KR100706396B1 - Wireless communication terminal having screen brightness adjustment function and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

1. TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a wireless communication terminal having a screen brightness adjustment function and a method thereof.

2. The technical problem to be solved by the invention

According to the present invention, the screen brightness is differentially adjusted according to the type of each application function (eg, image acquisition, message transmission and reception) provided by the wireless communication terminal and its operating state. It is an object of the present invention to provide a wireless communication terminal having a screen brightness adjustment function and a method thereof so as to enable adjustment by function characteristics.

3. Summary of Solution to Invention

The present invention provides a wireless communication terminal comprising input means for receiving various signals related to execution and setting of each application function by a user, and output means for outputting various kinds of information at screen brightness according to control. Means for storing a screen brightness control table including a screen brightness level according to the type of each application function provided by the wireless communication terminal and its operating state; As the control means receives an execution request signal for any application function through the input means, the screen brightness level matching the type of the application function and its operation state is retrieved from the screen brightness control table of the storage means. And controlling the output means to output various information at a corresponding screen brightness level.

4. Important uses of the invention

The present invention is used in a wireless communication terminal.

Screen brightness level, screen brightness control table, current and battery consumption, backlight unit, wireless communication terminal

Description

Wireless telecommunication terminal and method for controlling brightness of screen and its method {Wireless telecommunication terminal and method for controlling brightness of screen}

1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a wireless communication terminal having a screen brightness adjustment function according to the present invention;

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for adjusting screen brightness in a wireless communication terminal according to the present invention;

3 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a screen brightness level according to each input combination in the wireless communication terminal of FIG. 1.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

11 wireless transmission and reception unit 12 storage unit

13 input unit (keypad) 14 display unit (LCD)

15 control unit 16 codec

17: voice output unit (speaker) 18: voice input unit (microphone)

The present invention relates to a wireless communication terminal having a screen brightness adjusting function and a method thereof, and more particularly, by automatically adjusting the screen brightness, by adjusting the screen brightness differentially according to the type and operation state of each application function, The present invention relates to a wireless communication terminal having a screen brightness adjustment function and a method for more efficiently using a current and a battery, and at the same time enabling adjustment for each application function.

In the present invention, a wireless communication terminal is a mobile communication terminal, a personal mobile communication terminal (PCS), a personal digital terminal (PDA), a smart phone, a next generation mobile communication terminal (IMT-2000), such as a wireless terminal while carrying a person A terminal capable of wireless communication.

Today's wireless communication terminals provide various application functions through convergence and integration with other information devices.

For example, the communication function provides transmission and reception of various messages (for example, short / multimedia message transmission) along with existing voice communication. In addition, image acquisition (shooting) using an internal / external camera module, Personal schedule management functions including various game functions, wake-up calls, MP3 player functions, and television reception functions can be provided.

Many of these various application functions are functions used over a long time, not a short time. Accordingly, the liquid crystal display (LCD) of the wireless communication terminal should be continuously driven while the user is playing a game or focusing for image capturing. In this case, the liquid crystal display (LCD) consumes approximately 200 milliamperes of current using a back light unit positioned behind the light source. That is, there is a problem that the current consumption of the wireless communication terminal is increased by using various application functions for a long time. In addition, it is obvious that the more the current is consumed, the shorter the use time of the limited capacity battery.

That is, as various application functions mounted in the wireless communication terminal are executed, current consumption increases and battery usage time decreases. Accordingly, there is a problem in that inconvenience in using the wireless communication terminal, such as frequently need to charge the battery.

On the other hand, in order to overcome the above problems, conventionally, the screen brightness is adjusted in multiple stages according to the operating state of the currently executing application function. That is, if there is no key input signal for a predetermined time (a few seconds) while an application function is executed, the brightness of the screen is gradually darkened in two or three steps, and finally the screen is completely dark.

However, in the related art, the same screen adjustment method is uniformly applied to all application functions that are subject to the adjustment of screen brightness to control screen brightness in various ways according to the characteristics of each application function (eg, image acquisition, message transmission and reception). There was a problem that could not be.

The present invention has been proposed to solve the above problems, and by adjusting the screen brightness differentially according to the type of each application function (eg, image acquisition, message transmission and reception) provided by the wireless communication terminal and its operating state, current and It is an object of the present invention to provide a wireless communication terminal having a screen brightness adjustment function and a method for more efficiently using the battery and at the same time enabling adjustment of each application function.

That is, the present invention automatically adjusts the screen brightness, but according to the type of various application functions provided by the wireless communication terminal, and by adjusting the screen brightness corresponding to the current operating state, thereby reducing the current consumption and use of the battery SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a wireless communication terminal having a screen brightness adjustment function and a method thereof to increase the time to improve the convenience of using the wireless communication terminal and to control the characteristics of application functions.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention can be understood by the following description, and will be more clearly understood by the embodiments of the present invention. Also, it will be readily appreciated that the objects and advantages of the present invention may be realized by the means and combinations thereof indicated in the claims.

The apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object includes an input means for receiving a variety of signals associated with the execution and setting of each application function by the user, and an output means for outputting a variety of information to the screen brightness according to the control A wireless communication terminal, comprising: storage means for storing a screen brightness control table including a screen brightness level according to a type of each application function provided by the wireless communication terminal and an operation state thereof; And a screen brightness level matching the type of the application function and its operation state from the screen brightness control table of the storage unit according to the execution request signal for any application function through the input means. And control means for controlling the output means to output various information at the screen brightness level.

On the other hand, the method of the present invention for achieving the above object, in the method of adjusting the screen brightness in a wireless communication terminal, comprising a screen brightness level according to the type of each application function provided by the wireless communication terminal and its operating state Storing a screen brightness control table; Generating an execution event for the corresponding application function in response to receiving the execution request signal for the arbitrary application function through the input means; Checking the type of the generated application function and its operation state and retrieving a matching screen brightness level from the screen brightness control table; And controlling brightness of a screen on which various kinds of information are output according to the screen brightness level retrieved from the screen brightness control table.

The above objects, features and advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, whereby those skilled in the art may easily implement the technical idea of the present invention. There will be. In addition, in describing the present invention, when it is determined that the detailed description of the known technology related to the present invention may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The present invention can automatically adjust the screen brightness according to each application function and its operating state provided by the wireless communication terminal to reduce the current and battery consumption. At the same time, it is possible to differentially adjust the screen brightness for each application function. In this case, the brightness of the screen matched with each application function may be differently set and implemented according to the user's preference and the like.

In the following embodiment, a case of controlling a backlight unit (LCD Back Light Unit) mainly used as a device for determining the screen brightness of the current wireless communication terminal will be described as an example.

1 is a configuration of an embodiment of a wireless communication terminal having a screen brightness adjustment function according to the present invention.

As shown in Figure 1, the wireless communication terminal having a screen brightness adjustment function according to the present invention, the wireless transmission and reception unit 11 for transmitting and receiving a wireless signal with an external device, each application function (for example, image acquisition, television reception) , A storage unit 12 for storing a screen brightness control table including each screen brightness level according to an operation state thereof, and receiving various signals related to execution and setting of each application function from a user. Execution of any application function through an input unit (keypad) 13 for input, a display unit (LCD) 14 for outputting various kinds of information with screen brightness under the control of the control unit 15, and an input unit (keypad) 13 When the request signal is received, an application function corresponding thereto is performed, and the screen brightness level matching the selected application function and its operation state is transferred to the screen brightness control table of the storage unit 12. The control unit 15 and the control unit 15 for controlling the screen brightness of the display unit (LCD) 14 by outputting a corresponding control signal to the display unit (LCD) 14. The signal received from the wireless transmitter / receiver 11 is converted into voice and output to the voice output unit (speaker) 17, and the voice received from the voice input unit (microphone) 18 is converted into a signal to the control unit 15. Codec (16) for transmitting and transmitting through the wireless transmission and reception unit 11, voice output unit 17 for outputting the voice received from the codec (CODEC) 16, and receives the voice A voice input unit (microphone) 18 for transmitting to the codec 16 is included.

At this time, in the present invention, the control unit 15 controls the overall operation of the wireless communication terminal, and controls each component so that various information is output with the screen brightness according to each application function and its operation state.

For example, in the case of the television reception function, while the information is output at the normal screen brightness, as the reception sensitivity falls below a certain level, the screen brightness can be adjusted to 50% of the original brightness (that is, the reception sensitivity is low and the user can As there is almost no information available on the screen, the screen brightness is dimmed to allow for more efficient current and battery usage). As another example, the wake-up call, which is one of the personal schedule management functions, may not be greatly affected by the screen brightness, so that the wake-up call may be operated by controlling the screen brightness to 50% of the general level.

Looking at the operation of the control unit 15 in more detail, the control unit 15 starts to perform the selected application function in response to receiving the execution request signal for any application function through the input unit (keypad) 13. . For example, a game, an image acquisition, a message transmission, a wake-up call, a television reception function, or the like can be performed (at this time, the case of the morning call). It is precisely done according to the preset reservation). The controller 15 searches the screen brightness control table of the storage unit 12 for a screen brightness level matching the application function being performed and its operation state.

That is, the controller 15 stores the screen brightness level matched according to the type of the application function being performed and the current operation state, for example, 100%, 70%, 50%, 30% of the general screen brightness, etc. 12) Search from the screen brightness control table previously stored (of course, the unit representing the screen brightness can be implemented in any number of ways). In this case, the screen brightness matched immediately after the start of execution may differ from the screen brightness matched when the operation efficiency falls below a predetermined level (or a predetermined time elapses). For example, the television reception function may operate at a screen brightness of 50% as the reception sensitivity drops below a certain level while operating at a general screen brightness immediately after the execution of the television. As another example, the wake-up call function may operate at a level of 50% of the general screen brightness immediately after execution.

Subsequently, the controller 15 outputs a control signal corresponding to the searched screen brightness level to the display unit (LCD) 14 so that the display unit (LCD) 14 operates at the screen brightness according to the control signal. That is, the backlight unit of the display unit (LCD) 14 controls to provide light at the screen brightness according to the control signal.

The storage unit 12 stores an operation program and a system program of the control unit 15, and the operation program and the system program are stored in a normal ROM area and can be erased as necessary. The storage unit 12 also includes a RAM for temporarily storing data generated during execution of various operation programs. The storage unit 12 also stores a screen brightness control table in which each application function and its operation state and the screen brightness of the display unit (LCD) 14 correspond to each other. Here, the screen brightness control table may correspond to the type of each application function and the screen brightness of the display unit (LCD) 14 correspondingly (for example, in the case of a wake-up call function, a screen having a level of 50% of the general screen brightness). The brightness is matched), the type of each application function and its operation state and the screen brightness of the display unit (LCD) 14 may be matched correspondingly (for example, in the case of the television reception function, the general screen brightness may be Match, and 50% of screen brightness is matched if the receiving sensitivity drops below a certain level).

The input unit 13 includes a plurality of numeric keys (letter keys), menu keys, and function keys for performing various functions, and outputs key data to the controller 15 according to external operations. In addition, the input unit 13 is used to receive execution request signals for various application functions, for example, games, image acquisition, message transmission, and television reception functions. Also, it is used to receive a reservation request signal for a wake-up call.

The display unit 14 is a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD). The display unit 14 displays the state of the wireless communication terminal, the progress of the program, and the like under the control of the control unit 15. That is, the overall state of the wireless communication terminal and the contents received are displayed. In addition, the display unit (LCD) 14 includes a backlight unit, which provides light so that various types of information are output at screen brightness according to a control signal from the controller 15. In this case, the backlight unit operates at a screen brightness according to a combination of signals transmitted through a general-purpose input / output pin (GPIO) of the controller 15, which will be described later with reference to FIG. 3.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for adjusting screen brightness in a wireless communication terminal according to the present invention.

The storage unit 12 stores the screen brightness control table (201).

First, the controller 15 receives an execution request signal for an arbitrary application function through the input unit (keypad) 13 or according to a preset reservation (202) corresponding application function (eg, a wake-up call, Message transmission). In other words, when an execution event for an application function occurs, the application function starts to be executed.

Subsequently, the controller 15 retrieves (204) a corresponding screen brightness level (which may be in%) from the screen brightness control table of the storage unit 12 that matches the application function currently being executed and its operating state. After generating the signal (205), the generated control signal is output to the display unit (LCD) 14 to control the display unit (LCD) 14 to operate according to the screen brightness accordingly (206). In this case, the controller 15 may transmit a control signal by using a general purpose input / output pin (GPIO).

Meanwhile, as the operation state of the application function being performed is changed, the controller 15 newly retrieves a screen brightness level matching the same from the screen brightness control table and sends a corresponding control signal to the display unit (LCD) 14. Output

3 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a screen brightness level according to each input combination in the wireless communication terminal of FIG. 1.

In this case, a control signal for adjusting the screen brightness is transmitted through a general-purpose input / output pin (GPIO) of the control unit 15, but the control signal is output to the display unit (LCD) 14 through a combination of three pins. Let's take a look.

As shown in FIG. 3, the screen brightness level (in the unit of%) of the display unit (LCD) 14 may be set according to a combination of signals transmitted through respective general-purpose I / O pins. That is, the controller 15 may generate a control signal corresponding to the screen brightness level searched from the screen brightness level table of the storage unit 12, and may represent it as a combination of each signal.

For example, outputting "1" through all three pins generates a control signal that operates at normal screen brightness. Some of the three pins output "0" and some pins " When 1 "is outputted, a control signal having a predetermined screen brightness level corresponding thereto is generated. At this time, the combination of signals transmitted through each of the general-purpose input and output pins is different depending on the operating state of the same application function.

The present invention described through the above embodiment has an advantage of controlling screen brightness differently for each characteristic of an application function.

For example, the wake-up call function does not depend on the brightness of the screen itself due to its characteristics. Therefore, rather than controlling the brightness of the screen step by step, it is controlled to 50% of the general brightness of the screen from the beginning of execution. The battery consumption can be reduced. As another example, the television reception function may be controlled to a level of 50% of the general screen brightness when the reception sensitivity drops below a certain level. That is, the screen brightness may be differentially controlled according to the characteristics of each application function according to the operation of the application function and / or the current operation state.

In addition, the above-described screen brightness adjustment function of the present invention is preferably implemented to be performed or not performed according to the user's selection.

As described above, the method of the present invention may be implemented as a program and stored in a recording medium (CD-ROM, RAM, ROM, floppy disk, hard disk, magneto-optical disk, etc.) in a computer-readable form. Since this process can be easily implemented by those skilled in the art will not be described in more detail.

The present invention described above is capable of various substitutions, modifications, and changes without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention for those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. It is not limited by the drawings.

The present invention as described above, by adjusting the brightness of the screen automatically according to each application function of the wireless communication terminal and its operating state, there is an effect that can be used more efficiently the current and the battery.

That is, the present invention automatically darkens the screen brightness when the operation of a specific function and / or when the operation state (operation level) of the specific function falls below a certain level, thereby preventing excessive current consumption and using time of the battery. There is an effect to increase. Accordingly, there is an effect that can improve the user's convenience in using the wireless communication terminal associated with battery charging.

In addition, the present invention has an effect of enabling screen brightness control by characteristics of application functions by controlling screen brightness differently for each application function provided by a wireless communication terminal.

Claims (8)

In a wireless communication terminal comprising an input means for receiving a variety of signals associated with the execution and setting of each application function by the user, and an output means for outputting a variety of information at the screen brightness according to the control, Storage means for storing a screen brightness control table including a screen brightness level according to the type of each application function provided by the wireless communication terminal and its operation state; And In response to receiving the execution request signal for any application function through the input means, the screen brightness level matching the type of the application function and its operation state is searched from the screen brightness control table of the storage means, and the screen corresponding thereto. And a control means for controlling the output means to output various information at a brightness level. delete delete The method of claim 1, The control means, The backlight unit of the output means is controlled by a combination of signals outputting a control signal corresponding to the screen brightness level retrieved from the screen brightness control table to the output means through a plurality of general-purpose input / output pins (GPIOs). A wireless communication terminal having a screen brightness adjustment function. delete In the method of adjusting the screen brightness in a wireless communication terminal, Storing a screen brightness control table including a screen brightness level according to a type of each application function provided by the wireless communication terminal and an operation state thereof; Generating an execution event for the corresponding application function in response to receiving the execution request signal for the arbitrary application function through the input means; Checking the type of the generated application function and its operation state and retrieving a matching screen brightness level from the screen brightness control table; And And controlling the brightness of a screen on which various types of information are output according to the screen brightness level retrieved from the screen brightness control table. delete delete

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