MULTIMEDIA DEVICE FOR HAVING TOUCH SENSOR AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME

• US 20140139463A1
• Filed: 11/18/2013
• Published: 05/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Younghwan, Lee, Manho, SEO, Bokil, Lee, Jaehun, Kang, Eunsuk
• Granted Patent: US 9,703,412 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• 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 3/017 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 3/0414 using force sensing means to determine a position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

A multimedia device and a method for controlling the same are disclosed. A method for controlling a multimedia device, which includes an area based touch sensor, comprises the steps of recognizing at least one of a palm and a finger of a user through a touch sensor; determining at least one of a shape and a size of a touched area in accordance with the recognized result of the touch sensor; accessing a specific function stored in a memory module in accordance with the determined result; and outputting at least one of video data and audio data corresponding to the accessed specific function, wherein the determining step includes detecting the touched area and deciding whether the current touched area is a palm, on the basis of the detected touched area.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a multimedia device, which includes an area based touch sensor, the method comprising the steps of:

recognizing at least a palm or a finger of a user through a touch sensor;

determining at least a shape or a size of a touched area in accordance with the recognized result of the touch sensor;

accessing a specific function stored in a memory module in accordance with the determined result; and

outputting at least video data or audio data corresponding to the accessed specific function,

wherein the determining step includes detecting the touched area and deciding whether the current touched area is a palm, on the basis of the detected touched area.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining step further includes merging at least one node within the detected area to another node between the detected step and the deciding step.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the detecting step further includes calculating transition in accordance with variation of values of the nodes within the touched area, and deciding a labeling value of a node of a previous column or row as a labeling value of next node on the basis of the calculated transition.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the merging step further includes extracting a distance among three adjacent nodes (distance between the first node and the second node is D1, distance between second node and the third node is D2, and distance between the third node and the first node is D3) and regarding the three nodes as one node if D2 is greater than D1, D2 is less than a previously set value, and D3 is greater than the previously set value.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the deciding step includes deciding the current touched area as a palm or non-palm in accordance with a relation among the node which is not touched and the other nodes.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of performing a control operation to implement a first function stored in the memory module in accordance with directionality of the current touched area.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising the steps of tracking variations of an area touched at a first timing and an area touched at a second timing, and controlling an operation to implement a second function stored in the memory module in accordance with directionality of the variations as a result of the tracking.

8. A multimedia device, which includes an area based touch sensor, the multimedia device comprising:

a touch sensor configured to recognize at least a palm or a finger of a user;

a controller configured to determine at least a shape or a size of a touched area in accordance with the recognized result of the touch sensor;

a memory configured to store a first function corresponding to a first touch pattern and a second function corresponding to a second touch pattern;

a memory controller configured to access a specific function stored in the memory module in accordance with the determined result of the controller; and

an output module configured to output at least video data or audio data corresponding to the accessed specific function.

9. The multimedia device according to claim 8, wherein the controller is designed to detect the touched area, merge at least one node within the detected area to another node, and decide whether the current touched area is a palm, on the basis of the detected touched area.

10. The multimedia device according to claim 8, wherein the controller performs a control operation to implement the first function stored in the memory module in accordance with directionality of the current touched area.

11. The multimedia device according to claim 10, wherein the controller tracks variations of an area touched at a first timing and an area touched at a second timing, and controls an operation to implement a second function stored in the memory module in accordance with directionality of the variations as a result of the tracking.

12. The multimedia device according to claim 9, wherein the controller calculates transition in accordance with variation of values of the nodes within the touched area, and decides a labeling value of a node of a previous column or row as a labeling value of next node on the basis of the calculated transition.

13. The multimedia device according to claim 12, wherein the controller extracts a distance among three adjacent nodes (distance between the first node and the second node is D1, distance between second node and the third node is D2, and distance between the third node and the first node is D3) and regards the three nodes as one node if D2 is greater than D1, D2 is less than a previously set value, and D3 is greater than the previously set value.

14. The multimedia device according to claim 13, wherein the controller decides the current touched area as a palm or non-palm in accordance with a relation among the node which is not touched and the other nodes.

15. The multimedia device according to claim 8, wherein the controller calculates the number of periods of increase or decrease on the basis of a start point of a touched point and estimates the calculated number of periods as the number of recognized fingers.

16. A multimedia device, which includes an area based touch sensor, the multimedia device comprising:

a touch sensor configured to sense at least one touched area;

a data processor configured to process first information on the sensed touched area to second information to transmit the information to an external multimedia device;

a communication module configured to transmit the processed second information to the external multimedia device; and

a display module configured to output graphic data corresponding to the sensed touched area.

17. The multimedia device according to claim 16, wherein the data processor adds time synchronization information to at least one of all the nodes of the touched area.

18. The multimedia device according to claim 16, wherein the data processor adds indexing information to at least one of all the nodes of the touched area.

19. The multimedia device according to claim 18, wherein the at least one node corresponds to a specific node in which adjacent nodes based on the basis of a left and right direction and an up and down direction are not touched.

20. The multimedia device according to claim 16, wherein the touch sensor calculates the number of periods of increase or decrease on the basis of a start point of a touched point and estimates the calculated number of periods as the number of recognized fingers.