Mobile Terminal

• US 20100279657A1
• Filed: 12/25/2008
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
• Original Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
• Inventors: Matsuo, Naoki
• Granted Patent: US 8,818,468 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1624 with sliding enclosures, e.g. sliding keyboard or display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3259 Power saving in cursor control device, e.g. mouse, joystick, trackball
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3262 Power saving in digitizer or tablet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• 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 1/677 Preventing the dialling or sending of predetermined telephone numbers or selected types of telephone numbers, e.g. long distance numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

In order to facilitate an operation of locking or unlocking a touch panel, a mobile terminal includes a first housing, a second housing connected to the first housing in a slidable manner, a touch panel provided on the first housing, a style detecting portion (S01, S08, S09) for detecting one of a plurality of possible styles on the basis of the relative positions of the first and second housings, a signal accepting portion (S04) for accepting a signal output from the touch panel, and a mode switching portion (S05, S06) for switching an input mode between a lock mode and an unlock mode on the basis of the detected style and presence/absence of a signal output from the touch panel.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal comprising:

a first housing;

a second housing connected to said first housing in a slidable manner;

a touch panel provided on said first housing or said second housing;

style detecting portion to detect one of a plurality of possible styles on the basis of relative positions of said first and second housings;

signal accepting portion to accept a signal output from said touch panel; and

mode switching portion, in the state where an input mode is a lock mode in which a signal output from said touch panel is disabled, to switch said input mode to an unlock mode in which a signal output from said touch panel is enabled, in response to an event that a signal is accepted by said signal accepting portion at a time that is determined in accordance with the style detected by said style detecting portion.

2. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein said first housing and said second housing move relative to each other from a first style to a second style, and the time that is determined in accordance with the style detected by said style detecting portion corresponds to a time when a third style that is neither said first style nor said second style is being detected by said style detecting portion.

3. The mobile terminal according to claim 2, wherein the time that is determined in accordance with the style detected by said style detecting portion corresponds to a time after a change from said first or second style to said third style has been detected by said style detecting portion.

4. The mobile terminal according to claim 2, wherein the time that is determined in accordance with the style detected by said style detecting portion corresponds to a time before a change from said third style to said first or second style is detected by said style detecting portion.

5. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, further comprising drive control portion to control driving of said touch panel, wherein said drive control portion drives said touch panel in response to an event that a change from said first or second style to said third style is detected in the state where said touch panel is not being driven.

6. A mobile terminal comprising:

a first housing;

a second housing connected to said first housing in a slidable manner;

a touch panel provided on said first housing or said second housing;

style detecting portion to detect one of a plurality of possible styles on the basis of relative positions of said first and second housings;

signal accepting portion to accept a signal output from said touch panel; and

mode switching portion, in the state where an input mode is an unlock mode in which a signal output from said touch panel is enabled, for switching said input mode to a lock mode in which a signal output from said touch panel is disabled, in the case where no signal is being accepted by said signal accepting portion at a time that is determined in accordance with the style detected by said style detecting portion.

7. The mobile terminal according to claim 6, wherein said first housing and said second housing move relative to each other from a first style to a second style, and the time that is determined in accordance with the style detected by said style detecting portion corresponds to a time when a third style that is neither said first style nor said second style is being detected by said style detecting portion.

8. The mobile terminal according to claim 7, wherein the time that is determined in accordance with the style detected by said style detecting portion corresponds to a time after a change from said first or second style to said third style has been detected by said style detecting portion.

9. The mobile terminal according to claim 7, wherein the time that is determined in accordance with the style detected by said style detecting portion corresponds to a time before a change from said third style to said first or second style is detected by said style detecting portion.

10. The mobile terminal according to claim 7, further comprising drive control portion to control driving of said touch panel, wherein said drive control portion drives said touch panel in response to an event that a change from said first or second style to said third style is detected in the state where said touch panel is not being driven.