the visual effect is added on the displayed background image.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein in the adding step further includes drawing, according to an animated pen input method, a character corresponding to a key input signal according to a drawing sequence of the character.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising displaying, according to the animated pen input method, the input character on a background image using drawing sequence information stored for each input sequence when the character is input through the character input screen of the mobile station.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising, loading animated pen input data stored for each input character, according to the animated input pen method, when the character is input.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising displaying, according to the animated pen input method, a moving animated pen according to a drawing sequence by adding drawing sequence information of the input character to a relevant animated pen effect.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the adding step further includes displaying a character, using a collage method, by loading a character image stored for each input character.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the adding step further includes, displaying, according to a relief method, the character embossed or intaglioed on the displayed background image.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting an effect sound corresponding to the selected visual character theme when the character is displayed.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a pre-defined effect at a location which is below a current cursor, below the displayed visual character, or throughout the screen, when the visual character is displayed.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting an effect sound corresponding to the visual character theme when the visual character is displayed.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the request for displaying the character is made by inputting the character through the character input screen of the mobile station.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the request for displaying the character is made by a message processing control unit of the mobile station.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the message processing control unit includes a Short Message Service (SMS) character processing unit.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the message processing control unit includes a multimedia message service (MMS) character processing unit.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selecting a visual character theme comprises:

setting the character input screen using a default visual character theme when a request of changing the visual character theme is input by a user;

determining whether a certain key is pressed in a state where a background image according to the default visual character theme is displayed on the character input screen;

displaying rotationally stored visual character themes in response to a key input signal corresponding to the key; and

if one of the visual character themes is selected, setting the selected visual character theme as the default visual character theme.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the stored visual character themes include at least one of an ink pen theme, an LED panel theme, a Post-it™

theme, and a steel theme.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein if the selected visual character theme is the ink pen theme, the background image according to the default visual character theme is a letter paper image, and when a character key is pressed, a character is displayed on the letter paper image according to a drawing sequence assigned to the character key.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein when the character is displayed on the letter paper image according to the drawing sequence, a writing tool image moving according to the drawing sequence is also displayed.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the selected visual character theme is the LED panel theme, the background image according to the default visual character theme is an LED panel image, and when a character key is pressed, a character is displayed on the LED panel image in a form of illuminated light bulbs according to a drawing sequence assigned to the character key.

20. A character input method for adding a visual effect to a character when the character is input to a mobile station, the method comprising the steps of:

displaying a background image according to a visual character theme provided by the mobile station using a background layer; and

displaying an input character on a screen of the mobile station to which the visual character theme is set by adding a visual effect to the input character using a character input layer.

21. The method of claim 20, further including displaying a character effect layer for adding a pre-defined specific visual effect to a background image portion on which the input character is displayed.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the input character is drawn on the background image according to the visual character theme by following a drawing sequence corresponding to the input character using the visual effect provided by the character input layer.

23. The method of claim 22, further including displaying an animated pen moving according to the drawing sequence corresponding to the input character when the input character is displayed by adding the visual effect to the input character on an icon layer.

24. The method of claim 20, further including displaying the input character on the background image according to the visual character theme by loading a character image corresponding to the input character using the visual effect provided by the character input layer.

25. A mobile station adding a visual effect to an input character, the mobile station comprising:

a memory for storing a plurality of visual character themes, data of a display item for each layer according to each visual character theme, and a visual character theme selected by a user as a default visual character theme;

a key input unit for generating key input data according to a key input signal when it is requested to display a character on a screen of the mobile station according to the input character;

a controller for adding a visual effect corresponding to the default visual character theme stored in the memory to the input character and controlling a display unit to display the input character to which the visual effect is added on a background image according to the default visual character theme; and

the display unit for displaying the input character to which the visual effect is added by overlapping the background image according to the default visual character theme under a control of the controller.

26. The mobile station of claim 25, further comprising a sound processing unit for outputting effect sound when the visual character effect is displayed if the default visual character theme includes the effect sound.