Touch pad handheld device

• US 7,046,230 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2002
• Issued: 05/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Computer Incorporated (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Tan, Tang Yew, Zadesky, Stephen Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisen, Alexander
• Application Number:
  US10/188,182
• Publication Number:
  US 20030076306A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,415 Days
• Field of Search: 345/156, 345/169, 345173-179, 345/863, 345/864, 345/84, 178 1801- 1811, 200/5.R, 200/52.R, 715/727, 715/864
• US Class Current: 345/156
• 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 1/1662 Details related to the integrated keyboard
• 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 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0362 with detection of 1D translations or rotations of an operating part of the device, e.g. scroll wheels, sliders, knobs, rollers or belts

Abstract

A media player having a touch pad is disclosed.

Claims

1. A media player for storing and playing media such as audio, video or images, the media player comprising:

a housing that encloses internally various electrical components that provide computing operations for the media player;

a touch pad supported by the housing and providing a first user input element for the media player, the touch pad being based on polar coordinates and including angular input areas for processing input from a swirling finger motion;

a button disposed at a central portion of the touch pad, the button being distinct from the touch pad and providing a second user input element for the media player, the button processing input from a finger pressing thereon; and

an audio delivery device configured to output music.

2. The media player as recited in claim 1 wherein the media player is a music player, a video recorder or a camera.

3. The media player as recited in claim 1 further including a display screen configured to display text and graphics to a user of the media device, the display screen being supported by the housing.

4. The media player as recited in claim 1 wherein the touch pad is arranged to receive input from a finger moving about a surface of the touch pad in order to implement a control function for controlling various applications associated with the media player.

5. The media player as recited in claim 4 wherein the control function is associated with moving an object or performing an action with respect to the display screen.

6. The media player as recited in claim 5 wherein the control function corresponds to a scrolling feature that allows an object to move from one media item to another media item in a group of media items displayed on the display screen, the object designating a particular media item to be selected, the selection being performed by the button.

7. The media player as recited in claim 4 wherein the control function is associated with making selections or issuing commands for use by the audio delivery device.

8. The media player as recited in claim 7 wherein the control function corresponds to a volume control feature, the volume being based on the amount of swirling finger motion.

9. The media player as recited in claim 1 wherein the touch pad additionally includes radial input areas for processing input from a radial finger motion.

10. The media player as recited in claim 1 wherein consecutive angular input areas do not coincide exactly.

11. The media player as recited in claim 10 wherein the zones follow a spiral path around the touch pad from the center to outer perimeter of the touch pad.

12. The media player as recited in claim 1 wherein the angular input areas are positioned at 2 degree increments all the way around the touch pad.

13. A media player for storing and playing media such as audio, video or images, the media player comprising:

a housing that encloses internally various electrical components that provide computing operations for the media player;

a touch pad supported by the housing and configured to provide one or more control functions for controlling various applications associated with the media player, the touch pad being based on polar coordinates and including only radial input areas for processing input from a radial finger motion; and

a media delivery device configured to output the media to a user of the media device, the media delivery device being an audio delivery device configured to output music to a user.

14. A pocket sized handheld computing device, comprising:

computing hardware for providing at least one application;

a display screen configured to display text and graphics associated with the at least one application; and

an touch pad based on capacitance and configured to provide one or more control functions for allowing a user of the computing device to provide inputs to the at least one application, the capacitive based touch pad being form from various interconnected layers including,

an annular and circular label layer having an inner perimeter and a outer perimeter;

an annular and circular electrode layer disposed below the label layer and having an inner perimeter and an outer perimeter that substantially coincide with the inner and outer perimeter of the label layer, the electrode layer including a plurality of angularly positioned electrodes that are based on Polar coordinates and within the inner and outer perimeter, the inner and outer perimeter defining the working boundary of the capacitive based touch pad, the touch pad including angular electrodes for processing input from a swirling finger motion and radial electrodes for processing input from a radial finger motion;

a circular circuit board disposed below the electrode layer and having a outer perimeter that substantially coincides with the outer perimeter of the label and electrode layers; and

control circuitry disposed below the circuit board and configured to detect capacitive changes at each of the electrodes.

15. The computing device as recited in claim 14 further comprising a button disposed at a center region and within the inner perimeter of the touch pad.

16. The computing device as recited in claim 15 wherein the touch pad and button are circular.

17. The computing device as recited in claim 14 wherein the touch pad includes input areas that are not based on Cartesian coordinates.

18. The computing device as recited in claim 14 wherein the computing device is a media player capable of processing at least one of audio media, video media or image media.

19. The touch pad assembly as recited in claim 14 wherein the polar coordinate information controls the movement of at least one control object on a display screen of the computing device.

20. The device as recited in claim 19 wherein the angular or radial motions cause the control object to wove linearly from one media item to a next media item in a list of media items, the linear movements being based on the angular or radial motions.

21. The device as recited in claim 20 wherein the media items are songs.

22. The device as recited in claim 14 wherein the touch pad provides angular or radial electrodes about a center region, wherein the display screen displays at least one control object via a graphical user interface, and wherein a controller of the control circuitry receives a user angular or radial input from the angular or radial input areas of the touch pad, converts the user angular or radial input into a control input, and supplies the control input to the at least one control object of the graphical user interface of the display screen.

23. The device as recited in claim 22, wherein the at least one control object is a linear graphical user interface component and wherein the control input for the linear graphical user interface component causes a linear interaction therewith.

24. The device as recited in claim 14 wherein the display screen presents a media list of media items and a slider bar that highlights one of the media items, the slider bar being configured to linearly traverse through the media list in order to highlight a desired media item, the motion of the slider bar being based on the polar coordinate information.

25. A battery powered pocket sized handheld music player, comprising:

a housing that supports various electrical components that provide computing operations for the music player;

a hard drive disposed inside the housing and configured to store a plurality of songs in MP3 format;

a display screen provided at a top half of a front surface of the housing, and configured to present a list of songs from the plurality of stored songs and to present a slider bar that is capable of linearly traversing through the song list in order to highlight a desired song from the list of songs;

a touch pad assembly provided at a lower half of a front surface of the housing, and configured to sense the motion of a finger moving thereon, the touch pad assembly including a planar touch surface that is dimensioned to receive an entire finger tip thereon, the top of the planar touch surface being substantially flush with the front surface of the housing;

a controller disposed inside the housing and configured to acquire motion information from the touch pad assembly and to control various features of the music player based on motion information provided by the touch pad assembly, the features including moving the slider bar through the list of songs, and controlling the volume of the music that is outputted byte music player, the direction and speed of the slider bar being based at least in part on the direction and speed of the finger moving across the planar touch surface of the touch pad assembly;

a button provided at the front surface of the housing and in the center of the touch pad assembly, the button being configured to select the desired song highlighted by the slider bar;

an audio feedback device disposed inside the housing, and configured to provide audio feedback in the form of clicks based on the speed of the slider bar as it traverses through the song list; and

audio output components for outputting music associated with the selected desired song from the list of songs, the components including at least an amplifier, a digital signal processor, and a headphone jack.

26. The music player as recited in claim 25 wherein the controller is configured to transform angular motion on the touch pad assembly to linear motion in the display screen.

27. The music player as recited in claim 25 wherein the processor is configured to transform radial motion on the touch pad assembly to linear motion in the display screen.

28. The music player as recited in claim 25 wherein the processor is configured to transform tangential motion on the touch pad assembly to linear motion in the display screen.