MOBILE TERMINAL AND CONTROLLING METHOD THEREOF

• US 20120011438A1
• Filed: 03/15/2011
• Published: 01/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Minjoo, KIM, Changmok, Hong, Nayoung
• Granted Patent: US 8,713,463 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/702
• 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 1/1643 the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A mobile terminal is disclosed. According to one embodiment, the mobile terminal includes: a housing including a front side, a rear side and a plurality of lateral sides; a touchscreen located on the front side of the housing, configured to display at least one touch-executable object, and including a predefined edge region; and a controller. The controller is configured to preempt execution of a function corresponding to a particular object of the at least one touch-executable object if a first touch of the particular object is detected in the predefined edge region of the touchscreen.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal comprising:

a housing including a front side, a rear side and a plurality of lateral sides;

a touchscreen located on the front side of the housing, configured to display at least one touch-executable object, and including a predefined edge region; and

a controller,

wherein the controller is configured to preempt execution of a function corresponding to a particular object of the at least one touch-executable object if a first touch of the particular object is detected in the predefined edge region of the touchscreen.

2. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to grant the execution of the function corresponding to the particular object if a second touch of the particular object is detected concurrent with the detection of the first touch.

3. The mobile terminal of claim 2, wherein the controller is further configured to:

control the touchscreen to display a menu graphic interface related to the function corresponding to the particular object; and

control the touchscreen to maintain the display of the menu graphic interface irrespective of whether the first touch is maintained.

4. The mobile terminal of claim 2, wherein the controller is further configured to control the touchscreen to display a soft keypad having at least a shape or a position dependent on a location of the first touch.

5. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the edge region is located at at least a top edge, a bottom edge, a left edge or a right edge of the touchscreen.

6. The mobile terminal of claim 1, further comprising:

an interface unit configured to mate the mobile terminal with a cradle,

wherein the controller is further configured to grant the execution of the function corresponding to the particular object if the first touch of the particular object is detected in the predefined edge region when the mobile terminal is mated with the cradle.

7. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

preempt the execution of the function corresponding to the particular object only if a duration of the first touch is longer than a preset duration; and

grant the execution of the function corresponding to the particular object if the duration of the first touch is shorter than the preset duration.

8. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to generate at least a sound, a vibration effect or a graphic in order to indicate the preemption of the execution of the function corresponding to the particular object.

9. The mobile terminal of claim 8,

wherein the controller is further configured to generate the graphic in order to indicate the preemption, and

wherein the controller is further configured to control the touchscreen to display the generated graphic at a location of the first touch on the touchscreen.

10. The mobile terminal of claim 9, further comprising:

a memory configured to store information,

wherein the controller is further configured to;

control the memory to store information related to the location of the first touch; and

control the touchscreen to display the generated graphic at a location most frequently touched among locations stored in the memory.

11. The mobile terminal of claim 1,

wherein the at least one touch-executable object is displayed by the touchscreen according to an execution of an application, and

wherein the controller is further configured to preempt the execution of the function corresponding to the particular object only if the executed application is of a certain type.

12. The mobile terminal of claim 11, wherein a header of the executed application indicates the type of the executed application.

13. The mobile terminal of claim 1, further comprising:

a frame sensor located on one of the plurality of lateral sides and adjacent the touchscreen,

wherein the controller is further configured to preempt the execution of the function corresponding to the particular object only if the frame sensor detects a touch by a user within a predetermined distance from a location of the first touch.

14. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to control the touchscreen to display the particular object at a location away from a location of the first touch.

15. The mobile terminal of claim 14, wherein the controller is further configured to control the touchscreen to shift the display of the particular object toward a center of the touchscreen if the first touch of the particular object is detected in the predefined edge region.

16. The mobile terminal of claim 15,

wherein the at least one touch-executable object is displayed by the touchscreen according to an execution of a web browser application for viewing a webpage,

wherein the particular object corresponds to a link object of the viewed webpage, and

wherein the controller is further configured to control the touchscreen to shift the display of the link object toward the center of the touchscreen and to maintain the display of text surrounding the link object if the first touch of the link object of the viewed webpage is detected in the predefined edge region of the touchscreen.

17. The mobile terminal of claim 14,

wherein the touchscreen displays the at least one touch-executable object as a first display, and

wherein the controller is further configured to control the touchscreen to reduce a size of the first display if the first touch of the particular object is detected in the predefined edge region.

18. A method of controlling a mobile terminal, the method comprising:

displaying, by a touchscreen, at least one touch-executable object, wherein the touchscreen is located on a front side of a housing of the mobile terminal and includes a predefined edge region;

detecting a first touch of a particular object of the at least one touch-executable object; and

preempting execution of a function corresponding to the particular object if the first touch is detected in the predefined edge region of the touchscreen.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

detecting a second touch of the particular object concurrent with the detection of the first touch; and

granting the execution of the function corresponding to the particular object upon the detection of the second touch.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein preempting the execution of the function corresponding to the particular object comprises:

preempting the execution of the function corresponding to the particular object only if a duration of the first touch is longer than a preset duration; and

granting the execution of the function corresponding to the particular object if the duration of the first touch is shorter than the preset duration.