Mobile terminal and method of operating the same

• US 8,776,087 B2
• Filed: 11/18/2010
• Issued: 07/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Chun, Woo Chang
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Andy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mudrick, Timothy A.
• Application Number:
  US12/948,960
• Publication Number:
  US 20110283296A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,328 Days
• Field of Search: 719/318
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72484 wherein functions are triggered by incoming communication events

Abstract

A mobile terminal and a method of operating the same are disclosed herein. The method may include executing applications in a multitasking environment, detecting an event that requires a termination the applications, and saving a task list that includes a list of the active applications and their corresponding operational states, and terminating execution of the applications. The method further includes restoring the applications to their respective states prior to termination based on the task list.

Claims

1. A method of operating a mobile terminal, the method comprising:

executing a plurality of applications on the mobile terminal at the same time;

detecting an event that requires termination of at least one of the applications;

saving a task list that includes a list of the at least one of the applications and a current state information associated with the applications included in the task list, wherein the task list is a list of applications to be executed at the same time and the current state information includes an operational state at the time of the event, and if a list of the applications or the current state information is edited, the task list is saved according to the edited list of the applications or the edited current state information;

displaying at least one of the saved task list or current state information if the event that requires termination of the at least one of the applications is completed;

if a task edit signal is detected while the at least one of the saved task list or current state information is displayed, editing at least one of the task list or the current state information according to the detected task edit signal; and

re-executing the terminated applications based on at least one of the edited task list or the edited current state information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting an event that requires termination of the at least one of the applications includes displaying a notification that corresponds to the event, wherein the notification includes an option to save the operational states of the plurality of applications executing at the time of the event.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the current state information includes at least one of a remaining resource information, remaining battery power info nation, filenames of data files, addresses of web pages opened or accessed, or playback point information of multimedia files.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting the event that requires termination of the at least one of the applications includes detecting a user command to save the task list or the current state information.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising setting a task mark that corresponds to the event.

6. A method of operating a mobile terminal, the method comprising:

executing a plurality of applications on the mobile terminal at the same time;

detecting an event that requires termination of at least one of the applications, the event being an interrupt from a first application that requires a second application to terminate while the second application is executing;

saving a task list that includes a list of the at least one of the applications and a current state information associated with the applications included in the task list in response to the interrupt, wherein the current state information includes state information associated with the plurality of applications at the time of the event, and if a list of the applications or the current state information is edited, the task list is saved according to the edited list of the applications or the edited current state information;

displaying at least one of the saved task list or current state information if the event that requires termination of the at least one of the applications is completed, wherein the at least one of the applications is restored based on the saved task list;

retrieving the saved task list that includes the current state information associated with the at least one of the applications, wherein the current state information further includes data that allows the at least one of the applications to return to a previous operational state, wherein the previous operational state is a state of the plurality of applications during a previous use by a user;

if a task edit signal is detected while the at least one of the saved task list or current state information is displayed, editing at least one of the task list or the current state information according to the detected task edit signal; and

re-executing the terminated applications based on at least one of the edited task list or the edited current state information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the detecting an event that requires termination of the at least one of the applications includes displaying a notification that corresponds to the event, wherein the notification includes an option to save the operational states of the plurality of applications executing at the time of the event.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising restoring an application on the saved task list.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the event is a user input to generate the task list, wherein the task list includes all applications that are running at the time of the event.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the current state information includes at least one of a remaining resource information, remaining battery power information, filenames of data files, addresses of web pages opened or accessed, or playback point information of multimedia files.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the detecting the event that requires termination of the at least one of the applications includes detecting an input to save the task list or the current state information.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising setting a task mark that corresponds to the event.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the interrupt is generated in response to a phone call received at the first application.

14. A mobile terminal comprising:

a memory;

a controller configured to execute a plurality of applications on the mobile terminal at the same time, wherein if an event that requires termination of at least one of the applications is detected the controller generates a notification to save a task list, the task list being a list of applications executing at the time of the event for subsequent restoring, the controller saves the task list that includes the list of the at least one of the applications and a current state information associated with the applications included in the task list in the memory,

wherein the current state information includes an operational state at the time of the event, wherein if a list of the applications or the current state information is edited, the controller saves the task list according to the edited list of the applications or the edited current state information; and

a display module configured to display at least one of the saved task list or current state information if the event that requires termination of the at least one of the applications is completed,

wherein if a task edit signal is detected while the at least one of the saved task list or current state information is displayed, the controller edits at least one of the task list or the current state information according to the detected task edit signal, and re-executes the terminated applications based on at least one of the edited task list or the edited current state information.