Input mode recognition

• US 10,430,917 B2
• Filed: 03/23/2018
• Issued: 10/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Radakovitz, Samuel Chow, Covington, Clinton Dee
• Primary Examiner(s): Lin, Chun-Nan
• Application Number:
  US15/933,754
• Publication Number:
  US 20180218476A1
• Time in Patent Office: 557 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0227 Cooperation and interconnection of the input arrangement with other functional units of a computer G06F3/023 - G06F3/037 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• 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: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining

Abstract

A touch input mode may be entered and exited automatically and/or manually. When the touch input mode is entered, user interface (UI) elements are optimized for touch input. When the touch input mode is exited, the user interface (UI) elements are optimized for hardware based input. A user may enter the touch input mode by manually selecting a user interface element and/or by entering touch input. Settings may be configured that specify conditions upon which the touch input mode is entered/exited. For example, the touch input mode may be configured to be automatically entered upon undocking a computing device, receiving touch input when in the hardware based input mode, and the like. Similarly, the touch input mode may be configured to be automatically exited upon docking a computing device, receiving hardware based input when in the touch input mode, and the like.

Claims

1. A method for input type recognition, comprising:

determining whether a computing device is docked or undocked;

when it is determined that the computing device is undocked, placing the computing device in an undocked mode, wherein in the undocked mode an user interface element of a graphical user interface (GUI), being displayed on a display device of the computing device, is optimized for a touch based input that occurs via an user interaction with the display device; and

when it is determined that the computing device is docked, placing the computing device in a docked mode, wherein in the docked mode the user interface element of the GUI, being displayed on the display device of the computing device, is optimized for an input other than the touch based input that occurs via the user interaction with the display device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the GUI displayed on the display device while in the docked mode includes a specific user interface element usable to manually switch to accept touch based input.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device automatically switches from the undocked mode to the docked mode when the computing device is docked.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device automatically switches from the docked mode to the undocked mode when the computing device is undocked.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein, when in the docked mode, the computing device is interfaced to one or more external hardware input devices and, when in the undocked mode, the computing device is not interfaced to the one or more external hardware input devices.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more external hardware input devices includes at least one of a keyboard or a mouse.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein, when the computing device is in the docked mode and receives the touch based input via the user interaction with the display device, the computing device transitions to the undocked mode based on receipt of the touch based input.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein, when the computing device is in the undocked mode and receives a hardware based input as the input, the computing device transitions to the docked mode based on receipt of the hardware based input.

9. A computing device for input type recognition, the computing device comprising:

a display device having a touch screen that receives a touch based input;

a memory device storing executable instructions;

a processor in communication with the display device and the memory device, wherein execution of the executable instructions causes the processor to function as;

an application that includes a graphical user interface (GUI) having a first configuration of user interface elements for use with the touch based input and a second configuration of the user interface elements for use with a hardware based input; and

a user interface manager operating in conjunction with the application that is configured to perform;

determining whether the computing device is docked or undocked;

when it is determined that the computing device is undocked, placing the computing device in an undocked mode, wherein in the undocked mode the first configuration of the user interface elements of the GUI, being displayed on the display device, are optimized for the touch based input that occurs via an user interaction with the display device; and

when it is determined that the computing device is docked, placing the computing device in a docked mode, wherein in the docked mode the second configuration of the user interface elements of the GUI, being displayed on the display device, are optimized for an input other than the touch based input that occurs via the user interaction with the display device.

10. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the second configuration of the user interface elements displayed on the display device in the docked mode includes a specific user interface element usable to manually switch to accept touch based input.

11. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the computing device automatically switches from the undocked mode to the docked mode when the computing device is docked.

12. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the computing device automatically switches from the docked mode to the undocked mode when the computing device is undocked.

13. The computing device of claim 9, wherein, when in the docked mode, the computing device is interfaced to one or more external hardware input devices and, when in the undocked mode, the computing device is not interfaced to the one or more external hardware input devices.

14. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the one or more external hardware input devices includes at least one of a keyboard or a mouse.

15. The computing device of claim 9, wherein, when the computing device is in the docked mode and receives the touch based input that occurs via the user interaction with the display device, the computing device transitions to the undocked mode based on receipt of the touch based input.

16. The computing device of claim 9, wherein, when the computing device is in the undocked mode and receives a hardware based input as the input, the computing device transitions to the docked mode based on receipt of the hardware based input.

17. A computer-readable storage device storing computer-executable instructions for input type recognition, the computer-executable instructions comprising:

determining whether a computing device is docked or undocked;

when it is determined that the computing device is undocked, placing the computing device in an undocked mode, wherein in the undocked mode user interface elements of a graphical user interface (GUI), being displayed on a display device of the computing device, are optimized for a touch based input that occurs via an user interaction with the display device; and

when it is determined that the computing device is docked, placing the computing device in a docked mode, wherein in the docked mode the user interface elements of the GUI, being displayed on the display device of the computing device, are optimized for an input other than the touch based input that occurs via the user interaction with the display device.

18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein, when in the docked mode, the computing device is interfaced to one or more external hardware input devices and, when in the undocked mode, the computing device is not interfaced to the one or more external hardware input devices.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the one or more external hardware input devices includes at least one of a keyboard or a mouse.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein, when the computing device is in the docked mode and receives the touch based input that occurs via the user interaction with the display device, the computing device transitions to the undocked mode based on receipt of the touch based input.