INPUT DEVICE, AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING INPUT DEVICE

• US 20170024124A1
• Filed: 04/08/2015
• Published: 01/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: UENO, Masafumi, KIMURA, Tomohiro, SUGITA, Yasuhiro
• Application Number:
  US15/302,232
• Publication Number:
  US 20170024124A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 2200/1636 Sensing arrangement for detection of a tap gesture on the housing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0339 Touch strips, e.g. orthogonal touch strips to control cursor movement or scrolling; single touch strip to adjust parameter or to implement a row of soft keys
• 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 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 2203/04108 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 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• 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

In an end portion of a case of a portable terminal, an operation that uses a movement of an operation object perpendicular to the case is possible. A portable terminal (1) includes a movement direction determination unit (52a) that determines a direction in which an operation object is moved along a direction which includes one edge of a case of an input device and which is approximately perpendicular to one surface of the case including the edge, in the vicinity of an end portion and a side surface of the case of the input device, based on a change in a pattern of a detection signal over time indicating that the operation object is detected.

Claims

1. An input device that acquires an operation by an operation object comprising:

an operation sensor that senses an operation object that is present within a virtual operation surface that includes an edge of a case of the input device and that is approximately perpendicular to one surface of the case including the edge; and

movement direction determination circuitry that determines whether the operation object that is sensed by the operation sensor moves in a direction toward the edge, or moves in a direction away from the edge,

wherein a direction of movement of the operation object that is determined by the movement direction determination circuitry is acquired as an operation by the operation object.

2. The input device according to claim 1,

wherein the movement direction determination circuitry determines whether the operation object that is sensed by the operation sensor moves in one direction or in a direction opposite to the one direction along the edge.

3. The input device according to claim 2, further comprising:

processing specification circuitry that interprets each of a direction toward the edge, a direction away from the edge, the one direction along the edge, and a direction opposite to the one direction along the edge, which are determined by the movement direction determination circuitry as directions of the movement of the operation object, into any one of four directions of a cross key, according to a prescribed association.

4. The input device according to claim 1,

wherein a screen is provided to the one surface of the case,

wherein a proximity sensor that detects the proximity of the operation object to the screen is superimposed on the screen, and

wherein the proximity sensor is caused to function as the operation sensor.

5. The input device according to claim 1,

wherein a screen is provided to the one surface of the case, and

wherein the operation sensor is a proximity sensor that is provided between the screen and the edge.

6. The input device according to claim 1, further comprising:

grip determination circuitry that specifies whether a user is gripping the case with his/her right hand or with his/her left hand according to a position with which the user'"'"'s hand or finger that grips the case is brought into contact with the case,

wherein the operation sensor senses only the operation object that is present within the virtual operation surface, which is included in a region in which a finger that is used as the operation object among fingers of the hand that is specified by the grip determination circuitry is movable.

7. A method for controlling an input device that acquires an operation by an operation object, the method comprising:

an operation sensing step of sensing an operation object that is present within a virtual operation surface that includes an edge of a case of the input device and that is approximately perpendicular to one surface of the case including the edge;

a movement direction determination step of determining whether the operation object that is sensed in the operation sensing step moves in a direction toward the edge, or moves in a direction away from the edge; and

an operation detection step of acquiring a direction of movement of the operation object that is determined in the movement direction determination step, as an operation by the operation object.