Tilt-based pointing for hand-held devices

• US 7,038,662 B2
• Filed: 07/08/2004
• Issued: 05/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Unify Patente GmbH & Co. KG (Atos Se), RingCentral Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Siemens Communications Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Noguera, Gritsko Perez
• Primary Examiner(s): LAO, LUNYI
• Application Number:
  US10/887,613
• Publication Number:
  US 20040239626A1
• Time in Patent Office: 663 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-169, 463 37- 38, 273/148.B, 348/734, 715856-862, 715/864, 341 20- 22, 455/556.2
• US Class Current: 345/158
• 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 1/1684 Constructional details or arrangements related to integrated I/O peripherals not covered by groups G06F1/1635 - G06F1/1675
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer

Abstract

Systems and methods of pointing in hand-held devices are described. In accordance with this scheme, a user may control the position where a pointer is displayed on a display screen simply by changing the orientation of the hand-held device relative to a currently preferred device orientation, which is tracked automatically. In addition, unintentional device orientation changes, such as periodic device orientation changes that might be caused by carrying the hand-held device while walking or driving, are filtered out dynamically. In this way, the pointer may be positioned accurately and reliably at any one of a plurality of pointer screen locations based upon changes in device orientation under a wide variety of different usage conditions.

Claims

1. A hand-held device, comprising:

a display screen;

an orientation sensor configured to provide an indication of orientation of the hand-held device; and

a controller configured to compute a relative reference position based on multiple device orientation indications provided by the orientation sensor over time and to compute a pointer screen location based on device orientation indications provided by the orientation sensor, relative to the relative reference position.

2. The hand-held device of claim 1, wherein the relative reference position is considered to be the currently preferred device orientation.

3. The hand-held device of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to compute the pointer screen location based on a mapping between the device orientation indications, relative to the relative reference position, and a relative screen location.

4. The hand-held device of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to dynamically filter out unintentional device orientation changes.

5. The hand-held device of claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to compute the pointer screen location to tend to gravitate toward a default screen region in multiple increments.

6. The hand-held device of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to compute the pointer screen location to be in a default screen region after a period of remaining stationary by the hand-held device.

7. The hand-held device of claim 6, wherein the default screen region comprises a center of the display screen.

8. A method of pointing in a hand-held device, comprising:

providing indications of orientation of the hand-held device over time;

computing a relative reference position based on multiple device orientation indications provided by the orientation sensor over time; and

computing a pointer screen location based on the provided device orientation indications, relative to the relative reference position, and displaying a pointer on a display screen at the pointer screen location.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the relative reference position is considered to be the currently preferred device orientation.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising dynamically filtering out unintentional device orientation changes.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the computing the pointer screen location is based on a mapping between the device orientation indications, relative to the relative reference position, and a relative screen location.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the computing the pointer screen location comprises gravitating the pointer screen location toward a default screen region in multiple increments.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the computing the painter screen location composes computing the pointer screen location to be in a default screen region after a period of remaining stationary by the handheld device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the default screen region comprises a center of the display screen.

15. A hand-held device, comprising:

a display screen;

an orientation sensor configured to provide an indication of orientation of the hand-held device; and

a controller configured to compute a pointer screen location based on device orientation indications provided by the orientation sensor and to display a pointer at the computed pointer screen location on the display screen, wherein the controller is configured to display the pointer in a default pointer screen area after a period of lack of change in orientation by the hand-held device;

wherein the controller is configured to have an incremental bias toward the default pointer screen area for each of multiple pointer screen locations computed, wherein the pointer gravitates to the default pointer screen area in multiple steps after a period of lack of change in orientation by the hand-held device.

16. A method of pointing in a hand-held device, comprising:

providing indications of orientation of the hand-held device over time;

computing a pointer screen location where a pointer is to be displayed on a display screen based on the provided device orientation indications, including computing the pointer screen location to be within a default pointer screen area after a period of remaining stationary by the hand-held device; and

displaying the pointer based on the computed pointer screen location;

wherein the step of computing a pointer screen location comprises biasing a computed pointer screen location by an incremental amount toward the default pointer screen area, for each of multiple times that a pointer screen location is computed, wherein the pointer gravitates to the default pointer screen area in multiple steps after a period of non-movement of the hand-held device.