APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DISPLAYING INFORMATION AS BACKGROUND OF USER INTERFACE

• US 20120120110A1
• Filed: 10/05/2011
• Published: 05/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: KT Corporation
• Original Assignee: KT Corporation
• Inventors: Choi, Kyoung-Tae, CHAE, Haeng-Suk
• Granted Patent: US 9,280,266 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/660
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/00 2D [Two Dimensional] image generation

Abstract

Apparatus and method for displaying information as a background of a user interface. In order to display the information as the background of a user interface, information such as user interest information may be received from a user. Based on the received information, contents may be retrieved. Then, the background of the user interface may be formed with at least one image. Each image of the at least one image may represent a respective one of the retrieved contents. The user interface having the background formed with the at least one image may be displayed.

Claims

1. A method for displaying information as a background of a user interface, the method comprising;

receiving information from a user;

retrieving contents based on the received information;

forming the background of the user interface with at least one image, wherein each image of the at least one image represents a respective one of the retrieved contents; and

displaying the user interface having the background formed with the at least one image.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the forming the background comprises:

extracting the at least one image from the retrieved contents;

extracting supplementary data associated with the extracted at least one image from the retrieved contents;

mapping the extracted at least one image with corresponding supplementary data;

storing a result of the mapping; and

arranging the extracted at least one image to form at least a portion of the background.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the forming the background further comprises:

selecting at least one image of the extracted at least one image according to a resolution of a display unit upon which the user interface is provided and a ranking associated with each image,

wherein the selected at least one image is arranged to form at least a portion of the background.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the arranging the extracted at least one image comprises:

controlling a size and a position of each of the extracted at least one image according to a ranking associated with each image.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the size of a first image of the extracted at least one image is controlled to be larger than other images of the extracted at least one image when the first image has a ranking higher than the other images.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the position of a first image of the extracted at least one image having a ranking higher than other images of the extracted at least one image is positioned at a center of the background of the user interface.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein after the displaying the user interface, the method further comprises:

receiving a selection input for selecting a desired image from the background formed with the at least one image;

extracting an access address of a web page corresponding to the selected desired image based on the stored result of the mapping;

retrieving data for the corresponding web page using the extracted access address; and

displaying the corresponding web page based on the retrieved data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the information received from the user comprises at least one of a search word and an information type that the user is interested about.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the contents comprise at least one image related to the information received from the user and supplementary data associated with each image of the at least one image, and the supplementary data comprises an access address and a ranking of a web page related to each image of the at least one image; and

each image of the at least one image represents a respective type of the information received from the user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the ranking of each web page is determined based on at least one of a user stipulation, an associated web server, a search frequency of related information type, and an Internet hit count of the corresponding web page.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein after the receiving the information from the user, the method further comprises:

transmitting a request to a web server to search for contents related to the information received from the user,

wherein the web server searches for the related contents and provides the related contents.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein after the displaying the user interface having the background, the method further comprises:

receiving updated contents; and

updating the displayed user interface having the background with the received updated contents at an update interval of time.

13. A method for displaying information in a wallpaper of a user interface at a user equipment configured to be coupled to a web server through a communication network, the method comprising:

selecting an information type from at least one information type displayed on the user equipment;

transmitting a request for contents to the web server based on the selected information type;

receiving contents related to the selected information type from the web server;

selecting at least one image included in the received contents;

extracting the selected at least one image;

extracting an access address of a respective web page associated with each one of the selected at least one image;

mapping the extracted at least one image with associated extracted access addresses associated with respective ones of the selected at least one image;

arranging the extracted at least one image; and

displaying the extracted at least one image as at least a portion of the wallpaper.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

updating the displayed at least one image at an update interval of time by receiving update contents based on the access addresses mapped to the at least one image.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

selecting a desired image from the displayed at least one image of the wallpaper; and

accessing a web page associated with the desired image using a corresponding access address mapped to the desired image.

16. An apparatus for displaying information as a background of a user interface, the apparatus comprising;

an input unit configured to receive information from a user;

a communication unit configured to retrieve contents based on the received information;

a formation unit configured to form the background of the user interface with at least one image, wherein each image of the at least one image represents a respective one of the retrieved contents; and

a display unit configured to display the user interface having the background formed with the at least one image.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the formation unit is configured to:

extract the at least one image from the retrieved contents;

extract supplementary data associated with the extracted at least one image from the retrieved contents;

map the extracted at least one image with corresponding supplementary data;

store a result of the mapping; and

arrange the extracted at least one image to form at least a portion of the background.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the formation unit selects at least one image of the extracted at least one image according to a resolution of a display unit upon which the user interface is provided and a ranking associated with each image.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the formation unit controls a size and a position of each of the extracted at least one image according to a ranking associated with each image, and the ranking of each web page is determined based on at least one of a user stipulation, an associated web server, a search frequency of related information type, and an Internet hit count of the corresponding web page.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein:

the contents comprise at least one image related to the information received from the user and supplementary data associated with each image of the at least one image, and the supplementary data comprises an access address and a ranking of a web page related to each image of the at least one image; and

each image of the at least one image represents a respective type of the information received from the user.