Portable cellular phone having function of searching for operational function and method for searching for operational function in portable cellular phone

• US 7,369,843 B2
• Filed: 06/09/2004
• Issued: 05/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Horiguchi, Masuyo
• Primary Examiner(s): Perez-Gutierrez; Rafael
• Assistant Examiner(s): AJIBADE AKONAI, OLUMIDE
• Application Number:
  US10/864,700
• Publication Number:
  US 20040253978A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,427 Days
• Field of Search: 455/418, 455/566, 4555501-5531, 455/414.1, 455/556.2, 455/556.1, 715/837, 715/838, 715/977, 707/3
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72469 for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons

Abstract

A portable cellular phone having a search function to do a search for operational functions in which a focused search for a desired operational function by combining an icon search with a keyword search can be performed and the operational function for which the user wants to search can be easily and rapidly searched for through a simple operation.

Claims

1. A portable cellular phone having a search function to search for an operational function which is configured so as to store keywords, each keyword being preset in a manner that corresponds to each of two or more operational functions and to store icon information corresponding to each keyword, said search function also being configured to do a focusing search for a desired operational function by combining a keyword search using said keywords and an icon search using said icon information,

said portable cellular phone comprising:

a search table for searching operations said search table storing, in specified order, said keywords, each keyword being preset in a manner that corresponds to each of two or more operational functions, and said icon information corresponding to each keyword, and

a control section to do an icon search for said desired operational function and, whenever necessary, to switch the searching operation from said icon search to said keyword search while performing said icon search, said control section inputs one head character of one of said keywords corresponding to said desired operational function for searching through said search table and, if said desired operational function is unable to be searched for, said control section inputs an additional next character for repetition of said searching through said search table to search, in a focused manner, for said desired operational function.

2. The portable cellular phone having said search function to search for said operational function according to claim 1, wherein said icon information hierarchically contains classification information about said desired operational function.

3. The portable cellular phone having said search function to search for said operational function according to claim 1, wherein said search table contains function-name reading letter information and icon information about names of operational functions.

4. The portable cellular phone having said search function to search for said operational function according to claim 3, wherein said function-name reading letter information and said icon information are associated with each other and are stored, in specified order, by using said keywords being stored in said function-name reading letter information.

5. The portable cellular phone having said search function to search for said operational function according to claim 1, wherein the searching through said search table is conducted by operations of an inputting section having a function invoking key, letter key, confirming key, and scrolling key, based on control by said control section.

6. The portable cellular phone having said search function to search for said operational function according to claim 1, wherein said search table contains function-name reading Kana letter information and icon information about names of operational functions.

7. The portable cellular phone having said search function to search for said operational function according to claim 6, wherein said function-name reading Kana letter information and said icon information are associated with each other and are stored, in specified order, by using said keywords being stored in said function-name reading Kana letter information.

8. The portable cellular phone having said search function to search for said operational function according to claim 1, wherein the searching through said search table is conducted by operations of an inputting section having a function invoking key, kana letter key, confirming key, and scrolling key, based upon control by said control section.

9. A function searching method employed in a portable cellular phone having a search function to search for an operational function which is configured so as to store keywords, each keyword being preset in a manner that corresponds to each of two or more operational functions and to store icon information corresponding to each keyword, and said search function also being configured to do a focusing search for a desired operational function by combining a keyword search using said keywords and an icon search using said icon information, said function searching method comprising;

storing, in specified order, said keywords, each keyword being preset in a manner that corresponds to each of two or more operational functions, and icon information corresponding to each keyword; and

performing an icon search for said desired operational function and, whenever necessary, switching the searching operation from said icon search to said keyword search, said control section inputs one head character of one of said keywords corresponding to said desired operational function for searching through said search table and, if said desired operational function is unable to be searched for, said control section inputs an additional next character for repetition of said searching through said search table to search, in a focused manner, for said desired operational function.