ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH BEZEL FEATURE FOR RECEIVING INPUT

• US 20060232553A1
• Filed: 06/24/2006
• Published: 10/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Gettemy, Shawn R., Wong, Yoon Kean, Hanson, William Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,212,781 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• 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 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0362 with detection of 1D translations or rotations of an operating part of the device, e.g. scroll wheels, sliders, knobs, rollers or belts
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials

Abstract

An electronic device includes a bezel feature, a connector and a processor. The bezel feature is rotatable amongst a plurality of positions on an arc length that defines a path of motion for the bezel feature. The plurality of positions are distributed along the entire arc length of the path of motion. An interface or connector couples the bezel feature to the processor of the electronic device.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

a housing that contains one or more components of the electronic device;

a display assembly including a screen provided on a front panel of the housing, wherein the display assembly is contact-sensitive;

a processor configured to;

display a bezel feature on the display assembly, the displayed bezel feature including a circumferential track;

detect a continuous contact with the display assembly resulting in a pointer of the bezel feature being moved from a starting point on the track to a finishing point on the track;

determine an input based on the continuous contact, wherein the input is based on a position of at least one of the starting point and the finishing point; and

perform an operation based on the input.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to display the bezel feature on a perimeter of the screen of the display assembly.

3. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein in response to the continuous contact, the processor is configured to present one or more items on the screen of the display assembly for selection.

4. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein in response to the continuous contact, the processor is configured to perform one or more operations, the one or more operations being selected based on the continuous contact being interpreted as a radial change in position of a graphic feature on the track.

5. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to perform one or more operations based on one or more of a duration of the continuous contact.