MOBILE TERMINAL HAVING TOUCH SENSOR-EQUIPPED INPUT DEVICE AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF

• US 20100099463A1
• Filed: 06/10/2009
• Published: 04/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: KIM, Jun-Hee, LIM, Sang-Yeon, KIM, Jae-Keun, KIM, Hoi-Chul, CHO, Seong-Yoon
• Granted Patent: US 8,565,828 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/566
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1624 with sliding enclosures, e.g. sliding keyboard or display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1662 Details related to the integrated keyboard
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0233 Character input methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0235 Slidable or telescopic telephones, i.e. with a relative translation movement of the body parts; Telephones using a combination of translation and other relative motions of the body parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0245 using open/close detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/23 Construction or mounting of dials or of equivalent devices; Means for facilitating the use thereof by improving visibility H04M1/22
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector

Abstract

A mobile terminal having a touch sensor-equipped input device and its control method are disclosed. The mobile terminal includes: a user input unit in which a keypad-printed layer and a touch sensor overlap with each other; and a controller that controls an operation mode of the user input unit in a touch pad and/or a touch keypad mode according to whether or not a cursor is in use.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal comprising:

an input unit having a keypad layer and a touch-sensor layer that overlap each other, the keypad layer including or associated with one or more characters; and

a controller to control the input unit to operate in a touch pad mode or a touch keypad mode according to whether or not a cursor is in use on a display screen of the mobile terminal.

2. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein when the cursor is in use, the controller activates the input unit to operate in touch pad mode.

3. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein when the cursor is not in use, the controller activates the input unit to operate in a touch keypad mode.

4. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller activates the input unit to operate in touch pad mode or touch keypad mode according to a predetermined function of the mobile terminal, said predetermined function involving use of the cursor of the display screen.

5. The mobile terminal of claim 4, wherein when the mobile terminal is changed to a text input mode in a state where the input unit is activated in touch pad mode, the controller changes an operational mode of the input unit into the touch keypad mode.

6. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein in a state where the input unit is activated in the touch pad mode and the touch keypad mode, the controller recognizes a touch pad input or a touch keypad input according to a touch input applied to the input unit.

7. The mobile terminal of claim 6, wherein if the touch input is dragging, the controller recognizes the touch input as a touch pad input and executes a function corresponding to the dragging.

8. The mobile terminal of claim 6, wherein if the touch input is not dragging, the controller recognizes the touch input as a key input of the touch keypad and displays a character corresponding to the key input.

9. The mobile terminal of claim 1, further comprising:

a sensor to sense opening and closing of the mobile terminal.

10. The mobile terminal of claim 9, wherein the controller controls the input unit to operate in a first predetermined mode when the sensor detects opening of the mobile terminal, and controls the input unit to operate in a second predetermined mode when the sensor detects closing of the mobile terminal.

11. The mobile terminal of claim 10, wherein the first and second predetermined modes correspond to at least one of the touch pad mode or the touch keypad mode.

12. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the one or more characters include on or more numbers, letters, or symbols.

13. A method for controlling a mobile terminal, comprising:

checking whether or not a cursor is in use when a certain function of the mobile terminal is executed; and

activating the input device to operate in at least one of a touch pad mode or a touch keypad mode based on whether or not the cursor is in use.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said activating comprises:

if the cursor has been set to be used, activating the input device to operate in touch pad mode; and

controlling the cursor according to a touch input via the input device.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein said activating comprises:

if the cursor has not been set to be used, activating the input device to operate in touch keypad mode; and

when a touch applied to the input device is detected, generating a key input signal corresponding to a location where the touch occurred relative to the keypad.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

when the input device is controlled to operate in touch pad mode, changing an input mode to operate in text mode; and

changing the touch pad mode to the touch keypad mode.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein when the input device is controlled to operate in touch keypad mode and the mobile terminal is in a closed configuration, the touch keypad mode of the input device is deactivated and a keypad icon is displayed on a display unit of the mobile terminal.

18. A mobile terminal comprising:

an input unit;

a display screen;

at least one sensor; and

a controller to control the input unit to operate in at least one of a keypad mode or a touch pad mode based on one or more conditions.

19. The mobile terminal of claim 18, wherein the one or more conditions include a type of touch signal detected by the input unit.

20. The mobile terminal of claim 19, wherein the controller controls the input unit to operate in touch pad mode when the touch signal corresponds to a dragging motion on the input unit.

21. The mobile terminal of claim 20, wherein the controller automatically activates a predetermined function of the mobile terminal that operates based on signals received through the touch pad mode when the touch signal corresponds to said dragging operation.

22. The mobile terminal of claim 21, wherein the controller automatically activates said predetermined function when the touch signal corresponds to a dragging operation performed in a predetermined pattern.

23. The mobile terminal of claim 22, wherein the predetermined pattern is a circular pattern.

24. The mobile terminal of claim 19, wherein the controller controls the input unit to operate in keypad mode when the touch signal corresponds to a touch at only one location on the input unit, the controller recognizing the touch signal as a character corresponding to said location on the input unit.

25. The mobile terminal of claim 24, wherein the character includes at least one of a number, letter, or symbol.

26. The mobile terminal of claim 18, wherein the one or more conditions include activation of a predetermined function of the mobile terminal, the controller controlling the input unit to operate in keypad mode or touch pad mode based on activation of said predetermined function.

27. The mobile terminal of claim 26, wherein the controller controls the input unit to operate in touch pad mode when the predetermined activated function operates based on movement of a cursor on the display screen.

28. A mobile terminal comprising:

a detector;

a display screen; and

a controller to control operation of the mobile terminal, wherein the controller controls the screen to display a virtual keypad when the detector detects that the mobile terminal is in a closed state and blocks display of the virtual keypad when the detector detects the mobile terminal is in an open state, wherein a physical keypad is accessible by a user in the open state and the physical keypad is inaccessible by a user in the closed state.

29. The mobile terminal of claim 28, wherein, when the mobile terminal is placed in a partial state where only a first portion of the physical keypad is accessible by a user, the controller controls the screen to display a virtual keypad that includes the second portion of the physical keypad not accessible by the user, and wherein the accessible first portion of the physical keypad and the second portion of the virtual keypad are simultaneously activated in said partial state.