VIRTUAL TOUCHPAD FOR A TOUCH DEVICE

• US 20110169749A1
• Filed: 01/13/2010
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo PC International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Johnson, Jay W., Ganey, Harriss C., Locker, Howard J., Stewart, Aaron M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,542,097 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus

Abstract

An apparatus, method, and computer program product are disclosed to provide a virtual touchpad for a touch device. A placement module places a virtual touchpad at a dynamic location within a touch sensitive area of a touch device. A touch input module positions a pointer on a screen of the touch device in response to a touch input on the virtual touchpad.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a placement module that places a virtual touchpad at a dynamic location within a touch sensitive area of a touch device; and

a touch input module that positions a pointer on a screen of the touch device in response to a touch input on the virtual touchpad.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a gain module that scales movement of the pointer relative to the touch input on the virtual touchpad based on a size ratio between the virtual touchpad and at least a portion of the screen of the touch device, the virtual touchpad comprising a subset of the touch sensitive area of the touch device.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a location module that detects a spatial relationship between a user and the touch device, the location module selecting the dynamic location based on the spatial relationship.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the spatial relationship comprises a location within the touch sensitive area where the location module detects a predefined touch gesture.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the spatial relationship comprises a location within the touch sensitive area where the location module detects use of a thumb of the user for touch input.

6. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the spatial relationship comprises an orientation of the touch device.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a relocation module that moves the virtual touchpad dynamically to a different location within the touch sensitive area in response to a detected change in a spatial relationship between the touch device and a user.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a visualization module that displays a scaled copy of at least a portion of the screen on the virtual touchpad.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the portion of the screen is variable and changes based on an area of the screen for which the virtual touchpad currently receives input, the visualization module dynamically updating the scaled copy of the portion of the screen.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the screen of the touch device comprises a touchscreen and the placement module overlays the virtual touchpad over a currently displayed area of the screen.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the screen of the touch device comprises a touchscreen and the placement module resizes a display area of the screen away from the location of the virtual touchpad such that the virtual touchpad is separate from the display area.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the touch device comprises a slate-sized touch device capable of being held in a single hand of a user and receiving touch input from a thumb of the single hand of the user, the touch sensitive area having a size that is larger than a reaching distance of the thumb, the placement module placing the virtual touchpad within the reaching distance of the thumb.

13. A method comprising:

placing a virtual touchpad at a dynamic location within a touch sensitive area of a touch device; and

positioning a pointer on a screen of the touch device in response to a touch input on the virtual touchpad.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising detecting a spatial relationship between a user and the touch device, the dynamic location selected based on the spatial relationship.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising moving the virtual touchpad dynamically to a different location within the touch sensitive area in response to a detected change in a spatial relationship between the touch device and a user.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising displaying a scaled copy of at least a portion of the screen on the virtual touchpad.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising resizing a display area of the screen away from the location of the virtual touchpad such that the virtual touchpad is separate from the display area, the screen comprising a touchscreen.

18. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium storing computer usable program code executable on a computer to perform operations, the operations comprising:

placing a virtual touchpad at a dynamic location within a touch sensitive area of a touch device; and

positioning a pointer on a screen of the touch device in response to a touch input on the virtual touchpad.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising detecting a spatial relationship between a user and the touch device, the dynamic location selected based on the spatial relationship.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising moving the virtual touchpad dynamically to a different location within the touch sensitive area in response to a detected change in a spatial relationship between the touch device and a user.