INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF

• US 20090289911A1
• Filed: 04/30/2009
• Published: 11/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Nagai, Hiroyuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,917,245 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• 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 2203/04808 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 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

An information processing apparatus that has a touch panel that is able to detect a plurality of touch input positions concurrently extracts a combination consisting of a predetermined number of touch input positions from a plurality of touch input positions that concurrently exist on the touch panel, and based on a positional relationship of the touch input positions constituting the combination that is extracted, determines whether or not the combination is an area designation operation of a single user. When it is determined that the combination is an area designation operation, the information processing apparatus specifies a designated area based on touch input positions of the combination, and acquires a selected object based on a relationship between the specified area and a display position of the object.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus, comprising:

a touch panel that is able to detect a plurality of touch input positions concurrently;

an extraction unit configured to extract a combination consisting of a predetermined number of touch input positions from a plurality of touch input positions that concurrently exist on said touch panel;

a determination unit configured to determine whether or not a combination that is extracted by said extraction unit is an area designation operation of a single user based on a positional relationship among touch input positions comprising the combination; and

a decision unit configured to decide a designated area based on touch input positions of the combination in a case in which it is determined that the combination is the area designation operation.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an acquisition unit that acquires a selected object based on a relationship between an area decided by said decision unit and a display position of an object.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said determination unit uses a condition that times at which input of the respective touch input positions comprising the combination start must be within a predetermined time range as a condition for making the determination.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said determination unit specifies a circle based on the touch input positions comprising the combination, and uses a condition that the circle must be less than or equal to a predetermined size as a condition for making the determination.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said determination unit uses a condition that all touch input positions comprising the combination can specify a circle for which a distance from a circumference of the circle is within a predetermined range as a condition for making the determination.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein in a case in which a circumference of the circle is divided based on the touch input positions, said determination unit uses a condition that central angles of all arcs produced by the dividing must be less than or equal to a predetermined size as a condition for making the determination.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said determination unit uses a condition that a history until a current time point of touch input positions comprising the combination must not deviate even once from a condition for determining that a positional relationship of the touch input positions is an area designation operation of a single user, as a condition for making the determination.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a detection unit configured to detect a size of a hand of a user through said touch panel;

wherein said determination unit uses a condition that a size of a circle that is set based on touch input positions comprising the combination must not exceed a size that is decided based on a size of a hand that is detected by said detection unit as a condition for making the determination.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a holding unit configured to cause a user to perform an area designation operation through said touch panel, and hold a relative positional relationship of touch input positions at that time;

wherein said determination unit uses a similarity between a relative positional relationship of touch input positions comprising the combination and a relative positional relationship that is held by said holding unit as a condition for making the determination.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said extraction unit extracts a number of touch input positions that is at least any number between three and five from the multiple touch inputs as the combination.

11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said extraction unit detects a position of a hand of a user by means of a sensor that is different from said touch panel, and extracts the combination based on a position of a hand that is detected.

12. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a change unit that, in a case in which said determination unit determines that the combination is an area designation operation, is configured to perform enlargement or reduction of a region in accordance with a gesture that enlarges or reduces a region that is decided by touch input positions comprising the combination at a time of the relevant determination.

13. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a registration unit configured to register a number of users;

wherein said extraction unit extracts a predetermined number of touch input positions that exist inside a predetermined area as the combination, and a number of combinations to be extracted is less than or equal to twice a number of users registered in the registration unit.

14. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an operation unit that parallelly shifts, rotates, enlarges, or reduces an object acquired by said acquisition unit, by parallelly shifting, rotating, enlarging, or reducing touch input positions comprising the combination.

15. A control method of an information processing apparatus equipped with a touch panel that is able to detect a plurality of touch input positions concurrently, said control method comprising:

extracting a combination consisting of a predetermined number of touch input positions from a plurality of touch input positions that concurrently exist on said touch panel;

determining whether or not a combination that is extracted in said extraction step is an area designation operation of a single user based on a positional relationship of touch input positions comprising the combination; and

deciding a designated area based on touch input positions of the combination in a case in which it is determined that the combination is the area designation operation.

16. A computer readable storage medium that stores a program that causes a computer to execute a control method for an information processing apparatus equipped with a touch panel that is able to detect a plurality of touch input positions concurrently, wherein said program causes the computer to execute a control method comprising:

extracting a combination consisting of a predetermined number of touch input positions from a plurality of touch input positions that concurrently exist on said touch panel;

determining whether or not a combination that is extracted in said extraction step is an area designation operation of a single user based on a positional relationship of touch input positions comprising the combination; and

deciding a designated area based on touch input positions of the combination in a case in which it is determined that the combination is the area designation operation.