METHOD FOR INSTALLING APPLICATION IN PORTABLE TERMINAL

• US 20120331457A1
• Filed: 06/21/2012
• Published: 12/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: LIM, Chae-Whan, SEO, Jeong-Wook, RYU, Sung-Hak, YOU, Byeong-Gyun, CHOI, Cheong-Rim
• Granted Patent: US 8,732,691 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/175
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order

Abstract

A method for installing an application in a portable terminal includes acquiring a screen image of another portable terminal and acquiring information about at least one applications from the acquired screen image, displaying a list of the at least one applications whose information is acquired, and requesting and receiving an installation file of an application selected by a user from the displayed list, and installing the selected application by using the received installation file.

Claims

1. A method for installing an application in a portable terminal, the method comprising:

acquiring by a first portable terminal a screen image of a second portable terminal and acquiring information about at least one application from the acquired screen image;

displaying by a display unit of the first portable terminal a list of said at least one application whose information is acquired, and requesting and receiving from the second portable terminal an installation file of an application selected from the displayed list; and

installing by a controller the selected application by using the received installation file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the acquiring of the screen image comprises:

upon the first terminal receiving a predetermined input, transmitting, by the first portable terminal, a request for a screen shot of a predetermined screen image to the second portable terminal; and

transmitting, by the second portable terminal, the requested screen shot of the screen image to the first portable terminal in response to the request, and acquiring the transmitted screen shot by the first portable terminal

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the acquiring of the screen image comprises:

capturing, by the first portable terminal, a predetermined screen image of the second portable terminal and acquiring the captured screen image.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the acquiring of the screen image comprises:

checking, by the first portable terminal, a predetermined screen image of the second portable terminal through a camera module in a preview mode, and acquiring the screen image checked in the preview mode.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the acquiring of the information about the at least one application comprises:

acquiring identifying information of respective icons corresponding to the at least one applications displayed on the acquired screen image.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the identifying information comprises names.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the acquiring of the information about the at least one application comprises:

acquiring image data of respective icons corresponding to the at least one application displayed on the acquired screen image.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the installation file comprises:

transmitting, from the first portable terminal to the second portable terminal, a request for an installation file of the selected application ; and

upon transmitting, by the second portable terminal, the requested installation file to the portable terminal of the user, receiving, by the portable terminal, the requested installation file.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the installation file is an apk file used in an Android Operating System (OS).

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the installation file comprises:

transmitting, by the first portable terminal, the information about the selected application to a predetermined application providing server; and

upon transmitting, by the application providing server, an application corresponding to the information about the selected application, receiving, by the first portable terminal, the installation file of the selected application.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the information about the selected application comprises a name of an icon corresponding to the selected application.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second portable terminal upon request for transmitting an application from the first portable server, communicates with an application providing server to determine whether the requested application has any updates available that are downloaded to the second portable terminal and transmitted to the first portable terminal

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first portable terminal and the second portable terminal communicate via a near field communication protocol.

14. A portable terminal that views and installs an application that is already-installed on another portable terminal, said portable terminal comprising:

a near field communication interface in which the portable terminal and a another portable terminal exchange screen images containing application icons;

a memory storing at least one application;

a display unit that displays from a screen image acquired from said another portable terminal; and

a controller that controls display by the display unit a list of said at least one application whose information is acquired from said another portable terminal, and requests and receives from said another portable terminal an installation file of an application selected from the displayed list,

wherein the controller controls installation of the selected application by using the received installation file.

15. The portable terminal according to claim 14, further comprising a camera module that obtains a screen image of a screen of said another portable terminal and a camera controller provides the image to the controller for display by the display unit.

16. The portable terminal according to claim 14, wherein the screen images are acquired by the portable receiving a screen shot from said another portable terminal in response to a request made by the portable terminal.

17. The device according to claim 14, wherein the controller controls display of a selection screen for requesting transfer of applications from said another portable terminal.