Electronic device including flexible display

• US 9,672,796 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2012
• Issued: 06/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Son, Howon, Choe, Dami, Park, Hyorim
• Primary Examiner(s): Jansen, II, Michael J
• Application Number:
  US13/399,500
• Publication Number:
  US 20130215088A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,936 Days
• Field of Search: 345204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1652 the display being flexible, e.g. mimicking a sheet of paper, or rollable
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04102 Flexible digitiser, i.e. constructional details for allowing the whole digitising part of a device to be flexed or rolled like a sheet of paper
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04804 Transparency, e.g. transparent or translucent windows
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0487 using specific features provided by the input device, e.g. functions controlled by the rotation of a mouse with dual sensing arrangements, or of the nature of the input device, e.g. tap gestures based on pressure sensed by a digitiser
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04897 Special input arrangements or commands for improving display capability
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/045 Zooming at least part of an image, i.e. enlarging it or shrinking it
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2380/02 Flexible displays
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/08 Cursor circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/40 characterised by the way in which both a pattern determined by character code and another pattern are displayed simultaneously, or either pattern is displayed selectively, e.g. with character code memory and APA, i.e. all-points-addressable, memory

Abstract

An electronic device includes a flexible display, a sensing unit configured to obtain bending information including at least one of a bending degree, the number of times of bending, a bending maintaining duration, and a bending speed of the display, and a controller configured to additionally display a second image on the display when the display is bent in a state in which a first image is displayed, and complementarily change transparency of the first image and that of the second image to reflect the bending information obtained by the sensing unit.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

a flexible display;

a sensing unit configured to obtain a number of bending times of the flexible display; and

a controller configured to;

display a first image with a first transparency and a second image with a second transparency on the flexible display when the flexible display is in a flat state,

wherein the first transparency is 0% and the second transparency is 100% in the flat state,

wherein each time a bending of the flexible display is detected in a bending state, the first transparency is increased by a preset amount to a first value and the second transparency is complementarily reduced by the preset amount to a second value according to each bending,

wherein each time the flexible display is restored to the flat state from the bending state, the first transparency of the first image and the second transparency of the second image are maintained as the respective first and second values by the preset amount,

wherein when the number of bending times is increased to a predetermined number, the first image is finally invisible with 100% transparency and the second image is finally full-visible with 0% transparency, and

wherein the preset amount is 20% such that each time the flexible display is bent, the first transparency of the first image is increased by 20% and the second transparency of the second image is reduced by 20%.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein when the first transparency is lower than a predetermined threshold value, the controller activates a first application related to the first image and when the first transparency is equal to or higher than the predetermined threshold value, the controller deactivates the first application related to the first image and activates a second application related to the second image.

3. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the predetermined threshold value is 50% such that if the first transparency is lower than 50%, the controller activates the first application related to the first image and deactivates the second application related to the second image.

4. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the predetermined threshold value is 50% such that if the first transparency is equal to or higher than 50%, the controller deactivates the first application related to the first image and activates the second application related to the second image.

5. An electronic device comprising:

a flexible display;

a sensing unit configured to obtain a number of bending times of the flexible display; and

a controller configured to;

display a first image with a first transparency and a second image with a second transparency on the flexible display when the flexible display is in a flat state, wherein the first transparency is 0% and the second transparency is 100% in the flat state,

wherein each time a bending of the flexible display is detected in a bending state, the first transparency is increased by a preset amount and the second transparency is complementarily reduced by the preset amount according to each bending,

wherein each time the flexible display is restored to the flat state from the bending state, the first transparency of the first image and the second transparency of the second image are maintained as is, and

wherein the preset amount is fixed to a predetermined value such that each time the flexible display is bent, the first transparency of the first image is increased by the predetermined value and the second transparency of the second image is reduced by the predetermined value.

6. An electronic device comprising:

a flexible display;

a sensing unit configured to obtain a number of bending times of the flexible display; and

a controller configured to;

display a first image with a first transparency on the flexible display when the flexible display is in a flat state and activate a first application related to the first image, wherein when a bending of the flexible display is detected in a bending state, the controller further displays a second image with a second transparency,

wherein each time the bending of the flexible display is detected, the first transparency is increased by a preset amount and the second transparency is complementarily reduced by the preset amount according to each bending,

wherein each time the flexible display is restored to the flat state from the bending state, the first transparency of the first image and the second transparency of the second image are maintained as is, and

wherein the preset amount is fixed to a predetermined value such that each time the flexible display is bent, the first transparency of the first image is increased by the predetermined value and the second transparency of the second image is reduced by the predetermined value.

7. The electronic device of claim 6, wherein when the first transparency is lower than a predetermined threshold value, the controller maintains the first application related to the first image and when the first transparency is equal to or higher than the predetermined threshold value, the controller deactivates the first application related to the first image and activates a second application related to the second image.