INPUT TO AN ELECTRONIC APPARATUS

• US 20110316784A1
• Filed: 07/23/2010
• Published: 12/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InputDynamics Limited
• Original Assignee: InputDynamics Limited
• Inventors: Bisutti, Giovanni, Godsill, Simon John
• Granted Patent: US 8,451,254 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/168
• 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 1/1684 Constructional details or arrangements related to integrated I/O peripherals not covered by groups G06F1/1635 - G06F1/1675
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1636 Sensing arrangement for detection of a tap gesture on the housing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0339 Touch strips, e.g. orthogonal touch strips to control cursor movement or scrolling; single touch strip to adjust parameter or to implement a row of soft keys
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• 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 3/0433 in which the acoustic waves are either generated by a movable member and propagated within a surface layer or propagated within a surface layer and captured by a movable member
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

An electronic device, comprising a processing system; a sensor for detecting vibrations caused by a user striking the device and outputting a signal indicative of a parameter of those vibrations; wherein the processing system is configured to analyse the signal output from the sensor and determine a parameter related to the location of the strike. Other methods and systems for making inputs to electronic devices are also described.

Claims

1-109. -109. (canceled)

110. An electronic device, comprising

a processing system;

a sensor to detect vibrations caused by a user striking the device and to output a signal indicative of a parameter of those vibrations;

wherein

the processing system is configured to analyze the signal output from the sensor and detect a location of the strike, wherein the detected location of the strike is utilized by the device to select a function to perform;

wherein the device is a mobile phone handset comprising at least one keypad and one display screen;

wherein the sensor includes a microphone provided primarily to detect sound from a user speaking;

wherein the signal indicative of a parameter of the vibrations includes a signal describing the pattern of vibrations;

wherein one or more input keys or areas are located on the display screen, the edges of the handset, the keypad, the keypad buttons or other surfaces of the apparatus, operable by a user to enter a character or command or both; and

wherein each input area produces a unique acoustic signature when struck by the user characteristic of said input area due to an asymmetric internal layout of the handset internal components or to variation in design features of the input areas, wherein said mobile phone is configured to use said microphone to pick up the acoustic signature of an input area struck by the user; and

wherein said mobile phone handset is configured to process said unique acoustic signature to detect said location of said strike.

111. The electronic device according to claim 110, wherein the determination of the area struck by the user utilizes a stochastic process model having different parameters for different tapping positions and different styles of tapping, where the model uses templates learned from training data from the mobile phone handset and the classification of the signal takes place according to which, if any, of the templates is a closest match.

112. The electronic device according to claim 111, wherein said classification is configured to use multi-class matched filtering.

113. The electronic device according to claim 110, wherein said process to detect said location of said strike comprises a feature extraction process to extract features of said signal and a classification process to classify said features.

114. The electronic device according to claim 110, wherein the determination of location comprises providing compensation for different striking implements.

115. The electronic device according to claim 110, wherein color coded input areas are provided on the exterior of the device which enable the quick selection of items such as web page hyperlinks displayed on a screen of the device by the user interface with a set of matching colors to the ones used on the casework or keypad.

116. The electronic device according to claim 110, wherein the user is able to select areas or implement commands on a display screen by striking two or more input areas at the same time.

117. The electronic device according to claim 116, wherein the command is a zooming in command triggered by striking at the same time with two fingers or implements the opposite corner of a particular area of the display screen.

118. The electronic device according to claim 110, wherein the user is able to manually calibrate or to initiate a semi-automatic calibration procedure of the input areas in case of reduction of the reliability of the recognition process.

119. The electronic device according to claim 110, further comprising at least one predefined input area operable by a user to input information to the device;

and in which the input area is operable to enter one of two or more different characters by striking the area in one of two or more different ways.

120. The electronic device according to claim 110, wherein said processing system is further configured to identify a sliding or rotating action by said user on said mobile phone handset.

121. A method of detecting user input to an electronic device, comprising:

detecting vibrations caused by a user striking an area of the device,

determining the area struck by the user from a parameter of the vibrations, and

executing a command in response to the detection, wherein the command is selected dependent on a determined area, wherein each input area of a plurality of areas produces a unique acoustic signature when struck by the user characteristic of said input area due to an asymmetric internal layout of the electronic device internal components or to variation in design features of the input areas, and

wherein detecting includes processes said unique acoustic signature to detect said location of said strike.

122. The method as claimed in claim 121, wherein said processing comprises either

i) using a stochastic process model having different parameters for different tapping positions and different styles of tapping, where the model is based on templates learned from training data from the electronic device and the classification of the signal takes place according to which, if any, of the templates is a closest match;

or

ii) performing a feature extraction process followed by a classification process.

123. The method as claimed in claim 121 used for upgrading a mobile phone handset to add touch-screen functionality using an existing microphone of the mobile phone handset, the method comprising adding processing capability to implement the method of claim 121.

124. A machine readable storage medium storing instructions, which when executed by a computing device implement the method of claim 121.

125. A handheld device including an input device configured to detect continuous input device sliding movement gestures along at least one axis, wherein the input device comprises:

a region including a plurality of contour features, the region including contour features or surface textures which are rougher when sliding of a finger, stylus or other implement takes place in one direction and comparatively smoother when the sliding takes place in the opposite direction causing two different acoustic outputs when an input device comprising said finger, stylus or other implement is moved along the region, wherein the acoustic output is dependent on the direction of movement of said input device along said region, and wherein the difference of said acoustic outputs is detected by an acoustic sensor producing an output signal which in turn is used by the processor to implement either a command or the opposite one.

126. The handheld device according to claim 125 wherein the region has three or more contour features each with similar acoustic properties and placed along the region at a gradually varying spacing so that the sliding of the input device in one direction produces an acoustic output at an increasing frequency and the sliding in the opposite direction produces an acoustic output at a decreasing frequency, such an increase or decrease of frequency being a measure of whether the user is sliding along the input device in one direction or the opposite one.

127. The handheld device according to claim 125 wherein the region has two or more contour features placed along the region, each feature with different acoustic properties so that the sliding of the input device in one direction produces a succession of different acoustic outputs according to the placing of the contour features and, the sliding in the opposite direction produces a succession of different acoustic outputs according to the placing of the contour features in reverse order, the order or reverse order of different acoustic outputs being a measure of whether the user is sliding the input device in one direction or the opposite one.

128. The handheld device according to claim 125 wherein the region has regular contour features which are rougher when the sliding of the input device takes place in one direction and comparatively smoother when the sliding takes place in the opposite direction the resulting two different acoustic output produced being a measure of the direction of sliding input device along the region.

129. The handheld device as claimed in claim 125 wherein the input device is configured to detect continuous input device sliding movement gestures along two predetermined axes, wherein said region comprises a pad having a plurality of contour features, the pad causing a predetermined acoustic output when an input device is moved along the pad in either of the predetermined axes, wherein the predetermined acoustic output is dependent on the direction of movement of the input device along the pad and the axes in which movement is made.