Electronic apparatus and program storage medium

Abstract

There is provided an electronic apparatus that can scroll an image on a display screen with a simple operation and in various modes. A glide point is provided and a fingerprint sensor is provided adjacently to the glide point. Scroll mode is changed in response to a touch of a finger or thumb on the glide point and a vertical or horizontal movement of the finger or thumb on the glide point and an image on the display screen is scrolled in response to an upward or downward movement of a finger or thumb on the fingerprint sensor.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a notebook PC which is one embodiment of an electronic apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 schematically shows circuit blocks of the notebook PC shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a movement of a finger on a glide point and a movement of a finger on a fingerprint sensor of the notebook PC of the present embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating how scrolling of an image on a display screen is controlled by combining detection of a finger on the glide point and detection of a finger on the fingerprint sensor shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the first portion of a control routine for controlling scrolling of an image on the display screen of the notebook PC of the present embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the middle portion of the control routine for controlling scrolling of the image on the display screen of the notebook PC of the present embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the last portion of the control routine for controlling scrolling of the image on the display screen of the notebook PC of the present embodiment;

FIG. 8 shows a downward movement of a finger on a fingerprint sensor of a notebook PC as a comparative example; and

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating how scrolling of an image on the display screen is controlled by moving a finger downward on the fingerprint sensor shown in FIG. 6.

Claims

1. An electronic apparatus comprising: a display screen which displays an image;a glide point which detects a touch of a finger or thumb and a movement of the finger or thumb touching the glide point;a fingerprint sensor which detects the fingerprint of a finger or thumb; anda scroll control section which controls scrolling of the image on the display screen by using a combination of information detected by the glide point and information detected by the fingerprint sensor.

2. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the scroll control section changes scroll mode in response to a touch of a finger or thumb on the glide point and a movement of the finger or thumb on the glide point and scrolls the image on the display screen in response to a movement of the finger or thumb on the fingerprint sensor.

3. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the scroll control section scrolls the image on the display screen in a first scroll mode in response to a movement of the finger or thumb moving on the fingerprint sensor at a speed lower than or equal to a predetermined speed in the first scroll mode, and changes the scroll mode to a second scroll mode in response to a movement of the finger or thumb moving on the fingerprint sensor at a speed exceeding the predetermined speed; executes the second scroll mode in response to a movement of the finger on the fingerprint sensor in the second scroll mode; andchanges the scroll mode to the first scroll mode in response to a touch of the finger or the thumb on the glide point.

4. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the scroll control section scrolls the image on the display screen in a first scroll mode in response to a movement of the finger or thumb moving on the fingerprint sensor at a speed lower than or equal to a predetermined speed in the first scroll mode, and changes the scroll mode to a second scroll mode in response to a movement of the finger or thumb moving on the fingerprint sensor at a speed exceeding the predetermined speed and scrolls the image on the display screen in the second scroll mode; and changes the scroll mode to the first scroll mode in response to a touch of the finger on the glide point.

5. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the glide point sensor and the fingerprint sensor are positioned adjacently to each other.

6. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the fingerprint sensor is a line-type fingerprint sensor which includes a line sensor and detects the fingerprint of a finger or thumb placed on the line sensor and moved in the orthogonal direction of the line sensor.

7. A scroll control apparatus used in an electronic apparatus having a display screen which displays an image, a glide point which detects a touch of a finger or thumb and a movement of the finger or thumb touching the glide point, and a fingerprint sensor which detects the fingerprint of a finger or thumb, the scroll control apparatus comprising: a scroll control section which controls scrolling of the image on the display screen by using a combination of information detected by the glide point and information detected by the fingerprint sensor.

8. A program storage medium that stores a program to be executed on an electronic apparatus having a display screen which displays an image, a glide point which detects a touch of a finger or thumb and a movement of the finger or thumb touching the glide point, and a fingerprint sensor which detects the fingerprint of a finger or thumb, the program causing the electronic apparatus to function as: a scroll control section which controls scrolling of the image on the display screen by using a combination of information detected by the glide point and information detected by the fingerprint sensor.