Electronic control apparatus and method for responsively controlling media content displayed on portable electronic device

• US 9,798,395 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2017
• Issued: 10/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: China Mobile Hong Kong Company Limited (China Mobile Limited)
• Original Assignee: China Mobile Hong Kong Company Limited (China Mobile Limited)
• Inventors: Ye, Zhou, Liou, Shun-Nan, Lu, Ying-Ko, Chang, Wen-Hao, Tadevosyan, Tigran
• Primary Examiner(s): Yang, Andrew G
• Application Number:
  US15/397,952
• Publication Number:
  US 20170115750A1
• Time in Patent Office: 293 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0487 using specific features provided by the input device, e.g. functions controlled by the rotation of a mouse with dual sensing arrangements, or of the nature of the input device, e.g. tap gestures based on pressure sensed by a digitiser
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0606 Manual adjustment
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/045 Zooming at least part of an image, i.e. enlarging it or shrinking it
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0492 Change of orientation of the displayed image, e.g. upside-down, mirrored
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/145 related to small screens
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/20 for presentation of an assembly of a number of characters, e.g. a page, by composing the assembly by combination of individual elements arranged in a matrix no fixed position being assigned to or needed to be assigned to the individual characters or partial characters
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/34 for rolling or scrolling

Abstract

An electronic control apparatus including motion sensors is integrated in a portable electronic device to responsively control a media content stored in the portable electronic device, in response to motion sensor signals to flip, zoom, displace images/pages of the media content displayed on a display field of a display thereof. Accordingly, a responsive control method includes the steps of: presetting a first threshold angle; sensing an first rotation angle of the portable electronic device to send out a first rotation sensing signal as a rotation of a yaw, pitch or roll of a portable electronic device detected by a sensing module including motion sensors; and receiving the first rotation sensing signal to calculate and determine whether the first rotation angle is greater than the first threshold angle to responsively control a media content stored in an electronic control apparatus be flipped, zoomed or displaced when the first rotation angle is greater than the first threshold angle.

Claims

1. An electronic control apparatus for use with a portable electronic device integrated with a display comprising a display field for displaying a media content comprising:

a motion sensing module, having sensing circuitry, configured to generate a sensing signal with an acceleration value; and

a processing unit, having processing circuitry, the processing unit configured to process the sensing signal and determine whether the acceleration value is greater than a first threshold acceleration value such that the processing unit controls the display to display a previous or next image of the media content responsive to the acceleration value being greater than the first threshold acceleration value;

wherein a second threshold acceleration value is greater than the first threshold acceleration value, and the processing unit is configured to determine whether the acceleration value is greater than the second threshold acceleration value such that the processing unit controls the display to switch to a first image or a last image of the media content on the display field thereof, responsive to the acceleration value being greater than the second threshold acceleration value.

2. The electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the motion sensing module has an accelerometer configured to detect axial accelerations of the electronic control apparatus.

3. The electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the motion sensing module has a gyroscope configured to detect angular velocities of the electronic control apparatus.

4. The electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the motion sensing module has a magnetometer configured to detect magnetism of the electronic control apparatus.

5. The electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the motion sensing module is configured to detect a rotation of the portable electronic device to determine a first rotation angle responsively.

6. The electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the processing unit is configured to determine whether the first rotation angle is greater than a first threshold angle and zoom in or zoom out the display of the portable electronic device such that the media content displayed on the display field is correspondingly zoomed in or zoomed out in response to the first rotation angle being greater than the first threshold angle.

7. The electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein the media content comprises a full-view image having an overall dimension greater than a viewing border of the display field;

and

wherein the motion sensing module is configured to sense a second rotation angle of the portable electronic device responsive to the portable electronic device being subject to second rotations; and

wherein the processing unit comprises a second threshold angle and is configured to determine whether the second rotation angle is greater than the second threshold angle such that the full-view image displayed on the display field is displaced within the viewing border of the display field of the display when the second rotation angle is greater than the second threshold angle.

8. The electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 7, the motion sensing module is configured to detect a rotation of a roll of the portable electronic device about a z-axis in a counterclockwise and clockwise manner to generate the second rotation angle responsively.

9. The electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the motion sensing module is configured to detect a rotation of a yaw of the portable electronic device about a y-axis in a counterclockwise and clockwise manner to generate the acceleration value responsively.

10. The electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an analogue-to-digital (A/D) signal convertor electrically connected to the motion sensing module and the processing unit.

11. A method for controlling media content displayed on a display field of a display of a portable electronic device, the control method comprising:

presetting a first threshold acceleration value and a second threshold acceleration value;

determining an acceleration value using a motion sensing module;

determining whether the acceleration value is greater than the first threshold acceleration value;

controlling the display such that a previous or next image of the media content is displayed on the display field when the acceleration value is greater than the first threshold acceleration value;

determining whether the acceleration value is greater than the second threshold acceleration value; and

controlling the display such that a first image or a last image of the media content is displayed on the display field when the acceleration value is greater than the second threshold acceleration value.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising:

calculating a first rotation angle based on a rotation sensing signal generated by the motion sensing module;

determining whether the first rotation angle is greater than a first threshold angle; and

zooming in or zooming out the display of the portable electronic device such that the media content displayed on the display field is correspondingly zoomed in or zoomed out in response to the first rotation angle is greater than the first threshold angle.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, further comprising displaying a full view image of the media content with an overall field greater than a viewing border of the display field.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13, further comprising:

calculating a second rotation angle based on the rotation sensing signal generated by the motion sensing module;

determining whether the second rotation angle is greater than a second threshold angle; and

displacing the full view image of the media content on the display field when the second rotation angle is greater than the second threshold angle.