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Mobile Phone Patent Abstract
Telephone numbers along with alphanumerical identifications representing
the same are stored in the memory of a mobile phone. The number
is selected with quick dialing so that the user first scrolls the
identification corresponding to the required number on the display
(11). In the method of this invention the display is a touch-sensitive
display (21). For each identification several alternative telephone
numbers are stored in the quick dialing memory, for instance to
work (W), home (H), or mobile phone (M). The desired number is selected
and a call initiated by writing a gesture (23) corresponding to
the required number on the display (21) or in a specified field
of the display (24).
Mobile Phone Patent Claims
I claim:
1. A method for quickly initiating a telephone call from a telephone
(10), in which method telephone numbers and corresponding identifications
are stored in a memory of said telephone (10) prior to making a
call and the number to be called is selected with a quick dialing
method so that the user first searches an identification corresponding
to the desired number on a display (11) by using keys (11, 12, 13),
characterized in that at least one of said identifications has at
least two alternative telephone numbers associated thereto, and
the desired telephone number related to said at least one identification
shown on the display is selected by writing a pre-selected gesture
(23) on the display (21).
2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that at least
two identifications (22a, 22b, 22c) are shown on the display (11)
in different sub-areas at the same time whereby a required number
is selected by writing a gesture on the sub-area corresponding to
the required identification.
3. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that at least
two identifications are shown on the display at the same time whereby
the required number is selected by first scrolling the required
identification to a pre-defined line and by subsequently writing
a pre-defined gesture corresponding to the required number on the
display (21).
4. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the identification
is a person's name or an alphanumerical character string standing
for it.
5. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the gesture
is written on a specified field (24) of the display (21).
6. A method according to claim 5, characterized in that the gesture
is written on a specified field (24) of the display (21) on a line
(24a, 24b, 24c) corresponding to a desired identification (22a-22c).
7. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that a pen is
used for writing on the display.
8. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that an identification
shown on the display is deleted from a quick dialing memory by writing
a gesture standing for a delete command on the display (21) or on
a specified field (24).
9. A personal communicator (10) comprising a display (11) for displaying
information, a plurality of keys (12, 13, 14) for entering information
and memory means for storing telephone numbers and corresponding
identifications, at least one of said keys being arranged to produce
representatives of said identifications to said display when actuated,
characterized in that said display (11) is a touch-sensitive display
and that said personal communicator (10) further comprises character
recognition means for recognizing and interpreting graphical commands
entered by writing on said touch-sensitive display, said character
recognition means being arranged to produce a call-initiating signal
when a predetermined graphical command is entered while at least
one of said identifications is displayed on said display (11).
10. A personal communicator according to claim 9, characterized
in that said touch-sensitive display (11) comprises touch-sensitive
fields, and said character recognition means is arranged to detect
in which of said fields a graphical command was entered.
11. A personal communicator according to claim 9, characterized
in that at least some of said keys (12, 13, 14) are included in
the vicinity of said touch-sensitive display (21).
Mobile Phone Patent Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a quick-dialing method in which a telephone
number is dialed in a simple and effective manner in a mobile phone.
In this connection the term `mobile phone` is understood in the
widest meaning, i.e. it can refer to a mobile phone, such as a NMT
or GSM phone, or some other portable Personal Communicator, for
instance a pocket-size phone, in which quick dialing is used. Likewise,
the term `telephone number` must be understood in a wider sense,
also referring to a subscriber number of terminal equipment in public
switched telephone network, an extension number at a private branch
exchange, the number of another mobile phone or some other corresponding
number. Later in this document the term `gesture` refers to a drawn
symbol, a character, a shape, etc.
2. Background Art
To begin with we look at existing mobile phones as an example that
may have a user interface corresponding to the one shown in FIG.
1. Mobile phone 10 is equipped with an alphanumerical display 11,
feature keys 13, and digit/character keys 14 and scrolling key 12.
A device of this type is equipped with a microprocessor and memory
to which various parameters related to the phone's use can be stored
with keys 12, 13, and 14. From the user's point of view it is practical
that also telephone numbers can be stored in the memory. Depending
on the mobile phone, the number of memory locations may amount to
100 or even more and in addition to the telephone number also a
name or other alphanumeric identification relating to the number
can he stored in those locations. When the user wants to make a
call to a number previously stored, he will access the number along
with the related identification on the display by using the keys
12, 13, and 14 in a suitable sequence. After checking the number/identification
user can initiate the call by pressing a pre-defined feature key
13. The required number can be brought to the display by using the
address of the memory location or even more easily by first selecting
e.g. the first letter of a name and then scrolling the names that
start with this letter on the display. Naturally, the contents of
the memory can also be scrolled according to the sequential order
of the memory location order with the scrolling key 12. This feature,
the so-called quick dialing method is a factor enhancing user-friendliness
and also means improved safety, especially if the phone is used
while driving a car.
The operating pattern of quick dialing described above is quite
logical and usable in most cases. However, if the same person has
several alternative telephone numbers which the mobile phone user
wants to store in the memory of the phone, the user must consequently
make sure that the correct number option is selected beside checking
the name. In this case it may concern a person's telephone number
to work, home or a mobile phone, etc. Scrolling will be a longer
process and become slower, and at the same time, the risk of dialing
a wrong number increases.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of this invention is to find a solution capable of correcting
the above mentioned shortcomings and disadvantages of prior dialing
methods. This is implemented according to a method wherein telephone
numbers and corresponding identifications are stored in the memory
of a telephone prior to making a call and the number to be called
is selected with a quick dialing method so that the user first searches
an identification corresponding to the desired number on the display
by using keys such that at least one of the identifications has
at least two alternative telephone numbers associated thereto, and
the desired telephone number related to the at least one identification
shown on the display is selected by writing a pre-selected gesture
on the display. This means that the same person, i.e. the same identification,
has several telephone numbers stored in the memory of the mobile
phone of which the required number is selected by writing the gesture
or symbol corresponding to the required number to the touch-sensitive
display.
In the communicator according to the invention the touch-sensitive
display can be implemented in a manner known per se, e.g. as an
inductive or capacitive display.
This invention can be well applied in mobile phones, for instance
in NMT, GSM, JDC, PCN, DAMPS or other equivalent mobile phones.
Other preferred embodiments of this invention have been presented
in dependent patent claims. In the following, the invention is described
in further detail with reference to the enclosed drawings where
FIG. 1 illustrates the essential parts, with respect to the invention,
of a mobile phone, previously known per se;
FIG. 2 shows the much-sensitive display of the phone onto which
a gesture has been drawn in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 3 illustrates the touch-sensitive display in a similar manner
to FIG. 2, but in this embodiment the display shows several identifications
simultaneously.
A more detailed description of the invention is given in the following
with the help of examples, and for simplicity the starting point
is considered to be the NMT phone already presented in FIG. 1 whereby
a simplified diagram of the parts of the Nokia 101 phone (Nokia
Mobile Phones, Finland) that are essential to this description is
shown in FIG. 1. The user controls the operation of the device with
the groups of buttons or keys 12, 13, and 14. The device provides
information to the user on the display 11. In particular the user
can select the desired numbers on the display 11 for quick dialing
with a pre-defined feature key 13. In this case it is required that
the numbers have been stored in a manner previously known per se,
as mentioned before. A name or some alphanumerical identification
is preferably combined with the phone number, because it is easier
for the user to remember a name, for instance.
In accordance with the invention several numbers related to the
same identification are stored to the phone's memory which in the
examples given in FIG. 2 and 3 correspond to groups `work`, `home`,
and `mobile phone`. Naturally, the user does not have to adhere
to this division, but can save for instance telephone numbers to
summer cottages under a certain group, if desired, so that e.g.
the some identifications belonging to the group `mobile` would correspond
to a mobile phone number whereas some identifications in the same
group would refer to a telephone number of a summer cottage.
When the desired name or identification has been scrolled with
the scrolling key 12 to field 22 of the display 21, the user can
select the desired number by writing a gesture on the display. For
writing the gesture e.g. a pen can be used. Upon writing the gesture
the phone immediately makes a call to the selected number. The prespecified
gestures can be chosen e.g. so that they correspond to specified
conventional locations, such as H (home) for home number, W (work)
for the phone number at work, and M (mobile) for the mobile phone
number. Naturally also other suitable symbols, characters or character
combinations can be used. In FIG. 2 the user has selected the work
number W (23) for identification 22. In FIG. 3 the user has written
the gesture corresponding to home number H (23).
According to the size of the field 21 on the display 11 at the
disposal also several identifications (22a, 22b, 22c) can be brought
to the display with scrolling key 12, as shown in FIG. 3. There
are several ways of selecting the required number. Firstly, the
desired identification can be scrolled with scrolling key 12 to
the required line, for instance to the uppermost field 22a, whereby
the selection is carried out by writing the desired gesture somewhere
on the display, as shown in FIG. 2. In this case the whole area
of display 21 is available for use.
Alternatively, the display can be divided into identification lines
whereby selection is made by writing the gesture on the desired
line 22a-22c. With a pen or other rather sharp pointed object it
is naturally possible to unambiguously make a selection, even if
the line concerned is narrow.
One possibility is seen in that the gesture for quick dialing is
written in a designated area. The area could for instance be located
on the right side of the display 21. This is illustrated in FIG.
3, where dotted lines indicate the field in which the gesture is
intended to be written in order to enable the device to interpret
it correctly. If the display in question shows several identification
lines at the same time, as shown in FIG. 3, the field 24 must be
divided also horizontally into rows as the user can make a quick
dialing to any of the numbers represented by the identification
or name on the display.
With a display arranged according to the invention the quick dialing
function can be made clearer. As quick dialing is made by writing
gestures on the display, no separate corresponding push buttons
or keys sufficiently large in size, are needed, which naturally
saves the area of the phone's front panel. The method according
to the invention also provides the user with a clear quick dialing
method since several different phone numbers can be stored under
the same identification or name. When the distinction between numbers
referred to with different gestures is made on the basis of the
same principle for all identifications, the quick dialing will become
faster. Naturally, memory space required for storing the quick dialing
numbers can be saved, as several phone numbers can be stored under
the same identification and there is no need to reserve memory space
for storing a number-specific identification, too. As the number
of telephone numbers in the memory increases, also the savings can
be considerable.
When required, the display 11 can be made large enough to accommodate
both the display and all the keys 12-14 shown in the figure or some
of them which would in this case correspond to the area indicated
with reference number 15 in FIG. 1. This arrangement does not as
such have effect on the use of identifications and gestures.
The written gestures can also be used for editing quick dialing
numbers. Thus it is conceivable that the user writes both the identification
and the related phone number via the touch-sensitive display. Alternatively
the user can use the keys 14. With the touch-sensitive display the
numbers can be entered in whatever location in the display 21 by
writing a character/digit at a time or group of characters at a
time.
It is also possible to use the gestures for instance to remove
an identification and/or telephone numbers already stored in the
memory. If e.g. the gesture X is written on a name shown on the
display, the device could be programmed to identify this gesture
as a delete command and would remove both the identification and
related numbers from the memory. A person skilled in the art will
understand that this idea can be further developed in different
ways.
Naturally a person skilled in the art will on the basis of the
above description find many applications and modifications to the
method and communicator according to this invention.
As a consequence, the arrangement of the display and keys shown
in FIG. 1 is not restrictive, but the display could as well be placed
in another location on the front panel of the device. Further, the
size of the display does not limit the use of the invention, since
the same idea can be applied to display units where 1 to n fields
22 are shown whereby n is selected to correspond to the size and
resolution of the display.
The gestures used for quick dialing can naturally be chosen at
the user's will as long as they are easy to remember and write on
the display. Characters, simple symbols such as a circle, square,
triangle, etc. are possible alternatives. Unambiguous, easily discernible
gestures are anyhow preferred. Although this description mentions
that three telephone numbers are stored under an identification,
it is naturally possible that only two or more than three numbers
are stored. However, practice may prove that this should not be
carried to an excess. We prefer that e.g. at the most 5 telephone
numbers are stored under the same identification. In this case,
at least five corresponding gestures would be needed, too.
The principle of this invention can be applied to mobile phones
and other corresponding devices in which a simplified quick dialing
method is required.
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