The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal, an input operation screen control method used for the same, and a program thereof, and particularly related to an input operation of a folding type portable telephone.
In a portable telephone relevant to the present invention, various functions are incorporated such as a voice call function, a video telephone function, a camera function, a browser function for the Internet or the like, an e-mail sending and receiving function and a broadcast (TV) receiving function.
Such a kind of portable telephone, in the case where it is a folding type, generally includes a display unit in an upper unit and an operating unit such as a numeric keypad in a lower unit, and used by operating a vertically oriented screen with the numeric keypad.
Further, as a portable telephone relevant to the present invention, a portable telephone is disclosed which supports an upper unit laterally rotatably about an axis and also supports a lower unit laterally rotatably about an axis independently of the upper unit to thereby offer convenience in key operation for a game or the like (e.g., cf. Patent Document 1). Furthermore, as another portable telephone relevant to the present invention, a terminal is disclosed which includes a single rotatable support member that supports a first casing having a display unit and a second casing having an input key or the like rotatably against each other (e.g., cf. Patent Document 2).
[Patent Document 2]
However, in the above-described portable telephone, in the case where it is a folding type, there is a drawback in usability for some functions to be used because the screen is vertically oriented and the operating unit is a numeric keypad, and, it is desired, for example, to eliminate the need for side-to-side scrolling by a change to a horizontally oriented screen for a browser or to improve input operability by a use of a full keypad such as a keyboard for e-mail.
An object of the present invention is thus to solve the above problem and provide a mobile communication terminal, an input operation screen control method used for the same, and a program thereof that enable significant improvement in user's operability.
A first mobile communication terminal according to the present invention is a mobile communication terminal made up of an upper unit including a first display member and a first support member having a rotary mechanism that connects the first display member electrically and structurally and a lower unit at least including a second display member, and capable of performing radio communication, which includes rotation detection means that detects a rotation state of the first display member, and control means that controls a display content of the second display member in accordance with a detection result of the rotation detection means.
A second mobile communication terminal according to the present invention is a mobile communication terminal made up of an upper unit including a first display member and a first support member having a rotary mechanism that connects the first display member electrically and structurally and a lower unit including a second display member and a second support member having a rotary mechanism that connects the second display member electrically and structurally, and capable of performing radio communication, which includes rotation detection means that detects a rotation state of the first and the second display member, and control means that controls a display content of the second display member in accordance with a detection result of the rotation detection means.
A first input operation screen control method according to the present invention is an input operation screen control method used in a mobile communication terminal made up of an upper unit including a first display member and a first support member having a rotary mechanism that connects the first display member electrically and structurally and a lower unit at least including a second display member and capable of performing radio communication, in which the mobile communication terminal executes rotation detection processing that detects a rotation state of the first display member, and control processing that controls a display content of the second display member in accordance with a detection result of the rotation detection processing.
A second input operation screen control method according to the present invention is an input operation screen control method used in a mobile communication terminal made up of an upper unit including a first display member and a first support member having a rotary mechanism that connects the first display member electrically and structurally and a lower unit including a second display member and a second support member having a rotary mechanism that connects the second display member electrically and structurally and capable of performing radio communication, in which the mobile communication terminal executes rotation detection processing that detects a rotation state of the first and the second display member, and control processing that controls a display content of the second display member in accordance with a detection result of the rotation detection processing.
A first program according to the present invention is a program to be executed by a computer in a mobile communication terminal made up of an upper unit including a first display member and a first support member having a rotary mechanism that connects the first display member electrically and structurally and a lower unit at least including a second display member and capable of performing radio communication, which includes rotation detection processing that detects a rotation state of the first display member, and control processing that controls a display content of the second display member in accordance with a detection result of the rotation detection processing.
A second program according to the present invention is a program to be executed by a computer in a mobile communication terminal made up of an upper unit including a first display member and a first support member having a rotary mechanism that connects the first display member electrically and structurally and a lower unit including a second display member and a second support member having a rotary mechanism that connects the second display member electrically and structurally and capable of performing radio communication, which includes rotation detection processing that detects a rotation state of the first and the second display member, and control processing that controls a display content of the second display member in accordance with a detection result of the rotation detection processing.
With the above-described structure and operation, the present invention has an effect of significantly improving user's operability.
Embodiments of the present invention are described hereinafter with reference to the drawings.
The mobile communication terminal 1 includes a radio antenna 11, a broadcast antenna 12, a radio communication unit 13, a broadcast receiving unit 14, a camera unit 15, an audio processing unit 16, a microphone 17, a speaker 18, a display unit 19, a display/input unit 20, a state detection unit 21, an open/close sensor 22, a rotation sensor 23, a speaker unit 24, a storage unit 25 and a control unit 26.
The radio communication unit 13 transmits and receives information by radio to and from a radio base station device, which is not shown, through the radio antenna 11. The broadcast receiving unit 14 receives broadcast signals transmitted from a broadcasting station (a ground station, a satellite etc.), which is not shown, through the broadcast antenna 12, and performs broadcast signal processing on video data, audio data, information data or the like by demodulation of the received signals.
The camera unit 15 performs acquisition (imaging) of images. The audio processing unit 16 performs processing of audio signals input and output through a transmitter unit (the microphone 17) and a receiver unit (the speaker 18). The display unit 19 is composed of a liquid crystal display device or the like, which is not shown, and performs information display output (video signal processing) of images, graphics, characters, symbols and so on.
The display/input unit 20 is a touch panel (touch screen) having both a display function that performs information display output of images, graphics, characters, symbols and so on and a switch function that senses input based on pressure or capacitance.
The state detection unit 21 detects open/close of the upper unit and the lower unit, rotation of the display unit 19 of the upper unit and rotation of the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit by the open/close sensor 22 and the rotation sensor 23 such as a magnetic/hole element or a protruding unit/pushing switch.
The speaker unit 24 performs singing output of musical sound, notification sound or the like. The storage unit 25 stores telephone directory information, sent and received e-mail information, incoming and outgoing call information or content information, application program information, various setting information of the mobile communication terminal 1, programs to be executed in the control unit 26 and so on.
The control unit 26 executes programs stored in the storage unit 25 and controls a calling function, an e-mail function, an Internet (web) connection function, a camera function, a television receiving function, a content playback function, and other functions or components of the terminal.
Further, the mobile communication terminal 1 includes not only the display unit 19 but also a first camera unit 15a and the speaker 18 in the upper unit 1A, and may also include a second camera unit (not shown) on the reverse side of a surface having the display unit 19. Furthermore, the mobile communication terminal 1 includes the microphone 17 in addition to the display/input unit (touch panel) 20 in the lower unit 1B.
The upper unit 1A and the lower unit 1B are respectively composed of the display unit 19 and a support unit (not shown), and the display/input unit 20 a support unit (not shown), and the support units electrically and structurally connect the display unit 19 and the display/input unit 20, respectively, and have a rotatable structure.
Specifically,
c
1) to (c3) show outer appearances when the display unit 19 and the display/input unit 20 are both horizontally oriented.
If the control unit 26 receives a signal from the state detection unit 21 that has detected output of the open/close sensor 22, it detects whether the form of the mobile communication terminal 1 has changed from a “closed” state to an “open” state based on the signal (Step S1 in
If the control unit 26 detects that the form of the mobile communication terminal 1 has changed from a “closed” state to an “open” state when the upper unit 1A and the lower unit 1B are both vertically oriented as shown in
In Step S3, an operation for normal outgoing call or incoming call is possible by the touch panel of the display/input unit 20, for example. When performing the outgoing call or incoming call operation, in the state as shown in
Further, in the state of Step S3, if rotation (horizontal displacement) of the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A or the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B is detected by a signal from the state detection unit 21 that has detected output of the rotation sensor 23 (YES in Step S4 in
Also, in the case where there is no rotation (horizontal displacement) of the upper or lower unit in the above-described Step S4 (NO in Step S4 in
On the other hand, in the case where rotation (horizontal displacement) of the upper or lower unit is detected (YES in Step S4 in
In the above-described Step S6, if rotation (horizontally oriented) is detected in the state where an e-mail function is activated, for example, full keyboard (QWERTY keypad) display (or it may be display of a Japanese syllabary keyboard) is made as shown in
The control unit 26 searches the key pattern selection table 25a on the basis of a detection result of the state detection unit 21 that has detected output of the rotation sensor 23 (the states of the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A and the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B) and a function or application selected at the point, and displays a pattern corresponding to the states of the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A and the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B and the function or application at the point on the touch panel of the display/input unit 20.
For example, when the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A and the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B are both in the vertically oriented state, the control unit 26 displays the pattern (a) of
Further, when the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A is in the horizontally oriented state and the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B is in the vertically oriented state, the control unit 26 displays the pattern (b1) of
In the pattern (b2) of
Further, when the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A and the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B are both in the horizontally oriented state, the control unit 26 displays the pattern (c1) of
The game (1) described above indicates a television game such that the contents of the game involve lateral motion (e.g. side-to-side scrolling) on the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A, and a user can make operation with both hands on the touch panel of the horizontally oriented display/input unit 20 while watching the horizontally oriented display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A.
In the case of camera, an image of a second camera unit may be displayed on the horizontally oriented display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A and an image of the first camera unit 15a may be displayed on the touch panel of the horizontally oriented display/input unit 20, or those images may be interchanged. Further, an image of the second camera unit may be displayed on the horizontally oriented display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A, and an image captured by the second camera unit may be displayed on the touch panel of the horizontally oriented display/input unit 20 immediately before an image to be displayed on the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A.
On the other hand, when the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A is in the vertically oriented state and the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B is in the horizontally oriented state, the control unit 26 displays the pattern (d) of
The game (2) described above indicates a television game such that the contents of the game involve longitudinal motion (e.g. up-down scrolling) on the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A, and a user can make operation with both hands on the touch panel of the horizontally oriented display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B while watching the vertically oriented display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A. This case is optimum for the contents of the game in which an object is moving from the upside to the downside in the vertically oriented display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A.
The key pattern selection processing according to the first embodiment of the present invention is described hereinafter with reference to
In the case of displaying a preset key pattern or icon pattern on the display/input unit 20 (Step S6 in
If the function is Web browser, the control unit 26 selects the pattern (b1) of
Next, when the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A is vertically oriented (Step S11 in
When the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A is horizontally oriented (Step S11 in
When the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A is vertically oriented (Step S11 in
As described above, in this embodiment, the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A that mainly performs display output of information is made to be vertically oriented or horizontally oriented display depending on information to be output, and the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B that mainly performs input operation of information is changed to be vertically oriented or horizontally oriented and further a key or icon pattern displayed thereon is changed according to information output to the display unit 19, and it is therefore possible to effectively improve the user's operability.
Although the key pattern selection processing by the key pattern selection table 25a and the key pattern selection processing by the above-described control unit 26 are described in this embodiment, either one of them or combination of them may be performed, without being limited thereto.
In this case, the display unit 19 of the upper unit 2A and the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 2B are supported rotatably about an axis independently of each other [cf.
If the control unit 26 receives a signal from the state detection unit 21 that has detected output of the rotation sensor 23 and thereby detects rotation of the lower unit 1B that performs operation input for transition to the horizontally oriented state (Step S31 in
At this point, the control unit 26 changes information input when pressing another key depending on presence or absence of pressing of an enter key displayed on the display/input unit 20 (Steps S32 to S35 in
Alternatively, in this embodiment, “first function (e-mail)” is selected in an operation when the enter key is not pressed simultaneously with another key (Steps S33, S35 in
As described above, the present invention relates to the mobile communication terminal 1 of the folding type where the upper unit 1A and the lower unit 1B are joined in a freely openable and closeable manner, in which the upper unit 1A and the lower unit 1B are respectively composed of a display unit and a support unit, the support unit has a rotary mechanism that connects the display unit electrically and structurally, vertically oriented or horizontally oriented display is made according to information output to the display unit 19 of the upper unit 1A that mainly performs display output of information, the touch panel of the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B that mainly performs input operation of information is changed to be vertically oriented or horizontally oriented and further a key or icon pattern displayed thereon is changed according to information to be output to the display unit 19, and it is thereby possible to effectively improve the user's operability while maintaining the shape and portability of the mobile communication terminal relevant to the present invention.
Although the upper unit 1A and the lower unit 1B are rotatable independently of each other in the above-described embodiments, the present invention is also applicable to the case where only the upper unit 1A is rotatable and display of the touch panel of the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B is changed.
Further, although the touch panel is used for the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B in the above-described embodiments, the present invention is also applicable to the case where independent keys are arranged in the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B and display of the respective keys is changed.
For example, keys in which display contents are variable (e.g. electronic paper etc.) may be used as the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B. In the case of using electronic paper, the electronic paper may be placed under a key sheet and display of respective key parts of the electronic paper may be controlled to change by the control unit 26. Other than the electronic paper, use of a display member having flexibility such as film liquid crystal is feasible.
Further, each form of the display/input unit 20 of the lower unit 1B described above may be implemented in combination with each of the above-described embodiments, and the present invention is not limited thereto.
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese patent application No. 2007-206015 filed on Aug. 8, 2007, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2007-206015 | Aug 2007 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/JP2008/064067 | 8/5/2008 | WO | 00 | 1/26/2010 |