GB2394622A

GB2394622A - Searching directory entries using dialling number data

Info

Publication number: GB2394622A
Application number: GB0224440A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Byron Bakamis
Original assignee: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Priority date: 2002-10-21
Filing date: 2002-10-21
Publication date: 2004-04-28
Anticipated expiration: 2022-10-21
Also published as: GB2394622B; GB0224440D0

Abstract

Method and apparatus for searching or selecting entries in a phone directory in response to the entry of at least part of a desired dialling number. A directory of alphanumeric entries ( e.g. names) and associated dialling numbers is stored in a memory of a communications terminal or in a memory (e.g. SIM) connectable to the terminal and searched by inputting data 207 relating to a dialling number. One or more directory entries corresponding to the entered data are selected 209 and preferably displayed 213, 231, with at least a portion of each alphanumeric entry and each dialling number being shown. The communications terminal may be a mobile terminal, the memory a SIM card and the inputted data one or more digits of the dialling number. When more than one entry matches the inputted data, the displayed entries 213 may be scrolled 214 to find the desired number or further digits may be input 215 and the process of finding matching entries 209 repeated. In one embodiment (fig. 5), when entries with matching digits have been selected (411), the possible options for the next digit(s) in sequence can be displayed to the user (421) or indicated by illumination of the associated keys. If there is only one possible option for the next digit(s) this can be selected automatically(419). In a further arrangement, each stored dialling number may be comprise different fields, e.g. country code, area code, subscriber's dialling number, etc. (Table 1) and data input may select characters corresponding to a designated field or jump between different fields (fig. 4).

Description

System and Method of Selectine or Searching Telephone Numbers The present

invention relates to a method of selecting or searching data stored in electronic form. More particularly, but not exclusively, the 5 present invention relates to a method of selecting or searching data stored in a telephone directory as entries including a dialling number and an alphanumeric identifier.

Mobile terminals used for communicating via a mobile communications network usually have electronic digital memories for storing 10 telephone dialling numbers together with an alphanumeric entry identifying the dialling number such as a name or an identification code.

Two methods of searching such a telephone directory and selecting numbers are typically provided. In the first method 'up' and 'down' keys are used to scroll through the directory, one entry at a time, which might be in 15 alphabetical or chronological order. The currently selected entry is usually either highlighted on a list of entries or otherwise marked or displayed on a display of the mobile terminal.

In the second method a search key consisting of the first character or a number of initial characters of the name to be searched is entered and a search 20 is subsequently initialised. The first name and other names following in the list or all names matching the entered search key are then displayed on the display. The desired directory entry may be selected using the first method.

However, the above described method may not be the fastest or most convenient way to select a desired entry from a telephone directory stored on a mobile terminal.

It is thus an aim of the present invention to provide an improved 5 method of searching or selecting an entry of a telephone directory stored on a mobile terminal.

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of selecting entries from a directory of alphanumeric entries and associated dialling numbers stored in electronic form in a memory of a mobile 10 communications terminal or in a memory connectable to said terminal, said method comprising the steps of: i) entering data relating to the dialling number of a desired directory entry; and ii) selecting one or more directory entries corresponding to the entered data.

This provides for an alternative method of selecting entries from a 15 telephone directory, the method being based on dialling numbers. By entering data related to the dialling number the user may be able to quickly select and access a stored entry of a telephone directory. The user might know the beginning numerical characters by heart and by entering part of the desired dialling number the number of matching directory entries can be considerably 20 reduced. Preferably, the method further comprises the step of: iii) displaying the selected directory entries by displaying at least a portion of the alphanumeric strings and a portion of the associated dialling number.

Thus the user can choose a telephone number from the selected matching entries, which are displayed to the user. This method is in many cases faster than other searching methods known in the art and may also be more convenient to the user.

5 According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of searching or selecting entries from a directory of alphanumeric entries and associated dialling numbers stored in electronic form in a memory of a communications terminal or in a memory connectable to said terminal, wherein said method searching or selection is based on dialling numbers.

10 According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of searching or selecting entries from a directory of alphanumeric entries and associated dialling numbers stored in electronic form in a memory of a communications terminal or in a memory connectable to said terminal, said method comprising the steps of: i) entering a first part of one dialling 15 number; ii) analysing directory entries in order to determine whether a second and/or further parts of said one dialling number is uniquely determined; and iii) automatically entering a second and/or further part of said one dialling number if said second part is uniquely determined.

In this way the communications terminal automatically analyses the 20 directory entries after the user has entered a part of the dialling number. If a further part of the dialling number is uniquely determined, the terminal automatically enters said uniquely determined second part of the desired

dialling number. In this way the user does not need to enter data, which are uniquely determined from the user's former entered data.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communications terminal comprising a display and a numerical keypad, said 5 terminal being in communication with a processor and a memory for storing in electronic from a directory of alphanumeric entries and associated dialling numbers, said terminal being adapted receive data relating to the dialling number of a desired directory entry entered by a user, and said terminal being further adapted to select one or more directory entries corresponding to the 10 entered data.

Further aspects and embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 A schematically illustrates a mobile terminal in which the 15 present invention can be implemented; Figure 1 B is a block diagram illustrating component parts of the mobile terminal shown in Figure 1 A; and Figure 2 to 5 are flowchart diagrams illustrating different embodiments of the present invention.

20 Figure 1 A is a schematic illustration of a mobile communications terminal in which the present invention can be implemented, and Figure 1 B is a block diagram illustrating component parts of the mobile terminal shown in Figure 1 A.

Referring now to Figure 1 B. the terminal 10 comprises a processor 22, radio means 24 for communicating with other devices via a mobile communications network, an antenna means 26, a memory 28 and a user interface 30. Referring now to Figure 1 A, the user interface of the mobile 5 terminal is briefly described. The front surface 12 of the terminal 10 includes a display 14 for displaying information to the user and a keypad 16 for operating the terminal. The keys on keypad 16 typically include a numerical keypad 15 and navigation keys 17, such as Hip' end 'clown' navigation keys for scrolling in a list displayed on display 14. Keypad 16 usually also includes an 10 'enter' key for entering or confirming information displayed or highlighted on the display. User interface 30 further includes a microphone 18 and a speaker 19. In the conventional GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) system, each mobile terminal, such as a mobile telephone 15 handset, is provided with a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module), which is inserted into the mobile station in order to allow the mobile terminal to receive services in a GSM network from a particular service provider. The SIM card stores information related to a particular subscription with a service provider. 20 A typical SIM includes a microprocessor, memory elements and contacts for forming the data transfer interface between the SIM and the mobile terminal.

A telephone directory as described above may also be stored in the SIM memory. The terminal can access such a telephone directory with help of the microprocessor of the SIM via the contacts between the SIM and the terminal. 5 Referring now to Figure 2, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described.

The process starts in step 101. In step 103, the user enters the number selection mode. Alternatively, the number selection mode is automatically entered after switching on the mobile terminal. The user may, for example, 10 pre-select that the number selection mode is entered by default, unless the user explicitly selects another directory selection or searching mode. In step 105, the terminal displays all entries of the telephone directory. If the display is not large enough to display all entries stored in the directory, only a selection of the stored numbers is displayed, for example the first entries 15 according to alphabetic order or the first numbers following a chronological order or all entries as selected by the user for that purpose.

The user can now either look for the desired entry by searching through the displayed entries, or the user might know the first few digits of the desired number.

20 In both cases, the user enters the first digits of the desired dialling number in step 107. The terminal then selects all entries of which the first digit(s) match(es) the digit(s) entered by the user. If no matching entry is found, the process is terminated (step 111 and 123). If one matching entry is

found, this entry is displayed to the user (step 117). The user may now confirm in step 119 that the user indeed desires to dial this number, for example by pressing the "enter" key of the terminal. The number is then dialled by the terminal in step 121. Alternatively, the user can confirm the 5 number by dialling the number in the conventional way.

The process ends in step 123 by the mobile terminal establishing a connection. If the terminal determines in step 111 that more than one matching telephone directory entry exists, then all matching entries are displayed to the 10 user in step 113. The terminal then checks in step 115 whether further digits are entered. If the answer is yes, the process continues cyclically with steps 107 to 123. If no further digits are entered the process is aborted in step 123.

The above described process is especially useful if the display is large enough (or the list of entries in the phone directory is small enough) that all 15 entries can actually be displayed to the user in step 105. However, if the user knows the beginning of the desired dialling number by heart, the method might also be useful if only parts of the entries can be displayed in step 105.

Referring now to Figure 3, an alternative process is described, which is especially suitable in the case that not all entries can be displayed.

20 Steps 201 and 203 are analogous to steps 101 and 103 of Figure 2. In step 205 the entries are displayed to the user and the first entry is highlighted.

In step 206, the user may then navigate from the highlighted entry with the up' and 'down' navigation keys of the terminal. In this way the user may

select a particular number (step 231), similar to the method used in prior art

systems. The steps of confirming and dialling the number (steps 233 to 237) are similar to the corresponding steps described above with reference to Figure 2.

5 The user may also directly enter the first one or more digits of the desired number in step 207. The process then continues with steps 209 to 213 analogous to step 109 to 113 described above with reference to Figure 2.

However, in step 213 the first entry of the displayed matching entries is highlighted. The user has then the choice of navigating from this display with 10 the 'up' end 'clown' keys to the desired dialling number (step 214).

In this way, the user is able to quickly dial a number of which he only recalls the first few digits. The user may for example know the area code and the first two digits of the user's dialling number (which are often assigned to the subscriber according to geographical areas). The terminal then displays in 15 step 213 all stored dialling numbers starting with the entered area code and these entered first two digits of the dialling number. In this way the number of dialling numbers displayed to the user is usually very much reduced and the user may quickly select the number with help of the navigation keys.

Alternatively, the user finds the number in the displayed list and may continue 20 to enter the remaining digits or the following digits until the number is uniquely identified and subsequently selected by the terminal and displayed for confirmation (step 231).

In the following, we describe a process of selecting a stored dialling number to a further embodiment of the present invention.

For this embodiment the list of telephone entries is stored in a tabular form; each individual entry is stored in a plurality of fields. Each dialling

5 number may for example be stored in three different fields, wherein the first,

second and third field includes the country code, the area code and the

subscriber's number, respectively. In a fourth field the alphanumeric

identifier such as the name of the subscriber is stored corresponding to the dialling number stored in the first to third fields. The telephone directory may

10 also include a further field containing an index number for each entry.

A telephone directory of the above described format is illustrated in Table 1.

Referring user to Figure 4, the process starts in step 301. After the number searching mode has been entered in step 303, the entries are displayed 15 to the user in step 305. The first field of the first field is highlighted.

The user can now select a particular string of numerical characters by actuating a "fast key", as will be described below. In the number selection mode, the user can select one of the designated fields of the telephone

directory by using the fast key: by pressing this key the cursor jumps from 20 field X to the next field (X+1).

After the entries have been displayed to the user in step 305, the user may select an entry in step 307 if it is not the first line, which is of interest to the user (step 306). If the user wants to select a particular entry of the

highlighted field, the user may use the navigation keys in step 307 in order to

select the first line, which has the desired entry of the highlighted field.

Following steps 305 and 306, the first field including the country code of the

first line is highlighted. The user may for example be interested in a number 5 having the same country code as the number in line 13. The user can then select the first entry of the directory having that particular country code (i.e. line 13) using the navigation keys in step 307. The user then continues with step 308 as described below.

Alternatively, the user may directly use the fast key in step 308 if the 10 user is interested in the first line or in the highlighted first field of the first

line. If the fast key is actuated in step 308 the second field of the first line is

highlighted (step 309). By jumping to the second field the content of the first

field, i.e. the country code of the highlighted entry is automatically selected

and entered (step 311).

15 In step 313, the terminal automatically selects all entries having the selected country code and only displays the matching directory entries. All entries with a different country code are deleted from the display screen. At the same time the field of the first line is highlighted.

In step 315 it is checked whether more than one entry matches the 20 selection criterion entered by actuating the fast key. If so, the user may then repeat the same procedure in order to select the area code of the first entry, i.e. press the fast key in step 308, which causes the terminal to select all numbers

having the area code of the first entry and to display these numbers, whereby now the third field of the first entry is highlighted.

However, if the user is interested in an entry with an area code different to the area code of the first entry, the user may select the first entry 5 from the list of directory entries with an area code as the desired area code, by using the 'up' end 'clown' navigation keys in step 307.

If the user subsequently actuates the fast key in step 308, the terminal automatically selects all directory entries having the desired area code and displays only the directory entries with the matching area codes. The third 10 field of the first entry of the matching numbers is highlighted (steps 309 to

313). It is again checked whether more than one entry is displayed in step 315. If more than one entry is displayed the user may again select an entry by using the 'up' and 'down' navigation keys in step 307. In step 308 the terminal user checks whether the third field is highlighted. If this is the case, the user

15 needs to select a dialling number using the navigation keys in step 321 and/or to confirm the selection of the dialling number in step 317 in order to dial the selected number (step 319). If the user actuates the fast key of this stage of the process, i.e. if the third field is already highlighted, this has either no

effect or alternatively may be interpreted as a confirmation of the selection 20 (analogous to pressing the confirmation key in step 317).

If, on the other hand, the terminal determines that only one entry matches the selected number in step 315, the user may directly continue by

confirming the selection in step 317 and dialling the selected number (step 319). If the user does not confirm a selected number in step 317, the process is aborted in step 323.

5 It is understood that the method of searching and selecting a dialling number using the fast keys may be combined with the method described above with reference to Figures 2 and 3. Instead of selecting a particular entry of the highlighted field by using the 'upt and 'clown' navigation keys, the

user may, at any stage of the processor, alternatively select a particular entry 10 of the highlighted field by entering the digits via the keypad.

Referring now to Figure 5, a yet further embodiment of the present invention will be described. The beginning of the process is similar to that described above with reference to Figure 2. Steps 401 to 407 are analogous to steps 101 to 105 described above. In step 407 the user enters a first digit of 15 the desired dialling number. In step 409 the terminal searches the telephone number directory for entries matching the entered first digit. All matching entries are selected in step 411.

In step 412 the terminal now checks whether the user enters a further digit. If the answer is yes, the process continues cyclically with steps 407, 409 20 and 411 until the user does not enter a further digit in step 412. If the answer is no, the process continues in step 413. The terminal can for example decide whether the user enters a further digit with help of a timer. If the user does not enter a further digit within a predetermined time period the process continues

with step 413. If, on the other hand, the user enters more than one digit in step 407, the terminal stores the entered numbers and carries out steps 409 and 411 consecutively for all digits entered by the user in step 407.

Alternatively, the user may enter one or more digits in step 407 and 5 presses a predefined key in order to continue the process with step 413. The terminal then again carries out steps 409 and 411 consecutively for all digits entered by the user in step 407.

The terminal now determines in step 413 how many matching entries have been selected. If only one entry matches the entered digit or digits, the 10 terminal displays the matching entry to the user in step 423. The user may confirm the selection for dialling the number in step 425 as described above (steps 423 to 429).

If, on the other hand, more than one matching entries have been selected in step 413, the terminal automatically analyses the telephone 15 numbers in the telephone directory stored on the terminal. The terminal checks the stored dialling numbers for the digit on the position following to the digit(s) entered by the user in step 407, i.e. the digit on the i+lth position if the user has entered digit 1 to i in step 407. It is noted that the user has not yet entered the i+lth digit of the desired dialling number. The terminal checks all 20 directory entries for their i+lth digit and determines which numerical characters appear in the stored directory entries on the i+lth position. If there is more than one different numerical character on the i+lth position in the

stored dialling numbers of the telephone directory, then the process continues with step 421, which will be described below in more detail.

If, on the other hand, all entries in the telephone directories have the same numerical character on the i+lth position, the user is not required to 5 enter the i+lth digit of the desired dialling number. Instead, this digit is automatically set by the terminal, as only one unique possibility exists according to the numbers stored in the directory. Thus, in step 419 the terminal automatically enters the numerical character, which is uniquely determined in step 417, on position i+l. In step 420 the terminal now selects 10 all matching entries to the digits 1 to i+1 from the stored telephone directory.

After the terminal has selected all matching entries in step 420, steps 413 to 419 are repeated cyclically with the next digit until either one dialling number has been uniquely selected in step 413 (or in step 431 as described below). 15 If more than one different numerical character is found in the i+lth position of the dialling numbers of the telephone directory in step 417, the process continues in step 421. All matching entries are displayed such that the user can select the desired number. The user can for example select the desired dialling number by using the 'up' and 'down' navigation keys in step 20 431 and the first entry of the list of matching numbers provided in step 421 is highlighted. Alternatively, if the user does not use the navigation keys in step 431, the user may enter the next digit or digits i manually via the keypad in step

407. The process then continues with steps 409 to 429 until one number has been selected or the process is aborted. The digits on position i of all displayed directory entries might be highlighted in step 421. In this way the user knows which of the digits he has already entered and/or which are 5 entered automatically by the terminal (as described above with reference to steps 415 to 419) and which is the next digit the user needs to enter in step 407 in order to select the desired dialling number.

According to a variation to this embodiment, the process continues after step 421 by determining all numerical characters, which can be validly 10 entered by the user in step 407 in order to select a desired stored number. The keys for these numbers are illuminated to indicate to the user which keys the user most likely wants to press in the following in order to select the desired dialling number.

Alternatively, the different numerical characters which can be validly 15 entered by the user in step 407 are selected and displayed to the user in the terminal display, such that the user can select one of the number, for example by using the navigation keys.

It is appreciated that the terminal may alternatively automatically analyse and enter a next field instead of a next digit in steps 415 to 419 of

20 Figure 5, i.e. the method described above can be combined with the method using the fast key as described with reference to Figure 4. Thus the terminal may automatically analyse the next field if all entries of one field are

determined to be identical and enter the numerical string, which is identical for all the directory entries.

It is appreciated that the features of the above described embodiments can be used as described above or in any possible combination. Other 5 variations may be implemented without departing from the scope of the present invention. A variation of the different embodiments may for example be introduced by using a further fast key, referred to as 'fast key II' in the following. If, at any stage of the previously described selection and search process, the number of selected dialling numbers is relatively small such that 10 they can be easily viewable on the terminal display, then the user may wish to select the desired number by an index number. Pressing the 'fast key II' followed by the line in which the desired dialling number is displayed (i.e. the index of the number) is a convenient way to further abbreviate the number selection process.

15 Table 1 illustrates an example telephone directory having 14 entries in lines 1 to 14. Each of the dialling numbers is stored in four fields: in the first

to fourth field the country code, the area code, the subscribers dialling

numbers and the alphanumeric identifier, respectively, is stored.

| Field I | Field II | Field III | Field IV

County Area Main Name code code number 1 0044 0207 256 785 Mark 2 0044 0207 456 781 John 3 0044 0207 457 788 Maria 4 0044 0207 511 111 Eleni 5 0044 0208 456 785 James 6 0044 0208 456 788 Katia 7 0044 0208 555 555 Nikos 8 0044 0209 666 789 Panos 9 0044 077 890 990 Katarina 10 0044 077 456 789 Paola 11 0044 078 456 777 Penny 12 0044 079 123 456 John 13 00358 34 345 890 Dimitris 14 001 909 456789 Office Table 1

Referring now to Table 1, we illustrate a few examples of searching and/or selecting dialling numbers according to different embodiments of the 5 present invention.

Example 1

Press 0: All entries appear Press 0: Nothing happens. All lines are still visible.

10 Press 4: Lines 1-12 appear Press 4: Nothing happens. All 12 lines are still visible Press 0: Nothing happens. All 12 lines are still visible Press 2: Lines 1-8 are displayed. Lines 9-12 disappear Press 0: Nothing happens. Lines 1-8 are still visible

Press 7: Lines 1-4 displayed. Lines 5-8 disappear Press 2: Line 1 displayed. Lines 2-4 disappear Press 'Confirm': The dialling number of line 1 is dialled 5 Example 2

Press 0: First line is highlighted [We see that all numbers have the field I common]

Press "fast key I": Skip to second field.

Cursor goes under first zero of second field.

10 Is' line is still highlighted.

"All lines >12 are deleted. Lines 1-12 are visible Press "fast key I": Wall lines are deleted, apart from lines 1-4.

Cursor goes to the first number of field III.

Is' line is still highlighted.

15 The desired dialling number can now be selected by either entering the rest of the numbers or by navigating with the navigation keys 'up' and 'down' or by pressing the "enter" key if the desired number is the first entry" Example 3

20 Press 0. The mobile terminal checks all 1s'digits of field I. All

are zeros.

Press 0: The mobile terminal checks all 2nd digit of field I. All

are zeros.

Press 4. The mobile terminal checks all 3rd digit of all numbers in field I with. Has to be 4.

Lines 13-14 are deleted The mobile terminal automatically checks the 5 4th digit of all numbers in lines 1-12 for field I.AII of

them are 4.

3 '4' iS automatically entered for the 4th digit The mobile terminal automatically checks the first digit of field II for lines 1-12. The Is' digit for all

10 lines 1-12 is 0.

'O' is automatically entered for the lit digit of field

II. The mobile terminal checks the second digit of field II. All 2nd digits of field II for lines 1-12 start with

15 either 2 or 7.

At this point the mobile terminal displays or indicates the two possibilities to the user such that the user can select the desired dialling number.

A few examples are given to illustrate the different ways of selecting the 20 desired number.

Example 3 iS in many respects similar to Example 1. However, some of the functionalities are performed not manually by the user, but by internal software.

Example 3a

All entries having a 2 or 7 as the 2nd digit of field II are displayed.

The user presses 2 or 7, depending on which numbers the user wishes to dial.

5 If "2" is pressed then cursor goes under 2, and the above process continues for all rest numbers.

If "7" is pressed, then the highlighted line jumps to line 9 and thecursor goes under number 7. Once we press "7", lines 1 to 8 and all lines >13 are deleted, because the only lines with their second field starting with "07" are lines 9,

10 10, 11 and 12. In addition, the displayed lines are "moved" into the upper part of the screen and the index number is changed from line 9 to 12 to lines 1 to 4. Thus, in the end of this process, the only visible lines in the screen are those 4 matching lines. Then the above process continues similarly.

IS Example 3b

All entries of the directory or all entries having a 2 or 7 as the digit of field II

are displayed and the first of the matching entries is highlighted The user can now select the desired number by navigating with the 'up' and 'down' keys.

20 Example 3c

All entries of the directory are displayed and keys 2 or 7 are illuminated to indicate that the user can press either 2 or 7.

Example 3d

In addition to displaying the directory entries the two options (2 or 7) are shown and the user can select either of the two, using any of the methods described above, such as by using navigation keys or entering the numbers via 5 the key pad.

The methods described above can be implemented in several ways.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the terminal includes a search engine, which searches the directory entries in the ongoing process, for example for selecting matching entries after date relating to the desired 10 dialling number has been entered (see for example step 109 or step 313 of Figures 2 or 4, respectively) and the entries of the directory are not sorted before the process of selecting as entry starts.

According to another embodiment all entries of the telephone directory are sorted according to the dialling numbers, for example as 15 indicated in the example directory in Table 1. In this example the first set of numbers starting with country code 0044, in lines 1 to 12, followed by dialling codes with different country codes in line 13 and 14. The number in lines 1 to 12 are sorted according to the area code; the number of lines 1 to 4 have the area code 0207, following by the numbers having area code 0208 in 20 line S to 8 and so on.

By sorting the numbers before the selection process is started, the searching time can be considerably reduced. The user may for example initiate the sorting based on numbers by pressing a dedicated key or a

combination of keys, referred to as "fast key IV" in the following. According to one embodiment, the user may press a key to enable phonebook search, as already available in the prior art. By pressing the "fast key IV" once, the user

can initiate sorting of the phonebook with reference to names and by pressing 5 the "fast key IV" twice the user can initiate sorting of phonebook with reference to numbers.

The user may for example initiate a sorting process after entering a new entry into that telephone directory. This can be done by pressing a key or a combination of keys for this process.

10 It is noted that other specific keys may be introduced according to the present invention, for example a fast key III, which causes a jump from field

X to field X-1, similar to the fast key described above, which causes a jump

from field X to field X+1. At the same time, this key deletes the last entry of

a particular field X in the number selection process. This entry may have

15 been entered using the fast key or using number keys.

Another example for such a key is a delete button, causing a jump of one digit backward in the number selection process and deleting the last digit of the entry.

The number selection process may be implemented in different ways.

20 According to embodiments of the present invention the telephone directory is stored in memory 28 and the searching and selection processes are performed in the processor 22 of the terminal by a computer program.

According to other embodiments of the present invention the telephone directory is stored in the memory of the SIM card. In this case the program is stored as an apples (i.e. a small application) on SIM memory and the operators are performed in the SIM processor.

5 It is further appreciated that the methods of selecting a telephone entry in a telephone directory described above may also be used for other purposes than dialling the desired number. The method may also be used for searching and selecting a telephone number, for example to determine to which subscriber a particular dialling number belongs.

10 It is to be understood that the embodiments described above are preferred embodiments only. Various features may be omitted, modified or substituted by equivalents, without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method of selecting entries from a directory of alphanumeric entries and associated dialling numbers stored in electronic form in a memory of a 5 mobile communications terminal or in a memory connectable to said terminal, said method comprising the steps of: i) entering data relating to the dialling number of a desired directory entry; and ii) selecting one or more directory entries corresponding to the entered 10 data.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of: iii) displaying the selected directory entries by displaying at least a portion of the alphanumeric strings and a portion of the associated 15 dialling number.

3. A method according to claim 2, comprising repeating steps i) to iii) with the selected directory entries if more than one entry has been selected in step ii).

4. A method according to claim 1, 2 or 3, further comprising the step of displaying a plurality of directory entries by displaying at least a portion of

the alphanumeric strings and at least a portion of the associated dialling number before entering data in step i).

5. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein said data relating 5 to the dialling number comprise one or more numerical characters of said dialling number.

6. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein each of said dialling numbers is stored within a plurality of different designated fields.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein said fields comprise one or

more of the following fields:

a field for a country code;

a field for an area code;

15 a field for a subscriber's dialling number; and

a field for an index number.

8. A method according to claim 6 or claim 7, wherein said data relating to the dialling number comprises a predetermined key adapted to select a 20 string of numerical characters corresponding to the entry of one of said fields

of a selected dialling number.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein said key is further adapted to jump from a first field of said entry to a following field of said entry.

10. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein navigation keys 5 are used to further select a directory entry or an entry of one field of a

directory entry from said directory entries.

11. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein said data relating to at least part of the dialling number are entered in individual components i, 10 wherein l<i<n.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein said components comprise individual numerical characters or a string of numerical characters corresponding to the entry of a field.

13. A method according to claim 11 or 12, wherein said method further comprises the steps of: iv) automatically searching the selected directory entries after data component i has been entered; and 20 v) determining all possible data components i+1 for all directory entries selected after data component i has been entered.

14. A method according to claim 13, further including indicating or displaying said possible data components to the user.

15. A method according to claim 13 or claim 14, wherein the data 5 component i+1 is automatically entered if in step v) only one data component i+1 has been found.

16. A method of searching or selecting entries from a directory of alphanumeric entries and associated dialling numbers stored in electronic 10 form in a memory of a communications terminal or in a memory connectable to said terminal, wherein said method searching or selection is based on dialling numbers.

17. A method of searching or selecting entries from a directory of 15 alphanumeric entries and associated dialling numbers stored in electronic form in a memory of a communications terminal or in a memory connectable to said terminal, said method comprising the steps of: i) entering a first part of one dialling number; ii) analysing directory entries in order to determine whether a 20 second part and/or further parts of said one dialling number are uniquely determined; and iii) automatically entering a second and/or further part of said one dialling number if said second part is uniquely determined.

18. A method according to claim 17, further comprising the step of indicating or displaying to the user all possible second parts of said dialling number if said second part is not uniquely determined.

s

l9. A communications terminal comprising a display and a numerical keypad, said terminal being in communication with a processor and a memory for storing in electronic from a directory of alphanumeric entries and associated dialling numbers, 10 said terminal being adapted receive data relating to the dialling number of a desired directory entry entered by a user; and said terminal being further adapted to select one or more directory entries corresponding to the entered data.

15

20. An application or computer program adapted to perform the method according to any of claims 1 to 18 when running on a communications terminal.

21. A communications terminal comprising a display and a numerical 20 keypad, said terminal being connectable to a processor and a memory for storing in electronic from a directory of alphanumeric entries and associated dialling numbers, wherein said terminal is adapted to perform the method according to any of claims 1 to 18.

22. A communication terminal adapted to perform a method as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.