Executing computing tasks based on force levels

• US 9,851,800 B1
• Filed: 11/05/2007
• Issued: 12/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Kneisley, Gabriel Benjamin, Moody, Cary Ann
• Primary Examiner(s): Boddie, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shapiro, Leonid
• Application Number:
  US11/934,924
• Time in Patent Office: 3,704 Days
• Field of Search: 345173, 345156-157, 345169
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04105 Pressure sensors for measuring the pressure or force exerted on the touch surface without providing the touch position
• 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 3/017 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 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means

Abstract

A method, medium, and system are provided for executing computing tasks based on force measurements corresponding to user interactions with a touch screen for a computing device. The touch screen displays content for applications executed by the computing device and receives user interactions. The computing device processes the user interactions to detect force measurements and to associate the force measurements with computing tasks for the applications executed on the computing device. A database stores the force measurements and corresponding computing tasks to identify matches between the stored force measurement for a user and subsequent force measurements received when the touch screen receives additional user interactions. When matching force measurements are located in the database, the corresponding computing tasks are executed by the computing device.

Claims

1. A method for identifying force levels for a plurality of user interactions with a touch screen on a computing device, the method comprising:

receiving a first set of interactions from one or more fingers of a first user on the surface of the touch screen through a multi-sensing capacitive interface with sensors mounted on the touch screen;

generating associated first force measurements having a range for the first set of interactions;

determining a plurality of first user-specific force levels based on the range of the associated first force measurements for the first set of interactions;

subsequently receiving a second set of interactions from one or more fingers of a second user on the surface of the touch screen;

generating associated second force measurements having a range for the second set of interactions;

determining a plurality of second user-specific force levels based on the range of the associated second force measurements for the second set of interactions; and

storing the associated first and second force measurements, the determined plurality of first and second user-specific force levels, and a computing task associated with each of the first and second user-specific force levels in a database along with an associated first and second biometric profile of the first and second user, respectively.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a subsequent interaction from one of the first user and the second user on the touch screen;

retrieving the stored first and second force measurements;

determining whether the received subsequent interaction was received from the first user or the second user; and

executing an associated computing task based upon said determining.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the associated computing task comprises autocomplete, capitalization, entering accents, and entering non-English text.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the associated first and second biometric profile each comprise one or more of a finger size, a fingertip size, a finger shape, and a finger print of the associated first and second user.