Patent Application
20150205395
This application claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. §119 from Taiwan Patent Application No. 102103394, filed on Jan. 30, 2013 in the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office. The contents of the Taiwan Application are hereby incorporated by reference. In addition, subject matter relevant to this application is disclosed in: co-pending U.S. Patent Application entitled “ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION METHOD,” Attorney Docket Number US51062, application Ser. No. [to be advised], filed on the same day as the present application. This application and the co-pending U.S. Patent Application are commonly owned, and the contents of the co-pending U.S. Patent Applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Technical Field
The disclosure generally relates to electronic devices, and particularly relates to electronic devices having a touchpad.
2. Description of Related Art
Many notebook computers use touchpads as a “cursor navigator” as well as a component for selecting functions such as “select” and “confirm.” However, the touchpads are often small and incapable of recognizing more complex touch operations.
Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art.
Many aspects of the embodiments can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the embodiments. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the views.
The disclosure is illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals indicate similar elements. It should be noted that references to “an” or “one” embodiment in this disclosure are not necessarily to the same embodiment, and such references can mean “at least one.”
In general, the word “module,” as used herein, refers to logic embodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of software instructions, written in a programming language such as Java, C, or assembly. One or more software instructions in the modules may be embedded in firmware, such as in an erasable-programmable read-only memory (EPROM). The modules described herein may be implemented as either software and/or hardware modules and may be stored in any type of non-transitory computer-readable medium or other storage device. Some non-limiting examples of non-transitory computer-readable media are compact discs (CDs), digital versatile discs (DVDs), Blu-Ray discs, Flash memory, and hard disk drives.
In one embodiment, the electronic device 10 includes a display member 20 rotatably coupled to a base member 30 to enable variable positioning of the display member 10 relative to the base member 30. A keyboard 34 and a touchpad 36 are located on a working surface 32 of the base member 30. In the illustrated embodiment, the touchpad 36 is located in front of the keyboard 34.
In one embodiment, a length of the touchpad 36 is greater than 18 centimeters (cm), so that the touchpad 36 is suitable for two-hand operation by a user of the electronic device 10. The length of the touchpad 36 is substantially the same as the length of the keyboard 34. In other embodiments, the length of the touchpad 36 is substantially the same as the length of the base member 30.
Referring to
In one embodiment, the touchpad 36 can work in a full touch mode or a partial touch mode. When the touchpad 36 works in the full touch mode, the middle touch area 362, the left touch area 364, and the right touch area 366 are all enabled to sense and recognize touch gestures input by the user of the electronic device 10. When the touchpad 36 works in the partial touch mode, at least one, but not all of the middle touch area 362, the left touch area 364, and the right touch area 366 is disabled from sensing and recognizing any touch gestures input by the user of the electronic device 10.
For example, when the left touch area 364 is disabled, and the middle touch area 362 and the right touch area 366 remain enabled, the left touch area 364 cannot sense or recognize any touch gestures input by the user, but the middle touch area 362 and the right touch area 366 can still sense and recognize the touch gestures input by the user.
For example, in an initial state, when the electronic device 10 is booted up, the touchpad 36 works in the full touch mode. As shown in
As illustrated in
When two touch areas for example, the middle touch area 362 and the left touch area 364, detect no touch gesture, the touchpad 36 is switched to the full touch mode, so that the middle touch area 362, the left touch area 364, and the right touch area 366 are all enabled to sense and recognize the touch gestures input by the user.
Although numerous characteristics and advantages have been set forth in the foregoing description of embodiments, together with details of the structures and functions of the embodiments, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in the matters of arrangement of parts within the principles of the disclosure to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
