WIDE TOUCHPAD

• US 20180164910A1
• Filed: 12/08/2016
• Published: 06/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2016
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ent, Ali Kathryn
• Application Number:
  US15/373,401
• Publication Number:
  US 20180164910A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1618 the display being foldable up to the back of the other housing with a single degree of freedom, e.g. by 360° rotation over the axis defined by the rear edge of the base enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1681 Details related solely to hinges hinge details related to the transmission of signals or power are classified in G06F1/1683
• 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 2203/04104 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 2203/04808 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 3/018 Input/output arrangements for oriental characters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0213 Arrangements providing an integrated pointing device in a keyboard, e.g. trackball, mini-joystick for pointing devices integrated in a laptop computer G06F1/169; joysticks G05G9/047; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0219 Special purpose keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0233 Character input methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

An apparatus can include a processor; memory accessible by the processor; and a display housing, a keyboard housing and a hinge assembly that rotatably couples the display housing and the keyboard housing where the keyboard housing includes a hinge assembly end, a front end, a left side and a right side; a keyboard that includes a spacebar, an S key, an L key and an S-to-L key distance; and a touchpad disposed between the spacebar and the front end that extends a left side to right side distance greater than the S-to-L key distance.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

memory accessible by the processor; and

a display housing, a keyboard housing and a hinge assembly that rotatably couples the display housing and the keyboard housing wherein the keyboard housing comprises

a hinge assembly end, a front end, a left side and a right side;

a keyboard that comprises a spacebar, an S key, an L key and an S-to-L key distance; and

a touchpad disposed between the spacebar and the front end that extends a left side to right side distance greater than the S-to-L key distance.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising palm rejection circuitry operatively coupled to the touchpad.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising gesture recognition circuitry operatively coupled to the touchpad.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the gesture recognition circuitry comprises multi-touch gesture recognition circuitry.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the touchpad comprises a left palm rest portion and a right palm rest portion.

6. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the gesture recognition circuitry comprises palm-based gesture recognition circuitry.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the palm-based gesture recognition circuitry comprises a library that comprises a palm-based horizontal slide gesture and a palm-based vertical slide gesture.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the palm-based gesture recognition circuitry comprises a library that comprises at least one dual palm-based gesture.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the spacebar comprises a spacebar width and wherein the touchpad comprises a left to right distance greater than the spacebar width.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the keyboard comprises a left side shift key, a right side shift key and a left side shift key to a right side shift key distance and wherein the touchpad extends a left side to right side distance greater than the left side shift key to a right side shift key distance.

11. A method comprising:

rejecting a static palm signal generated via a touchpad of a keyboard housing that comprises a keyboard wherein the signal is generated from an area of the touchpad which extends beyond an S key of the keyboard if originating from a touchpad side associated with the S key, and wherein the signal is generated from an area of the touchpad which extends beyond an L key of the keyboard if originating from a touchpad side associated with the L key;

detecting a dynamic touch signal generated via the touchpad; and

responsive to the dynamic touch signal, issuing a command.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the dynamic touch signal corresponds to a dynamic finger touch signal associated with a finger sized area.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the dynamic touch signal corresponds to a dynamic palm touch signal associated with a palm sized area.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the dynamic touch signal corresponds to a dynamic palm gesture signal and wherein the command comprises a scroll command.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the dynamic touch signal corresponds to a first dynamic palm gesture signal generated via the area of the touchpad side associated with the S key and a second dynamic palm gesture signal generated via the area of the touchpad side associated with the L key.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the dynamic touch signal corresponds to a thumb touch signal associated with a central portion of the touchpad.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the dynamic touch signal corresponds to a multiple thumb touch signal associated with the central portion of the touchpad.

18. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions to instruct a computer to:

reject a static palm signal generated via a touchpad of a keyboard housing that comprises a keyboard wherein the signal is generated from an area of the touchpad which extends beyond an S key of the keyboard if originating from a touchpad side associated with the S key, and wherein the signal is generated from an area of the touchpad which extends beyond an L key of the keyboard if originating from a touchpad side associated with the L key;

detect a dynamic touch signal generated via the touchpad; and

responsive to the dynamic touch signal, issue a command.

19. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 18 wherein the computer-executable instructions comprise instructions to instruct the computer to reject a static palm signal generated via the area of the touchpad side associated with the S key and to detect a dynamic touch signal generated via the area of the touchpad side associated with the L key.

20. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 18 wherein the computer-executable instructions comprise instructions to instruct the computer to reject a static palm signal generated via the area of the touchpad side associated with the L key and to detect a dynamic touch signal generated via the area of the touchpad side associated with the S key.