Patent ID: 7095400

Claim:
A method of automatically and manually enabling or disabling a backlight of an electronic device based on a predetermined time, the method being implemented in the electronic device including a memory having an established backlight control database containing a predetermined enabled time of the backlight and a predetermined disabled time of the backlight, one of the keys of a keypad of the electronic device being set as a default backlight activation key in the database, and a microprocessor which, in response one key being pressed, performs the steps of: for automatically enabling and disabling the backlight: reading the predetermined enabled time of the backlight and the predetermined disabled time of the backlight from the database of the memory, and determining whether the predetermined enabled time of backlight or the predetermined disabled time of backlight has been reached; in response to having reached the predetermined enabled time of backlight or the predetermined disabled time of backlight, activating a keypad LED of the electronic device to enable or disable a keypad backlight of the electronic device; for manually enabling and disabling the backlight when the default backlight activation key is pressed and a backlight condition of the electronic device is in a disabled state: determining whether the default backlight activation key is pressed; in response to the default backlight activation key being pressed, activating a power circuit to supply power to the keypad LED and cause the keypad LED to emit light; enabling a timer circuit to begin a time count; and disabling the power circuit to supply power to the keypad LED when the time count of the timer circuit has reached a predetermined period of time, disabling the keypad LED and thereby turning off the keypad backlight.