Portable terminal device

In a portable terminal device of the invention, when a menu key provided on a keyboard is depressed by an operator, a copy/move menu is displayed on a display area under the control of a CPU which detects this depression. Then, the CPU determines which is specified as data to be copied or moved, a set of data displayed on the display area or part of the set of data. The specified data is input to a transfer buffer, and a copy or move process is executed. In a case where an insert process is selected for inserting the data stored in The transfer buffer into another display position, the transfer data is transferred to an input buffer, so as to copy or move the transfer data to the other position.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a portable terminal device such as an 
electronic pocket organizer. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
Electronic pocket organizers have been developed as an alternative to a 
pocket diary and is suitable for an information era. An example of such an 
electronic pocket organizer has functions capable of copying and moving a 
set of data (i.e., a set of data in a telephone book including personal 
data items such as name, telephone number, zip code, address, and note 
(place of work, position)) which is displayed on a liquid crystal display 
area. 
The term "copy" represents a process in which a set of data or a character 
string such as a telephone number included in the set of data displayed on 
the display area can be copied to another display position. Specifically, 
data to be copied is first transferred to a transfer buffer associated 
with a CPU which serves as a control center for the electronic pocket 
organizer. Then, the data stored in the transfer buffer is inserted into 
another display position. 
The term "move" represents a process in which a set of data or a character 
string displayed on the display area and to be moved is first transferred 
to the transfer buffer, and then is deleted from the display area. Then, 
the data stored in the transfer buffer is inserted into another display 
position. 
In the copy and transfer processes of the prior art, a keyboard or the like 
of the electronic pocket organizer was initially operated so as to select 
a copy operation or a move operation, and then data to be copied or moved 
was specified. 
The above-mentioned procedure is conducted inversely to the normal thought 
process of a human being in which data to be copied or moved would be 
initially specified and then a copy operation or a move operation would be 
selected. Accordingly, the operability of the devices is poor and an 
operation mistake is likely to occur. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The portable terminal device of this invention, which overcomes the 
above-discussed and numerous other disadvantages and deficiencies of the 
pilot art, comprises: input means for receiving information data and 
commands from an operator; a RAM for storing information data and area 
data; a display area for displaying information data in an information 
data portion and menu selections in a menu selection portion; control 
means for getting area data indicative of the location of an identified 
area on said display, for storing said area data in said RAM, and for 
displaying said identified area in a particular manner; and processing 
means for sequentially permitting an area of information data to be 
selected from the information data portion and then a function to be 
selected from the menu selection portion, for determining whether there 
exists the selected area of information data from said area data, for, if 
YES, processing the selected area of the information data in accordance 
with the selected function, and for, if NO, processing the whole 
information data in accordance with the selected function. 
In another aspect of the invention, a portable terminal device, comprises: 
input means for receiving information data and commands from an operator; 
a RAM for storing information data and area data; a display area for 
displaying information data in an information data portion and menu 
selections in a menu selection portion; a touch panel substantially 
covering said menu selection portion and at least part of said information 
data portion of said display area; control means for causing said touch 
panel to output area data indicative of the location of an identified area 
on said display, for storing said area data in said RAM, and for 
displaying said identified area in a particular manner; and processing 
means for sequentially permitting an area of information data to be 
selected from the information data portion and then a function to be 
selected from the menu selection portion, for identifying the selected 
area of the information data and the selected function from said area 
data, and for processing the selected area of the information data in 
accordance with the selected function. 
In another aspect of the invention, a data processing method for a portable 
terminal device, comprising the steps of: receiving information data and 
commands from an operator; displaying information data in an information 
data portion and menu selections in a menu selection portion; getting area 
data indicative of the location of identified area of information data in 
the information portion on said display; storing said area data; 
displaying said identified area in a particular manner; allowing a 
function to be selected from the menu selection portion; and determining 
whether there exists an identified area of information data from said area 
data, if there exists an identified area, then processing the identified 
area of the information data in accordance with the selected function, 
else, processing the whole information data in accordance with the 
selected function. 
With the above-mentioned construction, after selecting information data 
from the information data portion, the operator selects a function from 
the menu selection portion. If there exists a reverse-video area of 
information data identified by operating the touch panel, the identified 
area of the information data is copied or moved by processing means in 
accordance with the selected function. If the touch panel is not operated, 
the display remains normal. In this case, the processing means copies or 
moves the whole information data in accordance with the selected function. 
Therefore, according to the invention, data to be copied or moved is first 
identified, and then the identified data is processed for copy or move. 
Thus, the invention described herein makes possible the objective of 
providing a portable terminal device in which data can be copied or moved 
in an operation procedure similar to the thought process sequence, and 
consequently, the operability can be significantly enhanced.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of circuitry of an electronic pocket organizer 
according to the present invention. A CPU 1 serves as a control center of 
the electronic pocket organizer, and controls various processes such as a 
copy process and a move process which are described below in accordance 
with control programs stored in a ROM 2. During the processes, various 
data are written into and read from a RAM 3. 
The CPU 1 waits for a key input by an operator. In other words, when the 
operator depresses a corresponding key of a keyboard 5, information 
related to the depressed key is input to the CPU 1 through an I/O portion 
4. 
When the operator inputs a set of personal data including five items of 
name, telephone number, zip code, address, and notes from the keyboard 5, 
the input data is first written into the RAM 3, and then read out to be 
written into a display memory 7 under the control of the CPU 1. The data 
in the display memory 7 is displayed on a liquid crystal display area 6 by 
a command from the CPU 1. 
A touch panel 8 is attached to the display area 6 so as to cover this area. 
The touch panel 8 is made of a transparent analog resistive film so that 
the data displayed on the display area 6 can be seen through the touch 
panel 8. A control circuit 9 is connected to the touch panel 8 for 
controlling the voltage application to the touch panel 8, etc. When the 
operator drags a finger or the like on the touch panel 8, the control 
circuit 9 commands the touch panel 8 to output the information indicative 
of the position of the dragged area as an analog signal. An A/D converter 
10 converts the analog signal into a digital signal accessible by the CPU 
1. The CPU 1 interprets the digital signal into a command signal. The 
control circuit 9 causes the data corresponding to the dragged area to be 
displayed on the display area 6 in reverse video from the command signal 
of CPU 1. 
FIGS. 2, 3 and 5 show examples of the screen of the display area 6. On the 
screen of FIG. 2, a set of data described above is displayed. In FIG. 2, 
the data category "telephone book", name of a person "Taro TOKYO", 
telephone number "03(3456)7890" , zip code ".circle.100" , address 
"Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo" and notes "President of business connecting company" 
are displayed in this order from the top of the display area 6 in a 
left-Justified manner. 
FIG. 3 shows a screen after the operator drags a finger to a character 
string of the name "Taro TOKYO" in FIG. 2. The dragged area "Taro TOKYO", 
i.e. , the hatched area in FI. 3, is displayed in reverse video. 
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a control procedure for a reverse-video 
process in which after the operator drags the finger on the touch panel 8, 
the characters displayed in an area on the display area 6 corresponding to 
the dragged area are displayed in reverse video. In FIG. 4, REV flag, 
RSTART, and REND are variables stored in the RAM 3. 
In step S40, the CPU 1 Judges whether or not the REV flag is set to "1". 
The REV flag of "1" indicates that a character string in reverse video is 
displayed on the display area 6. The REV flag of "0" indicates that a 
character string in reverse video is not displayed on the display area 6. 
Only when the CPU I determines in step S40 that the REV flag is set to "1", 
will the display of the character string in reverse video be changed back 
to normal display (step S41). 
In step S42, when the operator drags the finger on the touch panel 8, the 
CPU 1 Judges whether there exist characters displayed in an area on the 
display area 6 corresponding to the dragged area on the touch panel 8 or 
not. 
If Yes, the information indicative of the position of the characters on the 
display area 6 (i.e., the item code and the offset from the starting point 
of the item) corresponding to the position touched by the finger of the 
operator on the touch panel 8, is stored in RSTART and REND, respectively, 
under the control of the CPU 1 (step S43). For example, in the case of 
FIG. 3, an item code corresponding to the name and a "1" indicating the 
offset from the starting point of the item ("1" indicates the starting 
point) are stored in RSTART and REND, respectively. At this time, the 
characters displayed in the corresponding area of the display area 6 are 
displayed in reverse video under the control of the CPU 1. 
If No in step S42, the process advances to step S47 in which the 
reverse-video process is terminated. 
Next, in step S44, it is detected whether or not the finger of the operator 
has moved away from the touch panel 8. If Yes, the process proceeds to 
step S47 in which the reverse-video process is terminated. If No, it is 
detected whether the finger of the operator is in the same position on the 
touch panel 8 as previously or not. 
If Yes, the process returns to step S44. If No, now that the finger of the 
operator is being dragged across the touch panel 8, the information 
indicative of the position of the characters on the display area 6 
corresponding to the position touched by the finger of the operator on the 
touch panel 8 is stored in REND, and the character string specified by 
RSTART and REND is displayed in reverse video under the control of the CPU 
I (step S46). 
FIG. 5 shows a screen when a copy/move menu is selected by depressing a 
corresponding key of the keyboard 5, and the menu is displayed on the 
screen of FIG. 3. In the right portion of the display area 6, the menu 
name "copy/move", menu No. 1 "copy", menu No. 2 "move", and menu No. 3 
"insert" are displayed in this order from the top of the display area 6. 
The menu No. 3 "insert" is displayed only when the copy or move process is 
executed. 
Next, referring to FIG. 6, the control procedure of CPU i when the 
copy/move menu is selected is described. When the corresponding menu key 
of the keyboard 5 is depressed by the operator, the copy/move menu is 
displayed on the display area 6 as shown in FIG. 5 under the control of 
the CPU I in step S1. Prior to this, in the left portion of the display 
area 6, a set of data has been read out from the display memory 7 and 
displayed as shown in FIG. 2. When the CPU 1 detects that the operator 
drags a finger or the like in an area on the touch panel 8 corresponding 
to the display area of "copy" or "move" of the copy/move menu displayed on 
the display area 6, or when the CPU 1 detects that the numeric key "1" or 
"2" of the keyboard 5 is depressed (the numeric key "1" is depressed for 
copy operation and the numeric key "2" is for move operation) , the CPU 1 
determines that the menu is selected (step S2) and the display of 
copy/move menu is deleted (step S3). 
The position of the dragged area of the touch panel 8 is detected based 
upon the signal from the A/D converter 10, and the depression of the 
numeric key "1" or "2" is detected from the signal from the I/O portion 4, 
as described above. 
In step S4, it is judged whether or not there exists a reverse-video 
character string on the display area 6, based on the variables RSTART and 
REND stored in the RAM 3. If it is Judged that a reverse-video character 
string exists, the reverse-video character string is transferred from the 
display memory 7 to a transfer buffer which is associated with the display 
memory 7 in step S5. Then, in step S6, it is judged whether the menu 
selected in step S2 is the move menu or not. If Yes, the CPU 1 executes a 
move process in which the reverse-video character string transferred to 
the transfer buffer is deleted from the displayed data (step S7). 
Next, in step S8, the data is displayed again on the display area 6. At 
this time, since the reverse-video character string has been deleted, the 
character string is not displayed. On the other hand, if it is judged in 
step S7 that the copy menu is selected, the move process is not executed 
and the data including the reverse-video character string transferred to 
the transfer buffer is displayed (step S8). The redisplay process of step 
S8 is over and the flag is set to "1" in step S9. The flag of "1" 
indicates that a character string is stored in the transfer buffer. Then, 
the process proceeds to step S10 where a next process such as an insert 
process, which is described below, is executed. 
If it is judged in step S4 that there is no reverse-video character string 
on the display area 6, the process advances to step S11 in which it is 
judged whether or not a set of data is displayed. When it is judged that a 
set of data is not displayed on the display area 6 (the screen in such a 
state of the display area 6 is referred to as an initial screen), in other 
words, when a set of data has not been read from the RAM 3 yet or the 
electronic pocket organization is set in a state which allows the operator 
to input characters, the process advances to step S10 in which a next 
process is executed. 
When it is judged that a set of data is displayed, the set of data is 
transferred to the transfer buffer in step S12. In step S13, it is judged 
whether or not the move menu is selected. If Yes, the move process is 
executed in which the set of data displayed on the display area 6 is 
deleted. Next, the initial screen is displayed in step S15, and then the 
flag is set to "2" in step S16. The flag of "2" indicates that a set of 
data is stored in the transfer buffer. After step S16, the process 
proceeds to step S10 in which a next process is executed. 
If it is determined that the copy menu is selected in step S13, the process 
proceeds to step S16 in which the flag is set to "2". Then, the process 
advances to step S10. 
Next, referring to FIG. 7, the control procedure for a data insert process 
of the CPU 1 after step S10 is described. When the CPU I detects that the 
copy/move menu is selected by depressing the corresponding key, the CPU 1 
determines the state of the flag. If it is determined that the flag is set 
to "1" or "2", i.e., that a character string or a set of data is stored in 
the transfer buffer, the "copy/move" menu shown in FIG. 5 is displayed on 
the display area 6. Then, after it is detected that the menu No. 3 
"insert" is selected by operating the touch panel 8 or by depressing the 
numeric key "3" (step S21), the menu display is deleted in step S22. 
Next, in step S23, the CPU 1 judges whether or not the electronic pocket 
organizer is in a state which allows the operator to input characters. 
When the electronic pocket organizer is in that state, the characters 
input by the operator are sequentially stored in an input buffer 
associated with the display memory 7. A cursor indicative of the position 
at which a character can be input is displayed on the display area 6. 
If Yes in step S23, the data stored in the transfer buffer is transferred 
to a position in the input buffer corresponding to the position of the 
cursor displayed on the display area 6 in step S24. The data stored in the 
input buffer is then transferred to the display memory 7 and displayed on 
the display area 6 by the command of the CPU 1. In this way, the data 
stored in the transfer buffer can be inserted at the position of the 
cursor displayed on the display area 6. 
After inserting the data in step S24, the CPU 1 moves the cursor adjacent 
the inserted character string (step S25). Then, the process proceeds to 
step S26 in which a next process is executed. 
If No in step S23, the CPU 1 judges whether or not the data stored in the 
transfer buffer is a set of data. This judgment is conducted by detecting 
the state of the flag. The flag of "2" indicates that the data stored in 
the transfer buffer is a set of data. The flag of "1" indicates that the 
data stored in the transfer buffer is a character string. 
When the CPU 1 determines that the data stored in the transfer buffer is a 
set of data, the set of data is transferred to the input buffer (step 
S28). 
The input buffer is divided into blocks for storing respective items of the 
set of data such as the name, telephone number, address, zip code, and 
notes. Codes for identifying the respective blocks are attached to the 
respective blocks. 
The data transferred to the input buffer in step S28 is combined with data 
which exists in the input buffer before the transfer in a block-to block 
manner. Thereafter, the CPU 1 moves the cursor to a position corresponding 
to the starting position of the input buffer (step S29). Then, the process 
proceeds to step S26 in which a next process is executed. 
When the CPU 1 determines in step S27 that the data stored in the transfer 
buffer is a character string, the character string is transferred to the 
input buffer (step S30). The character string transferred to the input 
buffer in step S30 is combined with the data which exists in the input 
buffer before the transfer depending on the block for the character 
string. The thus combined data is displayed on the display area 6. The CPU 
1 moves the cursor to a position corresponding to the ending position of 
the input buffer (step S31). Then, the process advances to step S26 in 
which a next process is executed. 
As described above, the term "insert" used in this embodiment represents a 
process for moving the data stored in the transfer buffer to the input 
buffer. The combination of "copy" and "insert" enables the data to be 
copied to another display position. The combination of "move" and "insert" 
enables the data to be moved to another display position. 
According to the invention, the copy process and the move process can be 
performed in accordance with the operation procedure corresponding to the 
thought process of a human being. In other words, data to be copied or 
moved is initially specified and then the copy process or the move process 
for the data is selected. Therefore, the operability is enhanced and the 
operation mistake hardly occurs, thereby improving the convenience in use 
of the electronic pocket organizer of the invention. 
It is understood that various other modifications will be apparent to and 
can be readily made by those skilled in the art without departing from the 
scope and spirit of this invention. Accordingly, it is not intended that 
the scope of the claims appended hereto be limited to the description as 
set forth herein, but rather that the claims be construed as encompassing 
one or more of the features of patentable novelty that reside in the 
present invention, including all features that would be treated as 
equivalents thereof by those skilled in the art to which this invention 
pertains.