Input apparatus suitable for portable electronic device

• US 5,973,676 A
• Filed: 01/30/1996
• Issued: 10/26/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Kawakura, Yasushi
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu, Matthew
• Application Number:
  US08/594,376
• Time in Patent Office: 1,365 Days
• Field of Search: 345/156, 345/173, 345/174, 345/178, 345/179
• US Class Current: 345/173
• 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 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

An input apparatus for a portable electronic device capable of detecting the unintentional erroneous input operations and separating the intended correct input operations effectively. The apparatus includes an input unit for allowing a user to enter inputs by a prescribed input operation, an input movement monitoring unit for monitoring a movement of the user at a time of the input operation and a processing unit for processing the inputs entered at the input unit according to the input operation made by the user at the input unit and the movement of the user monitored by the input movement monitoring unit. The apparatus can be adapted to a pen input type electronic device, a slide control type electronic device, and a button control type electronic device. The movement monitored by the input movement monitoring unit can also be utilized as a control command for controlling the operation of the electronic device.

Claims

1. An input apparatus for entering inputs into a portable electronic device, comprising:

input means for allowing a user to enter inputs by a prescribed input operation;

input movement monitoring means for monitoring a movement of the user at a time of the input operation; and

processing means for processing the inputs entered into the portable electronic device by the user using the input means at a time of the input operation, according to the input operation made by the user at the input means and the movement of the user monitored by the input movement monitoring means, to obtain processed input data appropriate for the portable electronic device.

2. The input apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing means processes the inputs entered at the input means according to a correlation between the input operation made by the user at the input means and the movement of the user monitored by the input movement monitoring means.

3. The input apparatus of claim 1, wherein the input movement monitoring means monitors the movement of the user related to the input operation.

4. The input apparatus of claim 1, wherein the input means includes a pen to be held by a hand of the user and a screen on which the user can enter handwriting inputs by using the pen, and the input movement monitoring means is located in a vicinity of the screen so as to monitor the movement of the hand of the user holding the pen which is put on the screen.

5. The input apparatus of claim 4, wherein the processing means cancels the inputs entered at the input means while the input movement monitoring means is detecting the movement of the hand of the user during the input operation.

6. The input apparatus of claim 4, wherein the processing means cancels the inputs entered at the input means while the input movement monitoring means is detecting the movement of the hand of the user during the input operation in a direction substantially identical to a direction of a movement of a pen point of the pen held by the hand of the user.

7. The input apparatus of claim 4, wherein the input movement monitoring means comprises an array of pressure sensors provided in superposition to the screen, which detect positions of the pen and the hand holding the pen on the screen.

8. The input apparatus of claim 7, wherein the array of pressure sensors detect the position of the pen as an isolated pressure point, and the position of the hand holding the pen as a distribution of mutually neighboring pressure points.

9. The input apparatus of claim 7, wherein each pressure sensor constituting the array of pressure sensors is a two-value pressure sensor for detecting presence/absence of a pressure exerted thereon.

10. The input apparatus of claim 7, wherein each pressure sensor constituting the array of pressure sensors is a multi-value pressure sensor for detecting a multi-valued pressure level of a pressure exerted thereon.

11. The input apparatus of claim 7, wherein the input movement monitoring means further comprises an array of temperature sensors provided in superposition to the screen and the array of pressure sensors, which detect a body temperature of the hand holding the pen on the screen so as to distinguish the hand and the pen.

12. The input apparatus of claim 4, wherein the input movement monitoring means also monitors the movement of a position of the hand of the user at a period between the input operations for successive strokes of the pen, and the processing means processes the successive strokes entered at the input means as different characters when the input movement monitoring means detects the movement of the position of the hand of the user at the period between the input operations for the successive strokes of the pen, and processes the successive strokes entered at the input means as parts of a single character when the input movement monitoring means fails to detect the movement of the position of the hand of the user at the period between the input operations for the successive strokes of the pen.

13. The input apparatus of claim 4, wherein the input movement monitoring means also monitors a displacement of a position of the hand of the user during the input operation for each stroke of the pen, and the processing means processes said each stroke by subtracting the displacement detected by the input movement monitoring means from said each stroke entered at the input means.

14. The input apparatus of claim 1, wherein the input means includes a slide control formed by a slider knob to be slid along a prescribed sliding groove by a hand of the user, and the input movement monitoring means monitors the movement of the hand of the user sliding the slider knob.

15. The input apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processing means cancels the inputs entered at the input means while the input movement monitoring means is detecting any one of the movement of the hand of the user beyond a movable range of the slider knob and the movement of the hand of the user in a direction in which the slider knob is not movable.

16. The input apparatus of claim 14, wherein the input movement monitoring means is provided around the sliding groove and the processing means cancels the inputs entered at the input means while the input movement monitoring means is detecting a touching of the input movement monitoring means by the hand of the user during the input operation.

17. The input apparatus of claim 1, wherein the input means includes a button control formed by a plurality of control buttons to be pressed by a hand of the user for entering button control inputs and a screen on which the user can enter handwriting inputs, the input movement monitoring means is provided around the control buttons, and the processing means cancels the button control inputs entered at the control buttons while the input movement monitoring means is detecting a touching of the input movement monitoring means by the hand of the user during the input operation of the handwriting inputs on the screen.

18. The input apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing means controls an operation of the electronic device according to the movement of the user detected by the input movement monitoring means which is in a prescribed form indicating a control command.

19. The input apparatus of claim 1, wherein the input means and the input movement monitoring means are commonly provided and include a pen to be held by a hand of the user and a screen on which the user can enter handwriting inputs by using the pen, which is equipped with an array of pressure sensors provided for detecting positions of the pen and the hand holding the pen on the screen.

20. A method for entering inputs into a portable electronic device, comprising the steps of:

allowing a user to enter inputs by a prescribed input operation;

monitoring a movement of the user at a time for the input operation; and

processing the inputs entered into the portable electronic device by the user at a time of the input operation at the allowing step, according to the input operation made by the user at the allowing step and the movement of the user monitored by at the monitoring step, to obtain processed input data appropriate for the portable electronic device.

21. A portable electronic device, comprising:

data input means for entering data into the portable electronic device, including;

input means for allowing a user to enter inputs by a prescribed input operation;

input movement monitoring means for monitoring a movement of the user at a time of the input operation; and

processing means for processing the inputs entered into the portable electronic device by the user using the input means at a time of the input operations according to the input operation made by the user at the input means and the movement of the user monitored by the input movement monitoring means, to obtain processed input data appropriate for the portable electronic device; and

data processing means for processing the appropriately processed input data entered from the data input means.