This Application claims priority of Taiwan Patent Application No. 106110757, filed on Mar. 30, 2017, and Taiwan Patent Application No. 106138297, filed on Nov. 6, 2017, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
The present invention relates to an electronic device, and more particularly to an electronic device and a method for controlling a user interface for enabling a function corresponding to a control object when contact point information of a touch object conforms to a predetermined pattern.
At present, input devices transmit data in a wired or wireless manner. For example, one wired technique includes connecting the input device to the master device via a USB transmission line, and a wireless technique may be to connect the input device to the master device via Bluetooth or WiFi. Because the input device connects to the master device in a wired or wireless way, an additional port or communication module is needed, which will increase the cost of the product. Therefore, how to connect the input device and the master device in a simple and low-cost way is a problem that needs to be solved immediately.
An embodiment of the present invention provides an electronic device, including a storage device, a touch sensing unit, and a processor. The storage device stores predetermined contact point information corresponding to a control object. The touch sensing unit detects a touch event corresponding to at least one touch object and outputs a touch signal. The processor receives the touch signal and determines whether the contact point information of the touch signal conforms to the predetermined contact point information corresponding to the control object. When the processor determines that the contact point information of the touch signal conforms to the predetermined contact point information, the processor enables a function corresponding to the control object.
Another embodiment of the present invention provides a method for controlling a user interface, adapted to an electronic device, wherein the steps include: detecting, via a touch sensing unit, a touch event corresponding to at least one touch object; outputting, via the touch sensing unit, a touch signal according to the touch event; receiving, via a processor, the touch signal from the touch sensing unit; and determining, via the processor, whether contact point information of the touch signal conforms to predetermined contact point information corresponding to a control object, wherein the predetermined contact point information is stored in a storage device. When the contact point information of the touch signal conforms to the predetermined contact point information, the processor enables a function corresponding to the control object.
Another embodiment of the present invention provides an electronic device, including a storage device, a touch-sensing unit, and a processor. The storage device stores predetermined contact point information corresponding to a control object, wherein the predetermined contact point information includes a first electrical signal corresponding to a first contact point and a second electrical signal corresponding to a second contact point. The touch-sensing unit detects a touch event corresponding to at least one touch object and outputs a touch signal. The processor receives the touch signal and determines whether the touch-sensing information corresponding to the touch signal conforms to the predetermined contact point information corresponding to the control object. When the processor determines that the touch-sensing information of the touch signal conforms to the predetermined contact point information, the processor enables the function that corresponds to the control object.
Another embodiment of the present invention provides a method for sensing a touch object, adapted to an electronic device, including: detecting, using a touch-sensing unit, a touch event corresponding to at least one touch object; outputting, using the touch-sensing unit, a touch signal according to the touch event; receiving, using a processor, the touch signal from the touch-sensing unit; and determining, using the processor, whether touch-sensing information corresponding to the touch signal conforms to predetermined contact point information corresponding to a control object; wherein the predetermined contact point information further comprises a first electrical signal corresponding to a first contact point and a second electrical signal corresponding to a second contact point, and the predetermined contact point information is stored in a storage device; and wherein the processor enables the function that corresponds to the control object when the touch-sensing information of the touch signal conforms to the predetermined contact point information.
The invention can be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description and examples with references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Further areas to which the present electronic devices, methods for controlling a user interface and methods for sensing touch objects can be applied will become apparent from the detailed description provided herein. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating exemplary embodiments of electronic devices and methods for controlling a user interface, are intended for the purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the touch sensing unit 110 detects a touch event corresponding to the touched object and outputs the corresponding touch signal ST, the processor 120 determines the type of touch object it is according to the contact point information containing in the touch signal ST to correctly output the corresponding function. For example,
When the processor 120 receives the touch signal ST, it determines whether the touch object is the control object by: (1) determining whether the distribution of the contact points is the same as the distribution of the contact points of the control object according to the coordinates of each of the contact points of the touch object; (2) determining whether the number of contact points of the touch object is 9; (3) determining whether the induction of two of the contact points is greater than the others (because when the control object comes into contact with the touch sensing unit, the center contact point and one of the surrounding contact points are connected through the contact structure). When the contact point information of the touch signal ST conforms to any of the conditions as described above, the processor 120 determines that the touch object is the control object and enables the function corresponding to the control object according to the current application. For example, when the current display screen of the display unit 140 is the main screen of the operating system, the function corresponding to the control object can be the brightness control of the display screen. However, when the processor 120 is executing the multimedia player program, the function corresponding to the control object can be the volume control. Furthermore, when the processor 120 is executing a drawing program or a notebook-related program, the function corresponding to the control object can be a change in the color or an adjustment of the thickness of a brush. In addition, when the processor 120 determines that the touch object leaves the touch sensing unit 110, the processor 120 disables the function corresponding to the control object.
It should be noted that when the processor 120 determines that the touch object is a control object, a prompt window can be displayed on the user interface to tell the user that the function corresponding to the control object can be started.
In addition, after the processor 120 determines that the touch object is a control object, the processor 120 can output a control signal corresponding to the function of the control object according to the coordinate change and/or the rotation angle of the contact point having a large amount of induction. For example, when the processor 120 determines that two of the contact points having the maximum induction are changed from the contact points P0, P1 to the contact points P0, P2 while the function corresponding to the control object is the volume control, the processor 120 determines that the control object switches one segment clockwise, and the processor 120 turns the volume up one level. Alternatively, when the processor 120 determines that the knob is rotated 90° clockwise while the control object is a knob having eight segments, the processor 120 determines that the control object switches two segments, and the processor 120 turns the volume up two levels. It should be noted that, according to the contents shown in
According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the touch-sensing unit 610 detects the touch event corresponding to the touch object and outputs the corresponding touch signal ST, the processor 620 may determines whether the touch object is the control object 700 according to touch-sensing information contained in the touch signal ST to perform the corresponding operation correctly. The touch-sensing information may include a frequency output from the contact point output, a field pattern generated by the contact point, or a voltage strength sensed by the touch-sensing unit 610, for example. The field pattern refers to the shape of the two-dimensional electric field distribution generated by the voltage output by the contact point on the touch screen. When the touch information contained in the touch signal ST matches any one of the frequency, the field pattern or the voltage strength corresponding to the control object 700 stored in the storage device 630, the processor 620 determines that the touch object is the control object 700 and enables the corresponding function.
Table 1 shows the contact information that can be used to determine whether the touch object is the control object in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. The touch information corresponding to the control object has been stored in the storage device 630 in advance as a basis for the processor 620 to make the determination. When the processor 620 determines that the touch object has two contact points and the touch-sensing information received by the touch-sensing unit 610 meets one of the predetermined conditions shown in Table 1, the processor 620 determines that the touch object is the control object.
In addition, in order to allow the processor 620 to further identify the difference between the first contact point 810 and the second contact point 820, the control object may output different frequencies through the microprocessor 720, or the first contact point 810 and the second contact point 820 can be designed to have different shapes or provide different voltage intensities to the touch screen to identify the first contact points 810 and the second contact points 820. For example, as shown in Table 1, the first contact point 810 and the second contact point 820 respectively output frequencies of 80 KHz and 110 KHz for the processor 620 to identify the first contact point 810 and the second contact point 820.
Alternatively, according to another embodiment of the present invention, in addition to output different frequencies through the microprocessor 720, the processor 620 may identify the first contact point 810 and the second contact point 820 based on the shapes of the first contact point 810 and the second contact point 820 or the voltage intensity provided to the touch screen. For example, when the control object is designed, the outer shapes of the first contact points 810 and the second contact points 820 are respectively defined as circle and rectangle, so as to respectively form a circular field and a rectangular field on the touch-sensing unit 610 for the processor 620 to identify the first contact point 810 and the second contact point 820. In addition, two contact points may also be designed to have different diameters (as shown in
In addition, when the processor 620 determines that the contact object is a control object, a prompt window may be displayed on the user interface to inform the user that the user can start executing the function corresponding to the control object.
Next, after the processor 620 determines that the touch object is the control object, the processor 620 enables the function corresponding to the control object according to the application currently executing. For example, when the display unit 640 is displaying a home screen of the operating system, the function corresponding to the control object may be the brightness control of the display screen. When the processor 620 is executing the multimedia playing program, the function corresponding to the control object may be a volume control or the adjustment of a timeline. When the processor 620 is executing a program related to a drawing program or a notebook, the function corresponding to the control object may be to change the brush color, adjust the stroke thickness, or switch the cursor function, for example. When the processor 620 is opening a web page or performing file browsing, such as browsing photos or PDFs, the function corresponding to the control object may be to zoom in on the browsing screen. When the processor 620 is running multimedia-editing software, the function corresponding to the control object may be to adjust the timeline or scroll a reel, for example. In addition, when the processor 620 determines that the control object has left the touch-sensing unit 610, the processor 620 disables the function corresponding to the control object.
In addition, after identifying the first contact point 810 and the second contact point 820, the processor 620 further determines a rotation angle of the control object according to the relative positions of the first contact point 810 and the second contact point 820 to perform the adjustment of the function corresponding to the control object. In this embodiment, the control object is a circulation type design, which means the knob can be infinitely rotated in a clockwise direction or a counterclockwise direction. For example, as shown in
According to another embodiment of the present invention, a spring structure which can be disposed on the rotation shaft 830 may be further disposed between the knob 840 and the first contact point 810, (i.e., the center point) so that the user can press the knob 840 to change a distance between the first contact point 810 or the second contact point 820 and the touch panel. After the processor 620 determines that the touch object is the control object, when the touch-sensing unit 610 determines that the voltage intensity corresponding to the first contact point 810 or the second contact point 820 is changed, i.e., the user presses the knob 840, the touch-sensing unit 610 generates and outputs a click signal to the processor 620 so as to enable the processor 620 to output another command corresponding to the application, such as a confirmation command. In addition, the processor 620 may also generate different instructions according to a change of the voltage intensity. For example, when the variation is smaller than a predetermined value, which indicates that the user taps the knob 840, and the processor 620 outputs the confirmation instruction. On the other hand, when the variation is greater than the predetermined value, which indicates that the user presses the knob 840 vigorously, and the processor 620 outputs an instruction to disable the application program.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, when the user presses the knob 840 so that the signal strength of the first contact point 810 or the second contact point 820 is changed, the processor 620 may further output different instructions according to the length of the pressing time. For example, when the user presses the knob 840 for less than 3 seconds, the processor 620 outputs the click signal corresponding to the confirmation instruction. When the user presses the knob 840 for more than or equal to 3 seconds, the processor 620 outputs a long-press signal corresponding to a call setting-window instruction.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, in addition to determining whether the touch object is the control object according to the touch-sensing information of the touch object, the processor 620 may further enable different functions according to the coordinates of the touch object. For example, after the processor 620 determines that the touch object is the control object, the user can use different functions by placing the touch object in different sub-areas on the touch screen.
It should be noted that the processor 620 can match the conditions described above, i.e., the change of voltage intensity, the length of the pressing time, and the coordinates, to each other according to the user's requirement to output different instructions or to enable different functions. In addition, the instruction settings described above are only examples, and the user may adjust the instruction corresponding to each signal according to the requirement.
As described above, according to the electronic device, the method for controlling an user interface, and the method for sensing touch objects provided in the embodiments of the present invention, by storing the predetermined contact point information in the storage device in advance, when the touch-sensing unit of the electronic device detects the touch object, the processor of the electronic device can determine whether the touch object is the control object according to the electrical signal output by the touch object and the predetermined contact point information so as to enable the specific function corresponding to the control object. By using the method as described above, the control object can provide additional control without additional connecting wires or wireless communication modules, thereby the cost of the input device can be reduced and a better user experience can also be provided.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure disclosed without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention covers modifications and variations of this invention, provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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106110757 | Mar 2017 | TW | national |
106138297 | Nov 2017 | TW | national |