Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
1998-02-19
2001-02-27
Bost, Dwayne D. (Department: 2744)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S550100, C455S575100, C345S215000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06195569
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a radiotelephone or handset with a user interface including a display and a keypad, said keypad comprising alphanumeric keys and menu controlling keys, said display comprising a basic screen area for displaying information and a separate field for displaying the present functionality of said menu controlling keys.
The phones sold by the applicants as model Nokia 2110 and Nokia 8110 are exponents of the presently dominating user interface style based on two menu handling keys (soft keys) with multiple functionality for accessing phone setting, handling messages, setting call options, security options, and so on. In idle mode the two soft keys of the phone allow access to the menu structure and the phone book, respectively. When the user enters information into the display and depresses one of the soft keys, all the entered information will disappear from the display and a menu image will appear. This is not a user-friendly way to handle the menu dialog.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the invention there is provided a radiophone with a user interface including a display and a keypad said keypad comprising a set of keys for entering data, at least one multi-functionality key, and a menu scrolling device for scrolling between functionalities of said at least one multi-functionality key, said display comprising a basic screen area for displaying information, said displayed information comprising information entered by said data entering keys and information received from the network, a separate field for displaying the present functionality of said at least one multi-functionality key, and an auxiliary field for displaying alternative functionalities of said at least one multi-functionality key, and a controller which controls the functionality of said multi-functionality key and the information displayed in the display, said controller displaying said auxiliary field on top of a part of the basic screen area in response to the activation of the scrolling device.
The invention provides a user interface for a radiophone, enabling the user to inspect the presence of the entered data during menu or functionality selection.
The data entered into the display will be present as a background picture when a box containing alternative functionalities of the multi-functionality keys appears in a part of the display. This functionality box allows the user to use the scrolling device to identify one functionality and select this by using the appropriate multi-functionality key. During the entire procedure the original data will be at least partly visible as a background picture.
The concept according to the invention is especially useful for radiophones with exactly one multi-functionality key. In this situation the need for accessing alternative functionalities for the multi-functionality key is increased compared with the two-key concept.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the menu scrolling device will presently be provided as a pivotal key having at least one pivot axis. This key is normally referred to as a scroll key or an arrow key (up/down).
The phone according to the invention normally includes an LCD display with dots arranged in a matrix. This usually rectangular area is divided into the basic screen area and the separate field for displaying the present functionality of the at least one multi-functionality key. A group of dots in the basic screen area will be dedicated to the auxiliary field when the latter appears on the display. Advantageously, the auxiliary field will be surrounded by a frame serving as a borderline between the auxiliary field and the data display in the basic screen area. Actually, these data will be partly covered by the auxiliary field.
A phone is capable of assuming a plurality of states in dependence on the network activity and the user entries into the phone, and a group of predetermined functionalities may be associated with each of the states. When one of these functionalities is selected in advance as a default functionality for a single multi-functionality key, the default functionality will be displayed in the separate field and the remaining, alternative functionalities in the group will be displayable in the auxiliary field. Normally, the number of alternative functionalities will be quite considerable compared with the number of lines in the display when the letters should be readable. Therefore, the entire set of alternative functionalities is handled as an endless loop, displaying only a few of the alternatives simultaneously. However, the displayed ones are exchanged successively when the scrolling device is used.
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Bost Dwayne D.
Nokia Mobile Phones Limited
Perman & Green LLP
Trinh Sonny
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