Nokia "Mobile telephone having a rotator input device" patent
Abstract
A mobile telephone has a display (240) and a rotator input device (250) comprising a rotatable element and capable of generating commands for browsing and selecting objects on the display. It also has a wireless telecommunication interface to a mobile telecommunications network. A processing device is coupled to the display, the rotator input device and the wireless telecommunication interface. A text-handling software application is executable by the processing device. The processing device is configured, in a first operating mode, to provide first user input by way of the rotator input device (250), said first user input including a number sequence representative of a desired telephone number which is to be reached over the mobile telecommunications network, and to use said first user input when establishing a telephone call connection through the wireless telecommunication interface. Moreover, the processing device is configured, in a second operating mode, to provide second user input by way of the rotator input device, said second user input including a character sequence representative of a desired text, and to forward said second user input to the text-handling software application No numeric or alphanumeric character keyboard is involved in neither of the first and second operating modes.
Description
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This application is a U.S. National Stage of PCT/IB2004/000962, filed on 30 Mar. 2004, which claims priority to the following applications, all of which are incorporated by reference herein: U.S. Ser. No. 10/434,055, filed on 8 May 2003; U.S. Ser. No. 10/449,036, filed on 29 May 2003; U.S. Ser. No. 10/458,401, filed on 10 Jun. 2003; and PCT/IB03/03926 filed on 15 Sep. 2003.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to equipment for mobile telecommunications, and more particularly to a mobile telephone having a display, a rotator input device comprising a rotatable element and capable of generating commands for browsing and selecting objects on said display, a wireless telecommunication interface, a processing device and a text-handling software application which is executable by said processing device.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Mobile telephones are becoming smaller and smaller. At some point the keyboard of a mobile telephone, typically a 12-button (alpha-)numeric keyboard commonly known as ITU-T keyboard, will become useless since it becomes too difficult for a user to press keys that are extremely small. Thus, the ITU-T keyboard may become a limiting factor which restricts the design of mobile telephones.
On the other hand, in modern mobile telephones the ITU-T keyboard plays several important roles and acts not only as a dialing keypad for manual entry of telephone numbers to call, but also as an alpha-numeric keyboard for text entry, a game control for arcade games, etc. As regards text entry, each key in the ITU-T keyboard often relates to several characters. A single key may, for instance, relate to the characters "a", "b" and "c". Pressing the key once produces the character "a", pressing the key twice within a short period of time produces the character "b", and pressing the key three times within a short period of time produces the character "c". Pressing the button twice slightly more slowly produces two "a":s. It is rather slow to use a keyboard in such a manner; therefore, various methods for facilitating text entry with an ITU-T keyboard have been developed. An example of such a method, wherein an object is to identify a word entered by a user, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,437 and is generally known as T9.
Mobile telephones often have a graphical user interface. To facilitate operation of the graphical user interface, mobile telephones often have special navigation key(s), in addition to or integrated with the ITU-T keyboard, such as arrow keys or a combined multi-way navigation key. However, such additional navigation keys add on to the total size of the keyboard, thereby further limiting the freedom to design.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,964 discloses a mobile telephone 1 that in addition to an ITU-T keyboard 7 has a roller 10, which replaces traditional navigation key(s) and allows the user to operate the user interface by rotating and depressing the roller to issue commands for browsing and selecting objects in the user interface. The ITU-T keyboard 7 is still used for other purposes like manual dialing and text entry.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above, an objective of the invention is to solve or at least reduce the problems discussed above. In more particular, a purpose of the invention is to provide a user interface for a mobile telephone that allows a smaller design with fewer elements for manual input, but that still allows the user to perform two important actions of manual input, namely manual dialing of telephone numbers to call as well as text entry.
Generally, the above objectives and purposes are achieved by a mobile telephone according to the attached independent patent claim.
One aspect of the invention is a mobile telephone having a display; a rotator input device comprising a rotatable element and capable of generating commands for browsing and selecting objects on said display; a wireless telecommunication interface to a mobile telecommunications network; a processing device coupled to said display, said rotator input device and said wireless telecommunication interface; and a text-handling software application which is executable by said processing device. The processing device is configured, in a first operating mode, to provide first user input by way of said rotator input device, said first user input including a number sequence representative of a desired telephone number which is to be reached over said mobile telecommunications network, and to use said first user input when establishing a telephone call connection through said wireless telecommunication interface. Moreover, the processing device is configured, in a second operating mode, to provide second user input by way of said rotator input device, said second user input including a character sequence representative of a desired text, and to forward said second user input to said text-handling software application. No numeric or alphanumeric character keyboard is involved in neither of said first and second operating modes.
Hence, according to the invention, the mobile telephone may be designed without a traditional numeric or alphanumeric character keyboard, such as a 12-key ITU-T keyboard, and yet provide manual input options like manual dialing of telephone numbers to call as well as text entry. This has important advantages, since it allows greater freedom when designing the mobile telephone, facilitates miniaturization of the mobile telephone and permits realization with fewer components for manual input, i.e. a potential cost benefit. Furthermore, the invention provides for user input in an intuitive manner which makes space-efficient use of the available display area.
Advantageously, the processing device is configured to control the user interface of the mobile telephone essentially only based on user input made by way of the rotator input device. Controlling the user interface in this manner may include actions such as browsing menus and selecting menu items. For instance, the processing device may be configured to control, based on user input made by way of the rotator input device, at least one of the following user interface actions: entering the first operating mode, exiting the first operating mode, entering the second operating mode and exiting the second operating mode.
In one embodiment, the processing device is configured, in said first operating mode, to provide said first user input by displaying numbers on said display and receiving commands from said rotator input device for browsing said numbers and for selecting, in successive order, individual numbers that constitute said number sequence. Moreover, in said second operating mode, the processing device is configured to provide said second user input by displaying characters on said display and receiving commands from said rotator input device for browsing said characters and for selecting, in successive order, individual characters that constitute said character sequence.
In one embodiment, the mobile telephone has a front housing surface, said rotatable element of said rotator input device being rotatable in a plane substantially parallel to said front housing surface and being depressible so as to allow generation of said commands for browsing and selecting. The rotatable element of said rotator input device may be depressible in a direction substantially perpendicular to said front housing surface. Moreover, the rotatable element of said rotator input device may be tiltably depressible at a plurality of positions along its periphery so as to allow generation of different commands for browsing and selecting for different ones of said plurality of positions. Such a tiltably depressible rotatable element thus provides for many more selection options than for instance a roller as in aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,964, where the roller is depressible in one direction only--downwardly towards the housing.
In one embodiment, the rotator input device has, in addition to said rotatable element, at least one depressible element, thereby allowing generation of said commands for browsing and selecting by rotation of said rotatable element and depression of said depressible element. The rotatable element of said rotator input device may comprise a ring with a center opening, wherein said at least one depressible element includes a depressible center key which is positioned in said center opening. The provision of such a center key will simplify certain operations such as marking text, since the center key may be conveniently depressed while simultaneously rotating the rotatable element. The depressible center key may be a four-way or five-way navigation key. Moreover, the at least one depressible element may comprise functional keys or soft keys disposed adjacently to said rotatable element.
In one embodiment, the rotator input device has a dynamic or selectable resolution for angular movement of said rotatable element, so that a given amount of angular movement will result in a corresponding amount of browsing or scrolling on said display which depends on an adjustable resolution setting. This resolution setting may be adjustable by at least one of the following: a user of the mobile telephone, an operating system in the mobile telephone, or a software application in the mobile telephone.
One embodiment further comprises a text prediction engine, wherein the processing device is configured, in said second operating mode, to display on said display a group of predicted characters that are available for browsing and selecting by way of said rotator input device. The text prediction engine may be configured to decide said group of predicted characters in response to a recently made user input and in accordance with a predefined inference logic. Advantageously, said recently made user input is a partial word; said predefined inference logic involves matching said partial word with a database of known and/or common words to predict most likely words that said partial word is part of; and said group of predicted characters, that is displayed on said display, is formed by a respective next character, following said partial word, in respective ones of said predicted most likely words.
In one embodiment, the processing device is configured in said second operating mode to display on said display, in addition to said characters, at least one control symbol that is available for browsing and selecting by way of said rotator input device, and wherein said at least one control symbol represents a user interface action that is performed upon selection of said control symbol. The at least one control symbol may represent at least one user interface action among the following: activating text prediction, deactivating text prediction, selecting a character set and selecting a cursor movement mode.
In one embodiment, the processing device is adapted to provide navigation within graphical data, which requires a larger presentation area than is available on said display, by: accepting a first rotational input made by way of said rotator input device as a desired pan direction for a sub area within said graphical data; accepting a second rotational input made by way of said rotator input device as a desired scrolling distance for said sub area in the selected pan direction within said graphical data; and presenting said sub area on said display.
Aforesaid telephone call connection may include at least one of the following: a voice call connection, a facsimile transmission connection and a data communication connection.
Aforesaid text-handling software application may include at least one of the following: a messaging application, a phonebook application, a calendar application, a notepad application, an Internet browser application, a WWW browser application, a WAP browser application, a contacts application, a camera application, an image recordal application, a video recordal application, an organizer application, a video game application, a calculator application, a voice memo application, an alarm clock application, a word processing application, a code memory application, a music player application, a media streaming application, and a control panel application, or any other application which uses at least one field for text input.
The mobile telephone may be adapted for use in GSM, UMTS, D-AMPS or CDMA2000, or another commercially available mobile telecommunications network.
Other aspects, objectives, features and advantages of the present invention will appear from the following detailed disclosure, from the attached dependent claims as well as from the drawings.
A mobile telephone has a display (240) and a rotator input device (250) comprising a rotatable element and capable of generating commands for browsing and selecting objects on the display. It also has a wireless telecommunication interface to a mobile telecommunications network. A processing device is coupled to the display, the rotator input device and the wireless telecommunication interface. A text-handling software application is executable by the processing device. The processing device is configured, in a first operating mode, to provide first user input by way of the rotator input device (250), said first user input including a number sequence representative of a desired telephone number which is to be reached over the mobile telecommunications network, and to use said first user input when establishing a telephone call connection through the wireless telecommunication interface. Moreover, the processing device is configured, in a second operating mode, to provide second user input by way of the rotator input device, said second user input including a character sequence representative of a desired text, and to forward said second user input to the text-handling software application No numeric or alphanumeric character keyboard is involved in neither of the first and second operating modes.
Description
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This application is a U.S. National Stage of PCT/IB2004/000962, filed on 30 Mar. 2004, which claims priority to the following applications, all of which are incorporated by reference herein: U.S. Ser. No. 10/434,055, filed on 8 May 2003; U.S. Ser. No. 10/449,036, filed on 29 May 2003; U.S. Ser. No. 10/458,401, filed on 10 Jun. 2003; and PCT/IB03/03926 filed on 15 Sep. 2003.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to equipment for mobile telecommunications, and more particularly to a mobile telephone having a display, a rotator input device comprising a rotatable element and capable of generating commands for browsing and selecting objects on said display, a wireless telecommunication interface, a processing device and a text-handling software application which is executable by said processing device.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Mobile telephones are becoming smaller and smaller. At some point the keyboard of a mobile telephone, typically a 12-button (alpha-)numeric keyboard commonly known as ITU-T keyboard, will become useless since it becomes too difficult for a user to press keys that are extremely small. Thus, the ITU-T keyboard may become a limiting factor which restricts the design of mobile telephones.
On the other hand, in modern mobile telephones the ITU-T keyboard plays several important roles and acts not only as a dialing keypad for manual entry of telephone numbers to call, but also as an alpha-numeric keyboard for text entry, a game control for arcade games, etc. As regards text entry, each key in the ITU-T keyboard often relates to several characters. A single key may, for instance, relate to the characters "a", "b" and "c". Pressing the key once produces the character "a", pressing the key twice within a short period of time produces the character "b", and pressing the key three times within a short period of time produces the character "c". Pressing the button twice slightly more slowly produces two "a":s. It is rather slow to use a keyboard in such a manner; therefore, various methods for facilitating text entry with an ITU-T keyboard have been developed. An example of such a method, wherein an object is to identify a word entered by a user, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,437 and is generally known as T9.
Mobile telephones often have a graphical user interface. To facilitate operation of the graphical user interface, mobile telephones often have special navigation key(s), in addition to or integrated with the ITU-T keyboard, such as arrow keys or a combined multi-way navigation key. However, such additional navigation keys add on to the total size of the keyboard, thereby further limiting the freedom to design.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,964 discloses a mobile telephone 1 that in addition to an ITU-T keyboard 7 has a roller 10, which replaces traditional navigation key(s) and allows the user to operate the user interface by rotating and depressing the roller to issue commands for browsing and selecting objects in the user interface. The ITU-T keyboard 7 is still used for other purposes like manual dialing and text entry.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above, an objective of the invention is to solve or at least reduce the problems discussed above. In more particular, a purpose of the invention is to provide a user interface for a mobile telephone that allows a smaller design with fewer elements for manual input, but that still allows the user to perform two important actions of manual input, namely manual dialing of telephone numbers to call as well as text entry.
Generally, the above objectives and purposes are achieved by a mobile telephone according to the attached independent patent claim.
One aspect of the invention is a mobile telephone having a display; a rotator input device comprising a rotatable element and capable of generating commands for browsing and selecting objects on said display; a wireless telecommunication interface to a mobile telecommunications network; a processing device coupled to said display, said rotator input device and said wireless telecommunication interface; and a text-handling software application which is executable by said processing device. The processing device is configured, in a first operating mode, to provide first user input by way of said rotator input device, said first user input including a number sequence representative of a desired telephone number which is to be reached over said mobile telecommunications network, and to use said first user input when establishing a telephone call connection through said wireless telecommunication interface. Moreover, the processing device is configured, in a second operating mode, to provide second user input by way of said rotator input device, said second user input including a character sequence representative of a desired text, and to forward said second user input to said text-handling software application. No numeric or alphanumeric character keyboard is involved in neither of said first and second operating modes.
Hence, according to the invention, the mobile telephone may be designed without a traditional numeric or alphanumeric character keyboard, such as a 12-key ITU-T keyboard, and yet provide manual input options like manual dialing of telephone numbers to call as well as text entry. This has important advantages, since it allows greater freedom when designing the mobile telephone, facilitates miniaturization of the mobile telephone and permits realization with fewer components for manual input, i.e. a potential cost benefit. Furthermore, the invention provides for user input in an intuitive manner which makes space-efficient use of the available display area.
Advantageously, the processing device is configured to control the user interface of the mobile telephone essentially only based on user input made by way of the rotator input device. Controlling the user interface in this manner may include actions such as browsing menus and selecting menu items. For instance, the processing device may be configured to control, based on user input made by way of the rotator input device, at least one of the following user interface actions: entering the first operating mode, exiting the first operating mode, entering the second operating mode and exiting the second operating mode.
In one embodiment, the processing device is configured, in said first operating mode, to provide said first user input by displaying numbers on said display and receiving commands from said rotator input device for browsing said numbers and for selecting, in successive order, individual numbers that constitute said number sequence. Moreover, in said second operating mode, the processing device is configured to provide said second user input by displaying characters on said display and receiving commands from said rotator input device for browsing said characters and for selecting, in successive order, individual characters that constitute said character sequence.
In one embodiment, the mobile telephone has a front housing surface, said rotatable element of said rotator input device being rotatable in a plane substantially parallel to said front housing surface and being depressible so as to allow generation of said commands for browsing and selecting. The rotatable element of said rotator input device may be depressible in a direction substantially perpendicular to said front housing surface. Moreover, the rotatable element of said rotator input device may be tiltably depressible at a plurality of positions along its periphery so as to allow generation of different commands for browsing and selecting for different ones of said plurality of positions. Such a tiltably depressible rotatable element thus provides for many more selection options than for instance a roller as in aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,964, where the roller is depressible in one direction only--downwardly towards the housing.
In one embodiment, the rotator input device has, in addition to said rotatable element, at least one depressible element, thereby allowing generation of said commands for browsing and selecting by rotation of said rotatable element and depression of said depressible element. The rotatable element of said rotator input device may comprise a ring with a center opening, wherein said at least one depressible element includes a depressible center key which is positioned in said center opening. The provision of such a center key will simplify certain operations such as marking text, since the center key may be conveniently depressed while simultaneously rotating the rotatable element. The depressible center key may be a four-way or five-way navigation key. Moreover, the at least one depressible element may comprise functional keys or soft keys disposed adjacently to said rotatable element.
In one embodiment, the rotator input device has a dynamic or selectable resolution for angular movement of said rotatable element, so that a given amount of angular movement will result in a corresponding amount of browsing or scrolling on said display which depends on an adjustable resolution setting. This resolution setting may be adjustable by at least one of the following: a user of the mobile telephone, an operating system in the mobile telephone, or a software application in the mobile telephone.
One embodiment further comprises a text prediction engine, wherein the processing device is configured, in said second operating mode, to display on said display a group of predicted characters that are available for browsing and selecting by way of said rotator input device. The text prediction engine may be configured to decide said group of predicted characters in response to a recently made user input and in accordance with a predefined inference logic. Advantageously, said recently made user input is a partial word; said predefined inference logic involves matching said partial word with a database of known and/or common words to predict most likely words that said partial word is part of; and said group of predicted characters, that is displayed on said display, is formed by a respective next character, following said partial word, in respective ones of said predicted most likely words.
In one embodiment, the processing device is configured in said second operating mode to display on said display, in addition to said characters, at least one control symbol that is available for browsing and selecting by way of said rotator input device, and wherein said at least one control symbol represents a user interface action that is performed upon selection of said control symbol. The at least one control symbol may represent at least one user interface action among the following: activating text prediction, deactivating text prediction, selecting a character set and selecting a cursor movement mode.
In one embodiment, the processing device is adapted to provide navigation within graphical data, which requires a larger presentation area than is available on said display, by: accepting a first rotational input made by way of said rotator input device as a desired pan direction for a sub area within said graphical data; accepting a second rotational input made by way of said rotator input device as a desired scrolling distance for said sub area in the selected pan direction within said graphical data; and presenting said sub area on said display.
Aforesaid telephone call connection may include at least one of the following: a voice call connection, a facsimile transmission connection and a data communication connection.
Aforesaid text-handling software application may include at least one of the following: a messaging application, a phonebook application, a calendar application, a notepad application, an Internet browser application, a WWW browser application, a WAP browser application, a contacts application, a camera application, an image recordal application, a video recordal application, an organizer application, a video game application, a calculator application, a voice memo application, an alarm clock application, a word processing application, a code memory application, a music player application, a media streaming application, and a control panel application, or any other application which uses at least one field for text input.
The mobile telephone may be adapted for use in GSM, UMTS, D-AMPS or CDMA2000, or another commercially available mobile telecommunications network.
Other aspects, objectives, features and advantages of the present invention will appear from the following detailed disclosure, from the attached dependent claims as well as from the drawings.
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