Portable electronic device and method of controlling same

• US 9,383,918 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2011
• Issued: 07/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: 2236008 Ontario Inc. (Blackberry Limited), Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Dippel, Jeffery John Paul, Biron, Benjamin, Savard, Patrick-Andre, Lazaridis, Mihal, Lindsay, Donald James, Dodge, Danny Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Olson, Jason
• Application Number:
  US13/243,749
• Publication Number:
  US 20120098766A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,747 Days
• Field of Search: 345173-178
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 3/04166 Details of scanning methods, e.g. sampling time, grouping of sub areas or time sharing with display driving Synchronisation with the driving of the display or the backlighting unit to avoid interferences generated internally G06F3/04184
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• 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 method includes detecting a touch at a plurality of touch locations on a touch-sensitive display of an electronic device, identifying when the touch is a first gesture type based on touch attributes including a first touch location of the plurality of touch locations, and at least one of speed of the touch, time between detecting the touch at consecutive ones of the touch locations, distance between the consecutive ones of the touch locations, and direction of the touch.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting a touch at a plurality of touch locations, including a first touch location, a second touch location, and a third touch location on a touch-sensitive display of an electronic device, wherein the first touch location, the second touch location, and the third touch location comprise consecutively reported touch locations, and wherein the first touch location is near an edge of the touch-sensitive display;

identifying an expected direction dependent on the first touch location and the edge of the touch-sensitive display that is near the first touch location;

determining a touch direction from the first touch location to the second touch location and filtering touch data based on the touch direction by comparing the touch direction to an expected direction and when the touch direction does not match the expected direction within an acceptable error limit, discarding the second touch location and utilizing the third touch location as a next touch location to identify when the touch is a first gesture type that has an origin at a location on the electronic device that is non-touch-sensitive, and when the touch direction matches the expected direction, within the acceptable error limit, utilizing the second touch location as the next touch location to identify when the touch is a first gesture type;

identifying, based on the filtered touch data including the first touch location and the next touch location, when the touch is the first gesture by;

in response to determining that a time between the first touch location and the next touch location exceeds a threshold time, determining that the touch is not the first gesture type; and

in response to determining that a distance between the first touch location and the next touch location fans to meet a threshold distance, determining that the touch is not the first gesture type; and

in response to determining that the time between the first touch location and the next touch location does not exceed the threshold time and that the distance between the first touch location and the next touch location meets the threshold distance, identifying the touch as the first gesture type that has an origin at a location on the electronic device that is non-touch-sensitive.

2. The method according to claim 1, comprising displaying information associated with a first application on the touch-sensitive display and wherein when the touch is identified as the first gesture type, the method comprises forwarding information related to the touch to a second application, otherwise forwarding the information related to the touch to the first application.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first gesture type comprises a meta-navigation gesture.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first touch location is near the edge when the first touch location is within a threshold distance of the edge of the touch-sensitive display.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein a speed of the touch meets a threshold speed when the touch is identified as the first gesture type.

6. The method according to claim 1, comprising determining the touch direction based on the consecutively reported touch locations and wherein the touch direction is utilized to identify the touch as a meta-navigation gesture.

7. The method according to claim 1, comprising displaying information associated with a first application on the touch-sensitive display prior to identifying the first gesture type and displaying information associated with the second application on the touch-sensitive display when the touch is identified as the first gesture type.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein displaying information associated with the second application comprises discontinuing displaying the information associated with the first application.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein displaying information associated with the second application comprises overlaying the information associated with the first application.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein displaying information comprises displaying information from one of a system level navigation interface, a configuration interface, a notification interface, a status interface, and an interface associated with a further application.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein detecting a touch comprises detecting multiple touches that overlap in time on the touch-sensitive display and detecting the touch at the plurality of touch locations comprises detecting consecutive touch locations for each of the multiple touches.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein identifying comprises determining that the multiple touches are the first gesture type based on the touch attributes of at least one of the multiple touches.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein filtering comprises discarding touch data for the second touch location when the second touch location is in a direction, from the first touch location, that is generally opposite the expected direction.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein filtering comprises discarding touch data for the second touch location when the second touch location is in a direction, from the first touch location, that is generally opposite a direction of the first gesture type.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable code executable by at least one processor of the portable electronic device to perform the method of claim 1.

16. An electronic device comprising:

a touch-sensitive display;

memory; and

a processor coupled to the touch-sensitive display and the memory to carry out the method according to claim 1.