USER INPUT METHOD AND APPARATUS IN ELECTRONIC DEVICE

• US 20150220205A1
• Filed: 01/30/2015
• Published: 08/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: YUN, Yongsang
• Granted Patent: US 10,055,119 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A user input method in an electronic device and the electronic device are provided. The user input method in an electronic device includes receiving, from a user input module configured to receive a touch input and having an inner region and a peripheral region defined as a specific area with a predetermined width, an input from the inner region to the peripheral region, detecting a moving path of the received input, and performing an operation mapped to the detected moving path.

Claims

1. A user input method in an electronic device, the method comprising:

receiving, from a user input module configured to receive a touch input and having an inner region and a peripheral region defined as a specific area with a predetermined width, an input from the inner region to the peripheral region;

detecting a moving path of the received input; and

performing an operation mapped to the detected moving path.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the operation on a display module when the mapped operation is performed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the input from the inner region to the peripheral region includes at least one of a hovering input of an electronic pen, a drag input with a pressed button of the electronic device, a hovering input of the electronic pen with the pressed button, and a hovering input of a part of a user'"'"'s body.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the operation mapped to the detected moving path is defined depending on a program or an application currently executing in the electronic device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

outputting a notification by means of at least one of a visual effect, sound, perfume, and vibration when the mapped operation is performed.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

ignoring the input when there is no operation mapped to the detected moving path.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying an absence of mapped operation on a display module when there is no operation mapped to the detected moving path.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

displaying a message for querying whether to map an operation on the display module together with or after displaying the absence of mapped operation;

displaying a list of available operations retrieved from a memory when a mapping is requested via the user input module; and

when a user selects one of the available operations, mapping the selected operation with the input.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein, when the electronic device is in a document input mode for displaying an enlarged portion of a document, the operation mapped to the detected moving path is at least one of a movement, reduction, or additional enlargement of the enlarged portion.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when the peripheral region is divided into two or more regions corresponding to activation regions of a program or application which is currently executing in the electronic device, identifying one activation region corresponding to the divided region of the peripheral region from which the moving path is detected, and performing an operation mapped to the identified activation region.

11. An electronic device for operating in response to a user input, the electronic device comprising:

a user input module configured to receive a touch input and having an inner region and a peripheral region defined as a specific area with a predetermined width;

a memory configured to store therein a mapping relation between inputs from the user input module and operations to be performed in the electronic device; and

a processor configured to receive an input from the inner region to the peripheral region, to detect a moving path of the received input, and to perform an operation mapped to the detected moving path.

12. The electronic device of claim 11, further comprising:

a display module configured to display thereon the operation when the mapped operation is performed.

13. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the input from the inner region to the peripheral region includes at least one of a hovering input of an electronic pen, a drag input with a pressed button of the electronic device, a hovering input of the electronic pen with the pressed button, and a hovering input of a part of a user'"'"'s body.

14. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the operation mapped to the detected moving path is defined depending on a program or an application currently executing in the electronic device.

15. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to output a notification by means of at least one of a visual effect, sound, perfume, and vibration when the mapped operation is performed.

16. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to ignore the input when there is no operation mapped to the detected moving path.

17. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to control the display module to display an absence of mapped operation when there is no operation mapped to the detected moving path.

18. The electronic device of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to control the display module to display a message for querying whether to map an operation together with or after displaying the absence of mapped operation, to control the display module to display a list of available operations retrieved from a memory when a mapping is requested via the user input module, and when a user selects one of the available operations, to map the selected operation with the input.

19. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein when the electronic device is in a document input mode for displaying an enlarged portion of a document, the operation mapped to the detected moving path is at least one of a movement, reduction, or additional enlargement of the enlarged portion.

20. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the peripheral region is divided into two or more regions corresponding to activation regions of a program or application which is currently executing in the electronic device, and wherein the processor is further configured to identify one activation region corresponding to the divided region of the peripheral region from which the moving path is detected, and to perform an operation mapped to the identified activation region.