Mobile terminal and method for preventing unintended operation of the same

• US 8,787,994 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2010
• Issued: 07/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Young Sik, Park, Dong Joon, Kim, Bum Soo
• Primary Examiner(s): Magloire, Vladimir
• Application Number:
  US12/701,911
• Publication Number:
  US 20100216447A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,625 Days
• Field of Search: 455/566, 455/575.4, 345173-178
• US Class Current: 455/575.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1624 with sliding enclosures, e.g. sliding keyboard or display
• 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: H04M 1/0235 Slidable or telescopic telephones, i.e. with a relative translation movement of the body parts; Telephones using a combination of translation and other relative motions of the body parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0241 using relative motion of the body parts to change the operational status of the telephone set, e.g. switching on/off, answering incoming call
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector

Abstract

A slide type mobile terminal and a method for preventing unintended operation of the same are disclosed. When an event is generated, indicating movement of the assemblies of the mobile terminal with respect to each other, a determination is made whether the movement is detected within a preset time after generation of at least one of a touch down event and a touch up event, and ignores those events determined to be within the preset time by not delivering the touch events to a related application program.

Claims

1. A method for operating a mobile terminal, comprising:

detecting touch on a touch screen by a touch sensor;

generating a touch event in response to detecting the touch, the touch event comprising at least one of a touch down event and a touch up event;

storing the touch event in a buffer;

determining whether the touch is one of accidental or intentional by detecting whether a sliding event corresponding a sliding motion occurs within a present time in which the touch event is generated;

ignoring the touch event by discarding the touch event stored in the buffer when the touch event is determined to be accidental when a sliding event corresponding to sliding motion occurs within a preset time duration; and

processing the touch event as intentional when the sliding event corresponding to sliding motion does not occur within the preset time duration,

setting a delay zone on the touch screen, wherein setting a delay zone on the touch screen at which a buffering time for the touch event generated at the delay zone is longer than a buffering time for the touch event generated at a non-delay zone, and

wherein a left-zone or a right zone is set as the delay zone according by a user changeable default.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein setting a delay zone on the touch screen comprises at least one of:

setting a central zone of the touch screen as a central delay zone; and

setting a lower zone of the touch screen as a lower delay zone.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein setting a central zone comprises:

subdividing the central zone into a left central zone and a right central zone; and

setting the left central zone as a left central delay zone, and setting the right central zone as a right central delay zone.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein setting a lower zone comprises:

subdividing the lower zone into a lower left zone and a lower right zone; and

setting the lower left zone as a lower left delay zone, and setting the lower right zone as a lower right delay zone.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a longer buffering time for a touch event generated at a zone containing frequently touched locations in comparison to that for a touch event generated at another zone.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the sliding event corresponding to a motion comprises one of:

the mobile terminal is transitioned from a slide-open state to a slide-closed state; and

the mobile terminal is transitioned from the slide closed state to the slide open state.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the sliding event corresponding to a motion comprises at least one of:

a first assembly of the mobile terminal is slid with respect to a second assembly of the mobile terminal in a predetermined direction; and

the first assembly is rotated by a predetermined number of degrees with respect to the second assembly.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein ignoring the touch event comprises not delivering to a related application program the touch event, when the touch down event is followed by the sliding event and further followed by the touch up event.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a touch drag event after generation of the touch down event and before generation of the sliding event; and

ignoring the touch drag event by not delivering the touch drag event to the related application program.

10. A mobile terminal comprising:

a first assembly having a touch screen having a display unit and a touch sensor that senses touch on the touch screen;

a second assembly coupled to the first assembly and supporting a movement of the first assembly,

a slide sensor for sensing sliding motion between the first assembly and the second assembly;

a buffer for storing a touch event, the touch event comprising at least one of a touch down event and a touch up event; and

a control unit for determining whether the touch event is accidental or intentional based on sensing whether sliding motion occurs within a preset time duration of the touch event, the control unit ignoring the touch event by discarding the touch event stored in the buffer, when the sliding motion is sensed as having occurred within the preset time duration, and

wherein the touch screen includes a delay zone at which a buffering time for the touch event generated at the delay zone is longer than a buffering time for the touch event generated at a non-delay zone, and wherein the buffer data is discarded when the touch event is accidental, and

wherein a left-zone or a right zone is set as the delay zone according by a user changeable default.

11. The mobile terminal of claim 10, wherein the slide sensor senses sliding motion when at least one of:

the first assembly is slid with respect to the second assembly in a predetermined direction; and

the first assembly is rotated by a predetermined number of degrees with respect to the second assembly.

12. The mobile terminal of claim 10, wherein the touch screen further comprises at least one of a central zone near the center of the touch screen set as a central delay zone and a lower zone of the touch screen set as a lower delay zone.

13. The mobile terminal of claim 12, wherein the central zone is subdivided into a left central zone set as a left central delay zone and a right central zone set as a right central delay zone, and the lower zone is subdivided into a lower left zone set as a lower left delay zone and a lower right zone set as a lower right delay zone.

14. The mobile terminal of claim 10, further comprising:

a storage unit storing accumulated information regarding touched locations of the touch screen, wherein the control unit sets a delay zone containing frequently touched locations by assigning a longer buffering time for a touch event generated at the delay zone in comparison to that for a touch event generated at a non delay zone.

15. The mobile terminal of claim 10, wherein the control unit ignores the touch event by not delivering the touch event to the related application program, when a touch down event is followed by a movement event and further followed by a touch up event.

16. The mobile terminal of claim 10, wherein the control unit ignores the touch event by not delivering a touch drag event to the related application program, when the touch drag event is generated by a user after generation of a touch down event and before generation of a movement event.