TOUCH SCREEN APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING INPUT OF TOUCH SCREEN APPARATUS

• US 20110242137A1
• Filed: 03/30/2011
• Published: 10/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Chang-Soo, Kang, Kyung Moon
• Application Number:
  US13/075,833
• Publication Number:
  US 20110242137A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/660
• 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

A touch screen apparatus includes a touch screen and a processor. The touch screen displays a virtual keyboard including a plurality of keys. When a touch occurs on the virtual keyboard, the processor searches for a key corresponding to the position where the touch occurs, and magnifies and displays a plurality of keys existing in the neighborhood of the position where the touch occurs according to the search result.

Claims

1. A touch screen apparatus, the touch screen apparatus comprising:

a touch screen configured to display a virtual keyboard comprising a plurality of keys; and

a processor configured to determine whether to magnify and display one key or whether to magnify and display two or more keys of the plurality of keys when a touch occurs on the virtual keyboard.

2. The touch screen apparatus of claim 1, wherein when a drag occurs on the magnified and displayed two or more keys, the processor visually differently displays one of the magnified and displayed two or more keys according to a distance or a direction of the drag.

3. The touch screen apparatus of claim 2, wherein when a release occurs from the visually differently displayed one key, the processor displays a symbol corresponding to the one key on a region of the touch screen that excludes the virtual keyboard.

4. The touch screen apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

when the touch occurs, the processor receives a coordinate value corresponding to a position where the touch occurs from the touch screen to search for a key corresponding to the position where the touch occurs;

when one key corresponding to the position where the touch occurs is found as a result of the search, the processor magnifies and displays the found one key; and

when one key corresponding to the position where the touch occurs is not found as a result of the search, the processor determines two or more keys of the plurality of keys and magnifies and displays the two or more keys according to the position where the touch occurs and distances of the plurality of respective keys of the virtual keyboard.

5. The touch screen apparatus of claim 4, further comprising:

a memory configured to store ranges of valid regions corresponding to the plurality of respective keys of the virtual keyboard,

wherein the processor searches for a key corresponding to a valid region to which a coordinate value corresponding to the position where the touch occurs belongs when the touch occurs.

6. The touch screen apparatus of claim 4, wherein when the one key corresponding to the position where the touch occurs is not found as a result of the search, the processor magnifies and displays a predetermined number of keys located at a distance close to the position where the touch occurs.

7. The touch screen apparatus of claim 4, wherein when the one key corresponding to the position where the touch occurs is not found as a result of the search, the processor magnifies and displays a key located at a distance smaller than a predetermined distance from the position where the touch occurs.

8. The touch screen apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor magnifies and displays two or more keys of the plurality of keys around an anchor point existing between the two or more keys.

9. The touch screen apparatus of claim 8, wherein the anchor point existing between the two or more keys comprises a closest anchor point of anchor points existing within a predetermined distance from the position where the touch occurs.

10. The touch screen apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of keys comprise at least one of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) link, a key of a virtual keyboard, an icon, an item of a menu, an item of a list box, an item of a combo box, a consonant and a vowel of Hangul, an upper case letter and a lower case letter of an alphabet, a special character, and an icon.

11. A method for processing an input in a touch screen apparatus, the method comprising:

displaying a virtual keyboard comprising a plurality of keys; and

determining whether to magnify and display one key or whether to magnify and display two or more keys of the plurality of keys when a touch occurs on the virtual keyboard.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the determining of whether to magnify and display one key or whether to magnify and display two or more keys of the plurality of keys when the touch occurs on the virtual keyboard comprises:

when a drag occurs on the magnified and displayed two or more keys, visually differently displaying one of the magnified and displayed two or more keys according to a distance or a direction of the drag.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising, when a release occurs on the visually differently displayed one key, displaying a symbol corresponding to the one key on a region of the touch screen that excludes the virtual keyboard.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the determining of whether to magnify and display one key or whether to magnify and display two or more keys of the plurality of keys when the touch occurs on the virtual keyboard comprises:

when the touch occurs, receiving a coordinate value corresponding to a position where the touch occurs to search for a key corresponding to the position where the touch occurs;

when one key corresponding to the position where the touch occurs is found as a result of the search, magnifying and displaying the found one key; and

when one key corresponding to the position where the touch occurs is not found as a result of the search, determining two or more keys of the plurality of keys according to the position where the touch occurs and distances of the plurality of respective keys on the virtual keyboard, and magnifying and displaying the two or more keys.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising, after storing valid regions corresponding to the plurality of respective keys of the virtual keyboard, when the touch occurs, searching for a key corresponding to a valid region to which a coordinate value corresponding to the position where the touch occurs belongs.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising, when the one key corresponding to the position where the touch occurs is not found as a result of the search, magnifying and displaying a predetermined number of keys located close to the position where the touch occurs.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising, when the one key corresponding to the position where the touch occurs is not found as a result of the search, magnifying and displaying a key located at a distance smaller than a predetermined distance from the position where the touch occurs.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising magnifying and displaying two or more keys of the plurality of keys around an anchor point existing between the two or more keys.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the anchor point existing between the two or more keys comprises a closest anchor point of anchor points within a predetermined distance from the position where the touch occurs.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of keys comprise at least one of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) link, a key of a virtual keyboard, an icon, an item of a menu, an item of a list box, an item of a combo box, a consonant and a vowel of Hangul, an upper case letter and a lower case letter of an alphabet, a special character, and an icon.