Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for using a touch screen display on a portable intelligent communications device

US6433801B1 · kind B1 · utility

311Cited by
14References
32Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 26, 1997
Grant dateAug 13, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 26, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04M1/724
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A portable intelligent communications device is provided which includes a cellular telephone and a computer-controlled touch screen display. The touch screen display is a high-resolution graphics display which acts as a graphical user interface. Since the touch screen display is smaller in size than a standard laptop computer's display, the information boxes and menu selections are re-sized so as to fit on the smaller screen, however, each of the choices is made large enough in surface area so that a human finger can tactilely operate the touch screen display without the need of a more precise pointing device. Instead of using pull-down menus or drop down lists, the graphical user interface provides a selection list based upon virtual control buttons and virtual “image buttons” in which each image button is labeled to describe the option that can be selected by pressing that button. In situations where touching a control button opens a second level of the menu, this second level of menu choices (or “image buttons”) is either docked adjacent to the display's work area, or is launched as a floating window on top of the work area. The user also may reconfigure …

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.