METHODS FOR USE WITH MULTI-TOUCH DISPLAYS FOR DETERMINING WHEN A TOUCH IS PROCESSED AS A MOUSE EVENT

• US 20100283747A1
• Filed: 05/11/2009
• Published: 11/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Kukulski, Timothy W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,355,007 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 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

A multi-touch driver handling user inputs or touches on a multi-touch input device. The method includes receiving touch data associated with a touch detected by the multi-touch input device. The multi-touch driver determines a target user interface (UI) component for the touch by processing the touch data and then determines whether the target handles touch events. If so, the driver sends the touch data to the target for handling as a touch event, thereby saving a touch-to-mouse conversion for later touches. The touch may be a first touch received in a particular input region of a GUI displayed on a touch surface. The driver receives touch data for a second touch input later than the first touch but while the first touch is still active. The driver determines a target UI component for the second touch and passes the second touch data to the second target as a mouse event.

Claims

1. A method for processing touches for a multi-touch input device, comprising:

with a multi-touch driver of a multi-touch input device, receiving data associated with a touch;

determining a target user interface component for the touch by processing the touch data with the multi-touch driver;

with the multi-touch driver, determining whether the target user interface component processes touch events; and

when the target user interface component is determined to process touch events, sending the touch data to the target user interface component for processing as a touch event.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the touch is a first touch received in an input region of the multi-touch input device associated with the target user interface component.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving data associated with a second touch that is input after the receiving of the first touch and while the first touch is maintained, determining a target user interface component for the second touch by processing the second touch data with the multi-touch driver, and passing the second touch data to the target user interface component associated with the second touch for processing as a mouse event.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising when the target user interface component is determined to not process touch events, sending the touch data to the target user interface component for processing as a mouse event.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising prior to the sending of the touch data for processing as a mouse event, determining whether a touch-to-mouse conversion module is available and when determined available, marking the touch-to-mouse conversion module as unavailable.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the touch data is received after the multi-touch driver has processed an earlier touch for the multi-touch input device for an input region associated with another target user interface component that is adapted for accepting touch events, the earlier touch being maintained by the multi-touch driver when the touch data is received.

7. A computer readable medium for processing touch events on a multi-touch surface, comprising:

computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to receive first touch data associated with a first touch provided at a first time in a first input region of a graphical user interface displayed on a multi-touch surface;

computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to receive second touch data associated with a second touch provided at a second time later than the first time in a second input region of the graphical user interface; and

computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to process the first touch data as a touch event and the second touch data as a mouse event, wherein the first touch is active at the second time.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the first input region corresponds to a first user input component adapted for accepting touch events and wherein the second input region corresponds to a second user input component adapted for accepting mouse events and not accepting touch events.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, further comprising computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to determine the first user input component is a target of the first touch and to determine the second user input component is a target of the second touch.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, further comprising computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to determine whether the first user input component accepts touch events prior to processing the first touch data as a touch event.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 9, further comprising computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to determine whether the second user input component accepts touch events and, when touch event are not accepted, performing the processing of the second touch data as a mouse event.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer, prior to processing the second touch as a mouse event, determining that a touch-to-mouse conversion module is available for use by the second user input component.

13. A multi-touch system, comprising:

a touch input device including a displayed graphical user interface with a first input region and a second input region;

a computing device coupled to the touch input device, wherein the computing device is operable to run a first user interface component associated with the first input region and to run a second user interface component associated with the second input region, the first user interface component adapted to accept touch events and the second user interface component adapted to accept mouse events; and

a multi-touch driver used by the computing device to process touch data from the touch input device to map the touch data to the first user interface component or the second user interface component based on a location of an associated touch, wherein the touch data is sent as a touch event when mapped to the first user interface component and as a mouse event when mapped to the second user interface component.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the location of the associated touch is within the first input region and wherein the associated touch corresponds to a first user input to the touch input device.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the location of the associated touch is within the second input region and wherein the associated touch corresponds to a second user input applied to the touch input device after a first user input to the touch input device in the first input region.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first user input is maintained when the associated touch is provided in the second input region.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a mouse adapter providing touch-to-mouse conversions, wherein the multi-touch driver determines the mouse adapter is available prior to sending the touch data as a mouse event to the second user interface component.

18. A method for handling a concurrent touches of a touch input device, comprising:

with a computing device, running an application to display a graphical user interface (GUI) on a surface of the touch input device, the application including a multi-touch (MT) aware user input (UI) component associated with a first input region of the GUI and including a non-MT aware UI component associated with a second input region of the GUI;

first receiving touch data for a first touch in the first input region;

second receiving touch data for a second touch in the second input region;

with a multi-touch driver run on the computing device as part of an operating system, application runtime or application, sending the first touch data to the MT aware UI component as a touch event; and

with the multi-touch driver, sending the second touch data to the non-MT aware UI component as a mouse event, wherein the first touch is applied to the surface of the touch input device before the second touch and wherein the first touch is ongoing when the second touch is applied to the surface of the touch input device.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising operating the multi-touch driver to handle updates to the first touch data as touch events and to handle updates to the second touch data as mouse events.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the MT aware UI component can accept touches as mouse events and wherein the non-MT aware UI component cannot accept touches as touch events.