ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH TOUCHPAD DISPLAY

• US 20180120985A1
• Filed: 10/31/2016
• Published: 05/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Wallace, Brian William, Truong, Cuong Huy
• Granted Patent: US 11,221,749 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1616 with folding flat displays, e.g. laptop computers or notebooks having a clamshell configuration, with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position
• 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 1/1692 the I/O peripheral being a secondary touch screen used as control interface, e.g. virtual buttons or sliders
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• 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

An electronic device, method and computer program product are provided. The electronic device comprises a memory to store program instructions, one or more processors to execute the program instructions, and a main body unit. The main body unit has a housing comprising a top side. The main body unit further includes a keyboard and a touchpad disposed along the top side of the housing. The keyboard and the touchpad are located in discrete areas. The touchpad includes a touch sensor and a touchpad display covering at least a portion of the touch sensor. The one or more processors display a graphical user interface (GUI) on the touchpad display.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a memory to store program instructions;

one or more processors to execute the program instructions; and

a main body unit having a housing comprising a top side, the main body unit further including a keyboard and a touchpad disposed along the top side of the housing, the keyboard and the touchpad located in discrete areas of the top side;

the touchpad including a touch sensor and a touchpad display covering at least a portion of the touch sensor, wherein the one or more processors display a graphical user interface (GUI) having one or more virtual buttons on the touchpad display, the one or more processors to execute the program instructions based on a user touch input on the touchpad at the respective one or more virtual buttons.

3. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the touchpad display comprises an electronic paper screen.

4. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising a primary display moveably coupled to the main body unit.

5. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the GUI is a notification GUI that displays a visual message notification.

6. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein, responsive to the one or more processors executing the program instructions, the one or more processors display, as the GUI, a virtual number pad on the touchpad display.

7. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein, responsive to the one or more processors executing the program instructions, the one or more processors display, as the GUI, a virtual dial pad on the touchpad display.

8. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein, responsive to the one or more processors executing the program instructions, the one or more processors display, as the GUI, a virtual calendar on the touchpad display.

9. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein, responsive to the one or more processors executing the program instructions, the one or more processors display, as the GUI, virtual media control buttons on the touchpad display.

11. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the virtual buttons of the GUI include configurable hotkeys.

21. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the user touch input on the touchpad at a respective virtual button of the one or more virtual buttons is at a location of the touchpad that overlaps a location that the respective virtual button is displayed on the touchpad display.

22. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising a primary display movably coupled to the housing of the main body unit, the primary display having one or more of a light emitting diode (LED), organic light emitting diode (OLED), liquid crystal display (LCD, or plasma screen, the touchpad display having an electronic paper screen that is monochromatic.

23. The electronic device of claim 22, wherein the GUI displayed by the one or more processors on the touchpad display is monochromatic and is associated with an active program, wherein the one or more processors are configured to display a polychromatic virtual representation of the active program on the primary display, wherein, responsive to receiving the user touch input on the touchpad selecting at least one of the one or more virtual buttons of the GUI, the one or more processors are configured to update the polychromatic visual representation of the active program that is displayed on the primary display.

2. (canceled)

10. (canceled)

12. A method comprising:

providing an electronic device comprising main body unit including a keyboard and a touchpad on a top side of the main body unit, the keyboard and the touchpad located in discrete areas of the top side, the touchpad including a touch sensor and a touchpad display covering at least a portion of the touch sensor; and

providing one or more processors that display a graphical user interface (GUI) on the touchpad display, the GUI on the touchpad display having one or more virtual buttons selectable via a user touch input on the touchpad, the one or more processors to execute program instructions based on the user touch input on the touchpad at the respective one or more virtual buttons.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising, responsive to receiving the user touch input on the touchpad while the GUI is displayed on the touchpad display, modifying the GUI on the touchpad display based on the user touch input.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the GUI displayed on the touchpad display is associated with an active program, and the method further comprises, responsive to receiving the user touch input on one of the one or more virtual buttons, executing program instructions of the active program based on the virtual button that is selected.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising, responsive to receiving the user touch input on the touchpad while the GUI is displayed on the touchpad display, updating a visual representation of an active program displayed on a primary display of the electronic device, the primary display movably coupled to the main body unit.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein providing the electronic device comprises constructing the touchpad display to include an electronic paper screen.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the GUI is a notification GUI that includes a visual message notification, the notification GUI being displayed on the touchpad display responsive to receiving data representative of the visual message notification.

18. (canceled)

19. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable code to:

display a graphical user interface (GUI) on a touchpad display of a touchpad of an electronic device, the GUI having one or more virtual buttons selectable via a user touch input on the touchpad, the GUI being specific to a corresponding program; and

responsive to receiving a user touch input on the touchpad at the one or more virtual buttons of the GUI, update a visual representation of the corresponding program displayed on a primary display of the electronic device.

20. The program product of claim 19, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium further comprises executable code to display, as the GUI, at least one of a visual message notification, a virtual number pad, a virtual dial pad, a virtual calendar, virtual media control buttons, or virtual configurable hotkeys on the touchpad display.