Method for scroll bar control on a touchpad

• US 20060001652A1
• Filed: 07/01/2005
• Published: 01/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elan Microelectronics Corporation
• Original Assignee: Elan Microelectronics Corporation, Elantech Devices Corporation (Elan Microelectronics Corporation)
• Inventors: Chiu, Yen-Chang, Chien, Yung-Lieh, Wu, Zhi-Long
• Granted Patent: US 8,378,973 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• 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 3/04855 Interaction with scrollbars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

In a method for scroll bar control on a touchpad, the fingers touching on the touchpad are detected to start up and terminate a scroll bar control function. In the scroll bar control function, the movement of the finger or fingers touching on the touchpad is detected for scrolling on a window, and the vertical distance and the horizontal distance of the movement are evaluated for determining the scrolling amount of a vertical scroll bar or a horizontal scroll bar of the window.

Claims

1. A method for scroll bar control on a touchpad, comprising the steps of:

detecting if a number of fingers touching on the touchpad is equal to or larger than a threshold, for starting up a scroll bar control function; and

in the scroll bar control function, detecting a movement of one or more fingers slipping on the touchpad for scrolling on a window accordingly.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the threshold is two.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising continuing the scroll bar control function during the fingers touching on the touchpad is not less than a second threshold.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising terminating the scroll bar control function once the fingers touching on the touchpad are equal to or less than a second threshold.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the second threshold is zero.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising evaluating a vertical distance and a horizontal distance of the movement for scrolling a vertical scroll bar and a horizontal scroll bar on the window, respectively.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising evaluating a vertical distance and a horizontal distance of the movement for scrolling a vertical scroll bar on the window if the vertical distance is larger than the horizontal distance over a reference, or scrolling a horizontal scroll bar on the window if the horizontal distance is larger than the vertical distance over the reference.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising determining a scrolling amount for the vertical scroll bar in proportion to a difference between the vertical distance and the horizontal distance.

9. The method according to claim 7, further comprising determining a scrolling amount for the vertical scroll bar in proportion to the vertical distance.

10. The method according to claim 7, further comprising determining a scrolling amount for the horizontal scroll bar in proportion to a difference between the horizontal distance and the vertical distance.

11. The method according to claim 7, further comprising determining a scrolling amount for the horizontal scroll bar in proportion to the horizontal distance.