This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 102124434, filed on Jul. 8, 2013. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electronic device, more particularly to an electronic device and a touch control method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
With instant advance in science and technologies, the calculation capability of mobile electronic devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs has been continuously improved. Basically, the calculation capability of current mobile electronic devices is able to fulfill users' needs, such as taking photos, taking notes, surfing the Net, and so on. Still, there are some inconveniences when it comes to using. For example, it is likely that the user usually spends too much time searching for needed software in a menu. In the case where the user comes across some information that interests the user when walking on the street or in a vehicle and would like to record the information immediately via a note-taking software or the photo-taking function of a mobile electronic device, before that is done, the user may need to take steps such as unlocking the screen, searching for the needed software and clicking on the software in the user's interface on a touch screen, and waiting for the software to be started, etc.
Currently, several approaches are available for simplifying the above steps with the help of known techniques. For example, the user may arrange frequently used functions in shortcuts or a toolbar on the desktop of the touch screen so that the user can find the needed software more intuitionally. In fact, such configuration does not solve the problem but merely allows the user to find the needed software faster. Meanwhile, not too much software can be arranged in the shortcuts and the tool bar in case the user still needs to spend a lot of time to search for the needed one.
In another approach to finding the needed software, a physical button is used to be directly configured on the electronic device. For example, when the user presses the physical button, a corresponding software is directly started. Such configuration is commonly used for a camera function. After the function is started, the same physical button may also serve as a shutter button. Although such approach is the most intuitive and the fastest, based on the logic of current design of a mobile electronic device, it is impossible for too many physical buttons to be configured in the mobile electronic device. Furthermore, most manufacturers of the mobile electronic device do not make it available for the user to define functions for corresponding physical buttons, in which case, the user still cannot set the software that is to be instantly started.
The invention provides an electronic device and a touch control method thereof, through which the gestures of a user for operating a stylus and an operating method are received to instantly start the programs in the electronic device or to execute corresponding operations.
In the invention, an electronic device is adaptable for interacting with a stylus, wherein the stylus transmits a control signal to the electronic device. The electronic device includes a touch screen, a communicating unit, and a processing unit. The touch screen receives the touch action of the stylus. The communicating unit receives the control signal transmitted by the stylus. The processing unit is coupled to the touch screen and the communicating unit to receive the touch action and the control signal, wherein the processing unit determines a touch gesture corresponding to the touch action according to the touch action. The processing unit determines an operating state of the stylus according to the control signal. Meanwhile, the processing unit executes a corresponding action according to the touch gesture, the operating state and/or an application program currently executed by the electronic device.
In the invention, a touch control method is adaptable for an electronic device having a touch screen and interacting with a stylus, wherein the stylus returns a control signal to the electronic device. The method includes the following steps, firstly, receiving a touch action of the stylus from the touch screen; then, determining a touch gesture corresponding to the touch action according to the touch action; determining an operating state of the stylus according to the control signal transmitted by the stylus; thereafter, executing a corresponding action according to the touch gesture, operating state, and/or a currently executed application program.
According to the above, the invention provides an electronic device and a touch control method thereof, which determine a corresponding touch gesture according to a touch action of a stylus performed on a touch screen of the electronic device and instantly execute a corresponding action according to the touch gesture and a current state of the stylus.
In order to make the aforementioned features and advantages of the invention more comprehensible, embodiments accompanying figures are described in detail below.
In the invention, the electronic device 10 may be any electronic devices having a touch screen and calculating capability such as a smart phone, a tablet PC, a notebook computer having a touch screen and so on. Meanwhile, the stylus may be any active or passive stylus and also have a capability of returning or transmitting the control signal CS to the electronic device 10. In an embodiment of the invention, the stylus has a physical button and an orientation angle determiner (such as a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a magnetometer, or a combination thereof). In the embodiment, the control signal CS transmitted by the stylus includes a state message and a control message, wherein the state message corresponds to a current using angle of the stylus (for example, a normal using angle, a reversed using angle, or a more precisely demarcated angle). The control message corresponds to whether the physical button of the stylus is pressed or not. When receiving the control signal CS, the processing unit 130 of the electronic device 10 further determines the operating state of the stylus according to the state message and the control message.
Briefly, in the invention, the processing unit 130 of the electronic device 10 may use at least the state message (corresponding to a current included angle between the stylus and the electronic device or a current orientation of the stylus) and the control message (whether the physical button on the stylus is pressed or not) to determine a corresponding action corresponding to the touch action currently received by the electronic device 10 to execute the corresponding action. The aforementioned conditions may be set and applied differently depending on actual implementations. The invention provides no limitation to that the corresponding action corresponding to the touch action is exclusively determined by each of the conditions set forth.
In an embodiment of the invention, the corresponding action may be divided into the following modes: a general input mode, an instant start mode, a specific mode, and a setting mode. Each of the modes corresponds to a combination of different touch gestures, control signals and/or currently executed application programs.
When the corresponding action is the general input mode, the processing unit 130 receives the touch action from the touch screen 110 as a touch input. The touch input includes a general clicking on the touch screen 110 or an input trajectory. For example, the trajectory of the touch input may be displayed directly on the touch screen 110, and the trajectory may serve as a handwritten note or an image of drawing inputted by the user. Alternatively, the processing unit 130 may also analyze the aforementioned touch input and convert the trajectory of the touch input into text to be displayed on the touch screen 110.
When the corresponding action is the instant start mode, the processing unit 130 instantly starts an application program in the electronic device 10 according to the touch action and the operating state of the stylus. For example, in an embodiment of the invention, the operating state of the stylus is in the normal using state and the physical button is being pressed. Then the processing unit 130 determines that the corresponding action is the instant start mode, and further determines a touch gesture corresponding to the touch action inputted by the stylus so as to instantly start the application program corresponding to the touch gesture.
It should be noted that normally the instant start mode may be set as a global corresponding action. That is, no matter what application program is currently being executed by the electronic device 10, when the user inputs the touch action corresponding to the touch gesture using the stylus, a corresponding application program (different from the currently executed application program) can be instantly started, and a user interface of the corresponding application program can be switched to be displayed on the touch screen 110. The touch gesture and the corresponding application program may be pre-stored in a memory (not shown) in the processing unit 130 or may be set by the user.
For example, when the corresponding action is the setting mode, the processing unit 130 sets an operating gesture corresponding to the program currently executed by the electronic device 10 according to the touch action and the operating state. In an embodiment of the invention, when executing a specific application program (for example, a setting program of touch gestures) and completing other settings (such as the instant start mode setting, or the touch gesture in other modes, or instantly started application program corresponding to the touch gesture, etc.), the processing unit 130 determines that the corresponding action is the setting mode. Furthermore, in the embodiment, when the operating state of the stylus is in a specific state (for example, the stylus is in a predetermined angle and the button is being pressed), the processing unit 130 determines that the corresponding action is the setting mode. When the user inputs the touch action using the stylus, the processing unit 130 records the touch action as the touch gesture that corresponds to the application program currently executed by the electronic device 10.
For example, assume that the application program of the electronic device 10 currently used by the user is a note-taking software. When the user reverses the stylus to form a predetermined angle, presses the button on the stylus, and draws an “R” shaped trajectory (i.e. touch action) on the touch screen 110, the processing unit 130 makes the “R” shaped trajectory as a touch gesture corresponding to the note-taking software. Thereafter, whenever the user presses the button on the stylus in the normal using angle (allowing the processing unit 130 to determine the corresponding action to be the instant start mode) and draws the “R” shaped trajectory on the touch screen 110, the processing unit 130 instantly starts the corresponding application program, that is, the note-taking software. In the embodiment, when the user wants to modify or delete the aforementioned touch gestures, the user can control the electronic device 10 to execute the touch gesture setting program so as to modify or delete the action of the touch gesture.
In an implementation method 220, the user uses a stylus 20B in the normal using angle and presses a button 200B on the stylus 20B. At the moment, the processing unit 130 determines that the corresponding action is the instant start mode. The “R” shaped trajectory (touch action) inputted on the touch screen 110 by the user via operating the stylus 20A is used by the processing unit 130 to determine whether there is a corresponding touch gesture. In the embodiment, it is stored in the memory of the processing unit 130 that the “R” shaped trajectory is similar to the touch gesture corresponding to an application program (such as the note-taking software). Therefore, the processing unit 130 determines that the user inputs the touch gesture corresponding to the application program; then, the processing unit 130 instantly starts the application program (such as the note-taking software).
In an implementation method 230, the user uses a stylus 20C in a predetermined using angle and presses a button 200C on the stylus 20C. At the moment, the processing unit 130 determines that the corresponding action is the setting mode. The “R” shaped trajectory (touch action) inputted on the touch screen 110 by the user via operating the stylus 20C is set by the processing unit 130 to be the touch gesture corresponding to the currently executed application program. Please refer to the description regarding the setting mode for a detailed setting method; no further description is incorporated herein.
Apart from the aforementioned modes, in the invention, the mode of corresponding actions and the content of the actions may be set via any combination of different touch actions, control signals, and currently executed application programs. For example, in the implementation method 230, the user uses the stylus 20C in the predetermined using angle without pressing the button 200C on the stylus 20C. At the moment, the processing unit 130 determines that the corresponding action is a recording mode; the touch action performed by the user via the stylus 20C serves as a touch input, and an application program in the electronic device 10 having a recording function is started for recording at the same time. Each mode of the corresponding actions may be preset in the electronic device 10 (such as storing the conditions for determining the corresponding action to be each mode in the memory of the processing unit 130); alternatively, the modes may be added or modified by the user depending on needs. The relation between the combination of the touch actions, control signals, and/or currently executed application programs and each mode of the corresponding actions may also be preset in the electronic device 10 or added/modified by the user. The invention provides no limitation to the implementation methods described above.
On the other hand, when the corresponding action is the specific mode, the processing unit 130 determines an operating action corresponding to the touch action and operating state in response to a display content displayed on the touch screen by the program currently executed by the electronic device. Relative to the aforementioned general input mode or instant start mode, the specific mode is normally set as a local corresponding action, that is to say, which is used only for a specific application program or under a specific using circumstance. In other words, in the case where the corresponding action is the specific mode, when the same touch gesture corresponds to different application programs, different functions and effects may be generated. The implementation method in which the corresponding action is the specific mode is described below with embodiments accompanying figures.
Also, the user may keep adjusting the selected range via the touch action under the specific mode. As shown in
Likewise, in the embodiment shown in
Further to the embodiments in
Such editing function may be modified according to actual situations and the user's preference. For example, the editing actions performed to the text in the selected range (such as in the selected range SA51) may include deleting, cutting, copying, pasting, and so on under different using states via different touch gestures. A connection between such using states as well as touch gestures and the user's general experiences may be established during setting. For example, the stylus may slide on the text content in the reversed using angle to delete corresponding text content. Such configuration is similar to the user's experience of using a pencil and an eraser in daily life, which allows the user to master the using method more quickly and improves the user's experiences. In the embodiments shown in
The invention provides a touch control method which is adaptable for an electronic device having a touch screen and interacting with a stylus, wherein the stylus returns or transmits a control signal to the electronic device.
To sum up, the invention provides an electronic device and a touch control method thereof, which allows a user to instantly start an application program to be used through an interaction between the electronic device and an external stylus, such as the using state of the stylus along with a touch action of the stylus performed on the touch screen of the electronic device. Moreover, when a specific program is in use, the using state along with the touch action of the stylus performed on the touch screen of the electronic device may also be adopted to instantly operate a displayed content.
Although the invention has been disclosed by the above embodiments, the embodiments are not intended to limit the invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. Therefore, the protecting range of the invention falls in the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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102124434 | Jul 2013 | TW | national |