JP4689209B2 - Mobile device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone terminal, and more particularly to a mobile terminal capable of displaying a plurality of applications on one screen.

  Conventionally, for example, in a multi-window display of a personal computer (PC), when a plurality of application software (hereinafter referred to as “applications”) are started and processed in parallel, an application that performs processing preferentially and the like. The application window has different display colors, so that the currently operable application can be distinguished from other applications, and the user can select a desired application and perform arbitrary processing.

  On the other hand, when a user performs key operation on an application displayed on a display screen in a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone terminal, since one application has occupied the display screen in the past, which application acquires the key focus. There is no problem even if it is not explicitly informed.

  The same can be said even when a plurality of applications can be started in parallel. For example, a technique has been proposed in which a plurality of applications can be started in parallel and display switching to each application can be easily performed. For example, in a terminal having two display units such as a so-called two-screen mobile phone terminal, an icon associated with a task displayed on the main display unit is generated, and this icon is displayed on the sub display unit. Thus, when a desired icon is selected from a plurality of icons displayed on the sub display unit, the task display can be switched by restoring and displaying the task corresponding to the selected icon on the main display unit. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

Further, even when a plurality of applications are displayed simultaneously on one screen, the problem can be solved by allocating keys used in advance for each application with respect to keys arranged on the mobile terminal.
JP 2003-162355 A

  However, when a plurality of applications are activated as in the technique described in Patent Document 1, but only one application is displayed on the main display unit, data is displayed in multi-window display. When the content of an application such as broadcasting changes passively, it is not known which application content is selected. That is, when one application automatically distributes a key event according to the content, the conventional technique has a problem that the user cannot identify the application to which the key event is distributed.

  For example, the content (1) of the viewer participation type (two-way service) quiz program of the TV broadcast application is displayed on the upper part of one screen of the mobile phone terminal, and the data broadcast content (2) is displayed on the lower part thereof. Consider an example. Here, in the quiz program, it is assumed that the viewer requests a quiz answer, and the display of the content (2) at the bottom of the screen is switched to the quiz answer content (3). Then, since the user has been able to perform operations such as channel switching of the TV broadcast program displayed on the upper screen so far, even if the quiz response content is suddenly displayed on the lower screen, the content for the quiz response ( It is impossible to immediately recognize whether or not a key event has been distributed to the application displaying 3).

  In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to make it possible to explicitly notify the user of key event distribution when, for example, a plurality of applications are displayed on one screen of a mobile phone terminal. And

In order to solve the above problems and achieve the object, the present invention provides a display means for displaying a window including content display areas of a plurality of applications, and an input operation for content data on the window displayed on the display means. operation means for performing, if at least one application includes identification information for activating the content data received, a detection means for detecting that should the application activated, the detection of the detection means results from a switching means for switching the key assignment to manipulate the received content data should be active application, that the content data is switched to an operational state by the switching means, predetermined display means through to notification by displaying the location It consists of a means.

According to such present invention, in the mobile terminal, a key event in accordance with the content data at least one received applications automatically with a display unit capable of displaying a window containing a content display area of a plurality of applications When using an application that is automatically distributed, the presence or absence of identification information included in the content data is detected, and an application to which a key event is distributed or an icon representing the content is displayed on a part of the display unit. Notification and switch key assignments. In this way, it is possible to explicitly notify the user to which application the key event is distributed, that is, the key assignment change.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to explicitly notify the user to which application the key event is distributed, so that the user can change the application that can be input and the key event is newly allocated. This makes it possible to instantly recognize the contents and data of the selected application, thereby improving usability.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. This example describes a case where the present invention is applied to a mobile phone terminal as a mobile terminal.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic external view showing an example of a mobile phone terminal. The case of the mobile phone terminal 100 shown in FIG. 1 is an open / close method called a so-called foldable type or clamshell type, which is composed of an upper case 100a, a lower case 100b, and a hinge part 100c that rotatably connects them. belongs to. As shown in FIG. 1, the display unit 108 and the speaker 104 are arranged on the upper casing 100a in a state where the upper casing 100a and the lower casing 100b of the mobile phone terminal 100 are opened. On the other hand, the lower casing 100b is provided with a key operation unit 106 and a microphone 103 which are arranged with a plurality of jog / shuttle dials, push buttons and the like and function as operation means.

  Note that the structure of the mobile phone terminal 100 is not limited to that shown in FIG. 1, but may of course be a so-called slide type, a revolver type, or a stick type composed of one housing. .

  Next, the configuration of the mobile phone terminal 100 of this example will be described with reference to FIG. The mobile phone terminal 100 of this example includes an antenna 101 for wireless telephone communication, and the antenna 101 is connected to a communication circuit 102 for wireless telephone communication. A base station (not shown) is controlled by the control unit 120. Wireless communication is performed with the. When communication for communication is performed by the communication circuit 102, the received voice data is supplied to the speaker 104 for output, and the voice data picked up by the microphone 103 is supplied to the communication circuit 102 for transmission to the base station. .

  The cellular phone terminal 100 includes a display unit 108 configured by a liquid crystal display, a display unit controller 107 that controls image data displayed on the display unit 108, and a key operation unit 106 configured by the operation keys described above. Prepare. The display unit 107 can display a mail text, a screen for accessing the web, and the like, and the key operation unit 106 can perform input operations such as a telephone number and a mail text, and various mode settings. In addition, a television receiver 109 that receives television broadcast waves via the antenna 110 is provided.

  In addition, when performing character input with the key operation unit 106, a character input support function is provided that allows a candidate for a character following the input character to be displayed and allows a mail sentence to be input relatively easily. In the case of the cellular phone terminal 100 of this example, as the character input support function, the characters to be displayed as candidates are changed according to the operation mode at that time. For example, in the mail text input mode, a character string candidate that is frequently used in a mail text and related to the input character is displayed. In the case of a quiz answer or questionnaire input mode, which will be described later, a character string candidate that is frequently used at the time of quiz answer or questionnaire entry related to the inputted character is displayed. For example, frequently used character strings when filling in questionnaires include numbers, characters such as “age” after numbers, genders such as “male” and “female”, names, addresses, etc. A high character string or a character string frequently used in answers such as “yes” and “no” is assumed. This character input support function is realized by the control of the control unit 120 of the terminal 100, for example.

  Each block in the mobile phone terminal 100 is connected to the control unit 120 or the like via a control line 130, and processing is performed under the control of the control unit 120. In addition, data can be transferred via the data line 140, and necessary data is stored in the memory 105. The memory 105 stores not only data and application programs necessary for a mobile phone terminal, but also data necessary for an IC card function unit 150 described later. However, some data necessary for the IC card function unit 150 may be stored on the IC card function unit 150 side. In addition, quiz answer information, questionnaire information, and information related to the information are also stored in the memory 105.

  Further, as will be described in detail later, the control unit 120 can operate detection means for detecting that the content data of the application displayed on the display unit 108 is activated, and the content data of the activated application. In addition, when the content / data is switched to an operable state, the display unit is instructed to be notified.

  In addition, in order to receive an incoming call or various warnings via the telephone line to the mobile terminal device 100, the light emitting unit 111 includes a plurality of light emitting diodes of different colors, and a vibration motor that vibrates the terminal itself. The control unit 120 emits light and vibrates under the control of the control unit 120. The light emitting unit 111 and the vibrating unit 112 are used as a notification means for notifying an incoming call as a mobile phone terminal. However, warning means necessary for the security function, and further, an application to which a key event described later is distributed or its It is also used as a notification means for informing contents. As a warning means necessary for the security function or a notification means for notifying the distribution of the key / event, the sound may be output from the speaker 104 or the like when the sound is played. The distribution of the key event is changed according to the content data of the application.

  The non-contact IC card function unit 150 provided in the mobile phone terminal 100 has a billing data control unit 152 to which an antenna 151 is connected, and is close to a reader / writer at a very close distance of about several centimeters. Perform wireless communication. When performing this close proximity wireless communication, it is possible to operate the accounting data control unit 152 with power obtained by receiving radio waves from the reader / writer side, but in this example, as with other blocks The accounting data control unit 152 is operated by power supplied from a battery (not shown) in the mobile phone terminal 100. The antenna 151 for the non-contact IC card function is built in, for example, the casing of the mobile phone terminal 100, and bidirectional communication can be performed by bringing the surface of the casing close to the reader / writer.

  The billing data control unit 152 reads data necessary for billing and authentication from the memory 105 (or the memory in the billing data control unit 152) and exchanges the data with a reader / writer by proximity wireless communication when executing the IC card function. I do. For example, information on an admission ticket (so-called electronic ticket) to a certain facility purchased by the user in advance is stored in the memory 105. Alternatively, information on the amount of charge that can be withdrawn when entering the facility or when purchasing a product is stored in the memory 105.

  Next, the software configuration of the mobile phone terminal 100 of this example will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 shows a software configuration required to reflect the contents of the key operation on the display screen when the user performs a key operation on one of the two applications. In the figure, 210 is a connection device, 220 is an OS (operation system) which is basic software, 230 is an application manager, and 240 is an application.

  The device 210 is a hardware area, and includes a key operation unit 106, a display unit 108, and a display unit controller 107 that controls the display unit 108.

  The OS 220 includes a key input driver 221 that processes and controls a key input signal sent from the key operation unit 106, and a display unit controller driver 222 that controls the display unit controller 107. And operate on the OS 220.

  The application manager 230 is an area that supervises and manages the exchange of information with a plurality of applications, and includes a key input management unit 231 that acquires key events and a screen control unit that manages drawing requests from other applications. 232.

  The application 240 is a generic name for various applications. In this example, the application 241 corresponds to the application A and the application 242 corresponds to the application B. A pict (registered trademark) display 243 is an application that displays an image for notifying the user of information on a pictograph display area in FIG. 4 to be described later.

  In the above-described software configuration, for example, when the user operates the key operation unit 106, a key input signal (key / event information) is input to the key input management unit 231 via the key input driver 221. The key input management unit 231 determines which of the two applications 241 and 242 is key event information, and supplies the key event information to either the application 241 or 242. The application 241 or 242 is activated upon receiving key / event information or performs predetermined processing, and outputs image data to the screen control unit 232. The image data output from the application area 240 is output from the screen control unit 232 to the display unit controller 107 via the display unit controller driver 222 and displayed on the display unit 108.

  At this time, when the control unit 120 determines that it is necessary to switch the key and focus between the applications 241 and 242, that is, to switch the target of the application that can be input, the information is sent to the pictogram display 243. Further, image data indicating that the key / focus has been changed is displayed in the pictogram display area 310 to the screen control unit 232.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a screen display example (1) on the display unit 108 of the mobile phone terminal 100 of this example. This example is a screen display image of a general mobile phone terminal, and shows a state (multi-window display) in which contents of two applications are displayed in one screen. The screen of the display unit 108 includes a pictographic display area 310, a first application display area 320, a second application display area 330, and a pointing display area that allows left and right operations (L, R) from the top.

  The pictogram display area 310 displays pictogram images such as the electric field intensity 311 and the remaining battery capacity 312 displayed on a general mobile phone terminal. The first application display area 320 is a portion where the application A is displayed, and the content A is displayed on the content display portion 321 thereof. Similarly, the second application display area 330 is a portion where the application B is displayed, and the content B is displayed in the content display portion 331 thereof.

  In this example, in the screen display of FIG. 4, for example, the application A is a television broadcast viewing application, and the content A displayed therein is a quiz program (see FIG. 6A described later). In addition, the application B is digital data broadcast, and the content B displayed therein is arbitrary content. Note that the data broadcasting described here is one that can receive data from the outside via a communication network such as the Internet and display it on the display unit 108, and can also transmit data from the mobile phone terminal 100 to the outside. If it is. In addition to the quiz program, the content A may be an online shopping program, a news program, or a program that solicits viewers' wishes, opinions, and impressions.

  Here, it is assumed that the viewer quiz time for responding to the quiz is reached by using the data broadcast (application B) in accordance with the progress of the quiz program of the television broadcast (application A) shown in FIG. . FIG. 5 shows a screen display image after the screen transition from the screen display image of FIG. 4 at this time. As shown in FIG. 5, the content B displayed in the application B is switched to the content B ′ (shaded portion) for quiz answers.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of a screen display image of the display unit 108 at this time. (A) is a frame of a quiz program of content A, which is a program content that the presenter 322 asks questions and the respondents 323 and 324 answer. (B) is a display for a quiz answer related to a viewer quiz, and is composed of, for example, a problem 333 and a selection branch 334 for this. For example, when this is an online shopping program, FIG. 6A is a product introduction screen, and FIG. 6B is a product purchase data input screen.

  As described with reference to FIG. 5, when the content display unit 332 of the application B displayed in the second application display area 330 is switched to the content B ′ for answering a quiz, the key focus is also adjusted in accordance with this. From A to the content B ′, the key / focus change pictogram 313 is displayed on the pictogram display unit 310. The key / focus change pict 313 is image information indicating which application has the current key / focus. In this example, “key changing” is displayed, and this key / focus change picto 313 may allow the user to recognize that the key / focus is being changed. The key / focus change pictogram 313 may have various designs such as an icon representing an application or content in addition to the design of characters.

  FIG. 7 is a simplified representation of the source information of the content B ′ for the quiz answer shown in FIG. 6B. This can be created in a markup language such as HTML (HyperText Markup Language). In the figure, “Active” is a tag that defines that the entire page is active, that is, a page that is key-focused, and is information that is used to identify the necessity / unnecessity of key-focus. . The control unit 120 determines whether there is an “Active” tag in the content received from the outside, and determines whether the content should be key-focused based on the result, and distributes the key event.

  A link is set in the answer column of the answer content, and the answer column of each option can be linked to a predetermined computer of the television broadcasting station that provides the content A. Then, when the user clicks on a desired option portion, the answer information selected by the user is transmitted to the television broadcasting station side, and the answers of viewers nationwide are aggregated using the aggregation software installed in the computer. The

  Note that the quiz answer content source information shown in FIG. 7 is described for the purpose of conceptually explaining a method for activating a certain content and switching the key and focus, and is actually implemented. It ’s different.

  Next, a key assignment change flowchart when the key focus is changed will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 8 shows a flow of processing from when a key / assignment change request is issued, the key / focus change pictogram 313 is displayed or the display state is changed, and key / assignment switching is executed. .

  At the start time, the contents A and B of the two applications A and B are already displayed on the screen (step S1). Here, the content B displayed on the content display unit 331 of the application B is switched as shown in FIG. 5 (step S2). From the source information of the content B ′ after switching, the control unit 120 determines whether or not to change the key assignment, that is, the function assignment to each key of the key operation unit 106, and the key The contents of the assignment change are determined (step S3). This can be determined by analyzing whether or not there is identification information indicating key assignment change, for example, an “Active” tag in the content B ′ after switching, and if there is, the content thereof.

  Then, according to the determination in step 3, for example, when a key / assign change tag is detected, the key / focus change pict 313 in the pict display area 310 is displayed or the pictograph display is changed by changing the display ( Step S4). Then, the key assignment of the display unit 108 is switched (step S5). The control unit 120 continues to observe the tags of the content displayed after the content B ′ displayed by the application B. When there is no tag indicating the key assignment change, the changed key assignment is returned to the original state, that is, the application A. At the same time, the key / focus change pictogram 313 is erased or returned to the original state, and the series of key assignment change processing is terminated (step S6).

  In addition to displaying the key / focus change pictogram 313 as means for notifying that the key assignment has been changed, the light emitting unit 111 is caused to emit light and use the difference in the emission color or light emission pattern, or the vibration unit. Notification can be made using the vibration of 112 or using sound from the speaker 104.

  According to the above-described embodiment, in a mobile phone terminal having a display unit capable of displaying a plurality of applications, an application in which key events are distributed when an application in which key events are automatically distributed according to content is used. Alternatively, by displaying the content on a part of the display unit, it is possible to explicitly notify the user of the current key focus state, that is, to which application the key event is distributed.

  Therefore, the user can immediately recognize that the key-focused application has been switched and the key event has been assigned to the new content data, so that usability is improved.

  The present invention is not limited to the mobile phone terminal of the above-described embodiment, and can be applied to a portable terminal such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistance), for example, without departing from the gist of the present invention. Of course, various other configurations can be adopted.

1 is a schematic external view of a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is the block diagram which showed the structural example of the portable terminal by one embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the software structural example by one embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example (1) of a screen display by one embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example (2) of a screen display by one embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example (3) of a screen display by one embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the tag structural example of the content for quiz reply by one embodiment of this invention. It is a key assignment change flowchart by one embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Mobile phone terminal, 101 ... Antenna, 102 ... Communication circuit, 103 ... Microphone, 104 ... Speaker, 105 ... Memory, 106 ... Key operation part, 107 ... Display part controller, 108 ... Display part, 109 ... Television tuner, 110 ... Antenna, 111 ... Light emitting part, 112 ... Vibrating part, 221 ... Key input driver, 222 ... Display part controller, 231 ... Key input management part, 232 ... Screen control part, 241, 242 ... Application, 243 ... Pictograph display, 310 ... Pictograph display area, 313 ... Key / focus change pictograph, 320 ... First application display area, 321, 331, 332 ... Content display part, 330 ... Second application display area

Claims (5)

Display means for displaying a window including content display areas of a plurality of applications;
Operation means for performing an input operation on the content data on the window displayed on the display means;
If at least one of the application, but which includes identification information for activating the content data received, a detection means for detecting that should the application activated,
From the detection result of the detection means, switching means for switching key assignments so that the received content data of the application to be activated can be operated,
A portable terminal comprising: notification means for notifying that the content data has been switched to an operable state by the switching means by displaying it at a predetermined location on the display means. The display means has a pictogram display area,
The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the display for notifying that the content data has been switched to an operable state is performed in the pictogram display area. The portable terminal according to claim 1, wherein the notifying means notifies that the content data has been switched to an operable state by causing a light emitting unit to emit light. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the notification means notifies the user that the content data has been changed to an operable state by using a speaker. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the notification means notifies that the content data has been switched to an operable state by vibrating the mobile terminal itself by a vibration unit.

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