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Ergonomic motion detection for receiving character input to electronic devices

  • US 9,459,795 B2
  • Filed: 12/21/2015
  • Issued: 10/04/2016
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2011
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. An electronic device comprising:

  • a processor;

    a touch screen having a touch-sensitive surface; and

    a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

    when in a mode for positioning finger location regions, position a plurality of finger contact regions on the touch-sensitive surface upon simultaneously sensing the locations of multiple fingers above a surface of the touch-sensitive surface including the finger locations of at least a first finger, a second finger, and a third finger of the user'"'"'s hand including a point location for each of the fingers, wherein the plurality of finger location regions includes a first finger location region including the point location of the first finger, a second finger location region including the point location of the second finger, and a third finger location region including the point location of the third finger, wherein a plurality of command functions are each associated with a unique combination of sliding or non-sliding contact with one or more of the finger location regions, and wherein each finger location region is a unique region of the touch-sensitive surface;

    maintain an association of each of the plurality of command functions with a unique combination of sliding or non-sliding contact with one or more of the finger location regions, including one command function associated with sliding or non-sliding contact with only the first finger location region and a different command function associated with the same sliding or non-sliding contact with only the second finger location region;

    when in a mode for command function input following the mode for positioning finger contact regions, and following removing the at least first, second, and third fingers from the sensing above the touch-sensitive surface during the positioning mode, entering a plurality of command functions into the electronic device including(a) entry of a first command function by discerning a first command function input contact of only the first finger location regions, determining whether the first command function input contact was a sliding or a non-sliding contact, determine the direction of the sliding contact with the proviso that the first command function input contact is a sliding contact; and

    identifies the first command function based on the finger contact region contacted, whether the contact is a sliding or non-sliding contact, and the direction of any sliding contact, wherein identifying the first control command includes recognizing the first control command using the association of control commands to finger location regions and sliding direction; and

    (b) entry of a second command function different from the first command function by discerning a second command function input contact of only the second finger location region;

    wherein the second command function input contact is the same sliding or the same non-sliding contact as the first command function input contact, and the direction of any sliding contact is the same as the sliding direction of the command function character input; and

    identifying the second command function based on the finger location region contacted, whether the contact is sliding or non-sliding, and the direction of any sliding, wherein identifying the second control command includes recognizing the second control command using the association of commands to contacts with finger location regions and sliding direction.

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