Secondary Gesture Input Mechanism for Touchscreen Devices

• US 20170075392A1
• Filed: 09/11/2015
• Published: 03/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Palo Alto Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Lucan Patent Holdco, LLC
• Inventors: Erdogan, Murat
• Granted Patent: US 10,481,645 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 1/169 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 1/1692 the I/O peripheral being a secondary touch screen used as control interface, e.g. virtual buttons or sliders
• 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 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A touchscreen device may have a secondary touch-enabled gesture input mechanism located near one or more edges of a touchscreen. The gesture input mechanism may sense several gestures, including swiping, sliding, zooming, tapping, and other gestures, and may cooperate or supplement similar gestures that a user may make with the touchscreen. The gesture input mechanism may be located parallel to one edge of a touchscreen, such that a user may operate the input device without blocking the touchscreen. The gesture input mechanism may be located on a parallel, perpendicular, angled, or other surface with respect to the touchscreen. Some devices may have gesture input mechanisms located around one or more sides of the touchscreen.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a hardware platform comprising a computer processor;

a touchscreen comprising a display having a display perimeter and a touch surface input mechanism having a touch surface perimeter;

a gesture input mechanism located proximate to said touch surface perimeter;

said computer processor adapted to;

receive a first gesture from said gesture input mechanism.

2. The system of claim 1, said computer processor further adapted to:

receive said first gesture from said touch surface input mechanism.

3. The system of claim 2, said first gesture being one of a group composed of:

a sliding gesture; and

a tapping gesture.

4. The system of claim 2, said computer processor further adapted to:

receive a first input comprising a first portion of a gesture from said touch surface input mechanism and a second input comprising a second portion of said gesture from said gesture input mechanism; and

determine a single gesture input from said first portion of said gesture and said second portion of said gesture.

5. The system of claim 4, said gesture input mechanism being located at least 0.5 mm from said touch surface perimeter.

6. The system of claim 4, said gesture input mechanism being located adjacent to said touch surface perimeter.

7. The system of claim 4, said gesture input mechanism being a two dimensional touch sensor.

8. The system of claim 4, said gesture input mechanism being a one dimensional touch sensor.

9. The system of claim 1, said touch surface perimeter being a rectangular perimeter.

10. The system of claim 1, said touch surface perimeter being an elliptical perimeter.

11. The system of claim 10, said touch surface perimeter being a circular perimeter.

12. The system of claim 1, said gesture input mechanism being mounted on an escutcheon.

13. The system of claim 1, said touch surface perimeter defining a touch surface plane, said gesture input mechanism having a gesture surface perimeter defining a gesture surface plane.

14. The system of claim 13, said touch surface plane being parallel to and offset from said gesture surface plane.

15. The system of claim 13, said touch surface plane having a common edge with said gesture surface plane.

16. The system of claim 15, said touch surface perimeter having at least a 0.5 mm gap between said gesture surface perimeter.

17. The system of claim 1, said gesture input mechanism being mounted on a corner of an escutcheon.

18. The system of claim 17, said gesture input mechanism being a single dimensional input device.

19. The system of claim 17, said gesture input mechanism having a first surface and a second surface, said first surface being disposed at an angle to said second surface.

20. The system of claim 19, said angle being an acute angle less than 90 degrees.