KR20100021227A - Apparatus and method for providing menu - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A menu supply apparatus and a method thereof capable of easily searching the menu are provided to supply a user interface about a menu to the user. CONSTITUTION: An analyzing unit(310) analyzes a usage record about each menu. The analyzing unit decides priority about each menu. A controller(340) supplies a menu search interface listed according to the priority about a mode of retrieval. The controller supplies the menu search interface according to the priority. The usage record comprises the usage frequency showing the usage count about each menu and the use history showing the use time-and-date about each menu.

Description

Apparatus and method for providing menu

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for providing a menu, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for providing a menu which can be accessed quickly and easily by a user.

With the remarkable development of technology and semiconductor technology, the spread and use of various portable terminals is increasing rapidly. In particular, recent portable terminals have reached the stage of mobile convergence that encompasses the range of other terminals instead of staying in their own traditional areas. For example, in the case of a mobile phone, various multimedia functions such as a TV viewing function (eg, mobile broadcasting such as DMB), a music playback function (eg, MP3), and a photo taking function are added in addition to general communication functions such as voice call and message transmission and reception.

As the functions of the mobile terminals are diversified and compounded, the number of functions and contents that can be handled by users is increasing. In contrast, most mobile terminals still provide menus based on a tree structure. The current menu structure faces problems such as increased operation steps, complexity of the screen hierarchy, and access errors due to the multifunctionalization.

Specifically, the conventional menu structure, as shown in Figure 1, is composed of a plurality of menu items (depth), the function or item actually used by the user is generally located in the lowest hierarchy. Therefore, in order to access the item that the user wants, it is common to go through the layers above the item in order. In this case, the number of operations for accessing an item desired by the user is also increased, and it is not easy to find and access an item desired by the user due to disconnection of the screen.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a menu providing apparatus and method for quickly and easily finding a desired menu.

However, the objects of the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned objects, and other objects not mentioned can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

In order to achieve the above object, a menu providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: an analysis unit for determining a priority of each menu by analyzing a usage record for each menu; And a control unit providing a menu search interface in which a menu searched according to a preset search method is listed according to the determined priority.

In order to achieve the above object, a menu providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of: analyzing the usage history for each menu to determine the priority of each menu; And providing a menu search interface in which a menu searched according to a preset search scheme is listed according to the determined priority.

Specific details of other embodiments are included in the detailed description and the drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below, but may be embodied in various different forms, and the present embodiments merely make the disclosure of the present invention complete and common knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention belongs. It is provided to fully inform the person having the scope of the invention, which is defined only by the scope of the claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.

According to the apparatus and method for providing a menu according to the present invention, an intuitive user interface for a menu can be provided to a user, and the user can quickly and easily access a desired menu.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention will be described with reference to a block diagram or a flowchart illustrating a menu providing apparatus and method according to embodiments of the present invention. At this point, it will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and combinations of flowchart illustrations may be performed by computer program instructions. Since these computer program instructions may be mounted on a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing equipment, those instructions executed through the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing equipment may be described in flow chart block (s). It creates a means to perform the functions.

These computer program instructions may be stored in a computer usable or computer readable memory that can be directed to a computer or other programmable data processing equipment to implement functionality in a particular manner, and thus the computer usable or computer readable memory. It is also possible for the instructions stored in to produce an article of manufacture containing instruction means for performing the functions described in the flowchart block (s).

Computer program instructions may also be mounted on a computer or other programmable data processing equipment, such that a series of operating steps are performed on the computer or other programmable data processing equipment to create a computer-implemented process to create a computer or other programmable data. Instructions for performing the processing equipment may also provide steps for performing the functions described in the flowchart block (s).

In addition, each block may represent a portion of a module, segment, or code that includes one or more executable instructions for executing a specified logical function (s). It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of order. For example, the two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending on the corresponding function.

The apparatus for providing a menu according to an embodiment of the present invention may provide a menu search interface for searching for a desired menu by a user. The menu search interface may be configured differently according to a preset menu search method. Specifically, the menu search method is a method of searching a menu using a search word input by a user (hereinafter referred to as 'search term'), and a method of searching based on the initial letter of the first letter in the name of each menu ( In the following description, the term "find by consonants" or a method of searching a menu by recognizing a user's voice (hereinafter, referred to as "find by voice") may be exemplified. The provided menu search interface may include a character display area in which Korean consonants and / or an English alphabet are displayed, and a menu display area in which a menu list searched for each consonant is displayed.

The menu search interface provided when the menu search method is “Find by search term” may include a menu display area on which a list of menus available to the user is displayed, and a search word display area on which a search word input from the user is displayed. According to an embodiment, the entire menu that can be provided to the user may be displayed in the menu display area. According to another embodiment, only a menu selected from all menus may be displayed in the menu display area. At this time, the selection of the menu may be made by the developer in advance, or may be made according to a result of analyzing the usage history for each menu. 2 shows 38 kinds of menus selected as frequently used menus through an experimental process.

After the menu search interface is displayed, if a search word is input by the user, the menu providing apparatus may search for a menu including the input search word and display it in the menu display area. Here, referring to FIG. 3 for a more detailed description of the menu searching apparatus.

3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a menu providing apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the drawing, the menu providing apparatus may include an analyzer 310, a storage 320, an input unit 330, a display 350, a searcher 360, and a controller 340.

The analysis unit 310 may analyze the usage history of the menu. Here, the usage record may include the frequency of use and the history of use. Frequency of use means 'number of times' using each menu, and history of use means 'date' using each menu. The frequency of use may be the 'rate' of each menu for the entire menu, or the history of use may be the 'order' of how many times each menu is used. The analysis unit 310 may determine the priority of each menu according to the result of analyzing the usage record. The priority of each menu may be higher in frequency of use or in recent years.

The storage unit 320 may store an analysis result provided by the analysis unit 310, a usage record for a menu, and the like. In addition, the storage unit 320 may store setting information required to configure a menu search interface, for example, setting information about a search method. The storage unit 320 may include a nonvolatile memory device such as a cache, a read only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), and a flash memory. At least one of a volatile memory device such as a random access memory (RAM) or a storage medium such as a hard disk drive (HDD) may be implemented, but is not limited thereto.

The input unit 330 may receive a command for accessing a menu desired by a user. For example, a command for displaying a menu search interface, a command for executing a menu search, and the like may be input. In order to receive such a command, the input unit 330 may include a plurality of input keys. For example, a menu key for displaying a menu search interface, a character key for inputting a search word, an execution key for executing a command, a cancel key for undoing a command, a pointer or a direction key for moving the focus, etc. may be provided. .

When the input keys are operated by a user, they may generate a key signal, and each input key may be assigned one or a plurality of commands. When a plurality of commands are assigned to one input key, different commands may be input according to a method of operating the corresponding input key. For example, a user may input a command to display a menu of a general tree structure by briefly applying a menu key once, and input a command to display a menu search interface by applying a menu key long once. These input keys may be implemented in hardware or in software such as icons in a graphical user interface. Alternatively, hardware and software may be mixed. One input key may be assigned one or more commands.

The controller 340 may connect and control each component in the menu providing apparatus. The controller 340 may perform a corresponding operation according to the type of key signal provided from the input unit 330. In detail, when a menu key is applied for a time less than a threshold, the controller 340 may display a tree structure menu as before. If the menu key is applied for more than a threshold time, the controller 340 may configure the menu search interface with reference to the analysis result and / or setting information about the menu search method previously stored in the storage 320. have. Here, the menu search interface will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 4 to 10.

First, FIGS. 4 to 7 are diagrams for describing a menu search interface provided when the menu search method is set to 'search term'.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the menu search interface 400 may include a menu display area 420 and a search word display area 410. The menu display area 420 may display a list of menus that can be provided to the user. The menu display area 420 may display all or part of menus, and the menus may be listed in order of name or in order of priority. For example, if there is no analysis result for the history of each menu, or even if the analysis result for the history of each menu exists, the menu display area ( Menus displayed on 420 may be listed in order of name, as shown in FIG. 4. If the analysis result of the usage history of each menu, that is, the priority exists, the menus displayed in the menu display area 420 may be arranged in the order of high priority, as shown in FIG. 5.

Meanwhile, the search word input by the user may be displayed in the search word display area 410. For example, if the user inputs 'ㅎ' using the character key, 'ㅎ' may be displayed in the search word display area 410 as shown in FIG. 6. At the same time, the menu display area 420 may display menus including a search result, that is, a consonant 'ㅎ'. At this time, at least one of the size, shape, and color of the character corresponding to the search word among the characters included in the searched menus may be distinguished from the remaining characters. Meanwhile, FIG. 6 shows a case where the searched menus are listed in the order of high priority, but the searched menus may be listed in the order of name regardless of the priority.

In this way, the user can change the menu search method while searching the menu. For example, when the 'menu' 430 is selected in the state as shown in FIG. 6, as shown in FIG. 7, a list 700 of changeable menu methods is displayed, and the user can select a desired menu search method using a direction key. Can be selected. As shown in FIG. 7, when finally selecting “Find by consonant”, a menu search interface 400 corresponding to a menu search method “Find by consonant” may be configured and provided.

8 to 10, a menu search interface provided when the menu search method is set to 'find by consonants' will be described.

The menu search interface provided when the menu search method is set to 'find by consonant' may include a text display area 810 and a menu display area 820 as illustrated in FIG. 8. In the character display area 810, a Korean consonant and / or an English alphabet may be displayed. Since the names of most menus are often in Korean, all 14 consonants from 'ㄱ' to 'ㅎ' can be displayed in the case of Korean consonants. In contrast, since the name of the menu is rarely English, only one of 26 alphabets may be displayed in the English alphabet.

In addition, menus searched based on the text selected in the text display area 810 may be displayed in the menu display area 820. For example, when the letter 'A' is selected in the letter display area 810, menus having English names may be displayed in the menu display area 820 as shown in FIG. 8. If the Hangul consonant 'a' is selected in the letter display area 810, the menus of the first letter among the names of each menu may be displayed in the menu display area 820 as shown in FIG. 9. have.

In the above description, the case in which all 14 Korean consonants are displayed in the character display area 810 is described as an example. However, only Korean consonants having a menu may be displayed in the character display area 810. For example, if there are no menus having the first letter 'a' and 'c' in the menu name, the Hangul consonants 'a' and 'c' will be omitted in the character display area 810. Can be. FIG. 10 illustrates a case where Korean consonants 'ㄱ' and 'c' are omitted in the character display area 810.

Referring to FIG. 3 again, the search unit 360 may search a menu using a search word input by a user. For example, when a user inputs 'ㅎ' as a search word, the search unit 360 may search for all menus including letters having the initial consonant 'ㅎ' among all the menus. Thereafter, if the user further inputs 'ㅗ', the search unit 360 may search for a menu having a neutrality of 'ㅗ' within the first search result. As such, the search result searched by the searcher 360 may be provided to the controller 340 and used to construct a menu search interface.

The display 350 may display a command processing result. For example, when a menu key is applied, the display unit 350 may display a menu list or a menu search interface of a tree structure. The display unit 350 may be implemented in the form of hardware separated from the input unit 330 described above, or may be implemented in the form of hardware integrated with the input unit 330 such as a touch screen or a touch pad.

In addition to the components described above, the menu providing apparatus may further include a voice recognition unit 370 that can recognize the user's voice. The speech recognizer 370 may extract a word from the user's speech using a pre-stored speech recognition algorithm. The extracted words may be provided to the search unit 360 and used to search a menu.

Next, FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a menu providing method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

When the menu key is applied (S10), the controller 340 may determine the type of the generated key signal and perform a command corresponding thereto. For example, if the menu key is pressed for a time less than the threshold, the controller 340 may configure a tree structured menu and provide it to the user. If the menu key is pressed for a time equal to or greater than the threshold value, the controller 340 may configure the menu search interface by referring to previously stored analysis results and / or setting information on the menu search method (S11).

For example, when the menu search method is set to 'search term', the controller 340 may configure a menu search interface including the search word display area 410 and the menu display area 420. According to an embodiment, the controller 340 may configure an interface such that all menus available to a user are displayed on the menu display area 420. At this time, each menu may be listed in the order of the name, as shown in Figure 4, or may be listed in accordance with the priority set on the basis of the result of analyzing the usage record for each menu, as shown in FIG. According to another exemplary embodiment, the controller 340 may configure the interface such that only menus selected from all of the menus are displayed on the menu display area 420. In this case, the menus displayed on the menu display area 420 It may be arbitrarily selected by the developer in advance, or may be selected based on the priority of each menu.

Thereafter, when the user inputs a search word using the letter key (S12), the input search word may be displayed in the search display area, and a menu search using the search word may be performed (S13). In this case, the menu search may be performed on the menus displayed on the menu display area 420. For example, if 'ㅎ' is entered as a search word, menus including 'ㅎ' may be searched among the menus displayed in the menu display area 420. The retrieved menus may be displayed in the menu display area 420 (S14). In this case, the searched menus may be listed in order of name, or may be listed in order of high priority. Among the searched menus, the search word 'ㅎ' may be displayed in a different color from the non-search text.

As such, if the menu search method is changed while searching for the menu according to the preset menu search method (S15, Yes), the menu search interface according to the changed menu search method may be configured. For example, if the menu search method is changed from 'find by search word' to 'find by consonant', a menu search interface including a text display area 810 and a menu display area 820 as shown in FIG. 8. Can be configured (S16).

When configuring the menu search interface as shown in FIG. 8, the focus may be located on a character set as a default value or a most recently used character among Korean consonants and / or English alphabets displayed on the character display area 810. . In this case, the character in focus may be expressed in a different size, shape, color, etc. than other characters. In addition, the menu display area 820 may display menus searched based on the character in which the focus is located among the characters displayed in the character display area 810.

In this state, the user can select the character to be searched by changing the position of the focus by operating the input key (S17). As such, when a character is selected, a menu search may be performed based on the selected character (S18). For example, as shown in FIG. 8, when the focus moves to the Hangul consonant 'ㄱ' while the focus is located on the alphaket 'A', the menus having the first letter of the first letter among the menus may be searched for. In this case, the menu search may be performed on the entire menu or may be performed on a selected menu among all the menus.

The retrieved menu may be displayed on the menu display area 820 and displayed on the display unit in operation S14.

With reference to the drawings illustrated above, the apparatus and method for providing a menu according to an embodiment of the present invention have been described. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be embodied in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features of the present invention. It is therefore to be understood that the above-described embodiments are illustrative in all aspects and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is indicated by the scope of the following claims rather than the detailed description, and all changes or modifications derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and the equivalent concept are included in the scope of the present invention. Should be interpreted.

1 is a diagram illustrating a conventional tree menu structure.

2 is a diagram illustrating a menu selected as a frequently used menu through an experimental process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a menu providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 to 7 are diagrams illustrating a menu search interface provided step by step according to a user input when the menu search method is set to 'search term'.

8 and 10 are diagrams illustrating a menu search interface provided step by step according to a user input when the menu search method is set to 'find by consonant'.

11 is a flowchart illustrating a menu providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

200: apparatus for providing a menu 210: analysis unit

220: storage unit 230: input unit

240: display unit 250: search unit

260: control unit 400: menu search interface

410: search term display area 420: menu display area

800: menu search interface 810: character display area

820: menu display area

Claims (14)

An analysis unit for analyzing a usage record for each menu to determine a priority of each menu; And In a preset search method, the menu providing apparatus comprising a control unit for providing a menu search interface in which the searched menu is listed according to the determined priority. According to claim 1, wherein the record of use And at least one of a usage frequency indicating a number of times of use of each menu and a usage history indicating a date and time of use of each menu. The method of claim 1, When the preset search method is a search method using a search word input by a user, The menu search interface includes at least one of a search word display area in which the search word is displayed and a menu display area in which a menu including the search word is listed and displayed according to the priority. The method of claim 3, wherein the control unit And displaying at least one of a size, a shape, and a color of a character corresponding to the search word differently from the remaining characters among the characters included in the menu including the search word. The method of claim 1, When the preset search method is a search method using the first letter of the first letter in each menu, The menu search interface includes at least one of a text display area and a menu display area. At least one Hangul consonant is displayed in the character display area. And a menu identical to the Hangul consonants selected in the character display area is displayed according to the priority in the menu display area. The method of claim 5, wherein the control unit And a Hangul consonant in which there is no menu to be displayed in the menu display area is omitted in the character display area. The method of claim 1, A voice recognition unit for recognizing a user voice; And And a search unit for searching for a menu matching the recognition result of the speech recognition unit. Analyzing a history of use of each menu; Determining a priority of each menu according to an analysis result; And A preset search method, the method comprising providing a menu search interface in which the searched menu is listed according to the determined priority. The method of claim 8, wherein the record of use And at least one of a usage frequency indicating a number of times of use of each menu and a usage history indicating a date and time of use of each of the menus. The method of claim 8, When the preset search method is a search method using a search word input by a user, The menu search interface includes at least one of a search word display area in which the search word is displayed and a menu display area in which a menu including the search word is listed and displayed according to the priority. The method of claim 10, wherein providing the menu search interface comprises: And displaying at least one of a size, a shape, and a color of a letter corresponding to the search word differently from the remaining letters among letters included in the menu including the search word. The method of claim 8, When the preset search method is a search method using the first letter of the first letter in each menu, The menu search interface includes at least one of a text display area and a menu display area. At least one Hangul consonant is displayed in the character display area. And a menu in which the first consonant of the first letter among the respective menus is displayed in the menu display area according to the priority. The method of claim 12, wherein providing the menu search interface comprises: Omitting a Hangul consonant in which the menu to be displayed in the menu display area does not exist from the character display area. The method of claim 8, Recognizing a user's voice; And And searching for a menu matching the recognition result.

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