KR100739800B1 - Device and method for menu search of portable terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a menu search device for a portable terminal, which comprises a storage unit for storing information on a menu, a display unit for displaying a menu to a user and displaying two or more menus of different orders belonging to another menu group, And a controller for displaying a menu on the display unit by using an input unit for movement and menu selection and information about the menu stored in the storage unit and changing a menu display of the display unit according to a key input through the input unit.

According to the menu search apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to save time by reducing the number of keystrokes required for movement between menus of different orders or between menus belonging to different menu groups. In particular, The effect is more conspicuous.

Description

Description of the Related Art [0002] A menu navigation device and a mobile phone of a portable terminal

FIG. 1 illustrates a menu search method of a portable terminal according to the related art.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a menu search device of a portable terminal according to the present invention.

3 shows a menu structure displayed on the display unit according to the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a drawing again showing Fig. 3, which is a simplified representation of each menu name in Fig. 3 as Arabic numerals.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the menu search apparatus according to the present invention.

6 shows another embodiment of the menu search apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows another embodiment of the menu search apparatus according to the present invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable terminal, and more particularly to a menu search device of a portable terminal.

As shown in FIG. 1, a portable terminal such as a mobile phone, an MP3 player, and a portable multimedia player (PMP) displays a menu through an LCD window of a terminal to help a user select a menu. A menu displayed on a conventional terminal generally has a tree structure of FIG. However, such a tree structure reflects the actual relationship between the menus (e.g., main / subordinate relationship, upper / lower relationship, equality relation, etc.), which can be helpful for intuitive menu recognition of the user, . Will be described in detail with reference to Fig. First, we define terms. The top menu of the menu structure includes a primary menu 11 (e.g., music, fm radio, etc.), a menu having a primary menu as a parent menu, a secondary menu 12, Is defined as a tertiary menu 13, as shown in Fig. Menus of the same order, such as "my rank" (14) and "my playlist" (15), are called homogeneous menus. A line connecting a menu and a menu is called a branch, and a point where two or more branches meet is called a node. Each menu and all the submenus with the menu as the upper menu is called menu group (eg, the secondary menu, the sound setting and the third menu, user EQ, SRS WOW, effect sound setting, , Fade in). Accordingly, when two or more different menus are different from one or more of a parent menu and a parent-parent menu, the menus belong to different menu groups. Under such a tree structure, it is easy to move between the menus of rich relations (e.g., music-playlist - the rank that I made) or menus (14, 15) of the same parent menu having the same parent menu; However, even if the menu order is the same, it is not easy to move between different menus (15, 16), between menus (15, 17) with different upper menus, In this case, it is necessary to move to the common node through the upper menu of the menu currently being searched by using the "cancel" button or the "previous" The menu selection by this method has a problem that the key operation is required to the user several times as the degree of the menu increases. Especially, movement between menus belonging to different menu groups (e.g., 15-16, 15-17) requires a lot of key operations and wastes a lot of time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a menu search apparatus for a portable terminal which displays a menu of two or more different orders belonging to different menu groups on a display unit of a terminal and allows selection of the menu, .

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a menu display apparatus for a portable terminal,

A storage unit for storing information on the menu;

A display unit for displaying a menu to at least two of the other orders belonging to another menu group for displaying the menu to the user;

An input unit configured with a plurality of keys and for moving a menu or selecting a menu; And

And a controller for displaying a menu on the display unit using information on the menu stored in the storage unit and changing a menu display of the display unit according to a key input through the input unit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a menu searching apparatus of a portable terminal according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a menu search device of a portable terminal according to the present invention.

The menu searching apparatus of the portable terminal according to the present invention includes a storage unit 21, a control unit 22, a display unit 23, and an input unit 24. The storage unit 21 stores information on menus, such as the type of menu, the structure of the menu, the relationship between the menus, and the position pointer of each menu. The display unit is composed of an LCD or the like and provides the user with visually menu information so that the user can navigate or select the menu. The input unit 24 includes a plurality of keys (e.g., a move key and a select key) so that the user can move or select a menu displayed on the display unit. The control unit 22 displays a plurality of menus on the display unit using information on the menus stored in the storage unit 21. [ In addition, the control unit 22 receives the user's key input through the input unit, changes the menu displayed on the display unit to a menu corresponding to the key input, or executes the selected menu.

FIG. 3 shows a menu structure according to the present invention. 3 (a) shows the type and movement direction of the primary menu, (b) the type of the secondary menu of the sound setting menu 5 which is the primary menu, and the moving direction thereof, and (c) Displays the type of 3rd menu and direction of movement.

FIG. 4 is a simplified representation of each menu name in FIG. 3 as Arabic numerals for convenience of explanation.

The arrows in FIG. 4A indicate the directions in which the menus can be moved between the menus, so that it is possible to move up and down and left and right between the first menus 1-14. Therefore, it has a higher degree of freedom in the moving mode compared to the conventional tree type menu structure which can only move left and right between menus. For example, according to the conventional technology, the movement between the menu (1) and the menu (6) requires six key operations, but the menu structure according to the present invention allows movement only by three key operations (1-4-5-6) This saves time.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a menu search apparatus according to the present invention. Each large rectangle represents the display unit 23 of the menu search apparatus according to the present invention, and the small rectangles within a large rectangle represent one menu. The display unit 23 of the present embodiment can display up to 9 (3 * 3) menus as a user interface composed of LCDs. Therefore, only nine menus out of a total of 14 primary menus of FIG. 4A are displayed. The maximum number of displayable menus may vary depending on the size of the LCD, the number of types of menus, and the like. 5 (a) to 5 (d) show how to move from the primary menu 5 to the other primary menu 4. The user may move the menu 5 from the menu 5 to the right and move to the menu 4 again via the menu 7 by simply operating the left navigation key (Sequence: abcd). The menu activated in each step moves to the center and the size and color of the menu icon can be differentiated by different from other menus. (The activated menu is a menu where the current move key is staying. . In the conventional tree structure menu navigation method, the movement between homing menus is possible only in the left, right, and both directions. However, in the present invention, as shown in FIG.

6 shows another embodiment of the menu search apparatus according to the present invention. 6A to 6D show how to move from the primary menu 5 to the tertiary menu 5-1-1.

 When the user selects the menu 5 by first inputting the selection key, the menu 5 moves to the left, and the secondary menu 5-1 and the menu 5-2 appear on the right side thereof. If the secondary menu 5-1 is selected by moving the movement key and moving to the right, the secondary menu 5-1 moves to the left and the tertiary menu 5-1-1 and the menu 5-1- 2) appears. Move to the tertiary menu (5-1-1) again using the navigation key and select the desired menu.

In the case of the menu search method according to the present invention, the upper and lower menus 5, 5-1 and 5-1-1 of the same menu group can be displayed on the display unit 23, As shown in the figure, upper and lower menus belonging to different menu groups (for example, 1 and 5-1) can be displayed together. Therefore, even with the key operation of one or two times, it is possible to easily move to the menu of another order belonging to another menu group. That is, the user can move to the primary menu 2 or the primary menu 9 by one key input during the operation of the menu 5-1.

FIG. 7 shows another embodiment of the menu search apparatus according to the present invention. 7A to 7F show how to move from the tertiary menu (5-1-1) to the secondary menu (3-3) of another menu group. In the case of the conventional tree-structured search method, first, the primary menu 3 (5-1) via the secondary menu 5-1 and the primary menu 5, which are upper menus of the tertiary menu 5-1-1, However, as shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, in the search method according to the present invention, it is possible to move from the menu 5-1-1 to the menu 2 with only one key input. In addition, as shown in FIG. 7F, the display unit displays a third menu (3-3) currently being operated and a menu (5-1-1) that has been in the past operation. Therefore, in the case where two different operations are repeatedly performed, the number of times of key input for changing a menu is greatly reduced as compared with the prior art.

In order to enable movement and selection of the above-described menu, each menu is designed in software to have four position pointers. The position pointer is composed of up, down, left, and right pointers. The up pointer indicates information about an upper menu of each menu, And the left and right pointers include information on two adjacent menus of menus that are the same as menus. The position pointer will be described with a specific example. In FIG. 7C, the primary menu 3 has a down pointer and position information about the secondary menu 3-1 which is a lower menu. Therefore, when the primary menu 3 is selected through the input unit 24, the secondary menu 3-1 and another secondary menu 3-2 which is the same as the secondary menu 3-1 are displayed on the display unit (Fig. 7 (d)). In Fig. 7D, the secondary menu 3-2 includes information on the other secondary menu 3-3 as a right pointer. Accordingly, when the right navigation key is inputted through the input unit in FIG. 7D, the secondary menu 3-3 is displayed on the display unit. The upper position pointer is only one embodiment and can be defined in a different manner.

The present invention can also be embodied as computer-readable codes on a computer-readable recording medium. A computer-readable recording medium includes all kinds of recording apparatuses in which data that can be read by a computer system is stored. Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, hard disk, floppy disk, flash memory, optical data storage, And the like. The computer readable recording medium may also be distributed over a networked computer system and stored and executed as computer readable code in a distributed manner.

The present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope of equivalents thereof should be construed as being included in the present invention.

According to the menu search apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to save time by reducing the number of keystrokes required for movement between menus of different orders or between menus belonging to different menu groups. In particular, The effect is more conspicuous.

Claims (5)

 A storage unit for storing information on the menu; A display unit for displaying a menu to at least two of the other orders belonging to another menu group for displaying the menu to the user; An input unit configured with a plurality of keys and for moving a menu or selecting a menu; And And a controller for displaying a menu on the display unit using information on the menu stored in the storage unit and changing a menu display of the display unit according to a key input through the input unit, Wherein the display unit displays a menu currently being operated and a menu that has been in operation at the same time. delete The menu search apparatus of claim 1, wherein the menu information includes a menu type, a menu structure, and a location pointer of each menu. The menu search apparatus of claim 3, wherein the position pointer of each menu includes upper, lower, left and right position pointers. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the activated menu among the menus displayed on the display unit is different in size and color from the other menus.

Images