Method of human-machine interaction by combining touch and contactless controls

• US 10,809,841 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2015
• Issued: 10/20/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quickstep Technologies, LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Quickstep Technologies, LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Blondin, Christophe, Roziere, Didier
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Richard J
• Application Number:
  US15/120,076
• Publication Number:
  US 20170108978A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,072 Days
• 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 2203/04107 Shielding in digitiser, i.e. guard or shielding arrangements, mostly for capacitive touchscreens, e.g. driven shields, driven grounds
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04108 Touchless 2D- digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface without distance measurement in the Z direction
• 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 3/044 by capacitive means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• 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

Abstract

The present invention relates to a process for interacting with an electronic and/or computer device comprising a command interface provided with capacitive sensors disposed in order to detect command objects, where said process comprises steps of: (i) searching (40) for objects described as contact in contact with the command interface surface; (ii) searching (41) for objects described as hovering at a distance from said command interface; and (iii) executing a command described as combined (43) when at least one contact object is present in at least one predefined contact area and at least one hovering object is present in at least one predefined hovering area, where said combined command (43) takes into consideration at least some information concerning said at least one hovering object.

The invention also relates to a command interface and a device implementing the process.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at an electronic device with a touch-sensitive display and a predefined contact area that is separate from the touch-sensitive display and is located at or near an edge of the touch-sensitive display;

displaying a user interface on the touch-sensitive display;

while displaying the user interface on the touch-sensitive display, detecting a first hovering input over a first portion of the user interface, wherein the first hovering input includes;

a first movement portion comprising movement of a hovering object to a hovering position over the first portion of the user interface, and

a second movement portion, after the first movement portion, comprising a lateral movement of the hovering object while the hovering object remains hovering over the first portion of the user interface; and

in response to detecting the first hovering input;

in accordance with a determination that the hovering object is detected over the first portion of the user interface without detecting a contact object in the predefined contact area that is separate from the touch-sensitive display and is located at or near the edge of the touch-sensitive display, executing a first command that includes performing a first operation in the user interface based on the second movement portion of the first hovering input; and

in accordance with a determination that the hovering object is detected over the first portion of the user interface while the contact object is detected in the predefined contact area that is separate from the touch-sensitive display and is located at or near the edge of the touch-sensitive display, executing a second command, different than the first command, wherein the second command includes performing a second operation in the user interface based on the second movement portion of the first hovering input, and the second operation is different from the first operation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device includes another predefined contact area separate from the touch-sensitive display and located on a surface of the electronic device opposite the touch-sensitive display.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the another predefined contact area comprises at least one area accessible with a finger of a hand which holds the electronic device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a contact object on the touch-sensitive display;

wherein the first operation comprises

a spatial transformation around a location of the contact object detected on the touch-sensitive display,

wherein the spatial transformation depends on the lateral movement of the hovering object; and

wherein the spatial transformation comprises at least one transformation among scaling, rotation and deformation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the contact object detected in the predefined contact area corresponds to a tap, a prolonged press, or movement in the predefined contact area.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first operation comprises a first scrolling operation to scroll through a plurality of elements displayed on the touch-sensitive display based on a trajectory of the hovering object over the touch-sensitive display, and the second operation comprises a second scrolling operation to scroll through a plurality of sub-elements corresponding to one of the plurality of elements displayed on the touch-sensitive display based on the trajectory of the hovering object over the touch-sensitive display.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein second operation comprises a blocking operation to ignore the movement of the hovering object while the contact object is detected.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first operation comprises a movement operation or a spatial transformation operation with a first sensitivity parameter or a first direction parameter and the second operation comprises the movement operation or the spatial transformation operation with a second sensitivity parameter different from the first sensitivity parameter or with a second direction parameter different from the first direction parameter.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first operation comprises a zoom operation of an element of the user interface displayed on the touch-sensitive display of the electronic device, and the second operation comprises a movement operation of the element of the user interface displayed on the touch-sensitive display of the electronic device.

10. An electronic device comprising a touch-sensitive display, a predefined contact area that is separate from the touch-sensitive display and is located at or near an edge of the touch-sensitive display, and device electronics configured for:

displaying a user interface on the touch-sensitive display;

while displaying the user interface on the touch-sensitive display, detecting a first hovering input over a first portion of the user interface, wherein the first hovering input includes;

a first movement portion comprising movement of a hovering object to a hovering position over the first portion of the user interface, and

a second movement portion, after the first movement portion, comprising a lateral movement of the hovering object while the hovering object remains hovering over the first portion of the user interface; and

in response to detecting the first hovering input;

in accordance with a determination that the hovering object is detected over the first portion of the user interface without detecting a contact object in the predefined contact area that is separate from the touch-sensitive display and is located at or near the edge of the touch-sensitive display, executing a first command that includes performing a first operation in the user interface based on the second movement portion of the first hovering input; and

in accordance with a determination that the hovering object is detected over the first portion of the user interface while the contact object is detected in the predefined contact area that is separate from the touch-sensitive display and is located at or near the edge of the touch-sensitive display, executing a second command, different than the first command, wherein the second command includes performing a second operation in the user interface based on the second movement portion of the first hovering input, and the second operation is different from the first operation.

11. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the touch-sensitive display comprises capacitive electrodes and one or more guard electrodes excited to a guard electric potential substantially equal or exactly equal to the electric potential of the capacitive electrodes.

12. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the touch-sensitive display comprises a matrix of capacitive electrodes, and wherein each of the capacitive electrodes measures a capacitance between the capacitive electrode and one or more objects.

13. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the contact object is detected in the predefined contact area based on measurements of capacitive electrodes of the touch-sensitive display.

14. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the predefined contact area further includes at least one side of the electronic device substantially perpendicular to the touch-sensitive display.

15. The electronic device of claim 10, which is smart phone or tablet.

16. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the first operation comprises a first scrolling operation to scroll through a plurality of elements displayed on the touch-sensitive display based on a trajectory of the hovering object over the touch-sensitive display, and the second operation comprises a second scrolling operation to scroll through a plurality of sub-elements corresponding to one of the plurality of elements displayed on the touch-sensitive display based on the trajectory of the hovering object over the touch-sensitive display.

17. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein second operation comprises a blocking operation to ignore the movement of the hovering object while the contact object is detected.

18. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the first operation comprises a movement operation or a spatial transformation operation with a first sensitivity parameter or a first direction parameter and the second operation comprises the movement operation or the spatial transformation operation with a second sensitivity parameter different from the first sensitivity parameter or with a second direction parameter different from the first direction parameter.

19. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the first operation comprises a zoom operation of an element of the user interface displayed on the touch-sensitive display of the electronic device, and the second operation comprises a movement operation of the element of the user interface displayed on the touch-sensitive display of the electronic device.

20. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the device electronics are further configured for:

detecting a contact object on the touch-sensitive display;

wherein the first operation comprises

a spatial transformation around a location of the contact object detected on the touch-sensitive display, wherein the spatial transformation depends on the lateral movement of the hovering object; and

wherein the spatial transformation comprises at least one transformation among scaling, rotation and deformation.