Operation device and operation method

• US 10,222,964 B2
• Filed: 10/21/2014
• Issued: 03/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Ban, Yasuhiro, Yamasaki, Naoki, Toyota, Hiromi
• Primary Examiner(s): Nunez, Jordany
• Application Number:
  US15/029,419
• Publication Number:
  US 20160253080A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,596 Days
• CPC Class Codes: F24C 7/086 touch control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 6/6435 Aspects relating to the user interface of the microwave heating apparatus

Abstract

An operation device is provided with a GUI display unit which displays a power setting value for defining an operation power of a household appliance, and a time setting value for defining an operation time of the household appliance on an orthogonal coordinate system; and a touch operation unit which simultaneously accepts an input of the power setting value and an input of the time setting value to be displayed on the GUI display unit by an operation of letting a predetermined object touch the GUI display unit.

Claims

1. An operation device for operating a household appliance, comprising:

a display unit which displays a power setting value for defining an operation power of the household appliance, and a time duration setting value for defining an operation time duration of the household appliance on an orthogonal coordinate system; and

an operation unit which simultaneously accepts both a change of an input of the power setting coordinate value in a first direction and a change of an input of time duration setting coordinate value in a second direction to be displayed on the display unit by an operation of letting a predetermined object touch the display unit, wherein the first direction is one of a vertical direction or a horizontal direction and the second direction is orthogonal to the first direction, wherein;

the operation unit accepts a track of a touch position of the predetermined object as an input of the power setting value and an input of the time duration setting value by an operation of moving the predetermined object on the orthogonal coordinate system in contact with the display unit, and the operation unit converts a track of the predetermined object touched on the display unit into a coordinate value for each zone, wherein

when a change in the coordinate values adjacent to each other in a horizontal direction is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, an input is accepted based on an assumption that the coordinate values adjacent to each other in the horizontal direction remain unchanged, and

when a change in the coordinate values adjacent to each other in a vertical direction is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, an input is accepted based on an assumption that the coordinate values adjacent to each other in the vertical direction remain unchanged.

2. The operation device according to claim 1, wherein

one of a vertical axis and a horizontal axis on the orthogonal coordinate system represents the power setting value, and the other of the vertical axis and the horizontal axis represents the time duration setting value, and

the operation unit simultaneously accepts an input of the power setting value and an input of the time duration setting value by the operation of dragging an intersection point between the power setting value and the time duration setting value on the orthogonal coordinate system.

3. The operation device according to claim 1, wherein

one of a vertical axis and a horizontal axis on the orthogonal coordinate system represents the power setting value, and the other of the vertical axis and the horizontal axis represents the time duration setting value,

the operation unit simultaneously accepts an input of the power setting value and an input of the time duration setting value by an operation of touching an arbitrary position on the orthogonal coordinate system, and

the display unit displays the power setting value and the time duration setting value in such a manner that a touch position to be input by the operation unit coincides with an intersection point between the power setting value and the time duration setting value.

4. The operation device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage unit which stores a predetermined track on the orthogonal coordinate system, wherein

the display unit displays the predetermined track stored in the storage unit before the predetermined object touches the display unit.

5. The operation device according to claim 4, wherein

a display form of the predetermined track to be displayed before the predetermined object touches the display unit is different from a display form of a track of a touch position of the predetermined object to be input by the operation unit.

6. The operation device according to claim 4, wherein

the predetermined track to be displayed before the predetermined object touches the display unit differs depending on an object to be controlled by the household appliance.

7. The operation device according to claim 1, wherein the household appliance includes a heat cooker which cooks food by heating.

8. An operation method for operating a household appliance, comprising:

a step of causing a display unit to display a power setting value for defining an operation power of the household appliance, and a time duration setting value for defining an operation time duration of the household appliance on an orthogonal coordinate system; and

a step of causing an operation unit to simultaneously both a change of an input of the power setting coordinate value in a first direction and a change of an input of the time duration setting coordinate value in a second direction to be displayed on the display unit by an operation of letting a predetermined object touch the display unit, wherein the first direction is one of a vertical direction or a horizontal direction and the second direction is orthogonal to the first direction, wherein the operation unit accepts a track of a touch position of the predetermined object as an input of the power setting value and an input of the time duration setting value by an operation of moving the predetermined object on the orthogonal coordinate system in contact with the display unit, and the operation unit converts a track of the predetermined object touched on the display unit into a coordinate value for each zone, wherein

when a change in the coordinate values adjacent to each other in a horizontal direction is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, an input is accepted based on an assumption that the coordinate values adjacent to each other in the horizontal direction remain unchanged, and

when a change in the coordinate values adjacent to each other in a vertical direction is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, an input is accepted based on an assumption that the coordinate values adjacent to each other in the vertical direction remain unchanged.