Portable electronic device with content-dependent touch sensitivity

• US 7,956,846 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2007
• Issued: 06/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Herz, Scott, Chaudhri, Imran, Christie, Greg, Ording, Bas, Lemay, Stephen O., Forstall, Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Hjerpe; Richard
• Assistant Examiner(s): Okebato; Sahlu
• Application Number:
  US11/620,027
• Publication Number:
  US 20080216001A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,615 Days
• Field of Search: 345173-178, 178 1801- 1809, 704 1- 10, 715/763
• 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 3/044 by capacitive means
• 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

A portable electronic device, having a touch-sensitive display, displays a plurality of icons on the touch-sensitive display. A contact region when a user makes contact with the touch-sensitive display is detected. Whether the contact region corresponds to one of the plurality of icons is determined in accordance with an electrostatic model.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

at a portable electronic device with a touch-sensitive display;

displaying a plurality of icons on the touch-sensitive display, wherein a respective icon in the plurality of icons is assigned a respective charge, including a respective magnitude, in an electrostatic model in software;

detecting a contact region when a user makes contact with the touch-sensitive display;

determining that the contact region corresponds to one of the plurality of icons in accordance with the software-based electrostatic model; and

activating a function corresponding to the one of the plurality of icons.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the respective charge in the software-based electrostatic model gives rise to a field having a field magnitude proportional to Q/Δ

ⁿ, wherein Δ

r is a relative distance from the respective icon in a plane of the touch-sensitive display, wherein Q corresponds to the respective charge and wherein n is between approximately 1 and approximately 2.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the field in the software-based electrostatic model is truncated at a respective boundary surface corresponding to the respective icon.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining, in the software-based electrostatic model, a total field at a contact position by linear superposition of fields corresponding to respective charges for one or more of the plurality of icons.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining, in the software-based electrostatic model, whether a function corresponding to the respective icon is activated, at least in part, in accordance with when a user makes and breaks contact with the touch-sensitive display.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining, in the software-based electrostatic model, whether a function corresponding to the respective icon is activated, at least in part, in accordance with a direction of the total field.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the respective charge in the software-based electrostatic model for the respective icon is determined in accordance with a context for the function corresponding to the respective icon.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the determining is in accordance with a data structure, and wherein the data structure is based on a stochastic model of relationships among letters in a language, and wherein the stochastic model includes relative frequencies of occurrence of groups of letters.

9. A portable electronic device, comprising:

a touch-sensitive display;

one or more processors;

memory; and

one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including;

instructions for displaying a plurality of icons on the touch-sensitive display, wherein a respective icon in the plurality of icons is assigned a respective charge, including a respective magnitude, in an electrostatic model in software;

instructions for detecting a contact region when a user makes contact with the touch-sensitive display;

instructions for determining that the contact region corresponds to one of the plurality of icons in accordance with the software-based electrostatic model; and

instructions for activating a function corresponding to the one of the plurality of icons.

11. The portable electronic device of claim 9, wherein the respective charge in the software-based electrostatic model gives rise to a field having a field magnitude proportional to Q/Δ

rⁿ, wherein Δ

r is a relative distance from the respective icon in a plane of the touch-sensitive display, wherein Q corresponds to the respective charge and wherein n is between approximately 1 and approximately 2.

12. The portable electronic device of claim 11, wherein the field in the software-based electrostatic model is truncated at a respective boundary surface corresponding to the respective icon.

13. The portable electronic device of claim 9, wherein the one or more programs further include instructions for determining, in the software-based electrostatic model, a total field at a contact position by linear superposition of fields corresponding to respective charges for one or more of the plurality of icons.

14. The portable electronic device of claim 13, wherein the one or more programs further include instructions for determining, in the software-based electrostatic model, whether a function corresponding to the respective icon is activated, at least in part, in accordance with when a user makes and breaks contact with the touch-sensitive display.

15. The portable electronic device of claim 13, wherein the one or more programs further include instructions for determining, in the software-based electrostatic model, whether a function corresponding to the respective icon is activated, at least in part, in accordance with a direction of the total field.

16. The portable electronic device of claim 9, wherein the respective charge in the software-based electrostatic model for the respective icon is determined in accordance with a context for the function corresponding to the respective icon.

17. The portable electronic device of claim 16, wherein the determining is in accordance with a data structure, and wherein the data structure is based on a stochastic model of relationships among letters in a language, and wherein the stochastic model includes relative frequencies of occurrence of groups of letters.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by a portable electronic device with a touch-sensitive display, cause the device to:

display a plurality of icons on the touch-sensitive display means, wherein a respective icon in the plurality of icons is assigned a respective charge, including a respective magnitude, in an electrostatic model in software;

detect a contact region when a user makes contact with the touch-sensitive display means;

determine that the contact region corresponds to one of the plurality of icons in accordance with the software-based electrostatic model; and

activate a function corresponding to the one of the plurality of icons.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the respective charge in the software-based electrostatic model gives rise to a field having a field magnitude proportional to Q/Δ

rⁿ, wherein Δ

r is a relative distance from the respective icon in a plane of the touch-sensitive display, wherein Q corresponds to the respective charge and wherein n is between approximately 1 and approximately 2.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the field in the software-based electrostatic model is truncated at a respective boundary surface corresponding to the respective icon.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the or more programs further comprise instructions which when executed by the portable electronic device, cause the device to determine, in the software-based electrostatic model, a total field at a contact position by linear superposition of fields corresponding to respective charges for one or more of the plurality of icons.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the or more programs further comprise instructions which when executed by the portable electronic device, cause the device to determine, in the software-based electrostatic model, whether a function corresponding to the respective icon is activated, at least in part, in accordance with when a user makes and breaks contact with the touch-sensitive display.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the or more programs further comprise instructions which when executed by the portable electronic device, cause the device to determine, in the software-based electrostatic model, whether a function corresponding to the respective icon is activated, at least in part, in accordance with a direction of the total field.

23. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the respective charge in the software-based electrostatic model for the respective icon is determined in accordance with a context for the function corresponding to the respective icon.

24. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the determining is in accordance with a data structure, and wherein the data structure is based on a stochastic model of relationships among letters in a language, and wherein the stochastic model includes relative frequencies of occurrence of groups of letters.