Electronic device

• US 9,658,755 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2015
• Issued: 05/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Display Company Limited (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Fujita, Hiroshi, Aihara, Kazuhiro, Hisatake, Goro, Isobe, Takashi, Otsuka, Yu
• Primary Examiner(s): Haley, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US14/729,237
• Publication Number:
  US 20150268852A1
• Time in Patent Office: 720 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G04F 10/00 Apparatus for measuring unknown time intervals by electric means
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 21/00 Input or output devices integrated in time-pieces
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 21/08 Touch switches specially adapted for time-pieces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• 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 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• 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 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• 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 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• 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: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus

Abstract

An electronic device that increases both visual perceptibility and selectability of executable programs. A display is a display with an elongated shape whose display surface includes a first region and a second region aligned in a longitudinal direction. In the first region, only an image that corresponds to a program that is specified as the main program is displayed. In the second region, images that correspond to sub-programs are displayed to be lined up in the longitudinal direction. The image includes an execution image of the program that is specified as the main program.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

a display having an elongated shape and configured to display images;

a memory configured to store a plurality of programs and for each of the programs, an icon image indicative of a corresponding program; and

a processor configured to perform execution control and display control, the execution control being related to execution of the programs, the display control being related to displaying by the display, wherein

the display has a display surface including a first region and a second region, the first region and the second region aligned in a longitudinal direction of the elongated display,

the execution control includes a process of specifying one of the programs as a first program and specifying another of the rest of the programs as a second program,

the display control includes a control of, when the first program and the second program are specified, causing the display to display a display image corresponding to the first program when the first program is set to be displayed in the first region, and to display an icon image corresponding to the second program when the second program is set to be displayed in the second region,

a width of the second region in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction is equal to or less than a width of a narrowest portion of the first region,

a width of a body of the first region being larger than the width of the second region,

a transition portion of the first region that connects to the second region has a shape such that a width of the transition portion of the first region gradually increases as distance from the second region increases along the longitudinal direction, the transition portion being the narrowest portion of the first region,

the second region is configured to display, for any of the programs, an icon image corresponding to a program set to be displayed in the second region, the icon image having a width in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction corresponding to the width of the second region, and

the first region is configured to display, for any of the programs, a display image corresponding to a program set to be displayed in the first region, the display image visualizing information generated by execution of the program set to be displayed in the first region with a shape and size corresponding to a shape and size of the first region.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein

an image corresponding to the first program set to be displayed in the first region includes both an icon image and the display image corresponding to the first program.

3. The electronic device of claim 1 further comprising

a touch panel configured to detect a touch operation on the display surface, wherein

the display control further includes an image movement control of, when the touch panel detects the touch operation, moving the icon image corresponding to the second program, which is displayed in the second region, to the first region, and

the execution control includes a program switching process of, when the icon image corresponding to the second program is moved to the first region, displaying a display image corresponding to the second program in the first region, and adjusting the display image corresponding to the second program to have a shape and size corresponding to a shape and size of the first region.

4. The electronic device of claim 3, wherein

the touch operation detected by the touch panel is a flick operation along the longitudinal direction, and

the processor, in the image movement control, scrolls each of the display image displayed in the first region and the icon image displayed in the second region in the longitudinal direction when the touch panel detects the flick operation.

5. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein

the execution control includes a control of displaying, in the second region, the icon image corresponding to the second program and an icon image corresponding to a third program among the programs to be aligned in the longitudinal direction,

the icon image corresponding to the second program is positioned closest to the first region among the icon images displayed in the second region, and

when the flick operation is directed from the second region to the first region, the moving of the icon image corresponding to the second program in the image movement control is performed by scrolling, to the first region, the icon image corresponding to the second program.

6. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein

the processor, in the image movement control, determines a scrolling amount in the longitudinal direction in accordance with a speed of the flick operation detected by the touch panel, and

the program switching process is performed by displaying, at a timing when the scrolling ends, the display image corresponding to the second program in the first region.

7. The electronic device of claim 3, wherein

the touch operation detected by the touch panel is a drag operation along the longitudinal direction,

the processor, in the image movement control, scrolls each of a display image displayed in the first region and an icon image displayed in the second region in the longitudinal direction when the touch panel detects the drag operation, and

the program switching process is performed by displaying, at a timing when the scrolling ends, the display image corresponding to the second program in the first region.

8. The electronic device of claim 3, wherein

the execution control includes a control of displaying, in the second region, the icon image corresponding to the second program and an icon image corresponding to a third program among the programs to be aligned in the longitudinal direction,

the touch operation detected by the touch panel is a selection operation for selecting the icon image corresponding to the second program, among the icon images displayed in the second region, and the touch operation is at least one of a tap operation, a long tap operation, and a double-tap operation,

the processor further specifies, as a selected icon image, one icon image among the icon images displayed in the second region when the touch panel detects the selection operation, and

the selected icon image is moved to the first region in the image movement control.

9. The electronic device of claim 3, wherein

the touch operation detected by the touch panel is at least one of a flick operation and a drag operation, performed with respect to the first region along the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, and

the display control further includes a control of changing the display image displayed in the first region by replacing the display image corresponding to the first program with the display image corresponding to the second program, in accordance with the at least one of the flick operation and the drag operation along the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction detected by the touch panel.

10. The electronic device of claim 1 further comprising

an acceleration sensor configured to detect acceleration in the longitudinal direction, wherein

the display control further includes an image movement control of, when the acceleration sensor detects the acceleration, moving the icon image corresponding to the second program, which is displayed in the second region, to the first region by scrolling each of the display image displayed in the first region corresponding to the first program and the icon image displayed in the second region corresponding to the second program in the longitudinal direction, and

the execution control includes a program switching process of, when the icon image corresponding to the second program is moved to the first region, displaying a display image corresponding to the second program in the first region, and adjusting the display image corresponding to the second program to have a shape and size corresponding to the shape and size of the first region.

11. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein

the execution control includes a control of displaying, in the second region, the icon image corresponding to the second program and an icon image corresponding to a third program among the programs to be aligned in the longitudinal direction,

the icon image corresponding to the second program is positioned closest to the first region among the icon images displayed in the second region, and

when the flick operation is directed from the second region to the first region, the moving of the icon image corresponding to the second program in the image movement control is performed by scrolling, to the first region, the icon image corresponding to the second program.

12. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein

the processor, in the image movement control, determines a scrolling amount in the longitudinal direction in accordance with a degree of acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor, and

the program switching process is performed by displaying, at a timing when the scrolling ends, the display image corresponding to the second program in the first region.

13. The electronic device of claim 1 further comprising

an acceleration sensor configured to detect acceleration, wherein

the display has two operation states, one being a sleep state in which images are not displayed and the other being an active state in which images are displayed, and

the processor, when the acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor is equal to or greater than a predefined value, performs a control of switching the display from the sleep state to the active state.

14. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein

at least one side of the display surface is curved at the transition portion of the first region that connects to the second region.

15. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein

the second region is composed of two portions, and

the first region is positioned between the two portions of the second region.

16. The electronic device of claim 3, wherein

the programs include, in addition to the first program and the second program, a third program, and the icon image corresponding to the second program and an icon image corresponding to the third program are displayed in the second region, and

when one icon image among the icon images displayed in the second region, each of which corresponding to one of the programs, is touched, the processor moves the touched icon image to the first region in the image movement control by performing (i), (ii), and (iii) in the stated order:

(i) displaying an icon image corresponding to a target program corresponding to the touched icon image in the transition portion of the first region and displaying the display image corresponding to the first program in a remaining portion of the first region;

(ii) displaying the icon image corresponding to the target program in the transition portion of the first region and displaying a display image corresponding to the target program in the remaining portion of the first region; and

(iii) displaying the icon image corresponding to the target program in the transition portion of the first region and adjusting the display image corresponding to the target program to cover an entirety of the remaining portion of the first region.

17. The electronic device of claim 1 further comprising

a casing that holds the display, the memory, and the processor, wherein

the display and the casing are deformable such that the longitudinal direction extends along a circumferential direction of a cylindrical shape.

18. The electronic device of claim 17, wherein

the casing, when deformed, has a cylindrical shape.

19. The electronic device of claim 17, wherein

the casing, when deformed, is attachable to a part of a human body.