Electronic devices with preselected operational characteristics, and associated methods

• US 20080284743A1
• Filed: 04/10/2008
• Published: 11/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HTC Corporation
• Original Assignee: HTC Corporation
• Inventors: Hsu, Chih-Feng, KAO, Yih-Feng, Wang, John C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,797,272 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04166 Details of scanning methods, e.g. sampling time, grouping of sub areas or time sharing with display driving Synchronisation with the driving of the display or the backlighting unit to avoid interferences generated internally G06F3/04184
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

Electronic devices with preselected operational characteristics and associated methods are disclosed. The electronic devices can include a touch sensing component that senses a touch from an input mechanism and an input circuitry that measures at least one parameter of the touch from the touch sensing component. The electronic devices can also include a processor that performs an analysis of the measured at least one parameter of the detected touch and implements preselected operational characteristics of the electronic device based on the performed analysis.

Claims

I_We. I/We claim:

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a touch sensing component that senses a touch from an input mechanism;

an input circuitry that measures at least one parameter of the touch from the touch sensing component; and

a processor that performs an analysis of the measured at least one parameter of the detected touch and implements preselected operational characteristics of the electronic device based on the performed analysis.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising a storage holding instructions for performing the analysis of the measured at least one parameter and implementing preselected operational characteristics of the electronic device based on the performed analysis.

3. The electronic device of claim 2 wherein the instructions are at least partially incorporated into an operating system of the processor or the instructions are an independent application.

4. The electronic device of claim 1 wherein the touch sensing component includes at one of a resistive touch screen, a capacitive touch screen, an infrared touch screen, a surface acoustic wave touch screen, a pressure sensor, and a temperature sensor.

5. The electronic device of claim 1 wherein the touch sensing component includes a capacitive touch screen having a plurality of sensor pads, and wherein the input circuitry is configured to measure a number of the sensor pads activated by the touch.

6. The electronic device of claim 1 wherein the processor calculates a distribution of the measured at least one parameter of the detected touch and implements at least one of a user interface and/or a function of the electronic device if the distribution is greater than a threshold or implements at least one of another user interface and/or another function of the electronic device if the distribution is less than the threshold.

7. The electronic device of claim 1 wherein the input circuitry periodically measures a position and/or a pressure of the touch, and wherein the processor calculates an absolute deviation and/or a standard deviation of the measured position and/or pressure.

8. The electronic device of claim 1 wherein the processor implements features in a user interface and/or functionality of the electronic device.

9. The electronic device of claim 1 wherein the electronic device is a PDA, a cellular phone, a laptop computer, a tablet PC, a smart phone, or a hand-held email device.

10. A method for operating an electronic device, comprising:

measuring at least one parameter of a detected touch from an input mechanism on a touch sensing component of the electronic device;

performing an analysis of the measured at least one parameter of the detected touch from the input mechanism; and

implementing preselected operational characteristics of the electronic device based on the performed analysis.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein performing an analysis includes performing an analysis using instructions that are at least partially incorporated into an operating system of a processor or are an independent application of the electronic device.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein measuring at least one parameter includes periodically sampling and recording at least one of a position, a pressure, a temperature, and an optical image of the detected touch.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein performing an analysis includes calculating a distribution of the measured at least one parameter of the detected touch.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein performing an analysis includes calculating a distribution of the measured at least one parameter of the detected touch, and wherein implementing operational characteristics includes implementing at least one of a user interface and/or a function of the electronic device if the distribution is greater than a threshold or implementing at least one of another user interface and/or another function of the electronic device if the distribution is less than the threshold.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein measuring at least one parameter includes periodically sampling and recording a position and/or a pressure of the detected touch, and wherein performing an analysis includes calculating an absolute deviation of the measured position and/or pressure.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the absolute deviation of the measured position and/or pressure are calculated as follows:

$x_d=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br><br><br><br><br>x_i-\stackrel{\_}{x}<br><br>$

where n is the number of data points, x_d is the absolute deviation, and x is the average value calculated as

$\stackrel{\_}{x}=\frac{\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>x_i}{n}.$

17. The method of claim 10 wherein measuring at least one parameter includes periodically sampling and recording a position and/or a pressure of the detected touch, and wherein performing an analysis includes calculating a standard deviation of the measured position and/or pressure.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the standard deviation of the measured position and/or pressure are calculated as follows:

$\mathrm{\sigma <br><br>}=\sqrt{\frac{1}{n}<br><br>\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br><br><br>{\left(x_i-\stackrel{\_}{x}\right)}^2}$

where σ

is the standard deviation.

19. The method of claim 10 wherein measuring at least one parameter includes measuring a number of sensor pads activated by the detected touch, and wherein performing an analysis includes comparing the measured number to a threshold, and wherein implementing preselected operational characteristics includes implementing a user interface and/or a function of the electronic device if the measured number is greater than the threshold or implementing another user interface and/or another function of the electronic device if the measured number is less than the threshold.

20. The method of claim 10 wherein implementing preselected operational characteristics includes implementing features in a user interface and/or functionality of the electronic device.

21. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for performing the method of claim 10.

22. A method for operating an electronic device, comprising:

detecting a touch from an input mechanism;

determining an attribute of the input mechanism based on the detected touch; and

implementing preselected operational characteristics of the electronic device based on the determined attribute of the input mechanism.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein determining an attribute of the input mechanism includes determining an attribute of the input mechanism using instructions that are at least partially incorporated into an operating system of a processor or are an independent application of the electronic device.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein determining an attribute of the input mechanism includes collecting a set of readings of at least one parameter of the detected touch and calculating an absolute deviation and/or a standard deviation of the collected set of readings.

25. The method of claim 22 wherein determining an attribute of the input mechanism includes indicating whether the input mechanism is a pointing device or a finger of a user, and wherein implementing preselected operational characteristics includes implementing at least one a user interface if the input mechanism is indicated to be the pointing device or implementing at least one another user interface if the input mechanism is indicated to be the finger of the user.

26. The method of claim 22 wherein determining an attribute of the input mechanism includes:

measuring a number of sensor pads activated by the touch from the input mechanism; and

indicating that a kind of the input mechanism according to whether the measured number is greater or less than a threshold.

27. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for performing the method of claim 22.

28. A method for operating an electronic device, comprising:

detecting a touch from an input mechanism;

collecting a set of readings of at least one of a position, a pressure, a temperature, and an optical image of the detected touch;

analyzing the collected set of readings;

determining whether the input mechanism is a pointing device or a finger of a user according to the analyzed set of readings;

implementing first preselected operational characteristics of the electronic device if the input mechanism is the pointing device; and

implementing second preselected operational characteristics of the electronic device if the input mechanism is the finger of the user, the first preselected operational characteristics being different from the second preselected operational characteristics.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein determining whether the input mechanism is a pointing device or a finger of a user includes determining whether the input mechanism is a pointing device or a finger of a user using instructions that are at least partially incorporated into an operating system of a processor or are an independent application of the electronic device.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein analyzing the collected set of readings includes calculating an absolute deviation of the collected set of readings, and wherein determining whether the input mechanism is a pointing device or a finger of a user includes indicating that the input mechanism is the pointing device if the absolute deviation is below a threshold and indicating that the input mechanism is the finger if the absolute deviation is above the threshold.

31. The method of claim 28 wherein determining whether the input mechanism is a pointing device or a finger of a user includes:

comparing a measured temperature to a temperature threshold;

indicating that the input mechanism is the finger if the measured temperature is greater than a temperature threshold; and

indicating that the input mechanism is the pointing device if the measured temperature is less than the temperature threshold.

32. The method of claim 28 wherein implementing first and/or second preselected operational characteristics includes implementing features in a user interface and/or functionality of the electronic device.

33. The method of claim 28 wherein collecting a set of readings includes collecting a set of readings of a position and a pressure of the detected touch, and wherein analyzing the collected set of readings includes calculating an absolute deviation of the collected set of readings of the position and the pressure, and wherein determining whether the input mechanism is a pointing device or a finger of a user includes indicating that the input mechanism is the pointing device if the absolute deviation of both the position and the pressure is below a threshold and indicating that the input mechanism is the finger if the absolute deviation of both the position and the pressure is above the threshold.

34. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for performing the method of claim 28.