ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME

• US 20120239673A1
• Filed: 02/08/2012
• Published: 09/20/2012
• 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
• Granted Patent: US 9,075,828 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/758
• 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;

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.

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 controller 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 controller 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, further comprising:

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

wherein the controller 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.

5. 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 controller 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.

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

a memory configured to store a plurality of images,

wherein the controller 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.

7. 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 controller 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.

8. 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 controller 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.

9. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the controller 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.

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

11. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein when any one other party is added to a message transmitting/receiving group comprising the at least one other party or any one other party is removed from the message transmitting/receiving group, the controller is further configured to search again for an image comprising users included in the message transmitting/receiving group, and control the display module to display in the predetermined area the image comprising the users included in the message transmitting/receiving group.

12. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the controller is further configured to remove a specific party from the message transmitting/receiving group based on a touch gesture for the specific party displayed in the image.

13. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein when a specific touch gesture for a specific party of the at least one other party displayed in the image is input, the controller is further configured to generate a message transmitting/receiving group comprising the specific party.

14. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein when one of a plurality of message transmitting/receiving groups is selected, the controller 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 message transmitting/receiving group.

15. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein when a message transmitting/receiving group communicating using a message transmitted/received through the communication unit is plural, the controller 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 message transmitting/receiving groups and divide the predetermined area into a plurality of areas in order to display found images in different areas.

16. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein when a specific touch gesture for any one other party of the at least one other party in the image is input, the controller is further configured to add the any one other party to another message transmitting/receiving group.

17. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the controller 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.

18. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

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

control to display module to display the message within a predetermined distance from the area in which the at least one other party is displayed.

19. 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;

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

displaying, via a display module of the electronic device, an image found in the search in a predetermined area in which at least one message transmitted/received with the at least one other party is displayed.