ELECTRONIC DEVICE INCLUDING TOUCH SENSITIVE INPUT SURFACE AND METHOD OF DETERMINING USER-SELECTED INPUT

• US 20090237362A1
• Filed: 03/19/2008
• Published: 09/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: WU, Ken, LOWLES, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 9,448,721 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus

Abstract

A method of determining user-selections from at least one touch at a touch-sensitive input surface of an electronic device includes determining a first user-selection based on touch attributes, detecting changes in the touch attributes including a change in size and a change in the location, and determining a second user-selection based on a direction of the change in location.

Claims

1. A method of determining user-selections from at least one touch at a touch-sensitive input surface of an electronic device, the method comprising:

determining a first user-selection based on touch attributes;

detecting changes in the touch attributes including a change in the location; and

determining a second user-selection based on a direction of the change in location.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein detecting changes in the touch attributes comprises detecting changes in the size.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the touch-sensitive input surface comprises a touch screen display and determining the first user-selection comprises determining a first user-selected one of a plurality of user-selectable options in a graphical user interface displayed on the touch screen display.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein determining the second user-selection comprises determining a second user-selected one of the plurality of user-selectable options in the graphical user interface.

5. The method according to claim 4 wherein the second user-selected one is adjacent the first user-selected one.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining a first user-selection comprises determining a first one of buttons of a virtual keyboard on a touch screen display and determining a second user-selection comprises determining a second one of buttons of a virtual keyboard.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein determining the second one of buttons comprises determining a button adjacent the first one of buttons.

8. The method according to claim 1, comprising receiving a touch signal and determining touch attributes based on the touch signal prior to determining the first user-selection.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein detecting the change in touch attributes comprises detecting a changed touch signal.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein detecting the change in touch attributes comprises determining touch attributes based on the changed touch signal.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein detecting the change in touch attributes comprises determining an increase in size and a change in location.

12. An electronic device comprising:

a housing;

a display device exposed by the housing;

a touch-sensitive input device overlying the display device;

functional components in the housing comprising a memory device and a processor operably connected to the display device the touch-sensitive input device, and the memory device for executing a program stored in the memory to cause the electronic device to determine a first user-selection based on touch attributes, detect changes in the touch attributes including a change in location, and determine a second user-selection based on a direction of the change in location.

13. The portable electronic device according to claim 12, wherein the touch sensitive input device comprises a touch-sensitive overlay and a controller connected to the touch-sensitive overlay and the processor.

14. The portable electronic device according to claim 13, wherein the touch-sensitive input device comprises a capacitive touch-sensitive input device.

15. A computer-readable medium having computer-readable code embodied therein for execution by a processor for determining a first user-selection based on touch attributes, detecting changes in the touch attributes including a change in size and a change in the location, and determining a second user-selection based on a direction of the change in location.