Method for scroll bar control on a touchpad

• US 20080106524A1
• Filed: 01/09/2008
• Published: 05/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elan Microelectronics Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yen-Chang Chiu, Yung-Lieh Chien, Zhi-Long Wu
• Inventors: Chien, Yung-Lieh, Chiu, Yen-Chang, Wu, Zhi-Long
• Granted Patent: US 8,378,976 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 computer-readable medium containing instructions for a touchpad to perform a process for scroll bar control on the touchpad, the process comprising:

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 computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the threshold is two.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the process further comprising continuing the scroll bar control function during the fingers touching on the touchpad is not less than a second threshold.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the process 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 computer-readable medium of claim 4 wherein the second threshold is zero.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the process 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 computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the process 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 computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the process 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 computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the process further comprising determining a scrolling amount for the vertical scroll bar in proportion to the vertical distance.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the process 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 computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the process further comprising determining a scrolling amount for the horizontal scroll bar in proportion to the horizontal distance.