Electronic device, storage medium and method for operating electronic device

• US 10,073,585 B2
• Filed: 04/29/2015
• Issued: 09/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
• Original Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
• Inventors: Kanda, Atsuhiko, Takenouchi, Hayato
• Primary Examiner(s): Sarma, Abhishek
• Application Number:
  US14/699,799
• Publication Number:
  US 20150234566A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,231 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04801 Cursor retrieval aid, i.e. visual aspect modification, blinking, colour changes, enlargement or other visual cues, for helping user do find the cursor in graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04812 Interaction techniques based on cursor appearance or behaviour, e.g. being affected by the presence of displayed objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus

Abstract

A determining module configured to determine an operation mode of an electronic device determines the operation mode as a cursor display mode in which a display region displays a cursor when a detecting module detects a first manipulation through a manipulator over the display region. In a case where the operation mode is the cursor display mode, a display module moves the cursor in the display region in response to movement of the manipulator in the display region detected by the detecting module. In a case where the operation mode is the cursor display mode, a processing executing module executes processing related to a display target indicated by the cursor when the detecting module detects that the manipulator moves in the display region so as to indicate the display target by the cursor in the display region and then moves away from the display region.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

a display;

a touch panel configured to detect a touch operation to the display; and

at least one processor configured to, in a cursor display mode in which the display displays a cursor,

during a continuous touch operation that moves a contact point across the display, move the cursor on the display, such that the movement of the cursor is greater than the movement of the contact point for as long as the continuous touch operation is not released,

when the contact point of the continuous touch operation remains motionless for a non-zero predetermined time period,

display an image, comprising an enlarged portion of a display screen surrounding the cursor on the display, in a foreground of the display so as to overlap the display screen as a background of the display, and

reduce a luminance of the display screen as the background, so as to be visually darker than the image, comprising the enlarged portion of the display screen, in the foreground, and,

when the continuous touch operation is released while a location of the cursor corresponds to a location of a display target on the display, execute processing related to the display target.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor, in the cursor display mode, cancels the cursor display mode when the continuous touch operation is released.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor, in the cursor display mode, cancels the cursor display mode when the continuous touch operation is ended with a flick.

4. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor, in the cursor display mode, removes the image from the display when the cursor is moved outside a boundary of the image.

5. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor, in the cursor display mode, enlarges a portion of the display when the contact point reciprocates within a predetermined time period, wherein the reciprocation comprises movement of the contact point in a first direction from a base point by at least a predetermined distance, followed by movement of the contact point in a second direction that is opposite to the first direction by at least the predetermined distance, within a predetermined time.

6. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

display a notification region on an end portion of the display;

detect an event in the electronic device;

display an icon indicating an occurrence of the event in the notification region; and

,

in the cursor display mode, when the contact point of the continuous touch is moved to the notification region and then moved toward an outside of the notification region, display information related to the event in a region outside of the notification region.

7. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

display a notification region on an end portion of the display;

detect an event in the electronic device;

display an icon indicating an occurrence of the event in the notification region; and

,

in the cursor display mode, when the continuous touch operation is released with a flick motion toward the notification region, display information related to the event in a region outside of the notification region.

8. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor switches from a prior mode into the cursor display mode in response to a touch operation that begins on an edge of the display and moves inward in a first direction on the display.

9. The electronic device according to claim 8, wherein the at least one processor cancels the cursor display mode in response to a touch operation that begins on an interior of the display and moves outward in a second direction, which is opposite to the first direction, towards the edge of the display.

10. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

switch to a selection mode in response to a first touch operation; and

,

while in the selection mode,

switch to the cursor display mode in response to a second touch operation, and

switch to a second display mode, which is different than the cursor display mode, in response to a third touch operation which is different than the second touch operation.

11. The electronic device according to claim 10, wherein the second display mode is an enlargement/reduction mode in which a display region of the display screen is enlarged or reduced in response to respective touch operations.

12. The electronic device according to claim 10, wherein, in the second display mode, one or more display targets are displayed, and wherein the at least one processor executes one of the one or more display targets when selected by a selection operation.

13. The electronic device according to claim 12, wherein the selection operation comprises moving a continuous touch of the second touch operation and releasing the continuous touch of the second touch operation at a position on the display that corresponds to one of the one or more display targets.

14. The electronic device according to claim 10, wherein the first touch operation begins on an edge of the display and moves inward in a first direction on the display.

15. The electronic device according to claim 14, wherein the at least one processor cancels the selection mode in response to a touch operation that begins on an interior of the display and moves outward in a second direction, which is opposite to the first direction, towards the edge of the display.

16. The electronic device according to claim 14, wherein the at least one processor cancels the selection mode in response to a release of the first touch operation.

17. The electronic device according to claim 10, wherein the second touch operation comprises maintaining a continuous touch of the first touch operation while moving a contact point of the continuous touch of the first operation in a first direction on the display, and wherein the third touch operation comprises maintaining the continuous touch of the first touch operation while moving the contact point of the continuous touch of the first operation in a second direction on the display which is different from the first direction.

18. A non-transitory storage medium readable by a computer that stores a control program that controls an electronic device comprising a display and a touch panel, the control program configured to cause the computer to, in a cursor display mode in which the display displays a cursor:

during a continuous touch operation that moves a contact point across the display, move the cursor on the display, such that the movement of the cursor is greater than the movement of the contact point, for as long as the continuous touch operation is not released;

when the contact point of the continuous touch operation remains motionless for a non-zero predetermined time period,

display an image, comprising an enlarged portion of a display screen surrounding the cursor on the display, in a foreground of the display so as to overlap the display screen as a background of the display, and

reduce a luminance of the display screen as the background, so as to be visually darker than the image, comprising the enlarged portion of the display screen, in the foreground; and

,

when the continuous touch operation is released while a location of the cursor corresponds to a location of a display target on the display, execute processing related to the display target.

19. A method for operating an electronic device comprising a display and a touch panel, the method comprising, in a cursor display mode in which the display displays a cursor:

during a continuous touch operation that moves a contact point across the display, moving the cursor on the display, such that the movement of the cursor is greater than the movement of the contact point, for as long as the continuous touch operation is not released;

when the contact point of the continuous touch operation reciprocates within a predetermined time period,

displaying an image, comprising an enlarged portion of a display screen surrounding the cursor on the display, in a foreground of the display so as to overlap the display screen as a background of the display, and

reducing a luminance of the display screen as the background, so as to be visually darker than the image, comprising the enlarged portion of the display screen, in the foreground; and

,

when the continuous touch operation is released while a location of the cursor corresponds to a location of a display target on the display, executing processing related to the display target.