Peekable User Interface On a Portable Electronic Device

• US 20130222323A1
• Filed: 02/24/2012
• Published: 08/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: MCKENZIE, Donald Somerset
• Granted Patent: US 9,778,706 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/174
• 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 1/3215 Monitoring of peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3265 Power saving in display device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1633 Protecting arrangement for the entire housing of the computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• 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 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/04 Supports for telephone transmitters or receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

A method and portable electronic device are provided that presents a user interface based upon detected input, such as a touch contact with a touch-sensitive display of the portable electronic device, from displacement of a covering apparatus to uncover a portion of the display while the display is in a low power condition such as a sleep state. The information in the user interface that is displayed is determined at least in part by the extent of the displacement of the covering apparatus. The user of the device can peek at the user interface of the device and not have to completely uncover or remove the device from the covering apparatus to view particular types of information.

Claims

1. A method of displaying a user interface on a portable electronic device, the method comprising:

detecting an input corresponding to displacement of a covering apparatus, the displacement uncovering a portion of a display of the portable electronic device, the display being in a low power condition; and

illuminating at least the uncovered portion of the display and displaying the user interface, the user interface presenting information that is determined at least in part by the extent of the displacement.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the display is a touch-sensitive display and the input is a touch contact on the display.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the touch contact comprises part of a gesture wherein a type of information in the user interface is presented in response to the gesture.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein when the touch contact is a single contact a first information type in the user interface is presented on the touch-sensitive display and when the contact is a two point contact a second information type in the user interface is presented on the touch-sensitive display.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the uncovered portion of the touch-sensitive display area is defined by starting and stopping touch contacts defined as part of a gesture, where the touch contact at a start of the gesture defining two corners of the quadrilateral display area and the touch contacts at an end of the gesture define the bottom two corners of the quadrilateral display area.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the touch contact is a meta-navigation gesture determined based upon a swipe from a touch-sensitive non-display area from an edge of the display towards a center of the touch-sensitive display wherein the swipe is held at an end contact point.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the input comprises detecting movement of the covering apparatus relative to the display.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising identifying a type of covering apparatus wherein expected characteristics of the input and associated user interface information are defined in relation to the type of covering apparatus.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein detecting the input further comprises detecting one or more positions of input relative to the display wherein the information presented by the user interface is based upon a determined amount of display area defined by the uncovered portion of the display defined by the one or more positions of the input relative to an edge of the touch-sensitive display and the type of covering apparatus.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising sensing the covering apparatus over the touch-sensitive display by one or more sensors of the portable electronic device and the type of covering apparatus is determined by one or more methods selected from a group comprising:

a selection by a predefined covering apparatus type previously selected, receiving one or more sensor inputs to determine the covering apparatus type, or receiving a radio frequency identifier associated with the covering apparatus to identify the covering apparatus type.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the input is provided by a capacitive element embedded in the covering apparatus which comes into contact with the touch-sensitive display as the electronic mobile device is displaced from the covering apparatus.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the information presented in the user interface is further determined in part based upon an application state on the portable electronic device prior to entering the power conservation state.

13. The method of claim 1 illuminating at least the uncovered portion of the display comprises only illuminating pixels required to show the information presented in the user interface.

14. A portable electronic device comprising:

a touch-sensitive display;

a processor coupled to the touch-sensitive display;

a memory coupled to the processor containing instructions which when executed by the processor perform;

detecting an input corresponding to displacement of a covering apparatus, the displacement uncovering a portion of the touch-sensitive display of the portable electronic device, the touch-sensitive display being in a low power condition; and

illuminating at least the uncovered portion of the touch-sensitive display and displaying the user interface, the user interface presenting information that is determined at least in part by the extent of the displacement.

15. The portable electronic device of claim 14 wherein the input is a touch contact on the display.

16. The portable electronic device of claim 15 the touch contact comprises part of a gesture wherein a type of information in the user interface is presented in response to the gesture.

17. The portable electronic device of claim 16 when the touch contact is a single contact a first information type in the user interface is presented on the touch-sensitive display and when the contact is a two point contact a second information type in the user interface is presented on the touch-sensitive display.

18. The portable electronic device of claim 17 wherein the uncovered portion touch-sensitive display area is defined by starting and stopping touch contacts defined as part of a gesture, where the touch contact at a start of the gesture defining two corners of the quadrilateral display area and the touch contacts at an end of the gesture define the bottom two corners of the quadrilateral display area.

19. The portable electronic device of claim 14 wherein the touch contact is a meta-navigation gesture determined based upon a swipe from a touch-sensitive non-display area from an edge of the display towards a center of the touch-sensitive display wherein the swipe is held at an end contact point.

20. The portable electronic device of claim 14 wherein the input comprises detecting movement of the covering apparatus relative to the display.

21. The portable electronic device of claim 20 further comprising identifying a type of covering apparatus wherein expected characteristics of the input and associated user interface information are defined in relation to the type of covering apparatus.

22. The portable electronic device of claim 21 wherein detecting the input further comprises detecting one or more positions of input relative to the display wherein the information presented by the user interface is based upon a determined amount of display area defined by the uncovered portion of the display defined by the one or more positions of the input relative to an edge of the touch-sensitive display and the type of covering apparatus.

23. The portable electronic device of claim 14 further comprising sensing the covering apparatus over the touch-sensitive display by one or more sensors of the portable electronic device and the type of covering apparatus is determined by one or more methods selected from a group comprising:

a selection by a predefined covering apparatus type previously selected, receiving one or more sensor inputs to determine the covering apparatus type, or receiving a radio frequency identifier associated with the covering apparatus to identify the covering apparatus type.

24. The portable electronic device of claim 14 wherein the input is provided by a capacitive element embedded in the covering apparatus which comes into contact with the touch-sensitive display as the electronic mobile device is displaced from the covering apparatus.

25. The portable electronic device of claim 14 wherein the information presented in the user interface is further determined in part based upon an application state on the portable electronic device prior to entering the power conservation state.

26. The portable electronic device of claim 14 illuminating at least the uncovered portion of the display comprises only illuminating pixels required to show the information presented in the user interface.

27. A computer readable memory containing instructions for presenting a user interface on a portable electronic device, the instructions which when executed by a processor performing the method comprising:

detecting an input corresponding to displacement of a covering apparatus, the displacement uncovering a portion of a display of the portable electronic device, the display being in a low power condition; and

illuminating at least the uncovered portion of the display and displaying the user interface, the user interface presenting information that is determined at least in part by the extent of the displacement.