Dampening thumb movement on a touch-sensitive input device

• US 9,116,583 B1
• Filed: 04/13/2012
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: De Los Reyes, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Bost, Dwayne
• Assistant Examiner(s): Michaud, Robert
• Application Number:
  US13/447,119
• Publication Number:
  US 20150253872A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,229 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04101 2.5D-digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface and also measures the distance of the input means within a short range in the Z direction, possibly with a separate measurement setup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04106 Multi-sensing digitiser, i.e. digitiser using at least two different sensing technologies simultaneously or alternatively, e.g. for detecting pen and finger, for saving power or for improving position detection
• 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 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/033 Pointing devices displaced or positioned by the user , e.g. mice, trackballs, pens or joysticks; Accessories therefor digitisers characterised by the transducing means G06F3/041
• 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 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing 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

In one aspect of the present disclosure, a system for dampening movement of a thumb on the surface of a touch-sensitive input device is provided. A dampening region may be defined on the surface of the input device, within which movement of a finger detected on the surface of the input device is prohibit from causing movement of a pointer on a screen unless the speed of the detected finger exceeds a speed threshold. In one aspect, the dampening region may be divided into multiple regions where each region may have a different speed threshold. In another aspect, the speed threshold may vary, for example, as a function of location on the surface of the input device or other function.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of dampening thumb movement on a touch-sensitive input device, comprising:

detecting one or more movements on the touch-sensitive input device at a given time;

identifying whether each of the one or more movements is a thumb movement, wherein;

the identifying is based on at least one of a number, a location, and a speed of the one or more movements,

in a case where the movement is located in dampened region of the touch sensitive input device, the movement is identified as a thumb movement unless the speed of the movement exceeds a speed threshold, and

the dampened region comprises multiple regions of the touch-sensitive input device and each of the multiple regions has a different speed threshold from each other; and

prohibiting control of a pointer by each of the movements identified as a thumb movement.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein in a case where the number of the one or more movements is two, an uppermost of the movements is not identified as a thumb movement.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the uppermost of the movements is closest to a keyboard located above the touch-sensitive input device.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the speed threshold varies as a function of one or two dimensions across the touch-sensitive input device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein in a case where the number of the one or more movements on the touch-sensitive input device changes, each of the movements is identified as a thumb movement.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining pressures of the one or more movements on the touch-sensitive input device;

wherein, in a case where the number of the one or more movements is more than one, a movement with a pressure that is higher than a pressure of another movement by more than a predetermined threshold is identified as a thumb movement.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising prohibiting control of the pointer for a period of time after a number of the movements detected on the touch-sensitive input device changes.

8. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising machine-readable instructions for causing a processor to execute a method of dampening thumb movement on a touch-sensitive input device, the method comprising:

detecting one or more movements on the touch-sensitive input device at a given time;

identifying whether each of the one or more movements is a thumb movement, wherein;

the identifying is based on at least two of a number, a location, and a speed of the one or more movements,

in a case where the movement is located in dampened region of the touch sensitive input device, the movement is identified as a thumb movement unless the speed of the movement exceeds a speed threshold, and

the dampened region comprises multiple regions of the touch-sensitive input device and each of the multiple regions has a different speed threshold from each other; and

prohibiting control of a pointer by the each of the movements identified as a thumb movement.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein in a case where the number of the one or more movements is two, an uppermost of the movements is not identified as a thumb movement.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the uppermost of the movements is a movement closest to a keyboard located above the touch-sensitive input device.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the speed threshold varies as a function of one or two dimensions across the touch-sensitive input device.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein in a case where the number of the one or more movements on the touch-sensitive input device changes, each of the movements is identified as a thumb movement.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises determining pressures of the one or more movements on the touch-sensitive input device;

and

wherein, in a case where the number of the one or more movements is more than one, a movement with a pressure that is higher than a pressure of another movement by more than a predetermined threshold is identified as a thumb movement.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises prohibiting control of the pointer for a period of time after a number of the movements detected on the touch-sensitive input device changes.

15. A system for dampening thumb movement on a touch-sensitive input device, the system comprising:

the touch-sensitive input device; and

a processing unit configured to;

detect one or more movements on the touch-sensitive input device at a given time;

determine a speed of each of the one or more movements;

identify whether each of the one or more movements is located in a dampened region of the touch-sensitive input device; and

prohibit control of the pointer by each of the movements identified as located in the dampened region unless the speed of the movement exceeds a speed threshold, wherein the dampened region comprises multiple regions of the touch-sensitive input device and each of the multiple regions has a different speed threshold from each other.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the speed threshold varies as a function of one or two dimensions across the touch-sensitive input device.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the processing unit is further configured to prohibit control of the pointer by the movements in a case that the number of the one or more movements changes.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the processing unit is further configured to prohibit control of the pointer for a period of time after a number of the movements detected on the touch-sensitive input device changes.