TOUCHPAD OPERATIONAL MODE

• US 20140191977A1
• Filed: 01/09/2013
• Published: 07/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo PC International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Feng, Xin, Stewart, Aaron Michael, Sun, Mei-Wen
• Granted Patent: US 9,141,211 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1616 with folding flat displays, e.g. laptop computers or notebooks having a clamshell configuration, with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position
• 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 2203/04103 Manufacturing, i.e. details related to manufacturing processes specially suited for touch sensitive devices
• 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 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 3/018 Input/output arrangements for oriental characters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• 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 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus

Abstract

A method can include receiving an initiation command to initiate an operational mode of a touchpad; responsive to the initiation command, initiating the operational mode and rendering a graphic to a display (e.g., where the graphic includes a touchpad field and a control field); receiving input via the touchpad and mapping the input to the graphic; receiving additional input and associating the additional input with a control of the graphic; and executing the control of the control field of the graphic (e.g., to perform an action that acts upon the input mapped to the graphic). Various other devices, systems, methods, etc., are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an initiation command to initiate an operational mode of a touchpad, the touchpad being operatively coupled to a processor operatively coupled to a display, the display nonoverlapping the touchpad;

responsive to the initiation command, initiating the operational mode and rendering a graphic to the display wherein the graphic comprises a touchpad field and a control field;

receiving input via a central portion of the touchpad and mapping the input received via the central portion to the touchpad field of the graphic;

receiving input via a peripheral portion of the touchpad and associating the input received via the peripheral portion with a control of the control field of the graphic, the control being associated with the input via the central portion of the touchpad; and

executing the control of the control field of the graphic.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the operational mode comprises a character operational mode.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the receiving input via the central portion of the touchpad comprises receiving a character stroke and wherein the mapping comprises rendering the character stroke to the touchpad field of the graphic.

4. The method of claim 2 comprising performing character recognition responsive to receiving input via the central portion of the touchpad.

5. The method of claim 4 comprising, responsive to performing character recognition, rendering one or more candidate characters to the control field of the graphic.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the associating the input received via the peripheral portion comprises associating the input received via the peripheral portion with one of the one or more candidate characters.

7. The method of claim 1 comprising receiving a termination command to terminate the character operational mode of the touchpad.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the operational mode comprises a drawing operational mode.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the receiving input via the central portion of the touchpad comprises receiving a drawing stroke and wherein the mapping comprises rendering the drawing stroke to the touchpad field of the graphic.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the associating the input received via the peripheral portion comprises associating the input received via the peripheral portion with an insertion control to insert at least the drawing stroke into a document.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the document comprises a webpage.

12. The method of claim 8 comprising receiving a termination command to terminate the drawing operational mode of the touchpad.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the operational mode comprises a content navigation operational mode.

14. The method of claim 13 comprising rendering content file icons to the touchpad field of the graphic.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the receiving input via the central portion of the touchpad comprises receiving a touch and wherein the mapping comprises mapping the touch to one of the content file icons.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the associating the input received via the peripheral portion comprises associating the input received via the peripheral portion with a transmission control of the control field of the graphic for initiating transmission of the content file associated with the content file icon.

17. The method of claim 13 comprising receiving input via the touchpad and, responsive to the input, visually rendering or audibly rendering a preview of content associated with at least one of the content file icons.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the operational mode comprises an operational mode selected from two or more operational modes, the two or more operational modes comprising at least one member selected from a group consisting of a character operational mode, a drawing operational mode and a content navigation operational mode.

19. One or more computer-readable storage media comprising process-executable instructions to instruct a processor to:

receive an initiation command to initiate an operational mode of a touchpad, the touchpad being operatively coupled to the processor operatively coupled to a display, the display nonoverlapping the touchpad;

responsive to the initiation command, initiate the operational mode and render a graphic to the display wherein the graphic comprises a touchpad field and a control field;

receive input via a central portion of the touchpad and map the input received via the central portion to the touchpad field of the graphic;

receive input via a peripheral portion of the touchpad and associate the input received via the peripheral portion with a control of the control field of the graphic, the control being associated with the input via the central portion of the touchpad; and

execute the control of the control field of the graphic.

20. A system comprising:

a processor;

a memory device having memory accessible by the processor;

a touchpad operatively coupled to the processor;

a display nonoverlapping the touchpad and operatively coupled to the processor; and

instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to instruct the system to;

receive an initiation command to initiate an operational mode of the touchpad;

responsive to the initiation command, initiate the operational mode and render a graphic to the display wherein the graphic comprises a touchpad field and a control field;

receive input via a central portion of the touchpad and map the input received via the central portion to the touchpad field of the graphic;

receive input via a peripheral portion of the touchpad and associate the input received via the peripheral portion with a control of the control field of the graphic, the control being associated with the input via the central portion of the touchpad; and

execute the control of the control field of the graphic.