MOBILE TERMINAL AND METHOD FOR PREVENTING UNINTENDED OPERATION OF THE SAME

• US 20100216447A1
• Filed: 02/08/2010
• Published: 08/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: KIM, Bum Soo, PARK, Dong Joon, KIM, Young Sik
• Granted Patent: US 8,787,994 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/418
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1624 with sliding enclosures, e.g. sliding keyboard or display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1643 the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615
• 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 1/0241 using relative motion of the body parts to change the operational status of the telephone set, e.g. switching on/off, answering incoming call
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector

Abstract

A slide type mobile terminal and a method for preventing unintended operation of the same are disclosed. When an event is generated, indicating movement of the assemblies of the mobile terminal with respect to each other, a determination is made whether the movement is detected within a preset time after generation of at least one of a touch down event and a touch up event, and ignores those events determined to be within the preset time by not delivering the touch events to a related application program.

Claims

1. A method for preventing unintended operation of a mobile terminal, comprising:

activating a touch sensor on a touch screen;

generating, a touch event, by the touch sensor, the touch event comprising at least one of a touch down event and a touch up event;

determining whether a sliding event corresponding to sliding motion occurs within a preset time after generation of the touch event; and

ignoring the touch event when the sliding event is determined to occur within the preset time, by not delivering the touch events to a related application program.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the at least one of the touch down event and the touch up event in a buffer.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising setting a delay zone on the touch screen, wherein setting a delay zone on the touch screen is that a buffering time for the touch event generated at the delay zone is longer than a buffering time for the touch event generated at a non-delay zone.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein setting a delay zone on the touch screen comprises at least one of:

setting a central zone of the touch screen as a central delay zone; and

setting a lower zone of the touch screen as a lower delay zone.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein setting a central zone comprises:

subdividing the central zone into a left central zone and a right central zone; and

setting the left central zone as a left central delay zone, and setting the right central zone as a right central delay zone.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein setting a lower zone comprises:

subdividing the lower zone into a lower left zone and a lower right zone; and

setting the lower left zone as a lower left delay zone, and setting the lower right zone as a lower right delay zone.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a longer buffering time for a touch event generated at a zone containing frequently touched locations in comparison to that for a touch event generated at another zone.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the sliding event corresponding to a motion comprises one of:

the mobile terminal is transitioned from a slide-open state to a slide-closed state; and

the mobile terminal is transitioned from the slide closed state to the slide open state.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the sliding event corresponding to a motion comprises at least one of:

a first assembly of the mobile terminal is slid with respect to a second assembly of the mobile terminal in a predetermined direction; and

the first assembly is rotated by a predetermined number of degrees with respect to the second assembly.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein ignoring the touch event comprises not delivering to a related application program the touch event, when the touch down event is followed by the sliding event and further followed by the touch up event.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a touch drag event after generation of the touch down event and before generation of the sliding event; and

ignoring the touch drag event by not delivering the touch drag event to the related application program.

12. A mobile terminal comprising a first assembly having a touch screen having a display unit and a touch sensor placed on the display unit, and a second assembly coupled to the first assembly and supporting a movement of the first assembly, the mobile terminal further comprising:

a slide sensor generating a movement event corresponding to sliding motion between the first assembly and the second assembly; and

a control unit ignoring a touch event when the movement event is generated within a preset time after generation of a touch event from the touch sensor, when the touch event comprises at least one of touch-down event and a touch-up event by not delivering the touch down event to a related application program.

13. The mobile terminal of claim 12, wherein the slide sensor generates the movement event when one of:

the first assembly is slid with respect to the second assembly in a predetermined direction; and

the first assembly is rotated by a predetermined number of degrees with respect to the second assembly.

14. The mobile terminal of claim 12, further comprising:

a buffer storing at least one of the generated touch down event and a touch up event.

15. The mobile terminal of claim 14, wherein the touch screen comprises a delay zone at which a buffering time for the touch event generated at the delay zone is longer than a buffering time for the touch event generated at a non-delay zone.

16. The mobile terminal of claim 15, wherein the touch screen comprises at least one of a central zone near the center of the touch screen set as a central delay zone and a lower zone of the touch screen set as a lower delay zone.

17. The mobile terminal of claim 16, wherein the central zone is subdivided into a left central zone set as a left central delay zone and a right central zone set as a right central delay zone, and the lower zone is subdivided into a lower left zone set as a lower left delay zone and a lower right zone set as a lower right delay zone.

18. The mobile terminal of claim 12, further comprising:

a storage unit storing accumulated information regarding touched locations of the touch screen, wherein the control unit sets a delay zone containing frequently touched locations by assigning a longer buffering time for a touch event generated at the delay zone in comparison to that for a touch event generated at a non delay zone.

19. The mobile terminal of claim 12, wherein the control unit ignores the touch event by not delivering the touch event to the related application program, when a touch down event is followed by a movement event and further followed by a touch up event.

20. The mobile terminal of claim 12, wherein the control unit ignores the touch event by not delivering a touch drag event to the related application program, when the touch drag event is generated by a user after generation of a touch down event and before generation of a movement event.