Input method and input apparatus

• US 9,122,385 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2014
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Rekimoto, Junichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Pervan, Michael
• Application Number:
  US14/263,155
• Publication Number:
  US 20140240266A1
• Time in Patent Office: 491 Days
• Field of Search: 178 1801- 1907, 345173-178
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1616 with folding flat displays, e.g. laptop computers or notebooks having a clamshell configuration, with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position
• 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 1/169 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 2203/0339 Touch strips, e.g. orthogonal touch strips to control cursor movement or scrolling; single touch strip to adjust parameter or to implement a row of soft keys
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04112 Electrode mesh in capacitive digitiser: electrode for touch sensing is formed of a mesh of very fine, normally metallic, interconnected lines that are almost invisible to see. This provides a quite large but transparent electrode surface, without need for ITO or similar transparent conductive material
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning

Abstract

There is provided an apparatus including a circuitry configured to initiate an operation command in response to a first moving operation of a first operator on a first operation surface provided on a first surface of a housing body, wherein the first surface is provided on a substantially opposite side of the housing body from a second surface on which a display is provided, and wherein the display is configured to display a result of the initiated operation command.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a circuitry configured to

initiate an operation command in response to a first moving operation of a first operator on a first operation surface provided on a first surface of a housing body,

initiate a command in response to a second moving operation of a second operator on a second operation surface which is provided at a different position from the first operation surface, and

initiate, according to a combination of the first moving operation and the second moving operation, a first operation command when a movement direction of the first moving operation and a movement direction of the second moving operation are substantially the same, and a second operation command when the movement direction of the first moving operation and the movement direction of the second moving operation are not substantially the same,

wherein the first surface is provided on a substantially opposite side of the housing body from a second surface on which a display is provided, and

wherein the display is configured to display respective results of the initiated commands.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first moving operation is an operation in which a contact position of the first operator on the first surface is moved.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the result of the initiated operation command is a scrolling of an image displayed on the display.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the scrolling of the image is controlled in accordance with an amount of the first moving operation.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the image is scrolled in a substantially same direction of a moving direction of the first moving operation.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the initiated operation command is configured to control the display to zoom in or zoom out an image displayed on the display.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first moving operation is performed by a finger of a user that is in contact with the first operation surface.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second surface and the first surface are separately provided on opposing surfaces of the housing body.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the first moving operation is detected according to a movement of a position of the first operator upon the first operation surface, and

the second moving operation is detected according to a movement of a position of a second operator upon the second operation surface.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein one of the first operation command and the second operation command is a scroll command for scrolling an image being displayed on the display.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the other one of the first operation command and the second operation command is a zoom command for zooming-in or zooming-out an image being displayed on the display.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first moving operation and the second moving operation are drag operations.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first moving operation is performed on the first operation surface at a substantially same time the second moving operation is performed on the second operation surface.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the moving operation is a sliding type operation.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the display is configured to display a result of the command.

16. A method comprising:

initiating an operation command in response to a first moving operation of a first operator on a first operation surface provided on a first surface of a housing body, wherein the first surface is provided on a substantially opposite side of the housing body from a second surface on which a display is provided;

initiating a command in response to a second moving operation of a second operator on a second operation surface which is provided at a different position from the first operation surface;

initiating, according to a combination of the first moving operation and the second moving operation, a first operation command when a movement direction of the first moving operation and a movement direction of the second moving operation are substantially the same, and a second operation command when the movement direction of the first moving operation and the movement direction of the second moving operation are not substantially the same; and

displaying, on the display, respective results of the initiated commands.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having embodied thereon a program, which when executed by a computer causes the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

initiating an operation command in response to a first moving operation of a first operator on a first operation surface provided on a first surface of a housing body, wherein the first surface is provided on a substantially opposite side of the housing body from a second surface on which a display is provided;

initiating a command in response to a second moving operation of a second operator on a second operation surface which is provided at a different position from the first operation surface;

initiating, according to a combination of the first moving operation and the second moving operation, a first operation command when a movement direction of the first moving operation and a movement direction of the second moving operation are substantially the same, and a second operation command when the movement direction of the first moving operation and the movement direction of the second moving operation are not substantially the same; and

displaying, on the display, respective results of the initiated commands.

18. An apparatus comprising:

a housing;

a first contact sensor provided on a first surface of the housing and configured to detect a first moving operation of a first operator;

a second contact sensor provided on a second surface of the housing at a different position from the first surface and configured to detect a second moving operation of a second operator;

a controller configured to

initiate an operation command in response to the detected first moving operation of the first operator,

initiate a command in response to the detected second moving operation of the second operator on the second surface, and

initiate, according to a combination of the first moving operation and the second moving operation, a first operation command when a movement direction of the first moving operation and a movement direction of the second moving operation are substantially the same, and a second operation command when the movement direction of the first moving operation and the movement direction of the second moving operation are not substantially the same; and

a display provided on a second surface of the housing that is substantially opposite from the first surface and configured to display respective results of the initiated commands.