CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONSThis application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. P2001-51342, filed on Aug. 24, 2001, which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
This application is a continuation of a U.S. Reissue application Ser. No. 12/784,281, filed on May 20, 2010 now U.S. Pat. No. Re. 43,139, which is a reissue of U.S. Pat. No. 7,376,441, filed on Aug. 22, 2002 and issued on May 20, 2008. Additional continuation reissue applications have been filed based on U.S. Pat. No. 7,376,441 corresponding to U.S. Continuation Reissue application Ser. No. 12/882,954, filed on Sep. 15, 2010, and U.S. Continuation Reissue application Ser. No. 12/882,821, filed on Sep. 15, 2010.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for a mobile telephone, and more particularly, to apparatus and method of interacting with a mobile telephone using an interactive television system with a remote control unit.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
As there have been high demands from many mobile telephone users, many mobile communication service providers have recently started to provide not only a simple telephonic communication service, but also various supplemental communication services such as an Internet service, text/voice/image message service, and electronic mailing service. In order for a user to use any one of the various supplement services mentioned above, the user must be able to view images that are displayed on a display unit of a mobile telephone and to input one or more desired commands into the mobile telephone by pressing one or more buttons provided on the mobile telephone.
However, the sizes of the key buttons and display units of many existing mobile telephones are significantly limited due to the current trend toward smaller dimensions of the mobile telephones, and this create great inconveniences to many users for properly viewing the image and/or text data and inputting the desired commands by pressing the key buttons provided on the mobile telephones.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAccordingly, the present invention is directed to apparatus and method of interacting with a mobile telephone using an interactive television system that substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method of interacting with a mobile telephone using an interactive television system that provides a significantly improved way of interacting with the mobile telephone.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus of interacting with a mobile telephone using an interactive television system that provides a significantly improved way of interacting with the mobile telephone.
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, an apparatus of interacting with a mobile telephone according to the present invention includes a remote control unit receiving a user command from a user and remotely transmitting the user command, and a TV system connected to the mobile telephone. The TV system recognizes the user command remotely received from the remote control unit as a telephone function command and transmits the function command to the mobile telephone if the TV system is set to a telephone mode by the user. The TV system further outputs an output data set received from the mobile telephone in response to the transmitted function command.
The mobile telephone of the apparatus includes a TV interface unit interfacing with the television system for receiving the function command from the TV system and transmitting the output data set to the TV system, and a controller generating a control signal for generating the output data set in response to the function command and transmitting the generated output data set to the TV system.
On the other hand, the TV system of the apparatus includes a remote-control interface unit receiving the user command from the remote control unit, a telephone interface unit interfacing with the mobile telephone for transmitting the function command to the mobile telephone and receiving the output data set from the mobile telephone, a microcomputer generating a control signal for outputting the output data set received from the mobile telephone, a video/audio signal processor combining text or image data included in the output data set with an original image data according to the control signal, and a display unit displaying the combined data.
In another aspect of the present invention, a method of interacting with a mobile telephone using a TV system with a remote control unit includes the steps of (a) displaying a telephone key index on a TV display unit of the TV system if the TV system is set to a telephone mode by a user, (b) receiving a first user command from the user through the remote control unit, (c) recognizing the first user command as a telephone function command and transmitting the function command to the mobile telephone, and (d) receiving an output data set that the mobile telephone generates in response to the transmitted function command and displaying image or text data included in the output data set on the TV display unit.
In another aspect of the present invention, a method of interacting with a TV system with a remote control unit for a mobile telephone includes the steps of (a) checking whether the mobile telephone is connected to the TV system, (b) receiving a telephone function command that the TV system generates in response to a user command received from a user through the remote control unit, and (c) generating an output data set in response to the received function command and transmitting the output data set to the TV system.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the invention. In the drawings;
FIG. 1 illustrates an apparatus of interacting with a mobile telephone using an interactive TV system in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 illustrates is a flow chart illustrating a method of interacting with a mobile telephone using an interactive television system according to the present invention;
FIG. 3A illustrates a telephone key index that gets displayed on a display unit of the TV system according to the present invention;
FIG. 3B illustrates a TV key index that gets displayed on a display unit of the TV system according to the present invention; and
FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart illustrating a method of interacting with a TV system for a mobile telephone in accordance with the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTIONReference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.
FIG. 1 illustrates an apparatus of interacting with a mobile telephone using an interactive television system (TV system) with a remote control unit in accordance with the present invention. As it can be seen fromFIG. 1, the apparatus includes amobile telephone100 being able to receive or transmit various communication data including text, image, and/or voice data from a sender or to a receiver; aninteractive television system300 that is connected to themobile telephone100 and is able to display various data received from themobile telephone100; and aremote control unit200 for enabling a user to set theinteractive television system300 to TV Mode or Telephone Mode. Thetelevision system300 receives the output data from themobile telephone100 and displays the image/text data if the user has set thetelevision system300 to Telephone Mode.
Themobile telephone100 includes aTV interface unit110 for interfacing with theinteractive television system300 and further includes a controller (not illustrated) that gives a command for transmitting the output data corresponding to a telephone function command received from thetelevision system300. A user sets thetelevision system300 to Telephone Mode for interacting with themobile telephone100 or to TV Mode for performing various TV-related functions such as channel up/down and volume up/down functions.
Theinteractive television system300 shown inFIG. 1 includes a remote-control interface unit313 for receiving one or more user commands from theremote control unit200; atelephone interface unit319 connected to themobile telephone100 through aconnection unit320 for transmitting the user commands to themobile telephone100 and receiving the corresponding output data from themobile telephone100; amicrocomputer314 generating a control signal for displaying a key index corresponding to Telephone Mode or TV Mode and for outputting the output data received from themobile telephone100; a video/audio data processor315 combining an original image signal with the key index and/or image/text data included in the output data received from thetelephone100; and adisplay unit317 displaying the combined data.
In addition, theinteractive television system300 further includes atuner310 receiving a broadcasting signal; an A/D converter311 converting the analog broadcasting signal to a digital broadcasting signal; alink312 checking and correcting any error included in the converted digital signal; aspeaker318 outputting a sound signal processed in the video/audio data processor315 according to the control signal of themicrocomputer314; and amemory316 storing the program information of themicrocomputer314 or other information. Theinteractive television system300 may provide not only the video/audio data of the digital broadcasting signal, but also various supplemental program information.
The general functions of the components of thetelevision system300 will now be described in detail. First, thetuner310 receives various broadcasting signals including satellite, terrestrial, and cable broadcasting signals. Then the A/D converter311 converts the broadcasting signals to digital signals and outputs the converted digital signals to thelink312. Thelink312 performs error checking and correcting functions and outputs compressed video/audio data streams. In accordance with a control signal generated by themicrocomputer314, the video/audio data processor315 performs a compensation function on the compressed data streams and converts the compensated data streams to analog image/voice signals. Then the video and audio signals are outputted through thedisplay unit317 and thespeaker318, respectively.
In addition, when a user inputs a user command by pressing one or more key buttons provided on theremote control unit200, the remote-control interface unit313 transmits the user command to themicrocomputer314. Then themicrocomputer314 outputs a control signal for performing a desired function in response to the user command. Any graphic information generated by themicrocomputer314 upon receiving the user command from theremote control unit200 or other graphic information related to the supplemental program information are transmitted to the video/audiodata processing unit315 via a data bus and are added to the original image signals in accordance with the control signal of themicrocomputer314.
The apparatus according to the present invention enables a user to interact with amobile telephone100 by displaying the output data received from thetelephone100 on thedisplay unit317 of thetelevision system300 and inputting any telephone function command into themobile telephone100 using theremote control unit200.
The steps showing how the apparatus shown inFIG. 1 actually operates will now be described in detail. First of all, a user connects themobile telephone100 with theinteractive television system300 and sets thetelevision system300 to Telephone Mode or TV Mode by pressing a corresponding mode key button provided on theremote control unit200 or on a key panel of thetelevision system300.
When themicrocomputer314 receives a command setting the mode of thetelevision system300, it generates a corresponding control signal in order for the video/audio data processor315 to display a corresponding key index on thedisplay unit317 using an OSD function.
When thetelevision system300 is set to Telephone Mode, themicrocomputer314 checks whether themobile telephone100 is connected to thetelevision system300. Thereafter, when a user inputs a user command through theremote control unit200 for controlling themobile telephone100, themicrocomputer314 transmits a corresponding telephone function command to themobile telephone100. Upon receiving the function command from thetelevision system300, a controller of thetelephone100 generates a control signal in order to perform a corresponding telephone function such as viewing the phone numbers stored in thetelephone100 or viewing one of the text messages previously received.
Then themobile telephone100 transmits any data generated upon performing the function or any text/voice/image data received from an external source to thetelevision system300 via theTV interface unit110. Next, thetelevision system300 outputs the output data or text/voice/image data through thespeaker318 and/or thedisplay unit317.
Thedisplay unit317 may display the text/image data received from themobile telephone100 in a predetermined portion of thedisplay unit317 with or without the regular images of the broadcasting signal. On the other hand, when thetelevision system300 being initially set to TV Mode receives a user command from theremote control unit200 for performing a general TV function such as a power on/off, channel switching, and volume adjusting function, themicrocomputer314 generates a corresponding control signal so that the television system performs the desired TV function.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a method of interacting with amobile telephone100 using aninteractive television system300 according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, themicrocomputer314 included in thetelevision system300 initially checks whether themobile telephone100 is connected to thetelevision system300 through a connecting unit320 (S100). If it is confirmed in the step S100 that themobile telephone100 is connected to thetelevision system300, themicrocomputer314 further checks whether a user has inputted a first command for Telephone Mode by pressing a Telephone Mode button provided on aremote control unit200 or a key panel of the television system300 (S110).
If it is confirmed that the first command for Telephone Mode is received, themicrocomputer314 sets thetelevision system300 to Telephone Mode. Subsequently, a first key index corresponding to Telephone Mode is displayed on a predetermined portion of thedisplay unit317 of the television system300 (S120). An example of the first key index that gets displayed on thedisplay unit317 as thetelevision system300 is set to Telephone Mode is illustrated inFIG. 3A. The first key index is an On Screen Display (OSD) type index indicating what each key button of theremote control unit200 represents in Telephone Mode. For example, it includes a mode indicator indicating that the TV system is currently set to Telephone Mode.
On the other hand, if it is found in the step S110 that the first command for Telephone Mode is not inputted by the user, themicrocomputer314 checks whether the user has inputted a second command for TV Mode by pressing a TV Mode key button provided on theremote control unit200 or the key panel of the television system300 (S130). If it is confirmed in the step S130 that the second command for TV Mode is received, themicrocomputer314 sets thetelevision system300 to TV Mode. Subsequently, a second key index corresponding to TV Mode gets displayed on a predetermined portion of a display unit317 (S140). An example of the second key index that gets displayed on thedisplay unit317 as thetelevision system300 is set to TV Mode is illustrated inFIG. 3B. The second key index is also an On Screen Display (OSD) type index indicating what each key button of theremote control unit200 represents in TV Mode. For example, it includes a mode indicator indicating that the TV system is currently set to TV mode.
After thetelevision system300 is set to either one of Telephone Mode or TV Mode, themicrocomputer314 further checks whether the user has inputted a user command by pressing any key button of the remote control unit other than the Telephone or TV Mode key button (S150). If it is found in the step S150 that such user command is received from the remotely controlunit200, themicrocomputer314 further checks whether thetelevision system300 is currently set to Telephone Mode or TV Mode (S160). If the present mode is Telephone Mode, the user command is recognized as a telephone function command, and a corresponding key code gets transmitted to themobile telephone100 through a telephone interface unit319 (S170). On the other hand, if the present mode is found to be TV Mode, the user command is recognized as an ordinary TV function command, and thetelevision system300 performs a TV function corresponding to the TV function command (S180).
Finally, themicrocomputer314 further checks whether any output data has been received from the mobile telephone100 (S190). If it is confirmed that the output data has been received, thetelevision system300 performs a corresponding function according to the data received (S200). For example, it will display the text/image data included in the output data received from themobile telephone100 on thedisplay unit317 and output the sound data through thespeaker318. The steps of S150 to S200 may be repeated until the user inputs no further user command. In addition, the first or second key index displayed in the step S120 or S140 may be undisplayed if it is determined that the user inputs no further user command
FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating the steps carrying out a method of interacting with amobile telephone100 using aninteractive television system300 according to the present invention. As shown inFIG. 4, first of all, the controller (not illustrated) of themobile telephone100 checks whether theinteractive television system300 is connected to the mobile telephone100 (S300). Next, if it is confirmed in the step S300 that thetelevision system300 is connected to themobile telephone100, it further checks whether any one of text, image, and voice messages is received from a message sender (S310). If themobile telephone100 has received such message, it transmits the message to the television system300 (S320). Then thetelevision system300 displays the image or text message on thedisplay unit317 and outputs the voice message through thespeaker318.
On the other hand, if it is found in the step S310 that there is no data received, the controller of themobile telephone100 further checks whether any key code is received from the television system300 (S330). If it is found in the step S330 that themobile telephone100 received a key code from thetelevision system300, then the mobile telephone performs a corresponding function and transmits output data that it generates upon performing the function to the television system (S340). Subsequently, thedisplay unit317 of thetelevision system300 displays the text/image data and outputs the sound data included in the output data through thespeaker318.
According to the method of the present invention described above, a user is able to interact with a mobile telephone using an interactive television system by displaying the text/image data received from the telephone and by inputting various telephone function commands using a remote control unit. Upon receiving a function command from the television system that the user has inputted through the remote control unit, the output data that the mobile telephone generates in response to the function command is transmitted to television system. Finally the text/image data of the output data is displayed on a display unit of the television system and the sound data is outputted through a speaker. As a result, a user may conveniently interact with the mobile telephone using the display unit and speaker of the television system and a remote control unit.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.