Flexible display apparatus and operating method thereof

• US 10,152,153 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2013
• Issued: 12/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Jung, Ji-hyun, Lee, Chang-soo
• Primary Examiner(s): Adediran, Abdul-Samad A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hermann, Kirk
• Application Number:
  US13/858,165
• Publication Number:
  US 20130265257A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,073 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1652 the display being flexible, e.g. mimicking a sheet of paper, or rollable
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0381 Multimodal input, i.e. interface arrangements enabling the user to issue commands by simultaneous use of input devices of different nature, e.g. voice plus gesture on digitizer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04102 Flexible digitiser, i.e. constructional details for allowing the whole digitising part of a device to be flexed or rolled like a sheet of paper
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04105 Pressure sensors for measuring the pressure or force exerted on the touch surface without providing the touch position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

A flexible display device is provided. The flexible touch-sensitive display device includes a display which is deformable, a sensor which senses an input comprising a touch of the display and a deformation of the display, and a controller which receives the input, determines whether to select one of only the touch and only the deformation based on a condition of the input, and selects only the touch if it is determined to select only the touch and only the deformation if it is determined to select only the deformation.

Claims

1. A flexible display apparatus comprising:

a touch display which is bendable and senses touch on the touch display;

a bending sensor which senses bending of the touch display; and

a controller which, when the touch is detected while the bending is detected, determines whether or not the touch is an effective user input and whether or not the bending is the effective user input according to a pressure of the touch,

wherein when the pressure of the touch is within a first range of pressure, the controller performs a first operation corresponding to the touch and does not perform a second operation corresponding to the bending, and

wherein when the pressure of the touch is within a second range of pressure different from the first range of pressure, the controller performs the second operation corresponding to the bending and does not perform the first operation corresponding to the touch.

2. The flexible display apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein when the touch and the bending are determined to be rejected as the effective user input, the controller rejects both the touch and the bending as the effective user input.

3. The flexible display apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the touch and the bending are performed concurrently.

4. A method for operating a flexible display apparatus comprising:

sensing a touch and a bending of a display of the flexible display apparatus;

when the touch is detected while the bending is detected, determining whether or not the touch is an effective user input and whether or not the bending is the effective user input according to a pressure of the touch;

when the pressure of the touch is within a first range of pressure, performing a first operation corresponding to the touch and not performing a second operation corresponding to the bending; and

when the pressure of the touch is within a second range of pressure different from the first range of pressure, performing the second operation corresponding to the bending and not performing the first operation corresponding to the touch.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, further comprising:

when the touch and the bending are determined to be rejected as the effective user input, rejecting both the touch and the bending as the effective user input.

6. A non-transitory computer readable medium having recorded thereon instructions which are executed by a computer to perform the method of claim 4.