FLEXIBLE DISPLAY DEVICE AND DATA DISPLAYING METHOD THEREOF

• US 20140002402A1
• Filed: 08/29/2013
• Published: 01/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kang, Tae Young, Hahm, Kyoung Woon, Kim, Hyun Jin, Sung, Ju Yun
• Granted Patent: US 9,013,433 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133305 Flexible substrates, e.g. plastics, organic film
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13338 Input devices, e.g. touch panels
• 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 1/1652 the display being flexible, e.g. mimicking a sheet of paper, or rollable
• 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 2203/04102 Flexible digitiser, i.e. constructional details for allowing the whole digitising part of a device to be flexed or rolled like a sheet of paper
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0487 using specific features provided by the input device, e.g. functions controlled by the rotation of a mouse with dual sensing arrangements, or of the nature of the input device, e.g. tap gestures based on pressure sensed by a digitiser
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 9/301 flexible foldable or roll-able electronic displays, e.g. thin LCD, OLED
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0268 including a flexible display panel
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041

Abstract

A flexible display device and a data displaying method thereof are disclosed. The device includes a touch sensor to generate touch events according to touch actions, a flexible sensor to generate a bend signal as one side of the device is bent, a storage unit to store a function table, and a controller to control the components of the device. The function table is configured to define control operations to reproduce currently output contents based on the touch events and the bend events.

Claims

1. A flexible display device, comprising:

a display unit configured to display a content;

a touch sensor configured to detect a touch gesture;

a bending sensor configured to detect a bending; and

a controller configured to perform a function corresponding to a combination of the touch gesture and the bending, the touch gesture and the bending being respectively detected in different locations of the display unit.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the touch gesture comprises at least one of a touch and a drag.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the bending comprises an asymmetrical bend of the display unit with respect to a center axis of the device.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the touch gesture and the bending are respectively detected on the display unit at different time.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the combination of the touch gesture and the bending comprises the touch gesture as a first input and the bending as a second input.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the display unit displays a portion of the content within a width with an interval between the contents in response to detection of the bending, the interval between the contents being determined according to the bending.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein, in response to the detection of the bending, the controller identifies a location corresponding to the detected touch gesture, and wherein a distance from the location to an edge of the display unit is equivalent to the width.

8. The device of claim 6, wherein the display unit adjusts and displays a size of the width according to an increase of bending angle.

9. The device of claim 6, wherein the display unit adjusts and displays the interval according to the adjusted size of the width.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein, while the bending is retained and movement of the touch gesture toward the edge of the display unit is detected within the with, the controller moves the contents released by the touch gesture in a direction and displays another content retaining the touch gesture.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein, when the increase of the bending angle associated with the bending is detected while the touch gesture is retained and the interval associated with the contents in the width extends through a location at which the touch gesture is detected, the controller moves the content extended through the location in a direction and displays the another content retaining the touch gesture.

12. The device of claim 1, wherein, when the touch gesture and the bending are detected adjacent to a corner of the display unit and movement of the touch gesture toward the corner is detected, the controller moves the content released by the touch gesture in a direction and displays another content retaining the touch gesture.

13. The device of claim 1, wherein the display unit further comprises a first display unit and a second display unit, the first and second display units being connected to each other with respect to a certain axis of the device.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein, when the second display unit is bent at a threshold angle, the controller performs a content turning function by moving the displayed content from the second display unit to the first display unit.

15. The device of claim 1, wherein, if the touch is detected on the content being moved, the controller stops moving the content.

16. A method, comprising:

detecting a touch gesture on a display unit;

displaying a content on the display unit according to the detected touch gesture;

detecting bending of the display unit; and

performing a function corresponding to a combination of the touch gesture and the bending, the touch gesture and the bending being respectively detected in different locations of the display unit.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the touch gesture comprises at least one of a touch and a drag.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the bending comprises an asymmetrical bend of the display unit with respect to a center axis of the device.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the touch gesture and the bending are respectively detected on the display unit at different time.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the combination of the touch gesture and the bending comprises the touch gesture as a first input and the bending as a second input.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein displaying the content comprises displaying a portion of the content within a width with an interval between the contents in response to detection of the bending, the interval between the contents being determined according to the bending.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein displaying the portion of the content comprises adjusting the size of the width according to an increase of bending angle.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein displaying the portion of the content comprises adjusting the interval according to the adjusted the size of width.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein displaying the content comprises:

identifying, in response to the detection of the bending, a location corresponding to the detected touch gesture; and

setting a distance from the location to an edge of a display unit as the width.

25. The method of claim 16, wherein displaying the content comprises moving, while the bending is retained and movement of the touch gesture toward the edge of the display unit is detected within the with, the content released by the touch gesture in a direction and displaying another content retaining the touch gesture.

26. The method of claim 16, wherein displaying the contents further comprises moving, when the increase of the bending angle associated with the bending is detected while the touch gesture is retained and the interval associated with the contents in the width extends through a location at which the touch gesture is detected, the contents extended through the location in a direction and displaying the another content retaining the touch gesture.

27. The method of claim 16, wherein displaying the content comprises moving, when the touch gesture and the bending are detected adjacent to a corner of the display unit and movement of the touch gesture toward the corner is detected, the content released by the touch gesture in a direction and displaying another content retaining the touch gesture.

28. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

performing a content turning function by moving the displayed content from a second display unit to a first display unit when the second display unit is bent at a threshold angle.

29. The method of claim 16, wherein displaying the content comprises stopping moving the content when the touch is detected on the content being moved.