Apparatus and method for controlling motion-based user interface

• US 9,588,613 B2
• Filed: 10/13/2011
• Issued: 03/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Hong, Hyun-Su, Jung, Yung-Keun, Lee, Jae-Myeon, Kim, Il-Hwan
• Primary Examiner(s): Osorio, Ricardo L
• Application Number:
  US13/879,203
• Publication Number:
  US 20130194222A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,972 Days
• Field of Search: 345/156, 345/158, 345173-175, 178 1801- 1807, 178 1901- 1905
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1614 Image rotation following screen orientation, e.g. switching from landscape to portrait mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• 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 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/02 Affine transformations for image registration G06T3/147; for image mosaicing G06T3/4038

Abstract

A method and apparatus for controlling a motion-based user interface are provided. The apparatus includes a touch screen for displaying an image and for receiving input of a user touch on at least one spot of the touch screen, a sensor unit for sensing a motion of the apparatus, a motion calculator for calculating a degree of the motion of the apparatus, when sensing the motion of the apparatus at the sensor unit, and a controller for, when the at least one spot is touched on the touch screen, determining the number of touched spots, for receiving information about the degree of the motion of the apparatus from the motion calculator, and for determining whether to change the size of the image or the position of the image according to the number of touched spots.

Claims

1. An apparatus for controlling a motion-based user interface, the apparatus comprising:

a touch screen;

a sensor configured to sense a movement of the apparatus; and

a processor configured to;

obtain a number of touched spots on the touch screen,

obtain information corresponding to the movement of the apparatus, and

display an image on the touch screen by zooming out the image based on the number of the touched spots being plural and a determination that the information indicates that the apparatus moves away from the user, or display the image on the touch screen by zooming in the image based on the number of touched sports being plural and a determination that the information indicates that the apparatus moves toward the user.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to, if the number of the touched spots is 2 or more, recognize a user touch corresponding to the touched spots as a command for zooming in or zooming out the image.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to, if the number of the touched spots is 1:

recognize a user touch corresponding to the touched spots as a command for shifting the image,

obtain information related to the movement of the apparatus for shifting the image on the touch screen, and

shift the image based on the obtained information.

4. The apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the sensor includes a gyroscope, and

wherein the processor is further configured to determine the information related to the movement of the apparatus according to a degree to which the apparatus moves up, down, to the left, to the right, back, or forth or a degree to which the apparatus is inclined forward, reclined backward, rotated to the left, or rotated to the right, using the gyroscope.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image is a Web page.

6. A method for controlling a motion-based user interface, the method comprising:

sensing a movement of the apparatus;

obtaining a number of touched spots on a touch screen of the apparatus;

obtaining information corresponding to the movement of the apparatus; and

displaying an image on the touch screen by zooming out the image based on the number of the touched spots being plural and a determination that the information indicates that the apparatus moves away from the user, or displaying the image on the touch screen by zooming in the image based on the number of the touched spots being plural and a determination that the information indicates that the apparatus moves toward the user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein, if the number of the touched spots is 2 or more, a user touch corresponding to the touched spots is recognized as a command for zooming in or zooming out the image on the touch screen.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

if the number of the touched spots is 1, recognizing a user touch corresponding to the touched spots as a command for shifting the image;

obtaining information related to the movement of the apparatus for shifting the image on the touch screen; and

shifting the image based on the obtained information.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the information related to the movement of the apparatus is determined according to a degree to which the apparatus moves up, down, to the left, to the right, back, or forth or a degree to which the apparatus is inclined forward, backward, to the left, or to the right.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the image is a Web page.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program to be executed on a computer, wherein the program is executable, that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to execute the method of claim 6.