SMART OBJECT BASED GUI FOR TOUCH INPUT DEVICES

• US 20100262928A1
• Filed: 04/10/2009
• Published: 10/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: ABBOTT, Martin Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 8,370,762 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27475 using interactive graphical means or pictorial representations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72433 for voice messaging, e.g. dictaphones for answering incoming calls H04M1/64
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72442 for playing music files
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72469 for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/16 including more than one display unit
• 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 2250/52 including functional features of a camera constructional features concerning the integration of cameras in portable phones H04M1/0264

Abstract

The mobile terminal, configured to execute a variety of functions, has a touch panel display and circuitry for controlling the touch panel display and responding to touching of the touch panel display. The touch panel display is configured to display a number of functional icons, each of which is associated with one of the functions of the mobile terminal. When the circuitry detects an icon being dragged into a first region which is a designated area of the touch panel display and tapped or released by a user, the mobile terminal executes the function with which the icon is associated. Further, when a destination icon associated with contact information is displayed and the circuitry detects that an icon is dragged and overlapped with the destination icon, the mobile terminal executes the function with which the icon is associated with respect to the contact information.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal configured to execute a plurality of functions, comprising:

a touch panel display; and

a circuitry configured to control the touch panel display and to respond to touching of the touch panel display, wherein;

the circuitry configures the touch panel display to display a plurality of functional icons, each of which is associated with one of the plurality of functions; and

when the circuitry detects one of the functional icons being dragged into a first region which is a designated area of the touch panel display and tapped or released by a user on the touch panel display, the mobile terminal executes the function with which the one of the functional icons is associated.

2. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of functional icons are grouped into a plurality of functional icon groups,

the circuitry further configures the touch panel display to display a switching icon, and

the switching icon is associated with a function of changing the functional icon groups to be displayed on the touch panel display.

3. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein:

the circuitry further configures the touch panel display to display a destination icon associated with contact information,

when the circuitry detects that the one of the functional icons is dragged and overlapped with the destination icon within the first region on the touch panel display, the mobile terminal executes the function with which the one of the functional icons is associated with respect to the contact information.

4. The mobile terminal of claim 3, wherein:

the contact information with which the destination icon is associated includes a telephone number, an e-mail address, an instant message screen name, a web site address or a social networking site address.

5. The mobile terminal of claim 4, wherein:

the one of the functional icons is associated with a dialing function and the contact information with which the destination icon is associated includes a telephone number, and

when the circuitry detects that the one of the functional icons is dragged and overlapped with the destination icon within the first region on the touch panel display, the mobile terminal makes a phone call to the telephone number.

6. The mobile terminal of claim 4, wherein:

the one of the functional icons is associated with one of a dialing function, a text message creation function, an e-mail message creation function and an instant message creation function, and the contact information with which the destination icon is associated includes a list of contact information, and

when the circuitry detects that the one of the functional icons is dragged and overlapped with the destination icon within the first region on the touch panel display, the mobile terminal displays the list of contact information.

7. The mobile terminal of claim 4, wherein:

the one of the functional icons is associated with one of a text message creation function, an e-mail message creation function and an instant message creation function, and the contact information with which the destination icon is associated includes a telephone number capable of receiving a text message, e-mail address or an address for instant message, and

when the circuitry detects that the one of the functional icons is dragged and overlapped with the destination icon within the first region on the touch panel display, the mobile terminal displays a text editor for composing a text message, an e-mail message or an instant message.

8. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein:

the circuitry further configures the touch panel display to display a plurality of incoming event icons, each of which is associated with an incoming event which is triggered by an incident other than user input and with one of the plurality of functions,

the mobile terminal is further configured to notify the user reception of the incoming event upon receiving the incoming event by the mobile terminal, and

when the circuitry detects one of the incoming event icons, which is associated with the incoming event received by the mobile terminal, being dragged into the first region and released by the user, the mobile terminal executes the function with which the one of the incoming event icons is associated.

9. The mobile terminal of claim 8, wherein:

the incoming events include receiving an incoming call, receiving a text message, receiving an e-mail or receiving an instant message.

10. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein:

a user interface relating to the function with which the one of the functional icons is associated is displayed on a second region which is a designated area of the touch panel display.

11. The mobile terminal of claim 10, wherein:

the touch panel display comprises a first touch panel display and a second touch panel display, and

the first touch panel display includes the first region and the second touch panel display includes the second region.

12. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the circuitry further configures the touch panel display to display a termination region associated with a function of terminating a function being executed by the mobile terminal.

13. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the mobile terminal is a cellular phone.

14. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to output a control signal for the touch panel display to an external display configured to be connected to the mobile terminal so that the user operate the mobile terminal on the external display.

15. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein:

at least one of the plurality of functional icons is associated with one or more sub-functions executed by the mobile terminal, and

the sub-functions are configured to be provided with an order of priority to be executed by the mobile terminal, the priority being set by user'"'"'s input.

16. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to:

receive an application program executable on the mobile terminal as one of the plurality of functions, and

when the application program is installed in the mobile terminal, display a new functional icon associated with the application program on the touch panel display.

17. A mobile terminal configured to execute a plurality of functions, comprising:

a touch panel display; and

a circuitry configured to control the touch panel display and to respond to the touching of the touch panel display, wherein;

the circuitry configures the touch panel display to display a destination icon associated with one of contact information including an e-mail address, a web site address, a social networking site address and any contact information capable of receiving electronic data, and to display a content icon associated with one of text data, image data, sound data and program data stored in the mobile terminal; and

when the circuitry detects that the destination icon overlaps with the content icon on the touch panel display, the mobile terminal sends the one of text data, image data, sound data and program data with which the content icon is associated to the one of an e-mail address, a web site address, a social networking site address and any contact information capable of receiving electronic data with which the destination icon is associated.

18. A method for operating a mobile terminal comprising a touch panel display, comprising steps of:

displaying a plurality of functional icons, each of which is associated with one of the plurality of functions, on the touch panel display;

detecting touching of the touch panel display in such a manner that one of the functional icons is dragged into a first region which is a designated area of the touch panel display and tapped or released by a user on the touch panel display; and

responsive to the detecting, executing the function with which the one of the functional icons is associated.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein:

the plurality of functional icons are grouped into a plurality of functional icon groups,

the method further comprises a step of displaying a switching icon, the switching icon being associated with a function of changing the functional icon groups to be displayed on the touch panel display.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of outputting a control signal for the touch panel display to an external display configured to be connected to the mobile terminal so that the user operates the mobile terminal on the external display.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein:

at least one of the plurality of functional icons is associated with one or more sub-functions executed by the mobile terminal, and

the sub-functions are configured to be provided with an order of priority to be executed by the mobile terminal, the priority being set by user'"'"'s input.

22. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving an application program executable on the mobile terminal as one of the plurality of functions, and

when the application program is installed in the mobile terminal, displaying a new functional icon associated with the application program on the touch panel display.

28. The method of claim 18, the method further comprising steps of:

displaying a plurality of incoming event icons, each of which is associated with an incoming event which is triggered by an incident other than user input and with one of the plurality of functions;

notifying the user reception of one of the incoming events upon receiving the one of the incoming event;

detecting the touching of the touch panel display in such a manner that one of the incoming event icons, which is associated with the one of the incoming events received by the mobile terminal, is dragged into the first area by the user on the touch panel display; and

responsive to the touching, executing the function with which the one of the incoming event icons is associated.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein:

the events include receiving an incoming call, receiving a text message, receiving an e-mail or receiving an instant message.

23. A method for operating a mobile terminal comprising a touch panel display, comprising steps of:

displaying a plurality of functional icons, each of which is associated with one of the plurality of functions, on the touch panel display;

displaying a destination icon associated with contact information;

detecting the touching of the touch panel display in such a manner that one of the functional icons is dragged and overlapped with the destination icon on the touch panel display; and

responsive to the detecting, executing the function with which the one of the functional icons is associated with respect to the contact information with respect to the contact information.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein:

the contact information with which the destination icon is associated includes a telephone number, an e-mail address, an instant message screen name, a web site address or a social networking site address.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein:

the one of the functional icons is associated with a dialing function and the contact information with which the destination icon is associated includes a telephone number, and

the step of executing the function comprises making a phone call to the telephone number.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein:

the one of the functional icons is associated with one of a dialing function, a text message creation function, an e-mail message creation function and an instant message creation function and the contact information with which the destination icon is associated includes a list of contact information, and

the step of executing the function comprises displaying the list of contact information.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein:

the one of the smarts icons is associated with one of a text message creation function, an e-mail message creation function and an instant message creation function, and the contact information with which the destination icon is associated includes a telephone number capable of receiving text message, an e-mail address or an address for instant message, and

the step of executing the function comprises displaying a text editor for composing a text message, an e-mail message or an instant message.

30. A method for operating a mobile terminal comprising a touch panel display, comprising steps of:

displaying a destination icon associated with contact information including an e-mail address, a web site address, a social networking site address and any destination information capable of receiving electronic data on the touch panel display;

displaying a content icon associated with one of text data, image data, sound data and program data stored in the mobile terminal on the touch panel display; and

detecting touching of the touch panel display in such a manner as to move one of the icons so that the destination icon overlaps with the content icon; and

responsive to the detecting, sending the one of text data, image data, sound data and program data with which the content icon is associated to the one of an e-mail address, a web site address, a social networking site address and any destination information capable of receiving electronic data with which the destination icon is associated.

31. The method of claim 30, the method further comprising:

a user interface relating to the function with which the one of the functional icons is associated is displayed on a second region which is a designated area of the touch panel display.

32. The method of claim 30, the method further comprising displaying a termination region associated with a function of terminating a function being executed by the mobile terminal.

33. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a machine readable storage medium; and

programming instructions embodied in the medium for execution by a programmable controller of a mobile terminal having a touch panel display, wherein execution of the programming instructions by the programmable controller causes the mobile terminal to execute tasks comprising;

displaying a plurality of functional icons on the touch panel display, each of the functional icons being associated with one of the plurality of functions;

detecting touching of the touch panel display in such a manner that one of the functional icons is dragged into a first region which is a designated area of the touch panel display and tapped or released by a user; and

responsive to the detecting, executing the function with which the one of the functional icons is associated.

34. The article of manufacture of claim 33, wherein:

the plurality of functional icons are grouped into a plurality of functional icon groups, and

the tasks further comprise;

displaying a switching icon, the switching icon being associated with a function of changing the functional icon groups to be displayed on the touch panel display.

35. The article of manufacture of claim 33, further comprising the step of outputting a control signal for the touch panel display to an external display configured to be connected to the mobile terminal so that the user operate the mobile terminal on the external display.

36. The article of manufacture of claim 33, wherein:

at least one of the plurality of functional icons is associated with one or more sub-functions executed by the mobile terminal, and

the sub-functions are configured to be provided with an order of priority to be executed by the mobile terminal, the priority being set by user'"'"'s input.

37. The article of manufacture of claim 33, further comprising:

receiving an application program executable on the mobile terminal as one of the plurality of functions, and

when the application program is installed in the mobile terminal, displaying a new functional icon associated with the application program on the touch panel display.

38. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a machine readable storage medium; and

programming instructions embodied in the medium for execution by a programmable controller of a mobile terminal having a touch panel display, wherein execution of the programming instructions by the programmable controller causes the mobile terminal to execute tasks comprising;

displaying a plurality of functional icons on the touch panel display, each of the functional icons being associated with one of the plurality of functions;

displaying a destination icon associated with contact information;

detecting touching of the touch panel display in such a manner that the one of the plurality of functional icons is dragged and overlapped with the destination icon; and

responsive to the detecting, executing the function with which the one of the functional icons is associated with respect to the contact information.

39. The article of manufacture of claim 38, wherein:

the contact information with which the destination icon is associated includes a telephone number, an e-mail address, an instant message screen name, and a web site address or a social networking site address.

40. The article of manufacture of claim 39, wherein:

the one of the functional icons is associated with a dialing function and the contact information with which the destination icon is associated includes a telephone number, and

the executing the function comprises making a phone call to the telephone number.

41. The article of manufacture of claim 39, wherein:

the one of the functional icons is associated with one of a dialing function, a text message creation function, an e-mail message creation function and an instant message creation function and the contact information with which the destination icon is associated includes a list of contact information, and

the executing the function comprises displaying the list of contact information.

42. The article of manufacture of claim 39, wherein:

the one of the functional icons is associated with one of a text message creation function, an e-mail message creation function and an instant message creation function and the contact information with which the destination icon is associated includes a telephone number capable of receiving text message, an e-mail address or an address for instant message, and

the executing the function comprises displaying a text editor for composing a text message, an e-mail message or an instant message.

44. The article of manufacturer of claim 40, the tasks further comprising:

a user interface relating to the function with which the one of the functional icons is associated is displayed on the second region.

43. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a machine readable storage medium; and

programming instructions embodied in the medium for execution by a programmable controller of a mobile terminal having a touch panel display, wherein execution of the programming instructions by the programmable controller causes the mobile terminal to execute tasks comprising;

displaying a destination icon associated with contact information including an e-mail address, a web site address, a social networking site address and any destination information capable of receiving electronic data on the touch panel display;

displaying a content icon associated with one of text data, image data, sound data and program data stored in the mobile terminal on the touch panel display; and

detecting touching of the touch panel display in such a manner that the destination icon overlaps with the content icon; and

responsive to the detecting, sending the one of text data, image data, sound data and program data with which the content icon is associated to the one of an e-mail address, a web site address, a social networking site address and any destination information capable of receiving electronic data with which the destination icon is associated.

45. The article of manufacturer of claim 43, the tasks further comprising displaying a termination region associated with a function of terminating a function being executed by the mobile terminal.