Apparatus and associated methods

• US 10,599,180 B2
• Filed: 03/02/2018
• Issued: 03/24/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Saukko, Jari, Nurmi, Mikko
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Tam T
• Application Number:
  US15/910,123
• Publication Number:
  US 20180188776A1
• Time in Patent Office: 753 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 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 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041

Abstract

An apparatus including: at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following: in response to user input, disassociate the linking of the orientation of content with respect to the orientation of the display of a portable electronic device to retain the particular orientation of the content with respect to the orientation of the display during the user input.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory comprising computer program code,

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following;

in response to detecting an object hovering over a touch display of a portable electronic device, temporarily disassociate the linking of orientation of content with respect to the orientation of the display of the portable electronic device to retain the orientation of the content with respect to the orientation of the display during a duration that the object hovers over the touch display, and to prevent rotation of the content during the duration of the object hovering over the touch display; and

in response to detecting removal of the object hovering over the touch display of the portable electronic device, re-associate the linking of the orientation of content with respect to the orientation of the display of the portable electronic device such that the rotation is performed in response to a change in the orientation of the display.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to detect hovering objects during use of one or more of a particular supplementary application of the portable electronic device or a home screen of the portable electronic device.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the particular supplementary application is one or more of a calling/telephone application, text message application, e-mail application, video application, audio application, word processing or other productivity application, game, social media application, internet browser, contact list application, calendar application, photo application or calculator application.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to detect hovering objects proximal to a proximity-sensitive display of the portable electronic device.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to detect removal of the object hovering over the touch display of the portable electronic device by detecting movement of the object away from the touch display so as to no longer be proximal thereto.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to detect hovering objects only in regions at least partly overlying one or more user interface elements displayed on a proximity-sensitive display of the portable electronic device,

and the apparatus is further configured to, in response to a touch input at the touch display at least partly overlying the one or more user interface elements, identify a function associated with the touched region of the touch display.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the touch input comprises one or more of a tap, a swipe, a slide, a press, a hold, a rotate gesture, bending at least part of the portable electronic device, squeezing at least part of the portable electronic device or a multi-finger gesture.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the one or more user interface elements comprises one or more of a button, an icon, a form, a widget, a hyperlink, a slider, a scroll bar, or a virtual control element.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to detect the object hovering over the touch display only in an instance the object hovering is proximal to a region not overlying one or more user interface elements displayed on a proximity-sensitive display of the portable electronic device.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to detect hovering objects at one or more particular locations on the portable electronic device, the one or more particular locations being designated to provide for disassociation of the linking of the orientation of content with respect to the orientation of the display.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the detection of the object hovering over the touch display is characterized by one or more of a static hover proximal to the portable electronic device, a moving hover proximal to the portable electronic device, or a multi-finger gesture.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus comprises one or more of an accelerometer, a gyroscope, or a magnetometer to detect the orientation of the display.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the orientation of the display is defined with respect to a gravity vector.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is a portable electronic device, a laptop computer, a mobile phone, a Smartphone, a tablet computer, a personal digital assistant, a digital camera, a watch, a server, a portable media player, a module, or circuitry.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the temporary disassociation to retain the orientation of the display and prevent rotation of the content during the duration of the object hovering over the touch display occurs responsive to detecting the object hovering over any portion of the touch display and independently of any predefined regions.

16. A method comprising:

in response to detecting an object hovering over a touch display of a portable electronic device, temporarily disassociating the linking of orientation of content with respect to the orientation of the display of the portable electronic device to retain the orientation of the content with respect to the orientation of the display during a duration that the object hovers over the touch display, and to prevent rotation of the content during the duration of the object hovering over the touch display; and

in response to detecting removal of the object hovering over the touch display of the portable electronic device, re-associating the linking of the orientation of content with respect to the orientation of the display of the portable electronic device such that the rotation is performed in response to a change in the orientation of the display.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the detection of the object hovering over the touch display occurs during use of one or more of a particular supplementary application of the portable electronic device or a home screen of the portable electronic device.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising detecting removal of the object hovering over the touch display of the portable electronic device by detecting movement of the object away from the touch display so as to no longer be proximal thereto.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

detecting hovering objects only in regions at least partly overlying one or more user interface elements displayed on a proximity-sensitive display of the portable electronic device; and

in response to a touch input at the touch display at least partly overlying the one or more user interface elements, identify a function associated with the touched region of the touch display.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the object hovering over the touch display is detected only in an instance the object hovering is proximal to a region not overlying one or more user interface elements displayed on a proximity-sensitive display of the portable electronic device.

21. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer program code stored thereon, the computer readable medium and computer program code being configured to, when run on at least one processor, perform at least the following:

in response to detecting an object hovering over a touch display of a portable electronic device, temporarily disassociate the linking of orientation of content with respect to the orientation of the display of the portable electronic device to retain the orientation of the content with respect to the orientation of the display during a duration that the object hovers over the touch display, and to prevent rotation of the content during the duration of the object hovering over the touch display; and

in response to detecting removal of the object hovering over the touch display of the portable electronic device, re-associate the linking of the orientation of content with respect to the orientation of the display of the portable electronic device such that the rotation is performed in response to a change in the orientation of the display.