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. The touch screen display is provided with an area that displays various informative meter icons that sequentially switches from one icon to the next. This is very desirable since the touch screen display is rather small in size, and there may not be enough space to simultaneously show the user all the information required by various meters. Standard meters include: battery power, signal strength, print status, status of messages, and the like. The switching or “rotating” meters are controlled by a user selectable timetable, and one of the meters can take a higher priority in situations where the value displayed by the meter has changed state. In addition, the area around the rotating meter could be flashed with new information when something out of the ordinary occurs, such as a “New Mail” alert.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates generally to mobile communications equipment and is particularly directed to a cellular telephone of the type which includes a computer-controlled graphics display. The invention is specifically disclosed as a portable intelligent communications device that has a touch screen display in which the graphics user interface displays a switching meter icon at a given area on the display, and the switching or “rotating” meter displays various symbols that each represent information related to system performance of the portable intelligent communications device. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     Various types of portable laptop computers have been available for many years, and their flat panel displays typically run in a Windows™ environment as the graphics user interface. Windows-compatible computer programs that execute on laptop computers typically use pull-down menus so the user can select from various choices to operate the executing program, and many times choices will be presented to the user using a drop down list in which the user can type in certain information, such as operating parameters or filenames. Windows-compatible displays frequently include one or more informative “meters” to indicate various system operating parameters, such as “battery life” (i.e., battery power remaining) or “print status,” and the like. In a complex computer system, displaying all of the informative meters of interest to the user at one time may require an inordinate amount of display real estate, especially for portable computers with limited display sizes, such as in laptop computers. For portable computers having case sizes even smaller than laptop computers, the relatively small size of the associated graphics display will require some changes to the “normal” method of displaying system performance information. 
     Portable telephones, particularly cellular telephones, have also been available for years. Most such equipment is computer controlled, in which the cellular phone includes a microprocessor or other processing control unit, along with sufficient random access memory to store some of the parameters that can be selected by the phone&#39;s user. Some telephones include a relatively small liquid crystal display which can show various types of information, including the telephone number being dialed, and/or the telephone number of a call being received. Such displays are typically limited to alphanumeric characters, and do not lend themselves well to displaying graphical data or images. 
     It would be desirable to provide a portable telephone with a high-resolution graphics display in order to make better use of the processing power that is available when including a microprocessor within the portable telephone. Such a device could be configured to run computer programs that are comparable to Windows-type software in the form of word processors, spreadsheets, and other communications software such as a web browser. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a portable intelligent communications device that has the capability of acting as a cellular telephone and as a laptop computer. 
     It is another object of the present invention to provide a portable intelligent communications device that includes a cellular telephone and a high-resolution graphics display screen in which various information meter icons are sequentially displayed. 
     Additional objects, advantages and other novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description that follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned with the practice of the invention. 
     To achieve the foregoing and other objects, and in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, an improved portable intelligent communications device is provided which includes a portable or cellular telephone and a computer-controlled touch screen display. The touch screen display is a high-resolution graphics display, and while it is smaller in size than a standard laptop computer display, the touch screen display of the present invention acts as a graphical user interface in which various executable computer programs can be accessed and executed on the portable intelligent communications device. A microprocessor controls the graphics display, and also controls a modem that communicates with the transmitter/receiver portion of the cellular telephone. Under control of the microprocessor, the portable intelligent communications device can communicate over the Internet by use of a web browser program resident in the portable intelligent communications device. 
     Since the touch screen graphics display is smaller in size than a standard laptop computer&#39;s display, the area used for displaying information is at a premium, including the portion of the display that illustrates informative meters. Consequently, the display of the personal business communicator is provided with an area that displays various informative meter icons that sequentially switch or “rotate” from one icon to the next. This is very desirable since the touch screen display is rather small in size, and there may not be enough space to show the user all the information required by various meters. In the present invention, the word “meter” is defined as a “small” application program that constantly monitors the system in the background (or checks the system periodically) and displays the information graphically. Standard meters include: battery power, signal strength, print status, status of messages, handset out of range indicator, types of hardware status messages (e.g., PCMCIA slot usage, infrared connections), and the like. The rotating meters are controlled by a user selectable timetable, and one of the meters can take a higher priority in situations where the value displayed by the meter has changed state. In addition, the area around the rotating meter could be flashed with new information when something out of the ordinary occurs, such as a “New Mail” alert. 
     Still other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in this art from the following description and drawings wherein there is described and shown a preferred embodiment of this invention in one of the best modes contemplated for carrying out the invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of other different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modification in various, obvious aspects all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and descriptions will be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The accompanying drawings incorporated in and forming a part of the specification illustrate several aspects of the present invention, and together with the description and claims serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings: 
     FIG. 1 is a right-hand, frontal perspective view of a portable intelligent communications device, as constructed according to the principles of the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the major components of the portable intelligent communications device of FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 3 depicts a graphical user interface display provided with the portable intelligent communications device of FIG. 1, showing some of the tabbed panel menu areas and a work area with no docking dialog. 
     FIG. 4 depicts a graphical user interface display provided with the portable intelligent communications device of FIG. 1, in which a dialog for “saving a file” is docked on top of the work area, and in which a set of informative meter icons are displayed in the status bar. 
     FIG. 5 depicts a graphical user interface display provided with the portable intelligent communications device of FIG. 1, in which a rotating informative meter icon is displayed in the status bar. 
     FIG. 6 depicts a graphical user interface display provided with the portable intelligent communications device of FIG. 1, in which a different rotating meter icon is displayed in the status bar. 
     FIG. 7 depicts a graphical user interface display provided with the portable intelligent communications device of FIG. 1, which is used to configure a “fixed” meter icon and a “rotating” meter icon. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiment of the invention, an example of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like numerals indicate the same elements throughout the views. 
     Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a portable intelligent communications device generally depicted by the reference numeral  10 . Some of the major components include a telephone handset  20 , a speaker  22 , optional control buttons  24 , an optional stylus  26 , and a touch screen display  30 . Along the far side of portable intelligent communications device  10  is an antenna  64 , and various plug-in ports (not shown), including optional personal computer card ports, an optional keyboard port, and an optional telephone land-line connector (depicted in dashed lines at  60 ). Portable intelligent communications device  10  preferably is no larger than a standard business desk telephone, and the touch screen display  30  is preferably a rectangular display having a pixel density of at least 640 by 480 pixels, and a size of around eight (8) inches across its diagonal. 
     In FIG. 2, the major components of the portable intelligent communications device  10  are depicted in a block diagram format. A microprocessor  40  preferably is provided in the portable intelligent communications device to control the various operations of the data being transferred into or out of the portable intelligent communications device, and to control the graphic display  30 . As in most computer-based systems, microprocessor  40  will communicate with other components over a bus system  48 , which typically includes address lines, data lines, and control lines. Bus system  48  connects microprocessor  40  to read only memory (ROM)  42 , user changeable non-volatile “flash” memory (e.g., an EPROM circuit)  43 , random access memory (RAM)  44 , and an optional bulk memory storage device  46 , such as a hard disk drive. A power supply  50  is also provided, which typically would be energized by batteries. Microprocessor  40  is also connected to a display driver circuit  52 , which controls the images that are emitted by the graphic display  30 . 
     Microprocessor  40  communicates with a set of input/output buffers  54 , which may be separate hardware components, or may be part of the main system RAM  44 . The I/O buffers  54  are connected to a modem  56 , which in turn is connected to the handset  20 . Modem  56  is also optionally connected to a land line connection (e.g., via land line jack  60 ), which would enable the portable intelligent communications device  10  to directly be plugged into a telephone line via a wall jack. Modem  56  is also connected via a matrix switch (not shown) to a radio frequency transmitter/receiver unit  62 , which in turn is connected to antenna  64 . An exemplary portable intelligent communications device is disclosed in a co-pending patent application entitled, “Switching of Analog Signals in Mobile Computing Devices,” and having the Ser. No. 08/796,119, which is owned by the assignee of the present invention, and hereby is incorporated by reference herein. 
     As will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, portable intelligent communications device  10  can be configured to act as a very powerful and versatile piece of communications equipment, and with the proper software, also can act as a portable computer having a flat-panel display. With sufficient RAM and a medium-size hard disk drive, the portable intelligent communications device  10  could act as a Windows-based personal computer platform, and could run the standard Windows-based computer programs, such as Microsoft WordT™. However, since the graphic display  30  is physically smaller than most monitor screens that are provided with personal computers or laptop computers, the standard Windows-based computer programs and graphical user interface systems may not be easily used without some modifications. 
     In the present invention, the menu choices for the graphical user interface are provided with a windowing-type environment, which can be achieved through a docking of dialogs, information boxes and keyboard symbols. This will drastically reduce clutter and confusion for the user when using the portable intelligent communications device&#39;s windowing environment. For example, FIG. 3 depicts a graphical user interface (not to scale) preferably provided with portable intelligent communications device  10 , which in this example acts as a text editor or word processor. The title of the computer program, “Editor,” is located in the top window title bar at reference numeral  100 , just like in other standard Windows-based application programs. The standard control buttons are also located along the right-hand side of this top window title bar. 
     The main control panel is depicted at reference numeral  110 , as a tab area having a series of tabbed selections, such as “File” at  112 , “Format” at  114 , and “Setup” at  116 , as some of the choices. Options displayed in this manner will be referred to hereinbelow as “tab control panels,” or as a “tab menu area.” 
     After one of the tabs has been selected by the user, a second level of menu choices, known as “dialogs” will now appear on the display, as seen at reference numeral  120 . As used herein, the term “dialog” does not necessarily refer to a pop-up display, but could instead be docked somewhere else within existing windows. In the example display of FIG. 3, the user has selected the “File” tab at  112 , which brings forth the second level menu choices, such as “New” at  122 , “Open” at  124 , “Save” at  126 , etc., finally ending with a dialog called “Exit” at  128 . As will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, these dialogs provide the same functions as pull-down menu choices that appear on a standard Windows-based word processing program, which provides menu choices, such as “File.” 
     A “work area” at reference numeral  130  is provided which, in the case of a word processor or text editor, would include the image of a document that is being created or edited. As in most word processing computer programs, the size of the “window” that shows the actual contents of the document being edited is much too small to display the entire document at one time. Consequently, there is a vertical scroll bar at  132 , and a horizontal scroll bar at  134 . These scroll bars operate in the same manner as the equivalent vertical and horizontal controls for a Windows-based word processing program. The bottom rectangular area at reference numeral  140  will preferably be used to display status information. 
     Another advantage of the portable intelligent communications device of the present invention is that its graphical user interface is designed to be operated by touch-navigation, meaning that the human finger can be placed directly on the menu item choice of interest, which will have an identical effect as if a mouse or other pointing device were used to make the menu selection choice. The shape and size of the control buttons and the tabs are such that a human finger can select the appropriate control button (or tab) without flowing over onto an adjacent control button. Since the relatively small size of the graphic display  30  will not allow as large a menu set of choices as a standard laptop computer&#39;s display, the graphical user interface of the present invention must be intelligently designed to provide the appropriate controls and options while still having these controls spaced appropriately for finger navigation. While finger navigation is the preferred mode of operation for portable intelligent communications device  10 , a stylus or light pen  26  may optionally be provided so that a user may make selections on display  30  with somewhat greater accuracy, if desired. 
     FIG. 5 again illustrates the Editor application  100 , which includes a tab menu area  110  and a set of image buttons at  120 . The work area is depicted at  130 . Various types of information are displayed using icons and other symbols on the status bar  140 , such as a mailbox that raises a flag if new E-mail has arrived. On a portable device having a small display screen, however, there may not be enough area to show the user all of the information required by various informative meters. The use herein of the word “meter” represents a “small” application program that constantly monitors the computer system in the background (or checks the system periodically), and displays the information graphically. The relatively small meter area, designated by reference numeral  450 , represents a sequencing or “rotating” meter that causes a single area on the overall display screen to act as a “super meter.” The super meter operates to provide various status displays that sequentially switch from one symbol to another symbol in the same area (i.e., at  450 ). Standard meters are depicted to indicate such information as battery power, signal strength, print status, status of messages, handset out of range indicator, types of hardware status messages (e.g., PCMCIA slot usage, infrared connections), and other similar functions. The super meter “rotates” automatically between the various types of meters that are to be displayed. 
     Of course, one of the rotating meters may obtain priority in the event of a change in state, such as some type of error condition. For example, if the battery power of the portable intelligent communications device falls to a certain critical level, then rotating meter  450  may show the battery power meter more often, or alternatively may show the same rotation sequence, except that the battery signal will be enhanced by a background color to catch the user&#39;s attention more easily. Since the meters are aware of the fact that they are in a sequencing or rotating meter cue, they can “ask” to be immediately displayed if they have changed state. Another way to obtain the user&#39;s attention more readily is by flashing the area surrounding the rotating meter at appropriate times, and/or by issuing an audible “bell” signal. 
     In the illustrated example of FIG. 5, the meter icon represents a battery power indicator for the portable intelligent communications device  10 . The symbol at  452  generally resembles a battery, and a bar graph at  454  indicates the amount of charge remaining in the batteries that power the portable intelligent communications device. This informative meter icon  450  is depicted in its preferred location, i.e., along the left-hand side of status bar  140 . 
     FIG. 6 illustrates the same Editor display screen, however, the status bar  140  now shows a different meter icon at  460 . The former battery power icon  450  has rotated off of the screen for now, and has been replaced by a signal strength meter  460 . The symbol  462  generally illustrates an antenna dish, and the signal strength is indicated by a number and symbol. In the illustrated example, the signal strength can be portrayed in increments between zero (0) and five (5). On FIG. 6, the symbol at  464  indicates three (3) bars, and the numeric symbol at  466  also indicates the number “three.” Of course, the numeric and bar symbols can vary anywhere between zero (0) and five (5). 
     It is preferred to have the meters rotate to save enough area so that other status information can be shown in the other spaces of status bar  140 . The meters can alternate or sequence automatically at intervals, such as once every five (5) seconds. In addition, if there is a change of state in one of the meters, that meter can be highlighted by flashing its background when its turn to be displayed arrives, or it can also be displayed immediately, especially if there is any type of error or alarm state that the portable intelligent communications device  10  wishes. to bring to the user&#39;s attention. It will be understood that there could be a rotating meter at one location in the status bar, while other locations of the status bar could display fixed meters that never leave the screen. Furthermore, more than one rotating meter could be displayed at different locations along status bar  140  without departing from the principles of the present invention. 
     The types of informative meters preferably can be configured by the user by bringing up a “Meters” customization panel on touch-screen display  30 . An example of such a Meters customization panel is depicted on FIG. 7, in which several configuration “tabs” are made available at the reference numeral  300  for use by the user. One of the tabs (and the one that is currently selected by the user on FIG. 7) is titled “Meters” at  310 , and another tab is titled “Launchpad” at  312 . 
     Since the Meters tab  310  has been selected on FIG. 7, a list of some of the types of informative meters that preferably are provided with portable intelligent communications device  10  is shown in a “Select Meter” box, generally depicted at the reference numeral  320 . This list includes a “Battery Power” meter at  322  and a “Signal Strength” meter at  324 . Other types of informative meters that preferably are provided (but which are not all depicted in the box  320 ) include: “PC-Card”, “Memory” (i.e., memory usage), “Clock”, “IrDA”, “Serial Port”, “Keyboard”, “Volume”, “Speaker Phone”, “Handset”, and “Messaging” (e.g., new E-mail), “Handset Out of Range” indicator, and types of hardware status messages (e.g., “PCMCIA Slot Usage”, “Infrared Connection”). Certainly, further types of informative meters could be included in Select Meter box  320 , and could be accessed by use of a scroll bar at  326 . 
     As related hereinabove, some of the informative meters can be “fixed” and others can be “rotating.” Both types of meters can be configured from the “Meters” customization panel shown on FIG.  7 . Once the “Meters” tab  310  is selected from the operating systems “configuration” application, fixed meters can be added to or removed from a “Meter Panel” at  330 , and rotating meters can be added to or removed from a “Meter Player” at  350 . Meter types that are selected to be displayed as a “fixed” meter will be positioned along the status bar  140  and will constantly appear on the status bar, as for example, the meters  232  and  234  depicted on FIG.  4 . Meter types that are selected to be displayed as a “rotating” meter also will be positioned along the status bar  140 , and will appear on the status bar in a sequence of different icons, as for example, the rotating meter depicted on FIGS. 5 and 6 as a battery power meter  450  during one time interval and as a signal strength meter  460  during another time interval (both meters  450  and  460  appearing in the same position on the display  30 . 
     Once meter icons are selected for inclusion as a rotating meter, the Meter Player function either will sequence (rotate) these meter icons so that the most important or most urgent information is being displayed most often, or at times when no particular information is more urgent than other information, the meter icons will sequence at pre-determined time intervals in which each meter icon will be displayed for the same portion of the overall time period required for a complete rotation. In addition, more than a single rotating meter can be displayed simultaneously in status bar  140 , while being positioned next to one another in a similar fashion as the two fixed meter icons  232  and  234  on FIG.  4 . 
     Referring to FIG. 7, to add a fixed meter icon the user would “select” one of the meters listed in the Select Meter box at  320 , then press or touch (on a touch-screen display) the “Add” button at reference numeral  342 . This operation would then insert the appropriate meter name into the Meter Panel box  330 , at locations, for example, such as where the Battery Power meter resides at  332  or the Signal Strength meter resides at  334 . The next fixed meter to be added to status bar  140  would be placed into the presently empty (on FIG. 7) location at reference numeral  336 . If more than three (3) fixed meters are to be located on status bar  140 , then another “empty” position can be accessed by use of a scroll bar at  340 . However, since status bar  140  cannot hold an infinite amount of fixed meter icons, it is preferable to limit the number of fixed meters that are placed in the Meter Panel, which is one important reason to assign informative meters to one of the rotating meters. 
     To remove one of the fixed meter icons from the status bar  140 , the user would select one of the meter names in the Meter Panel box  330  (such as, e.g., the Signal Strength meter  334 ) and then press or touch the “Remove” button at reference numeral  344 . When assigning meter icons to either the Meter Panel or the Meter Player, the user may configure the system to allow the same type of meter to appear in more than one rotating or fixed meter icon, if desired. In general, however, it would be appropriate to place a particular informative meter in only one meter icon location (either fixed or rotating). 
     Referring to FIG. 7, to add a rotating meter icon the user would “select” one of the meters listed in the Select Meter box at  320 , then press or touch (on a touch-screen display) the “Add” button at reference numeral  362 . This operation would then insert the appropriate meter name into the Meter Player box  350 , at one of the locations, for example, at  352 ,  354 , or  356 . The next rotating meter to be added to status bar  140  would be placed into the first presently empty location (on FIG.  7 ), which is at reference numeral  352 . 
     More than three (3) meter names can be associated with a single rotating meter icon by using a scroll bar at  360  to access other “empty” locations in the Meter Player box  350  which cannot be viewed at one instant. Since only one meter of a single rotating meter is visible at a given moment in time, however, there is a practical limit as to the number of meter names that should be associated with a single Meter Panel. It is preferred that only three (3) or four (4) meters be included in a single rotating meter, although certainly any number of such rotating meters can be associated in a single rotating meter without departing from the principles of the present invention. 
     Keeping in mind that it is preferable to limit the maximum number of meters associated in a single rotating meter, it is preferred to add a second rotating meter to the status bar  140  in situations where a large number of informative meters are desired for display on screen  30 . Certainly, the entire status bar  140  could be filled with numerous rotating meters, and adjacent rotating meters could be placed at various locations on the status bar, even at the locations  232  and  234  on FIG. 4, if desired by the user. 
     To remove one of the rotating meter icons from the status bar  140 , the user would select one of the meter names in the Meter Player box  350  and then press or touch the “Remove” button at reference numeral  364 . If the meter name had earlier been removed from the Select Meter box  320  (if this option had been chosen by the user), then that particular meter name would be reinstated back into the Select Meter box. 
     The foregoing description of a preferred embodiment of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teachings. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best illustrate the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable one of ordinary skill in the art to best utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims appended hereto.