Mobile terminal and icon collision controlling method thereof

• US 8,793,606 B2
• Filed: 07/15/2010
• Issued: 07/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Jonghwan
• Primary Examiner(s): Tan, Alvin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yi, Rinna
• Application Number:
  US12/837,180
• Publication Number:
  US 20110035691A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,475 Days
• Field of Search: 715/765, 715/810, 715/833, 715/835, 715/863, 715/740, 715/761, 715/781, 715/963, 345/173, 345/158
• US Class Current: 715/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A mobile terminal may include a display to display at least one icon, a memory to store information related to icons, and a controller to perform, when a first icon collides with a second icon, a control operation associated with the collided icons according to a type and/or an attribute of the first and second icons.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal comprising:

a display to display icons;

a memory to store information related to the icons; and

a controller to perform, when a first icon and a second icon have an icon collision, a control operation of the mobile terminal related to the first and second icons based on a type of the icon collision,

wherein the type of the icon collision includes a collision between function icons, a collision between a function icon and a contents icon, and a collision between contents icons, and

wherein in response to detecting the icon collision between the first icon and the second icon, the controller determines layer levels of the first and second icon based upon information stored in the memory when the type of the icon collision between the first and the second icon is the collision between function icons;

wherein when the determined layer levels of the first icon is the same as the determined layer level of the second icon, the controller executes an operation corresponding to the first icon, executes an operation corresponding to the second icon and controls the display to display a divided screen having a first screen area divided from a second screen area, wherein the first screen area to display an execution screen corresponding to the executed operation of the first icon and the second screen area to display an execution screen corresponding to the executed operation of the second icon; and

wherein when the determined layer levels of the first icon and the second icon are different, the controller executes an operation corresponding to the first icon with a high level as a foreground and an operation corresponding to the second icon with a low level as a background.

2. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the displayed icons comprise one of a function icon or a contents icon.

3. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the icon collision between the first icon and the second icon comprises a contact collision between the first icon and the second icon or a non-contact collision between the first icon and the second icon.

4. The mobile terminal of claim 3, wherein the contact collision comprises one of a collision responsive to a consecutive key input, a consecutive touch, a touch &

drag, a multi-touch, a clamping or a touch gesture all corresponding to the first and second icons.

5. The mobile terminal of claim 3, wherein the non-contact collision comprises one of a collision responsive to a touch gesture, a collision responsive to a combination of touch and voice or a collision responsive to a combination of an input device and a touch.

6. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller performs the control operation further based on an attribute.

7. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller displays a combination of the first and second icons when the first and second icons belong to a same attribute group.

8. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein when the first icon is a function icon or a contents icon and the second icon is a lock icon, the controller locks or unlocks an item corresponding to the first icon.

9. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein when the first icon and the second icon are function icons and the second icon has a time attribute, the controller searches for an item corresponding to the first icon based on the time attribute value of the second icon or the controller executes the item corresponding to the first icon after the time attribute value of the second icon.

10. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein when the first icon is a contents icon representing content and the second icon is a function icon, the controller executes a specific function of the content.

11. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein when the first icon is a contents icon representing content and the second icon is a function icon, the controller divides a screen to display an execution screen of the content and an input screen.

12. A control method of a mobile terminal comprising:

displaying icons on a screen of the mobile terminal;

detecting an icon collision between a first icon and a second icon;

performing a control operation of the mobile terminal related to the first and second icons based on a type of the icon collision,

wherein the type of the icon collision includes a collision between function icons, a collision between a function icon and a contents icon, and a collision between contents icons, and

in response to detecting the icon collision between the first icon and the second icon, determining layer levels of the first and second icon based upon information stored in a memory when the type of the icon collision between the first and the second icon is the collision between function icons;

wherein when the determined layer levels of the first icon is the same as the determined layer level of the second icon, executing an operation corresponding to the first icon, executing an operation corresponding to the second icon and displaying a divided screen having a first screen area divided from a second screen area, wherein the first screen area displays an execution screen corresponding to the executed operation of the first icon and the second screen area displays an execution screen corresponding to the executed operation of the second icon; and

wherein when the determined layer levels of the first icon and the second icon are different, the controller executes an operation corresponding to the first icon with a high level as a foreground and an operation corresponding to the second icon with a low level as a background.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the icons comprise one of a function icon and a contents icon.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the icon collision between the first icon and the second icon comprise one of a contact collision between the first and second icons or a non-contact collision between the first and second icons.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein when the icon collision between the first icon and the second icon is a collision between function icons, performing an item corresponding to the second icon based upon the first icon.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein when the first and second icons are function icons and the second icon has a time attribute, a first icon item is displayed according to a value of the time attribute of the second icon or the first icon item is executed after the value of the time attribute of the second icon.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein when the first and second icons are function icons and belong to a same attribute group, the function icons are combined for displaying, and when the first icon is a contents icon representing content and the second icon is a function icon, a specific function of the content is executed.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

displaying two contents icon items representing corresponding content on divided screens, respectively; and

performing a function combined with the corresponding contents and displaying divided information when the first and second icons are different types of contents.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein when the first icon collides with a specific surface of a cubic icon, the first icon is executed on the surface of the cubic icon.

20. A mobile terminal comprising:

a display to display a plurality of icons;

a user input unit to receive inputs from a user regarding at least one of the displayed icons; and

a controller to determine an icon collision between a first displayed icon and a second displayed icon based on an input from the user input unit,

the controller to perform a control operation of the mobile terminal related to the first and second icons based on a type of the icon collision,

wherein the type of the icon collision includes a collision between function icons, a collision between a function icon and a contents icon, and a collision between contents icons, and

wherein in response to determining the icon collision between the first icon and the second icon, the controller determines layer levels of the first and second icon based upon information stored in a memory when the type of the icon collision between the first and the second icon is the collision between function icons;

wherein when the determined layer levels of the first icon is the same as the determined layer level of the second icon, the controller executes an operation corresponding to the first icon, executes an operation corresponding to the second icon and controls the display to display a divided screen having a first screen area displaying an execution screen corresponding to the executed operation of the first icon and a second screen area displaying an execution screen corresponding to the executed operation of the second icon; and

wherein when the determined layer levels of the first icon and the second icon are different, the controller executes an operation corresponding to the first icon with a high level as a foreground and an operation corresponding to the second icon with a low level as a background.

21. The mobile terminal of claim 20, wherein the displayed icons comprise one of a function icon or a contents icon.

22. The mobile terminal of claim 20, wherein the icon collision between the first icon and the second icon comprises a contact collision between the first displayed icon and the second displayed icon or a non-contact collision between the first displayed icon and the second displayed icon.

23. The mobile terminal of claim 20, wherein the controller performs an item of the second icon based upon the first displayed icon when the first and second displayed icons are both function icons.