User interface in a mobile station

#Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(a), this application claims the benefit of earlier filing date and right of priority to Korean Application No. 2005-0009256, filed on Feb. 1, 2005, the content of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

#The present invention relates generally to a mobile station and, more particularly, to a user interface in a mobile station.

#In general, a display screen for a mobile station is limited in the amount of content displayed. A related art display method uses a certain list style and displays soft keys (e.g., graphic icons) according to the listed items. A basic structure of a user interface (UI) in a mobile station displays content along with format information (e.g., style sheets), without separation. Due the lack of separation between content and style sheets, although an application (e.g., application program) has the same display style, a UI for the application program must be newly coded when a new application program is developed. Furthermore, when a style displayed on the screen of the mobile station needs to be changed, code pertaining to the UI for every application program must be searched and corrected.

#The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.

#FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a method for collectively processing a user interface (UI) in a mobile station, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating exemplary XML encoding data of content used to form a UI related to an application of the mobile station, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

#Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

#The term ‘mobile station’ encompasses mobile phones, handsets, PDAs (personal digital assistants), and computers, as well as any other devices with wireless communication capabilities. A user interface in a mobile station is described below.

#The present invention enables style information pertaining to display of content (content display style information) to be displayed on a display screen of a mobile station, separately from the content itself. Furthermore, information related to graphic icons (e.g., soft keys) may also be separated from the content. By independently displaying and/or managing the information related to the content, the display style, and the soft keys, a user interface may be collectively processed for each application program.