JPH09185450A - Portable telephone set - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To freely design key arrangement or display without impairing the correspondence between function name and soft key by executing a function when an input key corresponding to a key patterns is depressed. SOLUTION: At the upper part of display part 5, an area for displaying the function of functional key is provided, key patterns formed corresponding to software keys 11a and 11b are displayed and further, the name of function corresponding to the internal part of key pattern is displayed. Namely, two key patterns corresponding to respective software keys are displayed on the display part 5 corresponding to the software keys 11 provided at an input part 1, and the names of functions executable at present are displayed inside the displayed patterns. Thus, since the shapes of software keys 11 and function names are correspondently displayed, a user can easily recognize which of software keys 11 is to be depressed for executing desired functional key.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable telephone device used for a car telephone or the like, and more particularly to a portable telephone device in which key arrangement and display layout can be freely designed without impairing usability.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional mobile phone, one key has one or two or more functions assigned thereto, and a function name is printed on each key. For example,
Numeric keys printed with numbers such as "1", "2", and "Po
There was a power key printed with "wer".

However, as the number of functions of a telephone increases, the number of keys becomes insufficient, so that there are mobile telephones provided with soft keys in which more functions are assigned to one key. The soft key is a key that displays the function conventionally printed on the key on the display unit, and has a display area dedicated to the key on the display unit.

When the soft key is pressed, the function displayed on the display unit is executed. The function corresponding to the soft key is designed to cyclically transition among a plurality of functions that are assigned in advance by pressing a scroll key or the like, and after the user displays the desired function, A function can be executed by pressing a soft key.

Here, a function display method in a conventional mobile phone will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 (a),
(B) is explanatory drawing of the function display method in the conventional mobile telephone. As shown in FIG. 3A, in the conventional mobile phone, two soft keys A and B are provided in the vicinity of the display unit, and the function of each soft key is adjacent to the soft key in the display unit. It will be displayed in the area where Here, "function name 1" is displayed as the function corresponding to the soft key A, and "function name 2" is displayed as the function corresponding to the soft key B.

In this state, when the soft key A is pressed, the function name 1 is executed, and when the soft key B is pressed, the function name 2 is executed.

When the scroll key is pressed, the display changes to that shown in FIG. In this state, the soft key A corresponds to the function name 3, and the soft key B corresponds to the function name 4. That is, by displaying it near the soft key, the key and the function are associated with each other.
In this way, the function display on the conventional mobile phone has been performed.

[0008]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional portable telephone, the soft key must be arranged adjacent to the display section in order to easily associate the soft key with the function name, and The position of the function name display on the display unit also needs to be provided so as to be adjacent to the soft key, which causes a problem in that the key layout and the free design of the display are hindered.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a mobile phone which allows a free design of key arrangement and display without impairing the correspondence between function names and soft keys. To aim.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems of the prior art is to display a key pattern corresponding to an input key on a mobile phone, the key pattern representing the shape of the input key. The function name is displayed inside the key pattern, and the function is executed when the input key corresponding to the key pattern is pressed. Regardless, it is possible to easily recognize the input key and the function in association with each other by looking at the display.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The mobile phone (this device) according to the embodiment of the present invention has a special shape that allows the soft keys to be easily distinguished from other keys, displays a pattern representing the shape of the soft keys on the display unit, and The function name corresponding to the soft key is displayed therein so that the soft key and the function name are associated with each other in an easy-to-understand manner, and the key arrangement and display layout are not restricted.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a mobile phone according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the present device includes an input unit 1 including a key matrix, a control unit 2 for controlling the entire device, a storage unit 4 for storing an icon pattern, and a display including a dot matrix LCD. It is composed of a unit 5, an LCD driver 3 for driving the display unit 5, a common 31 and a segment 32 as a drive circuit.

Next, each component will be specifically described. First, the input unit 1 includes soft keys 11a and 11b in addition to ordinary numeric keys and the like. Soft key 11
Has a special shape so that it can be easily distinguished from other keys. In the example of FIG. 1, the shape is an arrow shape, but if the number keys are round, they may be triangular or the like. Further, in order to make the shape and the key correspond to each other one by one, a plurality of keys having the same shape are not provided. A plurality of functions are assigned to each of the soft keys 11a and 11b, and the function name corresponding to each key is displayed on the display unit 5.

Further, the storage unit 4 stores the data of the display pattern (key pattern) of the soft keys for displaying the shape of the soft keys 11 which is the characteristic of the present device, and each soft key 11 is stored in the same manner as in the conventional case. The function names corresponding to are stored as a table. The key pattern allows the user to look at the display and determine which key it is.
The pattern is used to express the characteristics of the key shape.

The display unit 5 is composed of a dot matrix LCD and can display various key patterns corresponding to the shapes of the soft keys. The dot matrix LCD is provided with a common 31 as a common electrode for each row and a segment 32 for applying a signal voltage for each column.

The LCD driver 3 has a dot matrix L.
It drives a CD, and controls the common 31 and the segment 32 according to an instruction from the control unit 2 to display a desired pattern on the display unit 5.

Next, a method of displaying functions in this device will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a function display method in this device. As shown in FIG. 2, in the present apparatus, an area for displaying the function of the function key is provided on the upper portion of the display unit 5, a key pattern having a shape corresponding to the soft keys 11a and 11b is displayed, and further, the inside of the key pattern is displayed. The name of the corresponding function is displayed.

In the example of FIG. 2, two key patterns are displayed corresponding to each soft key on the display unit 5 corresponding to the soft key 11 provided in the input unit 1 of FIG. Inside the pattern, the name of the function that can be currently executed is displayed. The left side key pattern represents the soft key 11a, and the right side key pattern is the soft key 1
1b is shown. Further, the function name displayed inside the key pattern is cyclically changed according to the function name table by pressing a scroll key or the like as in the conventional case.

As described above, since the shape of the soft key and the function name are displayed in association with each other, the user can
You can easily recognize which soft key is pressed and which function is executed.Select the function name with the scroll key as before, and select the corresponding soft key when the desired function name is displayed. The function can be executed by pressing the button.

Further, since the shape of the key and the function name are associated with each other in the display on the display unit 5, it is not necessary to provide the soft key adjacent to the display unit 5, and further, the soft key on the display unit 5 is not required. The display area for use can also be provided at an arbitrary position, and the degree of freedom of key arrangement and display design can be increased. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 2, even if the arrangement of the soft keys 11 and the numeral keys is reversed and the soft keys 11 are arranged on the numeral keys, the usability does not deteriorate.

Here, the operation of the control unit 2 of this apparatus will be briefly described. When the power is turned on, the control unit 2 reads the data of the key pattern and the function name at the head of the function name table from the storage unit 4, and outputs them in combination to the LCD driver 3. As a result, the display pattern shown in FIG. 2 is displayed.

When the screen display scroll key is pressed, the control unit 2 displays the next function name according to the function name table. When the soft key 11 is pressed, the display unit 5 executes the function displayed in the key pattern corresponding to the pressed key. In this way, the operation of the control unit of this device is performed.

According to the mobile phone of the embodiment of the present invention, the soft key 11 is formed in a special shape that can be easily distinguished from other keys, and the display unit 5 displays a key pattern representing the shape of the key. Then, the function name corresponding to the soft key is displayed inside the key pattern, and when the soft key is pressed, the function displayed inside the corresponding key pattern is executed. There is an effect that the key and the function can be easily recognized in association with each other, the usability can be improved, restrictions on the arrangement of the soft keys and the display layout are eliminated, and the design can be freely performed.

[0024]

According to the invention described in claim 1, the function name is displayed inside the key pattern representing the shape of the input key,
When the input key corresponding to the key pattern is pressed,
Since it is a mobile phone that executes the function displayed inside the key pattern, the user can easily recognize the input key and the function in association with each other by looking at the display. There is an effect that you can freely design without the restrictions of.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of a mobile phone according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a function display method in this device.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a function display method in a conventional mobile phone.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Input unit, 2 ... Control unit, 3 ... LCD driver,
4 ... storage unit, 5 ... display unit, 11 ... soft key, 3
1 ... Common, 32 ... Segment

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Kazuo Murata 3-14-20 Higashi-Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo Kokusai Electric Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A key pattern corresponding to an input key in a one-to-one correspondence is displayed, a function pattern is displayed inside the key pattern, and an input key corresponding to the key pattern is displayed. A mobile phone which executes the above function when pressed.