Patent Application
20080282179
This application claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2007-0045070 filed on May 9, 2007 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal and corresponding method having a tab browsing function which allows a user to easily identify underlying display objects that are currently being only partially displayed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, mobile communication devices such as mobile phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs) provide not only basic functions such as voice call and Short Message Service (SMS) functions, but also provide various additional functions. Further, mobile terminals are now including Phase change Random Access Memory (PRAM) chips as core chips and ultra high pixel Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) chips as camera modules.
In addition, the types of screens that can be viewed using mobile communication terminals are diverse. Further, the user generally needs to view a variety of screens on the mobile communication terminal. Therefore, the pluralities of screens are overlaid on top of each other (i.e., screens behind a currently displayed screen are only partially displayed). Therefore, to view a partially displayed screen, the user must select a tab corresponding to the partially displayed screen. Thus, the user must first select the tab of the partially displayed screen to view information on the respective screen. This is particularly cumbersome when the user has several screens to view.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to address the above-noted and other problems.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile communication terminal and corresponding method that allows a user to identify, via a preview window, underlying display objects that are currently being partially displayed on the display screen.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the present invention provides in one aspect a method of controlling a mobile communication terminal. The method includes displaying at least first and second display objects on a display screen, each display object having a tab corresponding to a respective displayed object, recognizing an input signal that selects a corresponding tab, and displaying a preview window on the display screen in response to the selecting step. Further, the preview window provides information of an underlying display object being partially displayed.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a mobile communication terminal including a display unit configured to display at least first and second display objects on a display screen, each display object having a tab corresponding to a respective displayed object, a selecting unit configured to select a corresponding tab, and a control unit configured to control the display unit to display a preview window on the display screen in response to the selected corresponding tab. Further, the preview window provides information of an underlying display object being partially displayed.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings, which are given by illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:
Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Turning first to
Further, the display unit 20 displays a status of the terminal 100 and other relevant information to the user. The display unit 20 also displays menus used for controlling an operation of the terminal 100 so as to allow the user to input an operation command. In addition, the wireless communication unit 10 provides an interface for wireless communication with a base station through an antenna. Further, the wireless communication unit 10 includes, for example, a duplex filter for filtering a signal received through the antenna, a power amplifier for amplifying a transmit signal, a frequency up-converting circuit in a transmission path, and a frequency down-converting circuit in a reception path.
The display unit 20 may include a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel and an LCD panel driver. The display unit 20 may also include various display elements other than an LCD. For example, the display unit 20 may include a touch screen panel and a touch screen panel controller. In this instance, a command may be input to the display unit 20 by appropriately touching the touch screen of the display unit 20.
In addition, the control unit 30 controls the overall operations of the terminal 100. For example, the control unit 30 controls the transmission/reception of signals by the wireless communication unit 10. Further, the control unit 30 is connected to the display unit 20 and can thus display various information such as the state of a call received/dialed via the wireless communication unit 10 or a state of downloading data via the wireless communication unit 10. The control unit 30 also outputs sounds via the sound processing unit 60, and processes sounds input thereto via the sound processing unit 60.
In addition, the memory unit 50 stores data used for controlling the terminal 100 and other various data such as a phone book that the user creates. The control unit 30 also executes an application by accessing application data present in the memory unit 50. Examples of the application executed by the control unit 30 include a text message transmission application, an email transmission application, and a photographing application. More specifically, the application executed by the control unit 30 may be an application corresponding to a command input to the mobile terminal 100 via the manipulation key unit 40.
Turning next to
Further, the soft keys in the soft key window 202 may be manipulated using a plurality of keys 41, 42 and 43, which are disposed on a lower side of the soft key window 202. The key 43 may be a wheel key, and the key 42 disposed on one side of the wheel key 43 may be a side key. Also, a web page displayed in the web page window 201 can be scrolled up and down using the wheel key 43, and can be scrolled to the left and right using the side key 42. The key 41 may be an enter key or selection key.
In addition, a web browser executed by the mobile terminal 100 can display web pages available on the Internet in a full-browse mode. Web pages displayed in the full-browse mode are generally larger than the display screen 200. Therefore, for a web page that is larger than the display screen 200, a scroll bar is generated in the web page window 201 so that a web page displayed in the web page window 201 can be scrolled up and down or to the left and right.
Next,
Further, even when two or more web browser windows are opened, only one of the web pages is displayed in a web page window 204. Thus, the user can only view the web page currently being displayed in the web page window 204. More specifically, when the user moves a pointing cursor 210 to one of the tabs (e.g., the tab ‘PAX’) of the tab window 203, other than the tab corresponding to the web page currently being displayed in the web page window 204, a preview window 205 is displayed that provides a preview of the web page corresponding to the tab ‘PAX.’
In addition, the preview window 205 may be displayed on the upper, lower, left, or right side of the tab ‘PAX.’
The user may also select the preview window 205 by manipulating a key included in the manipulation key unit 40 in a predefined manner or by double touching the preview window, for example. Further, when the preview window 205 is selected, the color of the inside or the frame of the preview window 205 may be changed so that the user can easily identify the selection of the preview window 205.
Further, as shown in
More specifically, the user may display a menu window including a number of menus for controlling the display screen 200 by manipulating the soft key ‘MENU’ 207. The menu window may also include a menu for moving or resizing the preview window 205. Further, the user may return to an upper menu or a previous web page by manipulating the soft key ‘UPPER’ 209. In addition, the preview window 205 may be displayed as a semi-transparent window.
Turning next to
On the other hand, if the user touches the tab ‘PAX’ twice in a row (i.e., a double touching operation), the web page corresponding to the tab ‘PAX’ is displayed in the web page window 204, instead of displaying the preview window 205.
As shown in
Further, a preview window may be displayed when the user selects a tab. However, to prevent a display object currently being displayed on a display screen from being hidden from view by the preview window, the user may set that a preview window not be displayed on the display screen regardless of the selection of a tab. Also, the number of tabs included in the tab window can be set by the user in advance.
More specifically, referring to
Turning next to
In addition, when the user selects one of the tabs in the tab window 230 using a pointing cursor 233, for example, a preview window 234 that provides a preview of a display object corresponding to the selected tab is displayed on the display screen 200. In addition, when the display unit 20 includes a touch screen, the user may select one of the tabs in the tab window 230 using a predefined touching method. Also, the user may move or enlarge/reduce the preview window 234 by dragging the preview window 234 in a predefined touching manner.
Next,
Then, the user opens at least two web browser windows by executing a web browser (S110). Further, the web browser windows display a corresponding web page. Also, the web pages may be received via the wireless communication unit 10 or may be previously stored in the memory unit 50. Next, the control unit 30 displays a tab window including a number of tabs respectively corresponding to the displayed web pages (S 120).
In addition, the control unit 30 determines whether one of the tabs corresponding to underlying web browser windows is currently being pointed at by a pointing cursor (S130). As discussed above, the underlying web browser windows are partially displayed as shown in
Then, when the method determines that none of the tabs are being pointed at by the pointing cursor 233 (No in S130), the control unit 30 maintains a current state of the display screen 200. However, when the method determines that one of the tabs is currently being pointed at by the pointing cursor 233, the control unit 30 determines whether a preview window display function is set in the mobile terminal 100 (S150).
When the method determines the preview window display function is not set in the mobile communication terminal (No in S150), the control unit 30 changes the outline of the tab currently being pointed at by the pointing cursor (S 160). Further, when the method determines the preview window display function is set in the mobile terminal 100 (Yes in S150), the control unit 30 displays a preview window that provides a preview of the underlying web browser window corresponding to the tab currently being pointed at by the pointing cursor (S170).
In addition, the present invention can be realized as computer-readable code written on a computer-readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium may be any type of recording device in which data is stored in a computer-readable manner. Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include a ROM, a RAM, a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disc, an optical data storage, and a carrier wave (e.g., data transmission through the Internet). The computer-readable recording medium can be distributed over a plurality of computer systems connected to a network so that computer-readable code is written thereto and executed therefrom in a decentralized manner. Functional programs, code, and code segments used for realizing the present invention can be easily construed by one of ordinary skill in the art.
As described above, according to embodiments of the present invention, it is possible to enable a user of a mobile communication terminal to easily identify one or more display objects not currently being displayed on a display screen by providing a preview of the display objects using a tab browsing function and using a preview window.
As the present invention may be embodied in several forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, it should also be understood that the above-described embodiments are not limited by any of the details of the foregoing description, unless otherwise specified, but rather should be construed broadly within its spirit and scope as defined in the appended claims, and therefore all changes and modifications that fall within the metes and bounds of the claims, or equivalence of such metes and bounds are therefore intended to be embraced by the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2007-0045070 | May 2007 | KR | national |
