Flexible touch sensitive display device and control method thereof

• US 8,928,619 B1
• Filed: 06/25/2014
• Issued: 01/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Cho, Eunhyung
• Primary Examiner(s): Sharifi-Tafreshi, Koosha
• Application Number:
  US14/314,747
• Time in Patent Office: 195 Days
• Field of Search: 345/104, 345/156, 345/169, 345/173, 345/174, 715/702, 715/863, 715/864
• US Class Current: 345/173
• 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: G06F 1/1652 the display being flexible, e.g. mimicking a sheet of paper, or rollable
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0381 Multimodal input, i.e. interface arrangements enabling the user to issue commands by simultaneous use of input devices of different nature, e.g. voice plus gesture on digitizer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04102 Flexible digitiser, i.e. constructional details for allowing the whole digitising part of a device to be flexed or rolled like a sheet of paper
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

Disclosed is a control method of a flexible display device, the method including sensing a state of the flexible display device, detecting touch input at a first position of the flexible display device, correcting position information, regarding the touch input detected at the first position, to a second position when the flexible display device is in a flat state, and correcting position information, regarding the touch input detected at the first position, to a third position when the flexible display device is in a first bent state, a distance between the first position and the third position being less than a distance between the first position and the second position.

Claims

1. A flexible display device comprising:

a flexible display unit having a flat state and a bent state;

a touch sensor unit configured to sense touch input;

a bending sensor unit configured to sense a bending angle of the flexible display unit; and

a controller configured to control the flexible display unit, the touch sensor unit, and the bending sensor unit,

wherein the controller is further configured to;

correct position information of the touch input detected at a first position of the flexible display unit to a second position when the flexible display unit is in the flat state, and

correct the position information of the touch input detected at the first position to a third position when the flexible display unit is in a first bent state,

wherein a first distance between the first position and the second position exceeds a second distance between the first position and the third position.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to correct the position information of the touch input detected at the first position to a fourth position when the flexible display unit is in a second bent state.

3. The device according to claim 2, wherein the second bent state is a state in which the bending angle of the flexible display unit is greater than that in the first bent state based on an identical bending axis.

4. The device according to claim 2, wherein the second position and the third position are located in a first direction from the first position.

5. The device according to claim 4, wherein the fourth position is located in a second direction from the first position.

6. The device according to claim 5, wherein the second direction is a direction toward a bending axis of the flexible display unit from the first position.

7. The device according to claim 5, wherein the first direction and the second direction are opposite to each other.

8. The device according to claim 2, wherein the flexible display unit is set to the first bent state when the bending angle is below a threshold angle, and

wherein the flexible display unit is set to the second bent state when the bending angle exceeds the threshold angle.

9. The device according to claim 8, wherein the second distance is reduced as the bending angle is increased when the flexible display unit is set to the first bent state.

10. The device according to claim 8, wherein a third distance between the first position and the fourth position is increased as the bending angle is increased when the flexible display unit is set to the second bent state.

11. The device according to claim 8, wherein the controller does not implement correction of the position information of the touch input detected at the first position when the bending angle is equal to the threshold angle.

12. The device according to claim 11, further comprising a gaze detecting unit configured to detect eyes of a user.

13. The device according to claim 12, wherein the threshold angle is the bending angle of the flexible display unit when an angle between the eyes of the user who looks at the first position and the flexible display unit included a first angle range including a right angle.

14. The device according to claim 2, wherein the second distance or a third distance between the first position and the fourth position is increased when a distance between a bending axis of the flexible display unit and the first position is increased.

15. The device according to claim 2, wherein the flexible display unit is divided into a first region and a second region.

16. The device according to claim 15, wherein the controller sets the first region and the second region to a first region state and a second region state respectively, the first region state and the second region state respectively being the flat state, the first bent state, or the second bent state, and

wherein the controller corrects the position information of the touch input in the first region and the second region based on the first region state and the second region state respectively.

17. The device according to claim 1, wherein the controller applies the touch input to an object displayed at a position corresponding to the corrected position information of the touch input.

18. The device according to claim 1, wherein the controller changes a position of a displayed object when the flexible display unit is switched from the flat state to the bent state, and

wherein the controller further corrects an error of the touch sensor unit due to change in the position of the object and an error of the touch sensor unit due to switching of the state of the flexible display unit.

19. The device according to claim 1, wherein the controller reduces the first distance when the touch input in contact with the flexible display unit is dragged from the first position toward a bending axis.

20. A control method of a flexible display device, the method comprising:

sensing a state of the flexible display device;

detecting touch input at a first position of the flexible display device;

correcting position information of the touch input detected at the first position, to a second position when the flexible display device is in a flat state; and

correcting the position information of the touch input detected at the first position, to a third position when the flexible display device is in a first bent state,

wherein a first distance between the first position and the second position exceeds a second distance between the first position and the third position.