Touch Sensitive Surface with Recessed Surface Feature for an Electronic Device

• US 20140267136A1
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Johnson, John C., Lundell, Louis J., Merrell, Thomas Y., Slaby, Jiri, Phipps, Chad Austin, DeVries, Jeffrey R., Patel, Mitul R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,400,525 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1656 Details related to functional adaptations of the enclosure, e.g. to provide protection against EMI, shock, water, or to host detachable peripherals like a mouse or removable expansions units like PCMCIA cards, or to provide access to internal components for maintenance or to removable storage supports like CDs or DVDs, or to mechanically mount accessories mounting of accessories to a computer display G06F1/1607; display hoods G06F1/1603; cooling arrangements for portable computers G06F1/203
• 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 2203/04107 Shielding in digitiser, i.e. guard or shielding arrangements, mostly for capacitive touchscreens, e.g. driven shields, driven grounds
• 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 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means

Abstract

An electronic device (300) includes a housing (301). A touch sensitive surface (100) can be disposed along the housing. The touch sensitive surface can include a recessed surface feature (106) on a portion of the touch sensitive surface. A control circuit (315), operable with the touch sensitive surface, can detect a predetermined gesture sequence (501, 502, 503) when a touch actuation along the touch sensitive surface interacts with the recessed surface feature.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a housing;

a touch sensitive surface disposed along the housing, the touch sensitive surface including a recessed surface feature on a portion of the touch sensitive surface; and

a control circuit, operable with the touch sensitive surface to detect a predetermined gesture sequence when a touch actuation along the touch sensitive surface interacts with the recessed surface feature.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising:

a capacitive touchpad spanning the touch sensitive surface.

3. The electronic device of claim 2, the capacitive touchpad defining a plurality of capacitive electrode pairs spanning the recessed surface feature, the control circuit to detect the predetermined gesture sequence when the touch actuation interacts with a predetermined subset of the plurality of capacitive electrode pairs.

4. The electronic device of claim 1, the predetermined gesture sequence comprising:

the touch actuation beginning within a perimeter of the recessed surface feature; and

the touch actuation terminating outside the perimeter of the recessed surface feature.

5. The electronic device of claim 4, the touch actuation remaining within the perimeter of the recessed surface feature for at least a predetermined duration.

6. The electronic device of claim 4, the touch actuation occurring outside the perimeter for at least a predetermined duration.

7. The electronic device of claim 1, the predetermined gesture sequence comprising:

the touch actuation beginning outside a perimeter of the recessed surface feature; and

the touch actuation terminating inside the perimeter of the recessed surface feature.

8. The electronic device of claim 7, the touch actuation remaining within the perimeter of the recessed surface feature for at least a predetermined duration.

9. The electronic device of claim 7, the touch actuation occurring outside the perimeter of the recessed surface feature for at least a predetermined duration.

10. The electronic device of claim 1, the predetermined gesture sequence passing through a perimeter of the recessed surface feature.

11. The electronic device of claim 1, the control circuit to execute an operation in response to the predetermined gesture sequence, the operation comprising one of a haptic feedback operation, a panning operation, a volume adjustment operation, a zooming operation, or combinations thereof.

12. The electronic device of claim 1, the control circuit to detect a second predetermined gesture sequence after detecting the predetermined gesture sequence when another touch actuation interacts with the recessed surface feature.

13. The electronic device of claim 1, the recessed surface feature comprising a concave surface element.

14. The electronic device of claim 1, the housing defining a convex exterior surface.

15. A method of controlling an electronic device, comprising:

receiving, from a touch sensitive surface including a concave surface element on a portion of the touch sensitive surface, a predefined gesture when a touch actuation interacts with the concave surface element; and

executing an operation corresponding to the predefined gesture to control the electronic device.

16. The method of claim 15, the operation comprising:

one of;

increasing or decreasing a volume output of the electronic device;

panning through data presented on a display of the electronic device;

performing a zoom operation on the data presented on the display of the electronic device;

delivering a haptic response;

or

combinations thereof.

17. The method of claim 15, the receiving comprising:

determining that the touch actuation traverses a perimeter of the concave surface element.

18. The method of claim 15, the receiving comprising:

determining that the touch actuation begins or ends within a perimeter of the concave surface element for at least a predetermined duration.

19. The method of claim 15, the receiving comprising:

determining that the touch actuation begins or ends outside a perimeter of the concave surface element for at least a predetermined duration.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving, from the touch sensitive surface, another predefined gesture when another touch actuation again interacts with the concave surface element.