Orientation control

• US 10,061,402 B2
• Filed: 08/25/2016
• Issued: 08/28/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Hunt, John Miles, Nicholson, John Weldon
• Primary Examiner(s): Guo, Xilin
• Application Number:
  US15/246,790
• Publication Number:
  US 20170052604A1
• Time in Patent Office: 733 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1614 Image rotation following screen orientation, e.g. switching from landscape to portrait mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0492 Change of orientation of the displayed image, e.g. upside-down, mirrored

Abstract

A method can include operating a 3-axis accelerometer having two axes that define a plane and an axis perpendicular to the plane to provide acceleration values for the three axes; increasing a threshold responsive to an increase in magnitude of the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane or decreasing the threshold responsive to a decrease in magnitude of the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane; and orienting output to a display in either a portrait format or a landscape format based on comparing the acceleration values for the two axes that define the plane to the threshold.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

operating a 3-axis accelerometer having two axes that define a plane and an axis perpendicular to the plane to provide acceleration values for the three axes;

changing a trigger threshold value responsive to a change in magnitude of the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane according to a predefined relationship between magnitude of acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane and trigger threshold value in a range from a minimum trigger threshold value to a maximum trigger threshold value wherein within the range the trigger threshold value increases with respect to an increase in the magnitude of the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane; and

orienting output to a display in either a portrait format or a landscape format based on comparing the acceleration values for the two axes that define the plane to the changed trigger threshold value.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the trigger threshold value comprises a linear relationship with respect to the magnitude of the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the trigger threshold value comprises a non-linear relationship with respect to the magnitude of the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane corresponds to an angle with respect to gravity.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein changing the trigger threshold value comprises increasing the trigger threshold value responsive to an increase in the magnitude of the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein changing the trigger threshold value comprises decreasing the trigger threshold value responsive to a decrease in the magnitude of the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane.

7. The method of claim 1 comprising, orienting output to the display in the portrait format based on comparing the acceleration values for the two axes that define the plane to the trigger threshold value.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the orienting the output changes the output to the display from the landscape format to the portrait format.

9. The method of claim 1 comprising, orienting output to a display in the landscape format based on comparing the acceleration values for the two axes that define the plane to the trigger threshold value.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the orienting the output changes the output to the display from the portrait format to the landscape format.

11. The method of claim 1 comprising dynamically changing the trigger threshold value responsive to the change in the magnitude of the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane.

12. The method of claim 1 comprising dynamically changing the trigger threshold value over a range of trigger threshold values responsive to dynamic changes in the magnitude over a range of magnitudes.

13. The method of claim 1 comprising, at a first time, changing the trigger threshold value to a first trigger threshold value responsive to a change in the magnitude of the acceleration value to a first acceleration value and, at a second time, changing the trigger threshold value to a second, different trigger threshold value responsive to a change in the magnitude of the acceleration value to a second, different acceleration value.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein a maximum value of the magnitude corresponds to a maximum value of the trigger threshold value.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein two different orientations of the 3-axis accelerometer generate a maximum in the magnitude of the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane wherein one of the two different orientations corresponds to the display being parallel to the plane and facing upwardly and wherein the other of the two different orientations corresponds to the display being parallel to the plane and facing downwardly.

16. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions to instruct a device to:

operate a 3-axis accelerometer having two axes that define a plane and an axis perpendicular to the plane to provide acceleration values for the three axes;

change a trigger threshold value responsive to a change in magnitude of the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane according to a predefined relationship between magnitude of acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane and trigger threshold value in a range from a minimum trigger threshold value to a maximum trigger threshold value wherein within the range the trigger threshold value increases with respect to an increase in the magnitude of the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane; and

orient output to a display in either a portrait format or a landscape format based on a comparison of the acceleration values for the two axes that define the plane to the changed trigger threshold value.

17. A device comprising:

a processor;

a planar display;

a 3-axis accelerometer having two axes that define a plane and an axis perpendicular to the plane to provide acceleration values for the three axes;

memory accessible to the processor; and

computer-executable instructions stored in the memory and executable to instruct the device to

change a trigger threshold value responsive to a change in magnitude of the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane according to a predefined relationship between magnitude of acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane and trigger threshold value in a range from a minimum trigger threshold value to a maximum trigger threshold value wherein within the range the trigger threshold value increases with respect to an increase in the magnitude of the acceleration value for the axis perpendicular to the plane; and

orient output to the display in either a portrait format or a landscape format based on a comparison of the acceleration values for the two axes that define the plane to the changed trigger threshold value.