This application claims priority from and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2008-0052642, filed on Jun. 4, 2008, which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal having a direct dial function using a call history and a method for performing the function, and more particularly, to a mobile communication terminal having a direct dial function in accordance with a call type selected by a user and a method for performing the function.
2. Discussion of the Background
In the conventional latest call history providing function provided by a mobile communication terminal, if the mobile communication terminal sends or receives a voice call, a video call, or a message, information about the call, for example, sender information, receiver information, call connecting time, call time, message send time, and message reception time may be stored in a memory. Then, in response to a latest call history search, the latest call history stored in the memory is read to provide the latest call history to the terminal user.
As illustrated in
Further, in the conventional mobile communication terminal, if the user selects the telephone number (or nickname) of a counterpart from the latest call history and then presses a button for responding, the conventional mobile communication terminal dials the number of the counterpart's terminal corresponding to the selected telephone number (or nickname).
However, if the user wishes to perform a video call, not a voice call, or tries to send a message, the user has to select a menu item for performing video call dialing or a menu item for creating a message.
Therefore, in the related art, the user cannot directly perform the video call with the desired counterpart and cannot directly send a short message service (SMS) message or a multimedia messaging service (MMS) message using the latest call history.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background and therefore it may contain information that does not form the existing art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.
This invention provides a mobile communication terminal having a direct dialing function using a call history so that a video call or a message can be more quickly performed by selecting an icon from the latest call history, and a method thereof.
Additional features of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
The present invention discloses a mobile communication terminal having a direct dialing function, including a display unit to display a latest call history including a first call distinguishing icon corresponding to a first counterpart, the first call distinguishing icon being a video call icon or a message icon; a memory unit to store call history information generated if a voice call, a video call, or a message is sent from or received by the mobile communication terminal, telephone book information, and the latest call history; and a controller to generate a video call or a message corresponding to the type of the first call distinguishing icon if the first call distinguishing icon is selected.
The present invention also discloses a method for performing a direct dialing function, including displaying a call history including a first call distinguishing icon corresponding to a first counterpart on a display unit of a mobile communication terminal, the first call distinguishing icon comprising a video call icon or a message icon; selecting the first call distinguishing icon; and generating a video call or a message corresponding to the type of the first call distinguishing icon to the first counterpart.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.
The invention is described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure is thorough, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the drawings, the size and relative sizes of layers and regions may be exaggerated for clarity. Like reference numerals in the drawings denote like elements.
Specifically, reference will now be made in detail to a mobile communication terminal for providing a direct dialing function using the latest call history and a method thereof according to various embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described below.
In
A memory unit 20 stores the call history information generated if a voice call, a video call, or a message is sent or received. Hereinafter, the use of the term “message” shall include either a short message service (SMS) message or a multimedia messaging service (MMS) message, without limitation. The memory unit 20 also stores the telephone book information (also commonly known as contact information) received from the terminal user, and the latest call history updated in association with the telephone book information if the call history information is generated.
The controller 30 generates the call history information if the voice call, the video call, or the message is sent or received, stores the generated call history information in the memory unit 20, and updates the latest call history with reference to the telephone book information if the call history information is generated. In addition, if the terminal user requests a display of the latest call history, the controller 30 reads the latest call history stored in the memory unit 20 and distinguishes the latest call history by a counterpart to display the latest call history distinguished by a counterpart on the display unit 10.
Here, the call distinguishing icons displayed with the counterpart information may be voice call icons that represent a sent voice call, a received voice call, or a missed voice call, video call icons that represent a sent video call, a received video call, or a missed video call, and message icons that represent a sent message or a received message.
The call distinguishing icons in accordance with the type of calls performed with the corresponding counterparts are displayed together with the counterpart information based on the call history information stored in the memory unit 20. For example, in
If the terminal user selects one call distinguishing icon that represents a desired type of call work among the call distinguishing icons related to a specific counterpart from the latest call history, the controller 30 performs the call work corresponding to the call distinguishing icon selected by the terminal user.
For example, in
The mobile communication terminal may include other components such as a wireless sending and reception processing unit, a voice processing unit, and a key input unit, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.
First, the terminal user requests to search the latest call history (S10). The controller 30 reads the latest call history stored in the memory unit 20, distinguishes the read latest call history by counterpart, and displays the voice call information, the video call information, and the message send and reception information distinguished by counterpart on the display unit 10 together with the counterpart information (the telephone number or nickname) using the counterpart distinguishing icons (S12).
If the terminal user wishes to perform a voice call or a video call with a counterpart in the latest call history or wishes to send a message to the corresponding counterpart, the terminal user selects the call distinguishing icon of the call type that the terminal user wishes to perform with the corresponding counterpart from among the call distinguishing icons displayed together with the corresponding counterpart information. That is, referring back to
The call distinguishing icons may be selected by, for example, a key input unit, a touch screen provided in the mobile communication terminal, or by vocal command. If the terminal user selects the call distinguishing icons by the touch screen, the terminal user touches the surface of the display unit 10 in a region corresponding to the call distinguishing icon for the corresponding counterpart.
If the terminal user selects a call distinguishing icon displayed together with the counterpart information for a counterpart in the latest counterpart history (S14), the controller 30 of the terminal determines whether the selected call distinguishing icon is a voice call icon (S16).
If the selected call distinguishing icon is the voice call icon, a voice call is sent using the counterpart information displayed together with the selected voice call icon (S18).
For example, in
On the other hand, if the selected call distinguishing icon is not the voice call icon, it is determined whether the selected call distinguishing icon is a video call icon (S20).
If the selected call distinguishing icon is the video call icon, a video call is sent using the counterpart information displayed together with the selected video call icon (S22).
For example, in
On the other hand, if the selected call distinguishing icon is not the video call icon, the selected call distinguishing icon is a message icon, and a message creating screen is provided with the counterpart information, such as telephone number or electronic mail address, set as receiving information (S24).
For example, in
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2008-0052642 | Jun 2008 | KR | national |