Track pad pointing device with areas of specialized function

• US 6,757,002 B1
• Filed: 11/04/1999
• Issued: 06/29/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Oross, Glen A, Helot, Jacques H
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Ba
• Application Number:
  US09/434,844
• Time in Patent Office: 1,699 Days
• Field of Search: 345/856, 345/859, 345/860, 345/861, 345/862, 345/863, 345/864, 345/865, 345/157, 345/159, 345/160, 345/173, 345/174
• US Class Current: 715/864
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• 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

Prescribed areas of a track pad surface are dedicated to one or more prescribed or programmable pointing, clicking, scrolling or hot-key functions. These specialized touch sensing areas are adjacent to a main touch sensing area, and include a tactile cue such as a textured border or textured surface. A visual indication such as a label also may be used to identify the specialized function. A visual cue, such as a light, also may be generated when the user'"'"'s finger is in a specialized touch sensing area. One specialized touch sensing area is dedicated to correspond to a window scrolling function adding convenience for scrolling web pages, word processing documents, tables and other content windows displayed on a computer screen. An on-off button is included to activate or deactivate the track pad operations.

Claims

1. A system for generating commands in a computing apparatus having a display screen, the system comprising:

a main touch area capable of sensing position where said main touch sensing area is capable of generating commands indicative of position,

at least one specialized touch area capable of sensing position and activating at least one computing function that is different from the computing function activated by said main touch area;

an on/off switch, wherein only the capability of said at least one specialized touch area for activating said at least one computing function is activated and deactivated with said on/off switch; and

an indicator capable of identifying the on/off status of said generation of commands indicative of position.

2. A computing apparatus, comprising a display screen and a user input apparatus, the user input apparatus comprising:

a main touch area capable of sensing position wherein said main touch sensing area is capable of generating commands indicative of position, wherein the display screen and main touch area have non-overlapping locations;

at least one specialized touch area capable of sensing position and activating at least one computing function that is different from the computing function activated by said main touch area;

an on/off switch, wherein only the capability of said at least one specialized touch area for activating said at least one computing function is activated and deactivated with said on/off switch; and

an indicator capable of identifying the on/off status of the user input device command generation.

3. The computing apparatus of claim 2, wherein the display screen displays a cursor, wherein the user input device commands determine a placement position of the cursor on the display screen, and wherein said cursor position and a corresponding sensed position are separate.

4. A system for generating commands in a computing apparatus having a display screen located in a non-overlapping manner relative to the command generating system, the system comprising:

a main touch area capable of sensing position and activating at least one computing function;

at least one specialized touch area capable of sensing position and activating at least one computing function that is different from the computing function activated by said main touch area wherein said specialized touch area is located adjacent to said main touch area;

an on/off switch, wherein only the capability of said at least one specialized touch area for activating said at least one computing function is activated and deactivated with said on/off switch; and

an indicator separate and apart from the position of said on/off switch capable of identifying the on/off status of the capability of said at least one specialized touch area for activating said at least one computing function.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said at least one computing function activated by said at least one specialized touch area is a dedicated function.

6. The system of claim 4, in which said main touch area and said at least one specialized touch area have different textures.

7. The system of claim 4, in which said main touch area and said at least one specialized touch area are separated by a border having a different texture than said main touch area and said at least one specialized touch area.

8. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

an indicator that said at least one specialized touch area has sensed position.

9. The system of claim 8, in which the indicator is a visual indicator.

10. The system of claim 9, in which the visual indicator is on the display screen.

11. The system of claim 8, in which the indicator is an audio indicator.

12. The system of claim 8, in which the indicator is a tactile indicator.

13. The system of claim 5, in which said at least one specialized touch area has a visual indication of said dedicated function.

14. The system of claim 13, in which said visual indication is removable.

15. The system of claim 5, in which the dedicated function is programmable.

16. The system of claim 4, in which said at least one computing function that is different from the computing function activated by said main touch area corresponds to a window scrolling function on the display screen.

17. The system of claim 5, in which the dedicated function is selected from a group of common commands consisting of cut, paste, open, quit, exit, close window, print, save, help, start browser, check e-mail, go to web search engine, go to web home page, go to prior web page, and go to forward web page.