Tactile guidance system for touch screen interaction

• US 8,730,181 B1
• Filed: 05/27/2009
• Issued: 05/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Raman, Tiruvilwamalai Venkatram, Chen, Charles L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pervan, Michael
• Application Number:
  US12/472,684
• Time in Patent Office: 1,819 Days
• Field of Search: 345173-178, 178 1801- 1907, 379/52
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04809 Textured surface identifying touch areas, e.g. overlay structure for a virtual keyboard
• 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

A mobile computing device includes a housing portion defining a front face and a substantial planar back face that is opposed to and directed away from the front face. The device also includes a touch screen input mechanism arranged on the front face and a plurality of tactile guides on the back face. Program code is stored and executable on the device so that, when the code is executed, it identifies a contact input area on the touch screen, where a user can make selections on the touch screen, as being aligned with one of the plurality of tactile structures.

Claims

1. A mobile device, comprising:

a housing defining a front exterior surface of the mobile device and a substantial planar back exterior surface of the mobile device that is opposed to and directed away from the front exterior surface of the mobile device;

a touch screen input mechanism arranged on the front exterior surface of the mobile device;

a plurality of fixed tactile guides that are arranged in a repeated grid on, and that extend inward to or outward from, the back exterior surface of the mobile device; and

program code stored and executable on the device that, when executed, identifies one or more contact input areas on the touch screen, where a user can make selections on the touch screen, as being substantially aligned with one or more corresponding tactile guides from the plurality of fixed tactile guides,

wherein each tactile guide from the plurality of fixed tactile guides is smaller than a contact input area to which it corresponds.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of fixed tactile guides are dot shaped.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the plurality of fixed tactile guides comprise solid structures that each extend outward from the back exterior surface of the mobile device and that are separate from each of the other fixed tactile guides.

4. The device of claim 2, wherein the plurality of fixed tactile guides are adhered to the back exterior surface of the mobile device by an adhesive material.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of fixed tactile guides is shaped to correspond to on-screen icons displayed on the touch screen computing interface for an application running on the mobile device.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of fixed tactile guides are positioned on an outer surface of a jacket that wraps around the substantial planar back exterior surface of the mobile device.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of fixed tactile guides are in a form of alphanumeric characters.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of fixed tactile guides are in a form of characters from a telephone dialing pad.

9. The device of claim 1, further comprising program code stored and executable on the device that, when executed, generates an alternate user interface for an application in which contact input areas are not aligned with the fixed tactile guides, the alternate interface including contact input areas on the touch screen that are aligned with the fixed tactile guides.

10. The device of claim 1, further comprising program code stored and executable on the device that, when executed, aligns the contact input areas with the fixed tactile guides in response to a predefined set of user selections.

11. An apparatus, comprising:

a layer defining a substantially planar back exterior surface of a mobile device; and

a plurality of fixed tactile guides that are arranged in a repeated grid and that are located on the substantially planar back exterior surface of the mobile device and positioned to correspond in position to a plurality of selectable areas on a touch screen computing interface at a front exterior surface of the mobile device,

wherein each of the plurality of fixed tactile structures is smaller than a respective selectable area from the plurality of selectable areas to which that fixed tactile structure corresponds, and

wherein the plurality of selectable areas are defined by program code executed by a processor on the mobile device.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising the program code executed by a processor on the mobile device.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the layer comprises a surface of a skin that is configured to wrap around the touch screen computing interface of the mobile device.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising a permanent adhesive applied to the layer defining a substantially planar back exterior surface of a mobile device, and a removable cover sheet on a side of the adhesive opposite to the layer defining a substantially planar back exterior surface of a mobile device.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of fixed tactile guides are dot shaped and comprise solid structures that each extend outward from the back exterior surface of the mobile device and that are separate from each of the other fixed tactile guides.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein at least one of the plurality of fixed tactile guides is shaped to correspond to on-screen icons displayed on the touch screen computing interface for an application running on the mobile device.

17. The system of claim 11, further comprising program operating on the mobile device that generates an alternate user interface for an application in which contact input areas are not aligned with the fixed tactile guides, the alternate interface including contact input areas on the touch screen that are aligned with the fixed tactile guides.

18. The system of claim 11, further comprising program operating on the mobile device that aligns the contact input areas with the fixed tactile guides in response to a predefined set of user selections.

19. A method of using tactile guides with a portable computing device, comprising:

positioning the portable computing device in one or more hands of a user of the portable computing device;

locating with a digit of the user'"'"'s hand, one fixed tactile guide of multiple fixed tactile guides positioned in a repeated grid on a back exterior surface of the portable computing device; and

gripping the portable computing device between the digit and a thumb of the user so that the thumb of the user contacts a particular one of multiple regions of a touch screen on a front exterior surface of the portable computing device that is opposed to the back exterior surface of the portable computing device and that is larger than the one fixed tactile guide, so as to select the particular one of multiple selectable controls on the touch screen that is positioned to be in alignment with the located one fixed tactile guide of the multiple fixed tactile guides on the back exterior surface of the portable computing device.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising applying the grid of multiple tactile guides to the portable computing device by wrapping the back exterior surface of the portable computing device in a skin that supports the multiple tactile guides.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the located fixed tactile guide is dot shaped and comprises a solid structure that extends outward from the back exterior surface of the mobile device and that is separate from each of the other fixed tactile guides.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the grid has fewer than twenty-five vertices.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising, before positioning the portable computing device in one or more hands of a user of the portable computing device, aligning each of the multiple selectable controls on the touch screen with each of the multiple fixed tactile guides positioned on the back exterior surface of the portable computing device.