INFORMATION HANDLING DEVICES WITH TOUCH-BASED REFLECTIVE DISPLAY

• US 20130050135A1
• Filed: 08/31/2011
• Published: 02/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo PC International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Stewart, Aaron M., Smith, Adam M., Skinner, Jeffrey E., Sluchak, Thomas J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,922,476 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0219 Special purpose keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0238 Programmable keyboards key guide holders G06F3/0224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04895 Guidance during keyboard input operation, e.g. prompting

Abstract

Devices, methods and products are described that provide information handling devices with touch-based reflective display. One aspect provides a method including providing a configuration for one or more areas of a touchable control area of an information handling device, said configuration comprising a designation of one or more areas of said touchable control area, said one or more areas providing both reflective display and accepting touch-based input; ascertaining an event for updating said configuration for said one or more areas of said touchable control area; and updating said configuration for said one or more areas of said touchable control area responsive to said event. Other embodiments are described.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a configuration for one or more areas of a touchable control area of an information handling device, said configuration comprising a designation of one or more areas of said touchable control area, said one or more areas providing both reflective display and accepting touch-based input;

ascertaining an event for updating said configuration for said one or more areas of said touchable control area; and

updating said configuration for said one or more areas of said touchable control area responsive to said event.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said event is one or more of a user input event, an application related event, a power state transition event, and a device related event.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said device related event comprises one or more of:

detection of a connected device; and

activity detected on a detected device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said application related event comprises one or more of:

an application opening event;

an event detected within an open application; and

an event making an application an active application among a plurality of open applications.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said user input event comprises a touch-based input event provided to said one or more areas of said touchable control area.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said input provided to said one or more areas of said touchable control area comprises one or more of:

a finger tap within one or more of said one or more areas of said touchable control area;

a multi-touch event within one or more of said one or more areas of said touchable control area;

a touch and hold event within one or more of said one or more areas of said touchable control area; and

a gesture event detectable by one or more of said one or more areas of said touchable control area.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein an updated configuration of said one or more areas of said touchable control area is maintained until a touch and hold event is released.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising, returning said one or more areas of said touchable control areas to a previous configuration responsive to release of said touch and hold event.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more areas of said touchable control area comprise a plurality of logically defined sub-areas.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said logically defined sub-areas are reconfigured responsive to said event to other logically defined sub-areas having updated reflective displays and updated touch-zones.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said touchable control area comprises one or more of a reflective display layer, a capacitive sensing layer;

an audible feedback layer, and a haptic feedback layer.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising ascertaining a history of used configurations of said one or more areas of said touchable control area.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising, updating said configuration based at least in part responsive to consulting said history of used configurations of said one or more areas of said touchable control area.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising, updating said configuration to configure one or more of said areas of said touchable control area to frequently used configurations.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising returning said one or more areas of said touchable control areas to a previous configuration responsive to touch-based input to said one or more areas of said touchable control area.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said touch-based input to said one or more areas of said touchable control area comprises a touch-based input to a home tile in said touchable control area.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein responsive to touch-based input to said home tile, said information handling device updates a configuration for one or more areas on a touchable control area to a home view.

18. An information handling device comprising:

one or more processors;

a display device;

a touchable control area; and

a memory device;

wherein, responsive to execution of computer program instructions accessible to the one or more processors, the one or more processors are configured to;

provide a configuration for one or more areas of a touchable control area of an information handling device, said configuration comprising a designation of one or more areas of said touchable control area, said one or more areas providing both reflective display and accepting touch-based input;

ascertain an event for updating said configuration for said one or more areas of said touchable control area; and

update said configuration for said one or more areas of said touchable control area responsive to said event.

19. The information handling device of claim 18, wherein said event is one or more of a user input event, an application related event, a power state transition event, and a device related event.

20. A program product comprising:

a storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to provide a configuration for one or more areas of a touchable control area of an information handling device, said configuration comprising a designation of one or more areas of said touchable control area, said one or more areas providing both reflective display and accepting touch-based input;

computer readable program code configured to ascertain an event for updating said configuration for said one or more areas of said touchable control area; and

computer readable program code configured to update said configuration for said one or more areas of said touchable control area responsive to said event.