Abstract:
An arrangement for displaying message screens on a telephone terminal provides easy access to messages received by the telephone terminal from a service provider. The arrangement allows users to seamlessly and intuitively view header and body information of a message without the need for any unnecessary key presses.

Description:
This is a continuation of copending application(s) Ser. No. 08/775,317 filed on Dec. 31, 1996. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Technical Field 
     This invention is directed to telephone terminals and more particularly, to a telephone terminal configurable by a user for accessing messages available at the terminal through an interactive display arrangement. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     Current trends in the design of telephone terminals indicate that more and more of telephone functionality is being integrated into the telephone display on the terminal. For example, information as to features available on the display has migrated from light emitting diodes (LEDs) to the display, and local additions such as directories, incoming caller information and the like, are all migrating to the display. 
     The technology presently in use in telephone displays is character-based liquid crystal device (LCD) displays. These displays are configured in various array sizes such as, for example, a 2 line by 10 character LCD display, a 3 line by 12 character LCD display and even a 4 line by 12 character LCD display. In order to be artfully incorporated into the telephone housing of some telephone terminals, by way of example, the recently introduced AT&amp;T 3760 and 3770 wireless telephone terminals, these displays tend to be small, typically on the order of one inch in height. Also, in order to provide a reasonable number of characters for information such as caller information and directory access information, a small font size for the characters is generally used. 
     Wireless telephone terminals have evolved to a state where they now permit reception and storage of short messages for access by a user at his or her convenience. Such short message capability has traditionally been provided in paging devices, which alert the user upon receipt of a new message through beeping, vibrating and the like. Since in these devices this message function is usually the only one provided, the user simply presses a button whenever he or she wishes to view the messages, which are typically identified as a series of message headers. 
     Existing short message-capable wireless telephone terminals rely upon a “pager model” for viewing messages. Such design requires that a user of the terminal initially view a series of message headers. In order to view an entire message, the user must select a specific header in order to view the message body corresponding to that message header. Likewise, the user must take a separate action to exit from the message body level and return to the message header level. It is therefore desirable that the short message capability be incorporated in a telephone terminal in a manner that allows a user to easily access, view and manage a received message presented on a small display. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The prior art problem is solved in accordance with the present invention by providing an arrangement for displaying message screens on a telephone terminal through which easy access to messages received by the telephone terminal from a service provider is available for the user. The arrangement allows users to seamlessly and intuitively view header and body information of a message without the need for any additional, unnecessary key presses. 
     A set of menu keys or buttons in a user interface provides, in accordance with a first aspect of the invention, quick access to messages as well as other features of the telephone terminal with just a few key presses of these menu keys. The menu keys include a “Right” arrow key, a “Left” arrow key, an “Up” arrow key, a “Down” arrow key, a “Select” key and a “Home” key. The Right, Left, Up and Down arrow keys are functionally descriptive in moving between menu screens and advantageously provides a dual axis of control for a user in navigating among a plurality of these menu screens. The Select key selects or advances to a feature choice which is being displayed in a menu screen. Finally, the Home key is used to return a user to an original or starting menu screen in the plurality of menu screens. 
     In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, each message in a series of messages may be viewed by selecting a “messages menu” choice in a displayed menu. Once this messages menu choice is selected by the Select key, the message header in the displayed menu provides an enumeration for the particular message being displayed as well as a total number of messages in the series of messages. Also in the menu screen, the message body is displayed in available characters spaces on the display and below the message header. If the received message body is greater than the available character spaces of the display, a down-arrow is provided in the display to indicate that the message body continues and that additional information can be viewed by scrolling to the next screen with the Down arrow key. At any point in the message being viewed, the user may step to the next message in the series of messages by pressing the Right arrow key, which sends the user to the top of this next message. The user can use the Left and Right arrow keys in a similar fashion to step backward and forward to all messages. This dual axis of control advantageously allows a user to view the contents of a menu area without having to perform the additional step of selecting, with the Select key, each message in the area. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
     This invention and its mode of operation will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description when read with the appended drawings in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless telephone terminal and a base unit, the telephone terminal being usable for incorporating the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 illustrates the telephone terminal of FIG. 1 including a user interactive display displaying a first menu screen accessible in accordance with the present invention; and 
     FIGS. 3 and 4 are flow charts of the invention illustrating some of the display screens provided by the circuitry shown in FIG.  1  and also illustrating how movement between these display screens is achieved, in accordance with the invention. 
    
    
     Throughout the drawing, the same elements when shown in more than one figure are designated by the same reference numerals. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown an illustrative block diagram of a wireless telephone terminal  100  useful for describing the operation of the present invention. The telephone terminal is configured so that incoming messages from a service provider may be received from a base station or unit  120  and accessed or stored, as appropriate. A user of the terminal is alerted to the receipt of each of these messages and also provided easy access to these messages through a user interface  200 , described in detail later herein. Examples of other user interfaces in telephone terminals are found in copending and commonly assigned U.S. patent applications, Ser. Nos. 08/559,516, 08/559,517, and 08/678,392. 
     The terminal includes an input/output (I/O) interface unit  110  which connects to a radio frequency (RF) transceiver  111  containing a transmitter and receiver for providing communications in, by way of illustrative example, a cellular radio system. 
     Various types of cellular radio systems are known in the art and have been otherwise described. One such system is described in  The Bell System Technical Journal , Volume 58, January 1979, Number 1, particularly in papers entitled “Advanced Mobile Phone Service: Introduction, Background and Objectives” by W. R. Young and “The Cellular Concept” by V. H. MacDonald. 
     The RF transceiver  111  also may provide communications suitable for operating in a cordless telephone system. Such a cordless telephone system is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,706,274 and 5,044,010, for example. 
     This I/O interface unit  110  contains switching and control circuits required by the terminal  100  for establishing, maintaining and terminating RF communications connections between terminal  100  and base unit  120 . Through these circuits and via antennas  115  and  125 , the terminal  100  thus sends to and receives the appropriate signals, including the incoming messages, from the base unit via the RaF transceiver  111 . 
     The terminal  100  also includes a program memory  112  which provides instructions to a central processor unit (CPU)  113  for controlling the various operating features and functions originating at the terminal. This program memory  112  contains data for interpreting a plurality of codes representative of various control signals received from the base unit  120  and for generating codes to be transmitted to the base unit  120 . A data memory  114  is utilized by the CPU  113  for storing and accessing data associated with performing the various functions and features programmed in the program memory  112 . In the described embodiment, CPU  113  is a microprocessor, program memory  112  is a read-only-memory (ROM) and data memory  114  is a random-access-memory (RAM). These components are readily available from a number of semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel, Motorola, AMD and NEC. Connected to the interface unit  110  is a user interface  200 , the physical aspects of which are shown in greater detail in FIG.  2 . 
     A messaging service is advantageously employed in a wireless system since a user or subscriber of a wireless telephone terminal may not be available when a caller attempts to reach him or her through a regular wireless telephone call. Through use of the messaging service, the caller is able to leave a short message that will be received by the subscriber when he or she “resurfaces” or becomes available at the telephone terminal. A messaging service known as Short Message Service (SMS) is presently available from AT&amp;T Corp. in the AT&amp;T AUTOPLEX (R) System-1000. 
     The SMS message is a feature that is incorporated in a message center (not shown) that is part of the overall cellular system. In achieving the SMS message feature, the message center provides a voice mail functionality which enables the message center to play an announcement that prompts a caller to leave a SMS message. A store and forward functionality also is provided in the message center. This store and forward functionality enables the message center to forward the SMS message to the telephone terminal at the appropriate time for conveying it to the user of the telephone terminal. 
     In order to suitably illustrate the SMS feature, the following descriptive operation for this feature is provided. 
     1. A caller from a wireless telephone terminal or a land-based station makes a call to a subscriber with a wireless telephone terminal who subscribes to the SMS feature. 
     2. The SMS subscriber&#39;s telephone terminal alerts the subscriber, but for some reason, the subscriber does not answer. If the subscriber is made aware of the incoming call and wishes to reroute the call to the message center, the subscriber needs only to press a send key  229  on the telephone terminal. Alternatively, if the telephone terminal of the subscriber happens to be in the OFF state when the call is made, the call is automatically rerouted to the message center. 
     3. When the call is received at the message center, the message center greets the caller and makes a suitable announcement such as: Please press 1 if you would like to leave a Spoken Voice Message, or Please press 2 if you would like to have your Party Paged, or Please press 3 if you would like to leave a Short Alphanumeric Message. 
     4. If the caller presses “1”, and chooses to leave a Spoken Voice Message, then the caller is prompted to do so “at the tone.” The called party is then appraised of pending voice messages via voice mail notification or Message Waiting indication. The called party is then expected to call into the voice mail notification and access the voice mail. 
     5. If the caller presses “2”, and chooses to have his or her party paged, then the caller is prompted to enter via the keypad a “Reach Me” number. This will be delivered for display as, for example, “Please call 234-5678” when the called party resurfaces and responds to a page. The called party is then expected to call the “Reach Me” number. 
     6. If the caller presses “3”, and chooses to leave a personalized Short Alphanumeric Message, then the caller is connected to a human attendant, who will transcribe the message into text which will be typically equal to 220 characters. This text is then stored at the message center. 
     7. When the called party resurfaces, a home location register (not shown) in the cellular system notifies the message center. 
     8. The message center forwards the SMS/Paging information to the SMS subscriber. 
     9. For the SMS subscriber whose telephone terminal is in the idle state, the SMS/Paging information is conveyed to the telephone terminal and an alerting signal is generated in the terminal. This alerting signal times out after about three seconds after the SMS/Paging message is sent to the telephone terminal. 
     10. For the SMS subscriber whose telephone terminal is in the talk state, and if that telephone is an analog telephone, then a type of call waiting is invoked which allows the called party to receive an indication of the SMS/Paging information at the terminal. If the telephone terminal is a digital telephone, i.e., code division multiple access (CDMA) or time division multiple access (TDMA), then the SMS/Paging signal is received in the terminal independent of the state of the terminal. Beep tones are provided to the SMS subscriber, thus bringing attention to this delivery. 
     11. While the telephone terminal is in either the idle or talk state, the subscriber is able to view the SMS/Paging message. 
     With reference now to FIG. 2, the user interface  200  comprises a user interactive display  210  which includes a number of Icon screen display symbols. Such screen display symbols include a battery level symbol  211 , a signal strength symbol  212 , a Home symbol  213 , a Phone Book symbol  214 , a Mailbox symbol  215 , a Lock symbol  216  and a Tools symbol  217 . 
     The battery level symbol  211  consists of four battery icons or symbols for showing the battery power level. At full charge, all symbols are filled-in. As the battery loses power, the filled-in part of each one of the symbols is removed from top to bottom leaving only the symbol outline. When only one filled-in symbol remains, it is an indication to the user to recharge the battery. The signal strength symbol  212  provides an indication of the received signal strength. The radiating portion of this symbol appears largest when the received signal is strong and becomes smaller as the received signal becomes weaker. 
     Also shown in the user interface  200  is a set of menu keys or buttons which provides, in accordance with the disclosed embodiment, quick access to all of the features of the telephone terminal with just a few key presses of these menu keys. The menu keys include a “Left” arrow key  221 , a “Up” key  222 , a “Right” arrow key  223 , a “Down” arrow key  224 , a “Home” key  225  and a “Select” key  227  which are functionally descriptive in moving between menu screens. These directional keys provide a dual axis of control for a user in navigating among a plurality of these menu screens. The Select key  227  selects the feature which is being displayed along the side of the filled-in oval outline. The Home key  225  is used to return a user to the original starting screen in the plurality of display screens. Other well-known keys or buttons: a “Talk” or send key  229 , an “End” key  226  and a “Power” key  228 , as well as others illustrated in the form of a dial pad, are also part of the telephone terminal shown in FIG. 2 but are conventional keys and need not be described in detail herein, except to indicate that, in a cellular system, the Talk key  229  and the End key  226  are used to respectively send a just-entered or stored telephone number to a base unit and to terminate an established conversation. 
     The screen display changes dynamically as the user performs functions and makes selections via the Select key  227 . Shown in the display  210  is just one menu screen in the hierarchically arranged menu. The illustrated entry is one of possible original starting screens or the “Home Screen” which is conveniently provided for a user whenever the telephone terminal is turned ON from an OFF state or returned to its standby state after the user presses the End key  226 , terminating a telephone call. 
     The Icon Home symbol  213 , the Icon Phone Book symbol  214 , the Icon Mailbox symbol  215 , the Icon Lock symbol  216  and the Icon Tools symbol  216  are associated with parent menu screens which are at the top level in the hierarchical display. When the wireless terminal is turned on with the power key  228 , the Home symbol  213  and its two selectable features from this level are provided in the Home Screen display or display  210 . Also shown in this display is the name of the service provider that provides the user with cellular service and, optionally, time and date information. 
     The Phone Book symbol  214  is associated with a parent screen display for sub-menu displays in which telephone numbers are added or deleted, viewed or retrieved as appropriate by a terminal user. The Mailbox symbol  215  is associated with a parent screen display for sub-menu displays in which voice messages, test messages and call logs (incoming and outgoing) are accessed. The Lock symbol  216  is associated with a parent screen display for sub-menu displays through which security is provided for the terminal device. Display screens such as Phone Locks, Call Blocks, Phone Book Access and Mailbox access are accessed from this parent screen. The Tools symbol  217  is associated with a parent screen display for sub-menu displays through phone settings, call options and service options which are set by a user or representative of the service provider, as appropriate. 
     A user easily and intuitively advances among the parent menu screens by using the Right and Left arrow keys  223  and  225 . As the user cycles among these screens, the Icon screen display symbol that is associated with the selected parent screen is filled-in or darkened thereby informing the user just which one of the top menu options is active. From either of the parent menu screens at the top level in the hierarchical display, the Down arrow key  224  moves down through the selectable sub-level menu choices and cycles at the bottom, back to the first entry of the sub-level menu choices. In order to access one of the sub-level menu choices, the user must select into the desired sublevel menu choice, with the Select key  227 . While in a sub-level menu choice, should the user desire to move directly up in this menu choice, the Up arrow key  222  is used to take the user up through this choice and back to the parent screen. The simplicity of the user interface is that all features illustrated by the display screens herein are accessible through the use of the directional keys and the select key. Although all are not shown, each one of the equal level menu choices represented by menu screen displays  210 ,  320 ,  330 ,  340  and  350  provide a number of selectable optional screens that may be selected by the user of the telephone terminal  100 . 
     The user interactive display  210  also includes a menu level indicator  218 . This menu level indicator includes both upper and lower brackets and also a plurality of symbols comprising elliptical or oval shaped outlines enclosed in the brackets and aligned in a column on a side of the screen display. Selective use of the brackets advantageously provide an indication to the user that all selectable choices are available on the displayed screen or that one or more selectable choices are not shown on the displayed screen. Specifically, an open or missing bracket at the bottom of the menu level indicator  218  provides an indication to the user that there are additional choices off-screen and that the user may scroll down to these choices with the Down arrow key  224 . An example of the menu level indicator with an open bracket at the bottom is shown in the display screen  210 . An open or missing bracket at the top of the menu level indicator  218  provides an indication to the user that there are additional choices off-screen and that the user may scroll up to these choices with the Up arrow key  222 . A closed bracket indicates that the display screen includes all of the selectable choices. 
     The Menu options or selectable features accessible for display and other information, to be described later herein, are provided by the filled-in oval shaped outline. When selectable menu options are being displayed on the menu screen, only one oval shaped outline is filled in for indicating to the user the one option that will then be selected when the Select key  227  is pressed. The level indicator  218  thus informs a user just which one of the menu options is currently active and may be selected by the dark or filled-in oval shaped outline next to a menu screen option. As shown in screen display  210 , for example, a user may select the last number dialed by depressing the Select key  227  since the filled in oval  219  is adjacent to the “Last Number” screen display option. A user may also advance to the “View Own Num” screen display option by depressing first the Down arrow key  224  and then the Select key  227 . Once the user of the telephone terminal has decided which menu choice he or she wishes to explore, the directional arrow keys  221 ,  222 ,  223  and  224  are used to place the darkened oval next to that choice on the display and the Select key  227  is then pressed to select that menu choice. 
     While the embodiment of the present invention is illustratively described as incorporated into a wireless telephone terminal, it should be recognized that the present command-operated terminal could be utilized in other program-controlled systems such as wired telephone terminals. Since such systems utilize a variety of hardware and programming techniques, no attempt is made to describe the details of the program used to control the telephone terminal. However, the present invention must be blended into the overall structure of the system in which it is used and must be tailored to mesh with other features and operations of the system. Thus, in order to avoid confusion and in order to enable those skilled in the art to practice the claimed invention, this specification will describe the operation of the present invention using the telephone terminal  100  shown in FIG. 1; the display screen shown in FIG. 2; and the display screen flow diagrams of FIGS. 3 and 4 which, taken together, describe the logical steps and the various parameters required to implement the present invention. 
     FIG. 3 shows a flow chart for illustrating some of the display screens provided by the circuitry in FIG.  1  and produced in the interactive display in the same manner as illustratively shown in display  210  in FIG.  2 . These display screens, along with those shown in FIG. 4, are illustratively embodied in a 4-line by 12 character LCD display. The sequence in which these display screens are provided is indicated by the flow chart, and is shown in sufficient detail to permit one skilled in the art to duplicate the circuitry of FIG. 1, either by programming a microprocessor or by special purpose logic circuitry such as is available in a digital signal processor. 
     The display screens shown in FIG. 3 are of the five parent screens  210 ,  320 ,  330 ,  340  and  350  or main areas on the top level of the menu. For general navigation on this top level of the menu, the user uses the Right or Left arrow keys  223  or  221  to move across the five main areas of the display, which are, the Home screen, where manual calls are placed, the Phone Book, Mail Box, Lock, and Tools. 
     For ease of understanding the flow charts shown in both FIGS. 3 and 4 and movement between the display screens shown therein, filled-in or darkened directional triangles, which respectively represent the four directional arrow keys, are employed. Thus, by way of example, movement between the display screen  210  and display screen  320  may be accomplished by pressing the right arrow key  223 , which also has an image of a right-facing triangle located thereon. Similarly, movement between the display screen  320  and display screen  210  may be accomplished by pressing the left arrow key  225 , which also has an image of a left-facing triangle located thereon. Movement between display screen  320  and display screen  321  is achieved in a similar manner, only using up-facing and down-facing triangles which respectively correspond to the up arrow key  222  and the down arrow key  224 . For further ease of understanding, these directional triangles are positioned near interconnecting lines that extend to those display screens between which the user is able to navigate. 
     When navigation between screens requires that the user press the Select key  227 , a filled-in elliptical or oval shaped outline is positioned near the interconnecting line that requires this key press. Thus, for example, to move from menu screen  331  to menu screen  401  requires pressing the Select key  227 . And this filled in oval shaped outline is conveniently provided on the top surface of the Select Key  227 . 
     With reference now to navigating in the parent screens, and starting from the Home display screen  210 , the user can press the Right arrow key  223 , for example, to move across to the Phone Book screen  320  and see the first three selectable features of the Phone Book. Here the Up and Down arrow keys  222  and  224  can be used to move the darkened elliptical cursor to any of the Phone Book features as shown in screens  320  through  323  and the Select key  227  can then be used to choose a feature. The Right arrow key  223  again allows movement to the next area of the interface, the Mail Box screen  330  where the three features of the Mailbox screen can be viewed and accessed. Another press of the Right arrow key moves the user to the Locks screen  340  where features shown in screens  340  through  344  are accessed. Yet another press of the Right arrow key moves the user to the Tools screen  350  where features shown in the screens  350  through  353  are accessed. One last press of the Right arrow key moves the user to the home screen  210  once again. As the user moves to each of the parent screens, the outline of the Icon associated with that parent screen is darkened. Thus the user always knows which main area is being accessed. 
     The flow chart in FIG. 4 shows how a received message is accessed in the telephone terminal while the terminal is in the idle or standby state. Once a message has arrived and the user desires to access this message, the user simply presses the Right or Left arrow key, as appropriate, to get to the Mailbox screen  330 , shown in FIG. 3, and then the Down arrow key  224  to position the darkened oval next to the text message option as shown in display screen  331 , this screen being shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. From here, the user then presses the Select key  227  to view a text message log which contains not only the recently received message but also any previously stored and not deleted messages, typically up to  30 . By pressing the select key  227  at this point, the user is taken to the first message screen display which shows the most recently received message. Having selected into the message log, the user is now also able to view other messages in this message log, as desired. 
     Once the user enters the text message log through the menu he or she is placed into the first message, for example, message screen display  401  which is labeled 01 of 07. The message shown in this screen display  401  is short and has no additional information beyond that shown in display  401 . By pressing the Select key at the screen display  401 , the user is provided the options of Storing the number, Seeing a long number and Sending DTMF tones to the far end. Such operation is described in copending U.S. application Ser. No. 08/559,516. The Select option is similarly available at screens  402  through  406 . The user also may press the Right arrow key  223  to view the next message which is labeled 02 of 07. At this message screen display  402 , the user has two options with respect to viewing new information. The first one is that he or she can use the Right arrow key  223  to scroll to message 03 as shown in message screen display  404 , or he or she can use the Down arrow key  224  to scroll to the remainder of message 02, as shown in screen display  403 . At any point while reading message 2 the user can press the Right arrow key  223  to view message 3, and then the Down arrow key  224  to view the remainder of message 3 or, while viewing message 3, the Right arrow key  223  at any time for viewing message 4 (not shown) and the other received messages. The left and up arrow keys  221  and  222  are also valid at all times, the Left arrow key  221  allowing the user to scroll to the previous message and the Up arrow key  222  allowing the user to scroll to previous pages of the current message. 
     In the disclosed embodiment of the invention, the user may not only use the Up and Down arrow keys to scroll through one message at a time, but also may use the Right and Left arrow keys to scroll between messages at anytime during the reading process. There is never a need to “Select into” a message since all messages are already in the reading mode. Thus, the short message capability is incorporated into the telephone terminal in a manner that allows a user to easily access, view and manage a received message presented on a small display. 
     Once the user has completed viewing the desired portion of the text message log, the user may be returned to the Home screen or screen display  210  by pressing the Home key  225 . The user may also be returned to this Home screen through a process described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,788 which issued on Dec. 6, 1994. Alternatively, the user may return to the parent screen or Mailbox screen display  331  through the combined use of the Left or Up arrow keys  225  or  222 , as appropriate. From this screen display  331 , the user may navigate to any of the other equal-level parent screen displays, as earlier described herein. 
     What has been described is merely illustrative of the present invention. Other applications to telephone, computer or other user-interactive systems other than the disclosed system are contemplated as being within the knowledge of one skilled in the art. Thus it is to be understood that the disclosed user interface may be utilized in displays and applications, other than those specifically described herein, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.