ELECTRONIC APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR OPERATING THE SAME

• US 20130293477A1
• Filed: 04/26/2013
• Published: 11/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Compal Electronics Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Compal Electronics Incorporated
• Inventors: Chen, Yi-Fu, Hu, Wei-Han, Chen, Wei-Jung, Weng, Ming-Che, Chen, Li-Wei, Yang, Po-Hsien, Chen, Chun-Sheng, Pei, Yu-Hsu, Lin, Zhi-Sheng, Lo, Wen-Hung, Tsai, Hsin-pei
• Application Number:
  US13/871,004
• Publication Number:
  US 20130293477A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/168
• 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 2203/04101 2.5D-digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface and also measures the distance of the input means within a short range in the Z direction, possibly with a separate measurement setup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04108 Touchless 2D- digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface without distance measurement in the Z direction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/02 Input arrangements using manually operated switches, e.g. using keyboards or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/021 Arrangements integrating additional peripherals in a keyboard, e.g. card or barcode reader, optical scanner

Abstract

An electronic apparatus and an operation method thereof are provided. The electronic apparatus has a sensor module. A space operation mode is enabled when an operation object is detected in a sensor space by the sensor module. A controlling function corresponding to one of a plurality of using spaces divided from the sensor space in which the operation object is located is enabled. Movement information of the operation object is detected by the sensor module, and an operation action corresponding to the enabled controlling function is executed.

Claims

1. A method for operating an electronic apparatus, wherein the electronic apparatus comprises a sensor module, the method for operating the electronic apparatus comprising:

enabling a space operation mode when the sensor module detects an operation object in a sensing space, wherein under the space operation mode, the sensing space is defined into a plurality of using spaces, and each of the using spaces has a corresponding control function;

under the space operation mode, enabling the control function corresponding to a current space of the sensing space in which the operation object is located; and

detecting moving information of the operation object by the sensor module, and executing an operation action corresponding to the enabled control function.

2. The method for operating the electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

before the step of enabling the control function corresponding to the current space, determining whether a moving track of the operation object detected by the sensor module is complied with a default rule, and enabling the control function corresponding to the current space when the moving track is complied with the default rule.

3. The method for operating the electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

disabling the space operation mode and switching to a keyboard operation mode when a key of a keyboard of the electronic apparatus is enabled, or a preset hotkey is enabled, or when the operation object is detected to execute a specific operation action.

4. The method for operating the electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

under the space operation mode, moving a cursor displayed in a display unit of the electronic apparatus based on a moving track of the operation object detected by the sensor module.

5. The method for operating the electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, after the step of enabling the control function corresponding to the current space, the method further comprises:

executing following steps when the control function is a virtual trackpad function;

comparing a current position of the operation object on a horizontal plane with region information, wherein the region information is obtained by defining a plurality of control regions on the horizontal plane in the sensing space according to a sensing range of the sensor module, so as to obtain one of the control regions where the current position of the operation object is located;

wherein when the current position is located at a main region of the control regions, a first variation amount of the operation object along a first direction and a second variation amount of the operation object along a second direction are detected;

when the current position is located at a top edge region of the control regions, the first variation amount of the operation object along the first direction is detected; and

when the current position is located at a left edge region or a right edge region of the control regions, the second variation amount of the operation object along the second direction is detected.

6. The method for operating the electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the top edge region corresponds to an edge swiping action, one of the left edge region and the right edge region corresponds to a zooming action, the other one of the left edge region and the right edge region corresponds to a scrolling action, and the main region corresponds to a cursor control action.

7. The method for operating the electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein after the step of enabling the control function corresponding to the current space, the method further comprises:

comparing a vertical variation amount of the operation object along a vertical axial direction with click operation information based on a moving direction and the current position of the operation object, so as to determine whether to execute a clicking action.

8. The method for operating the electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the clicking action is a right-clicking action or a left-clicking action.

9. The method for operating the electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the moving information comprises a moving direction, a moving track, a moving speed and a moving variation amount.

10. The method for operating the electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensor module comprises at least one sensor.

11. An electronic apparatus, comprising:

a sensor module, detecting movement of an operation object in a sensing space;

a processing unit, coupled to the sensor module; and

a storage unit, coupled to the processing unit, and comprising space configuration information, wherein the space configuration information records coordinate ranges of a plurality of using spaces defined in the sensing space, and a control function corresponding to each of the using spaces under the space operation mode,

wherein when the sensor module detects the operation object in the sensing space, the processing unit enables the space operation mode;

the processing unit enables the control function corresponding to a current space of the sensing space in which the operation object is located; and

the processing unit detects moving information of the operation object by using the sensor module, and executes an operation action corresponding to the enabled control function.

12. The electronic apparatus as claim in claim 11, wherein the sensor module comprises a first sensor, a second sensor, a third sensor, a fourth sensor and a fifth sensor, wherein the fifth sensor is surrounded by the first sensor, the second sensor, the third sensor and the fourth sensor, and the fifth sensor is in charge of detecting movement of the operation object along a Z-axis, and the first sensor, the second sensor, the third sensor and the fourth sensor are in charge of detecting movement of the operation object along an X-axis and a Y-axis.

13. The electronic apparatus as claim in claim 11, wherein before the processing unit enables the control function corresponding to the current space, the processing unit determines whether a moving track of the operation object detected by the sensor module is complied with a default rule, and enables the control function corresponding to the current space when the moving track is complied with the default rule.

14. The electronic apparatus as claim in claim 11, further comprising:

a keyboard, coupled to the processing unit, wherein the sensor module is disposed on the keyboard,

wherein the processing unit disables the space operation mode and switches to a keyboard operation mode when a key of the keyboard is enabled, or a preset hotkey is enabled, or when the operation object is detected to execute a specific operation action.

15. The electronic apparatus as claim in claim 11, further comprising:

a display unit, coupled to the processing unit,

wherein under the space operation mode, the processing unit moves a cursor displayed in the display unit based on a moving track of the operation object detected by the sensor module.