Invalid area specifying method for touch panel of mobile terminal

• US 10,135,967 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2017
• Issued: 11/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Makiguchi, Tomoya
• Primary Examiner(s): Shedrick, Charles
• Application Number:
  US15/819,026
• Publication Number:
  US 20180097929A1
• Time in Patent Office: 364 Days
• Field of Search: 455566, 345173
• 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 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0487 using specific features provided by the input device, e.g. functions controlled by the rotation of a mouse with dual sensing arrangements, or of the nature of the input device, e.g. tap gestures based on pressure sensed by a digitiser
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72463 to restrict the functionality of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724631 by limiting the access to the user interface, e.g. locking a touch-screen or a keypad

Abstract

A touch-panel cellular phone specifies an invalid area not accepting a user'"'"'s input operation on a touch panel in advance. The cellular phone detects a user'"'"'s touch area on the touch panel so as to execute a function pre-assigned to the touch area not encompassed by the invalid area. Additionally, it is possible to reduce and display menu icons in the display area precluding the invalid area on the touch panel. Thus, it is possible to prevent an error operation when a user holding a cellular phone inadvertently touches the touch panel.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal comprising:

a determination part configured to determine a state of the mobile terminal according to a predetermined operation;

a touch panel comprising a screen, the screen being able to have an invalid area set thereon;

an application execution part configured to execute an invalid area setting application for specifying the invalid area based on touch information provided to the touch panel;

a recording part configured to record on a storage unit a coordination between a specified invalid area and a determination result determined by the determination part for each determined state determined by the determination part; and

an input part configured to determine whether an input to the touch panel relates to an invalid area which is set in coordination with a determination result of the determination part,

wherein upon finding a coordination between a specified invalid area and a determination result of the determination part stored on the storage unit during execution of the invalid area setting application, the recording part rewrites the invalid area coordinated with the determination result stored on the storage unit.

2. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the invalid area setting application displays on the touch panel a message indicating that the invalid area is specified based on the touch information provided to the touch panel due to execution of the invalid area setting application.

3. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the touch information provided to the touch panel is indicated by a plurality of contact areas.

4. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the invalid area setting application displays display information on the touch panel, the display information generated based on the invalid area coordinated with the determination result of the determination part.

5. The mobile terminal according to claim 4, further comprising a calculation part configured to generate a quadrilateral area based on the invalid area coordinated with the determination result of the determination part,

wherein the invalid area setting application specifies the invalid area based on a calculation result of the calculation part.

6. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the state of the mobile terminal is identified by identification information according to the predetermined operation.

7. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the determination part selects one state of the mobile terminal among multiple states of the mobile terminal determined thereby.

8. The mobile terminal according to claim 7, wherein the recording part records a coordination between each of multiple states of the mobile terminal and a corresponding invalid area on the storage unit.

9. An invalid area specifying method comprising:

determining a state of a mobile terminal according to a predetermined operation of the mobile terminal;

executing an invalid area setting application for specifying an invalid area based on touch information provided to a touch panel of the mobile terminal;

recording on a storage unit a coordination between a specified invalid area and a determination result determined by determining the state of the mobile terminal;

determining whether an input to the touch panel relates to an invalid area which is set in coordination with a determination result of determining a state of the mobile terminal; and

upon finding a coordination between a specified invalid area and a determination result of determining a state of the mobile terminal stored on the storage unit during execution of the invalid area setting application, rewriting the invalid area coordinated with the determination result of determining a state of the mobile terminal stored on the storage unit.

10. A non-transitory storage medium having a stored program for causing a computer of a mobile terminal to implement:

determining a state of the mobile terminal according to a predetermined operation of the mobile terminal;

executing an invalid area setting application for specifying an invalid area based on touch information provided to the touch panel of the mobile terminal;

recording on a storage unit a coordination between a specified invalid area and a determination result determined by determining the state of the mobile terminal;

determining whether an input to the touch panel relates to an invalid area which is set in coordination with a determination result of determining a state of the mobile terminal; and

upon finding a coordination between a specified invalid area and a determination result of determining a state of the mobile terminal stored on the storage unit during execution of the invalid area setting application, rewriting the invalid area coordinated with the determination result of determining a state of the mobile terminal stored on the storage unit.