INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE

• US 20130181930A1
• Filed: 08/11/2011
• Published: 07/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Imada, Yoshiyuki, Mochizuki, Arito, Kitayama, Tomoya, Profitt, Phillip
• Granted Patent: US 9,128,550 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• 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 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 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

Provided is an information processing device which allows a user to provide, regardless of a position or direction of a touch sensor, an operation input to the touch sensor at an arbitrary position or in an arbitrary direction. The information processing device includes two touch sensors each including a detection surface for detecting a position of an object thereon, the two touch sensors being arranged to be opposed to each other, determines at least one of a reference point and a reference axis based on one or a plurality of positions detected by one touch sensor of the two touch sensors, and evaluates a content detected by another touch sensor of the two touch sensors based on the at least one of the determined reference point and the determined reference axis to determine a content of an operation input of a user.

Claims

1. An information processing device, comprising:

two touch sensors each including a detection surface for detecting a position of an object thereon, the two touch sensors being arranged to be opposed to each other;

reference determination means for determining at least one of a reference point and a reference axis based on one or a plurality of positions detected by one touch sensor of the two touch sensors; and

operation input determination means for evaluating a content detected by another touch sensor of the two touch sensors based on the at least one of the reference point and the reference axis, which is determined by the reference determination means, to determine a content of an operation input of a user.

2. The information processing device according to claim 1,

wherein the reference determination means determines the reference axis and positive and negative directions thereof based on three or more positions detected by the one touch sensor, and

wherein the operation input determination means determines a direction indicated by the user as a direction relative to the positive and negative directions of the reference axis from the content detected by the another touch sensor.

3. The information processing device according to claim 1, further comprising reference sensor determination means for determining one of the two touch sensors as a reference sensor to be used in determining the at least one of the reference point and the reference axis,

wherein the reference determination means determines the at least one of the reference point and the reference axis based on one or a plurality of positions detected by the reference sensor.

4. The information processing device according to claim 1, further comprising state transition means for determining a transition to an operation input state using a reference sensor based on a detection result of at least one of the two touch sensors,

wherein the reference determination means determines the at least one of the reference point and the reference axis in the operation input state using the reference sensor, and

wherein the operation input determination means evaluates, in the operation input state using the reference sensor, the content detected by the another touch sensor based on the at least one of the reference point and the reference axis.

5. A method of controlling an information processing device connected to two touch sensors each including a detection surface for detecting a position of an object thereon, the two touch sensors being arranged to be opposed to each other, the method comprising:

a reference determination step of determining at least one of a reference point and a reference axis based on one or a plurality of positions detected by one touch sensor of the two touch sensors; and

an operation input determination step of evaluating a content detected by another touch sensor of the two touch sensors based on the at least one of the reference point and the reference axis, which is determined in the reference determination step, to determine a content of an operation input of a user.

6. A computer readable information storage medium having stored thereon a program for controlling a computer, which is connected to two touch sensors each including a detection surface for detecting a position of an object thereon, the two touch sensors being arranged to be opposed to each other, to function as:

reference determination means for determining at least one of a reference point and a reference axis based on one or a plurality of positions detected by one touch sensor of the two touch sensors; and

operation input determination means for evaluating a content detected by another touch sensor of the two touch sensors based on the at least one of the reference point and the reference axis, which is determined by the reference determination means, to determine a content of an operation input of a user.