Patent ID: 8103263

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling a portable terminal, the apparatus comprising: a contact sensing unit which senses areas on all sides of an external surface of the portable terminal contacted by a user when the user holds the portable terminal and determines areas of the external surface of the portable terminal not contacted by the user when the user holds the portable terminal in both one and two hands where the areas are specific, discrete binary contact areas on sides of the external surface and where at least two specific areas occur on each side; a recognizing unit which recognizes a function mode of the portable terminal based at least on a combined pattern of the sensed contact areas and the determined non-contact areas where the combined pattern includes a bit sequence to represent a state of contact of the specific areas on the sides of the external surface with a bit for each area; and a control unit which sets the portable terminal into the recognized function mode, wherein the recognizing unit recognizes the function mode of the portable terminal by updating the user's holding characteristics through repetitive recognition successes and failures.