Touch sensitive surface with recessed surface feature for an electronic device

• US 9,400,525 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Issued: 07/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Phipps, Chad Austin, DeVries, Jeffrey R., Johnson, John C., Lundell, Louis J., Merrell, Thomas Y., Patel, Mitul R., Slaby, Jiri
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisen, Alexander
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALMEIDA, CORY A
• Application Number:
  US13/827,735
• Publication Number:
  US 20140267136A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,230 Days
• Field of Search: 345173-179
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1656 Details related to functional adaptations of the enclosure, e.g. to provide protection against EMI, shock, water, or to host detachable peripherals like a mouse or removable expansions units like PCMCIA cards, or to provide access to internal components for maintenance or to removable storage supports like CDs or DVDs, or to mechanically mount accessories mounting of accessories to a computer display G06F1/1607; display hoods G06F1/1603; cooling arrangements for portable computers G06F1/203
• 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 2203/04107 Shielding in digitiser, i.e. guard or shielding arrangements, mostly for capacitive touchscreens, e.g. driven shields, driven grounds
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means

Abstract

An electronic device (300) includes a housing (301). A touch sensitive surface (100) can be disposed along the housing. The touch sensitive surface can include a recessed surface feature (106) on a portion of the touch sensitive surface. A control circuit (315), operable with the touch sensitive surface, can detect a predetermined gesture sequence (501, 502, 503) when a touch actuation along the touch sensitive surface interacts with the recessed surface feature.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a housing that includes a front face and a rear face, wherein the rear face is on an opposite side of the housing from the front face;

a display disposed along at least a portion of the front face of the housing;

a touch sensitive surface disposed along at least a portion of the rear face of the housing, the touch sensitive surface including a recessed surface feature on a portion of the touch sensitive surface; and

a control circuit, operable with the touch sensitive surface to;

detect a first predetermined gesture sequence in response to determining that a first touch actuation at the touch sensitive surface, after traversing horizontally across a perimeter of the recessed feature, has remained outside the perimeter of the recessed surface feature for at least a first predetermined duration;

execute a first operation based at least in part on a first amount of time that the first touch actuation remains outside the perimeter;

detect a second predetermined gesture sequence in response to determining that a second touch actuation at the touch sensitive surface, after traversing vertically across the perimeter, has remained outside the perimeter of the recessed surface feature for at least a second predetermined duration; and

execute a second operation based at least in part on a second amount of time that the second touch actuation remains outside the perimeter.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising:

a capacitive touchpad spanning the touch sensitive surface.

3. The electronic device of claim 2, the capacitive touchpad defining a plurality of capacitive electrode pairs spanning the recessed surface feature, wherein the control circuit is configured to detect each of the first and second predetermined gesture sequences when the first and second touch actuations interact with a predetermined subset of the plurality of capacitive electrode pairs.

4. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the first touch actuation begins within the perimeter of the recessed surface feature and terminates outside the perimeter.

5. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein the touch actuation remains within the perimeter of the recessed surface feature for at least a third predetermined duration.

6. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the perimeter of the recessed surface feature is a radial perimeter.

7. The electronic device of claim 1, the first and second operations comprising at least one of a haptic feedback operation, a panning operation, a volume adjustment operation, a zooming operation, or combinations thereof.

8. The electronic device of claim 1, the recessed surface feature comprising a concave surface element.

9. The electronic device of claim 1, the housing defining a convex exterior surface.

10. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein a portion of the touch sensitive surface surrounds the perimeter of the recessed surface feature.

11. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the recessed surface feature is circular-shaped.

12. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the touch sensitive surface is square-shaped and the circular-shaped recessed surface feature is contained within the square shaped touch sensitive surface.

13. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the recessed surface feature is located along a center line of the touch sensitive surface.

14. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the control circuit is further operable with the touch sensitive surface to determine a direction that the first touch actuation moves outside the perimeter of the recessed surface feature and execute the first operation further based at least in part on the direction.

15. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the control circuit is further operable with the touch sensitive surface to execute the first operation by at least adjusting an adjustable control of the electronic device based at least in part on the first amount of time and the direction.

16. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the adjustable control is an audio control of the electronic device and adjusting the adjustable control comprises increasing or decreasing a volume level associated with the audio control based at least in part on the first amount of time.

17. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the adjustable control is an audio control of the electronic device and adjusting the adjustable control comprises increasing a volume level associated with the audio control in response to determining that the direction is a first direction and decreasing the volume level in response to determining that the direction is a second, opposite direction.

18. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the adjustable control is an audio control of the electronic device and adjusting the adjustable control comprises adjusting a treble level associated with the audio control in response to determining that the direction is a first direction and adjusting a bass level in response to determining that the direction is a second direction.

19. A method comprising:

detecting, by an electronic device, at a touch sensitive surface that includes a concave surface element on a portion of the touch sensitive surface, a first predefined gesture in response to determining that a first touch actuation, after traversing horizontally across a perimeter of the recessed feature, has remained outside the perimeter of the concave surface element for at least a first predetermined duration, wherein the touch sensitive surface is disposed along a rear face of a housing of the electronic device and a display is disposed along a front face of the housing, the rear face being on an opposite side of the housing from the front face;

executing, by the electronic device, a first operation based at least in part on a first amount of time that the first touch actuation remains outside the perimeter;

detecting, by the electronic device, at the touch sensitive surface, a second predefined gesture in response to determining that a second touch actuation, after traversing vertically across the perimeter, has remained outside the perimeter of the concave surface element for at least a second predetermined duration; and

executing, by the electronic device, a second operation based at least in part on a second amount of time that the second touch actuation remains outside the perimeter.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein executing the first operation and executing the second operation each comprise at least one of:

increasing or decreasing a volume output of the electronic device;

panning through data presented on a display of the electronic device;

performing a zoom operation on the data presented on the display of the electronic device;

or

delivering a haptic response.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein detecting the first predefined gesture comprises determining that the first touch actuation begins within the perimeter and ends outside the perimeter.