Patent Application
20130100035
The present disclosure relates generally to user interface interaction using touch inputs, and, more particularly, to selecting an operational mode corresponding to a control key for an application user interface displayed in a mobile device's front-side display by using touch input on the mobile device's secondary touch surface.
A touchpad is an input device including a surface that detects touch-based inputs. A touch screen is an electronic visual display that detects the presence and location of user touch inputs. Mobile devices (such as a mobile phone, a tablet computer, and a laptop computer) often incorporate a touch screen or a touchpad to facilitate user interactions with application programs running on the mobile device.
A keyboard of a computing device often comprises one or more modifier keys or control keys (e.g., Shift key, Control key, etc.) When a user selects a control key, a user interface of an application hosted by the computing device, or an application user interface, can process the user's input partly based on the selected control key.
Particular embodiments relate to selecting an operational mode corresponding to a control key for an application user interface displayed in a mobile device's front-side display by using touch input on the mobile device's secondary touch surface. These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the disclosure are described in more detail below in the detailed description and in conjunction with the following figures.
The invention is now described in detail with reference to a few embodiments thereof as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. It is apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present disclosure may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well known process steps and/or structures have not been described in detail in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present disclosure. In addition, while the disclosure is described in conjunction with the particular embodiments, it should be understood that this description is not intended to limit the disclosure to the described embodiments. To the contrary, the description is intended to cover alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims.
A touchpad is an input device including a surface that detects touch-based inputs of users. Similarly, a touch screen is an electronic visual display surface that detects the presence and location of user touch inputs. So-called dual touch or multi-touch displays or touchpads refer to devices that can identify the presence, location and movement of more than one touch input, such as two- or three-finger touches. A system incorporating one or more touch-based input devices may monitor one or more touch-sensitive surfaces for touch or near touch inputs from a user. When one or more such user inputs occur, the system may determine the distinct area(s) of contact and identify the nature of the touch or near touch input(s) via geometric features and geometric arrangements (e.g., location, movement), and determine if they correspond to various touch events or gestures (e.g., tap, drag, swipe, pinch).
Recognition of touch events by a system with one or more touch-based input devices—i.e., identifying one or more touch inputs by a user and determining corresponding touch event(s)—may be implemented by a combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware (or device drivers).
In addition to alphabetical and numerical keys, a keyboard of a computing device often comprises one or more modifier keys or control keys—e.g., Shift key, Control or Ctrl key, Alternative or Alt key, Function keys (F1, F2, . . . ), etc.—that can change the operational mode of an interface such as the keyboard. When a user selects a control key, a user interface of an application hosted by the computing device, or an application user interface, can process the user's input based in part on the selected control key. For example, for a computer running a Microsoft Windows operating system, a user can enter a upper case letter at an application user interface with a hardware keyboard by holding down a Shift key while pressing an alphabetical key corresponding to the upper case letter. In many mobile devices, a user may first press the Shift key to lock the keyboard into the Shift mode for at least one subsequent keystroke. The user can also select an object (e.g., a text string, an image) in an application user interface and copy the selected object to a memory buffer (“clip board”) by pressing Control key and alphabetical “C” key at the same time. A user can perform a task by selecting more than one control keys, for example, a user can hold down Control, Alt, and Delete keys (“Ctrl-Alt-Del”) at the same time to bring up a task manager user interface. A user can also select one control key to perform a task. For example, in a user interface of Microsoft Word application, a user can press F1 function key to bring up a help menu user interface.
Particular embodiments herein relate to a mobile device (e.g., a mobile phone, a smart phone, a tablet, or other portable device) with a display disposed on a front side of the device and a touch surface disposed on a back side of the device. The back-side touch surface can improve user experience associated with the mobile device as the back-side touch surface can provide an additional area for user inputs. More particularly, the back-side touch surface can enable a user to select a mode corresponding to a control key for an application user interface by using touch input on the back-side touch surface. The front side display of the mobile device may also be a touch surface display. In some implementations, the keyboard of the mobile device is a virtual keyboard rendered by software in a touch-sensitive display. In other implementations, the keyboard may be a physical QWERTY-style keyboard.
As illustrated above, a user of an application user interface may select control key modes using different touch gestures on back-side touch surface 202.
In particular embodiments, a different application hosted by mobile device 200, when detecting a similar touch event on touch surface 202, may select a different control key mode for the application's user interface. For example, the email application described above may select a mode corresponding to the Shift key based on a single-finger, single-tap touch event, select a mode corresponding to the Control key based on a double-finger, single-tap touch event, or select a mode corresponding to the Alt key based on a three-finger, single-tap touch event. A web browser application hosted by mobile device 200 may select a mode corresponding to the Control key based on a single-finger, single-tap touch event, select a mode corresponding to the Shift key based on a double-finger, single-tap touch event, or may cancel modes corresponding to selected control keys based on a three-finger, single-tap touch event. A user of mobile device 200 may use other touch gestures on back-side touch-surface 202 to cause an application hosted by mobile device 200 to select a control key mode. For example, the email application described above may select a Shift-Lock mode based on a single-finger, press-and-hold touch event (e.g., a user can press one finger on touch surface 202 and hold for a threshold period of time like one second), select a Control+Shift mode based on a double-finger, press-and-hold touch event, or select a Alt+Shift mode based on a three-finger, press-and-hold touch event. For example, the email application may select the Shift-Lock mode based on a press-and-hold touch event within zone 1 of touch surface 202 (as illustrated in
Additionally, an application hosted by mobile device 200 may select other operational modes for the application's user interface based on touch events on touch surface 202. For example, the email application described above may detect a double-tap touch event within zone 1 of touch surface 202, select a underline-style mode, and process the next character a user enters at the email application's user interface as an underlined character. For example, the email application may detect a double-tap touch event within zone 2 of touch surface 202, select a bold-style mode, and process the next character a user enters at the user interface in bold font. For example, the email application may detect a double-tap touch event within zone 3 of touch surface 202, select an italic-style mode, and process the next character a user enters at the user interface in italic font. In another embodiment, an application hosted by mobile device 200 may select language input method modes for the application's user interface based on touch events on touch surface 202. For example, the email application described above may detect a single-tap event within zone 1 of touch surface 202, select a Chinese input method (e.g., stroke count method), display a corresponding keyboard in the email application's user interface, and process the next one or more keys a user enters at the user interface as Chinese characters. For example, a user can single-tap within zone 1 of touch surface 202 multiple times, causing the email application to cycle through several language input method modes (e.g., Chinese pingyin input method, Japanese kana input method, English, Chinese pingyin input method, etc.). For example, the email application may detect a single-tap touch event within zone 3 of touch surface 202, and modify a character just entered at the email application's user interface with a diacritic mark. For example, a user may enter “cafe” in the user interface, and single-tap within zone 3 of touch surface 202, causing the email application to add an acute accent to the last character just entered by the user (e.g., “café”).
The touch event processing and control key mode selection functionality described above can be implemented as a series of instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium that, when executed, cause a programmable processor to implement the operations described above. While the mobile device may be implemented in a variety of different hardware and computing systems,
Controller 704 together with a suitable operating system may operate to execute instructions in the form of computer code and produce and use data. By way of example and not by way of limitation, the operating system may be Windows-based, Mac-based, Unix Linux-based, Android-based, or Symbian-based, among other suitable operating systems. The operating system, other computer code and/or data may be physically stored within memory 706 that is operatively coupled to controller 704.
Memory 706 may encompass one or more storage media and generally provide a place to store computer code (e.g., software and/or firmware) and data that are used by computing platform 702. By way of example, memory 706 may include various tangible computer-readable storage media including Read-Only Memory (ROM) and/or Random-Access Memory (RAM). As is well known in the art, ROM acts to transfer data and instructions uni-directionally to controller 704, and RAM is used typically to transfer data and instructions in a bi-directional manner. Memory 706 may also include one or more fixed storage devices in the form of, by way of example, hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), flash-memory cards (e.g., Secured Digital or SD cards, embedded MultiMediaCard or eMMD cards), among other suitable forms of memory coupled bi-directionally to controller 704. Information may also reside on one or more removable storage media loaded into or installed in computing platform 702 when needed. By way of example, any of a number of suitable memory cards (e.g., SD cards) may be loaded into computing platform 702 on a temporary or permanent basis.
Input output subsystem 710 may comprise one or more input and output devices operably connected to controller 704. For example, input output subsystem may include keyboard, mouse, one or more buttons, thumb wheel, and/or, display (e.g., liquid crystal display (LCD), light emitting diode (LED), Interferometric modulator display (IMOD), or any other suitable display technology). Generally, input devices are configured to transfer data, commands and responses from the outside world into computing platform 702. The display is generally configured to display a graphical user interface (GUI) that provides an easy to use visual interface between a user of the computing platform 702 and the operating system or application(s) running on the mobile device. Generally, the GUI presents programs, files and operational options with graphical images. During operation, the user may select and activate various graphical images displayed on the display in order to initiate functions and tasks associated therewith. Input output subsystem 710 may also include touch based devices such as touch pad and touch screen. A touchpad is an input device including a surface that detects touch-based inputs of users. Similarly, a touch screen is a display that detects the presence and location of user touch inputs. Input output system 710 may also include dual touch or multi-touch displays or touch pads that can identify the presence, location and movement of more than one touch inputs, such as two or three finger touches.
In particular embodiments, computing platform 702 may additionally comprise audio subsystem 712, camera subsystem 712, wireless communication subsystem 716, sensor subsystems 718, and/or wired communication subsystem 720, operably connected to controller 704 to facilitate various functions of computing platform 702. For example, Audio subsystem 712, including a speaker, a microphone, and a codec module configured to process audio signals, can be utilized to facilitate voice-enabled functions, such as voice recognition, voice replication, digital recording, and telephony functions. For example, camera subsystem 712, including an optical sensor (e.g., a charged coupled device (CCD), or a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor), can be utilized to facilitate camera functions, such as recording photographs and video clips. For example, wired communication subsystem 720 can include a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port for file transferring, or a Ethernet port for connection to a local area network (LAN). Additionally, computing platform 702 may be powered by power source 732.
Wireless communication subsystem 716 can be designed to operate over one or more wireless networks, for example, a wireless PAN (WPAN) (such as, for example, a BLUETOOTH WPAN, an infrared PAN), a WI-FI network (such as, for example, an 802.11a/b/g/n WI-FI network, an 802.11s mesh network), a WI-MAX network, a cellular telephone network (such as, for example, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network, an Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) network, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network, and/or a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network).
Sensor subsystem 718 may include one or more sensor devices to provide additional input and facilitate multiple functionalities of computing platform 702. For example, sensor subsystems 718 may include GPS sensor for location positioning, altimeter for altitude positioning, motion sensor for determining orientation of a mobile device, light sensor for photographing function with camera subsystem 714, temperature sensor for measuring ambient temperature, and/or biometric sensor for security application (e.g., fingerprint reader). Other input/output devices may include an accelerometer that can be used to detect the orientation of the device. In particular embodiments, various components of computing platform 702 may be operably connected together by one or more buses (including hardware and/or software). Additionally, computing platform 702 may be powered by power source 732.
Herein, reference to a computer-readable storage medium encompasses one or more non-transitory, tangible computer-readable storage media possessing structure. As an example and not by way of limitation, a computer-readable storage medium may include a semiconductor-based or other integrated circuit (IC) (such, as for example, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific IC (ASIC)), a hard disk, an HDD, a hybrid hard drive (HHD), an optical disc, an optical disc drive (ODD), a magneto-optical disc, a magneto-optical drive, a floppy disk, a floppy disk drive (FDD), magnetic tape, a holographic storage medium, a solid-state drive (SSD), a RAM-drive, a SECURE DIGITAL card, a SECURE DIGITAL drive, a MultiMediaCard (MMC) card, an embedded MMC (eMMC) card, or another suitable computer-readable storage medium or a combination of two or more of these, where appropriate. Herein, reference to a computer-readable storage medium excludes any medium that is not eligible for patent protection under 35 U.S.C. §101. Herein, reference to a computer-readable storage medium excludes transitory forms of signal transmission (such as a propagating electrical or electromagnetic signal per se) to the extent that they are not eligible for patent protection under 35 U.S.C. §101.
The present disclosure encompasses all changes, substitutions, variations, alterations, and modifications to the example embodiments herein that a person having ordinary skill in the art would comprehend. Similarly, where appropriate, the appended claims encompass all changes, substitutions, variations, alterations, and modifications to the example embodiments herein that a person having ordinary skill in the art would comprehend.
