HAND-HELD ELECTRONIC DEVICE, COMPUTER-EXECUTED METHOD AND TOUCH-SENSING COVER

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This Non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) on Patent Application No(s). 201410358443.8 filed in People's Republic of China on Jul. 25, 2014, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

This invention relates to a hand-held electronic device, a touch-sensing cover and a computer-executed method and, in particular, to a hand-held electronic device which has a volume (sound) control function, a touch-sensing cover and a computer-executed method.

2. Related Art

With the progress of technologies, various novel information devices are invented, such as cell phones, tablet computers, ultrabooks and GPS navigation devices. Generally, a keyboard and mouse are commonly used to manipulate the information device for inputting information. Besides, the touch control technology currently also becomes a popular manipulation method for the information device and brings an intuitive operation. Accordingly, a touch display device using the touch control technology can provide a friendly and intuitive interface for the input operation, and therefore users of all ages can manipulate the touch display device by fingers.

In a common and conventional hand-held electronic device with the touch function, the touch operations are all directly executed on the panel. However, for the operation on the panel, the user's fingers may shade the user's view or the functional item on the display panel, so that the user may erroneously touch, by the finger, an undesired one of the items which are arranged in a high information content density on the display panel. In order to avoid the above situation, some hand-held electronic devices adopt a design which separates the touch operation area from the display panel, such as disclosed by the U.S. Pat. No. 5,825,352 (Logitech).

However, such design will increase the volume of the electronic device and disobey the lightness, thinness and compactness tendency of the hand-held electronic device, so as not to be easily carried out in the small-sized product such as tablet computer and cell phone. Moreover, the technique disclosed by the U.S. Pat. No. 5,825,352 (Logitech) also can't solve the problem of that user's view is easily shaded by the user's fingers in the operation of the hand-held electronic device.

Furthermore, the above-mentioned panel also needs to be configured with the rare earth transparent touch-sensing structure such as ITO (indium tin oxide) so as to be kept in the touch and display functions, but since the rare earth metal of indium is unceasingly consumed, the cost of the product is getting higher and higher. Besides, the conductivity of the rare earth metal is worse than the normal metal. Therefore, using the transparent touch sensing layer made by the rare earth metal of indium is not a good choice. Besides, when the user uses the hand-held electronic device under the strong sunlight, the sunlight readability of the panel is always a problem that can't be effectively solved. Since the user can't see the information displayed on the panel, the information such as email or Facebook can't be respond promptly by the two-hand operation.

Besides, the frequent touch operation by the finger or stylus on the touch panel of the electronic device will scratch the panel. Moreover, in the common use of the hand-held electronic device with the touch function, one hand is used to hold the electronic device while the other hand is used to execute the operation on the panel. So, when the user just uses one hand to hold and operate the device at the same time, the touch operation just can be executed by the thumb, and that is really a reduction for the manual operation performance, accuracy and convenience.

Therefore, a hand-held electronic device, a touch-sensing cover and a computer-executed method are provided whereby the user's view can't be shaded by the finger during the operation and the scratch on the panel can be reduced and also the convenience of the single-hand operation can be enhanced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An aspect of the invention is to provide a hand-held electronic device, a touch-sensing cover and a computer-executed method whereby the user's view can't be shaded by the finger during the operation and the scratch on the panel can be reduced and also the convenience of the single-hand operation can be enhanced.

Therefore, a hand-held electronic device comprises a touch-sensing cover, a panel and a control unit are provided. The touch-sensing cover comprises a cover and a touch-sensing structure. At least a part of the touch-sensing structure is disposed on the cover and the touch-sensing structure comprises a plurality of detection points. The control unit is electrically connected with the touch-sensing cover and the panel and executes the following steps of: computing a trigger event of the detection points; comparing the trigger event with an initiative determination condition which is pre-stored in the hand-held electronic device; permitting the touch-sensing structure to receive at least an input action inputted by a user if the trigger event conforms to the initiative determination condition; and controlling a volume of the hand-held electronic device by the input action.

In one embodiment, the trigger event comprises a trigger quantity distribution, a trigger time, a trigger frequency, a trigger morphology (which can refer to trigger appearance) or a trigger location (which can refer to trigger position).

In one embodiment, the touch-sensing structure is a single-layer structure or a double-layer structure.

In one embodiment, a wiring connecting to the touch-sensing structure is gathered to a single side for wiring outlet.

In one embodiment, a width of the touch-sensing structure is less than that of the cover by 5%˜10%.

In one embodiment, the volume comprises a ringtone volume, an alarm volume, a notification volume, a microphone volume, an earphone volume or a speaker volume of the hand-held electronic device.

In one embodiment, the volume is turned down when the input action is a slide towards a first direction and turned up when the input action is a slide towards a second direction.

In one embodiment, the volume is turned up when the input action is a stretch slide and turned down when the input action is a pinch slide.

In one embodiment, the area of the touch-sensing structure has a ratio relationship to the area of the panel, and the control unit changes an input position of the touch-sensing structure to a display position of the panel according to the ratio relationship.

In one embodiment, the touch-sensing structure is capable of a wireless power transmission.

In one embodiment, the touch-sensing cover further comprises a near field communication unit, which comprises a near field communication chip and an antenna, the near field communication chip is electrically connected with the control unit, and the antenna is disposed on the cover or the touch-sensing structure.

In one embodiment, the material of the touch-sensing structure comprises metal mesh, metal nanowires, transparent conducting film, carbon nanotube or graphene.

In one embodiment, the user operates the hand-held electronic device by one hand, and the touch-sensing cover faces a light source or the back of the panel faces the light source.

In one embodiment, a computer-executed method is applied to a hand-held electronic device comprising a touch-sensing cover, a panel and a control unit, and the method, on the hand-held electronic device, executing the following steps of: computing a trigger event of a plurality of detection points on the touch-sensing cover; comparing the trigger event with an initiative determination condition which is pre-stored in the hand-held electronic device; permitting the touch-sensing cover to receive at least an input action inputted by a user if the trigger event conforms to the initiative determination condition; and controlling a volume of the hand-held electronic device by the input action.

In one embodiment, the trigger event comprises a trigger quantity distribution, a trigger time, a trigger frequency, a trigger morphology or a trigger location.

In one embodiment, if the trigger morphology exhibits multiple area contacts, it is determined not to conform to the initiative determination condition, and the volume is not controlled when the trigger morphology is determined not to conform to the initiative determination condition.

In one embodiment, the volume comprises a ringtone volume, an alarm volume, a notification volume, a microphone volume, an earphone volume or a speaker volume of the hand-held electronic device.

In one embodiment, the volume is turned down when the input action is a slide towards a first direction and turned up when the input action is a slide towards a second direction.

In one embodiment, the volume is turned up when the input action is a stretch slide and turned down when the input action is a pinch slide.

In one embodiment, a touch-sensing cover of a hand-held electronic device comprising the touch-sensing cover, a panel and a control unit comprises a cover and a touch-sensing structure. At least a part of the touch-sensing structure is disposed on the cover and the touch-sensing structure comprises a plurality of detection points. The control unit computes a trigger event of the detection points and compares the trigger event with an initiative determination condition which is pre-stored in the hand-held electronic device. If the trigger event conforms to the initiative determination condition, the touch-sensing structure is permitted to receive at least an input action inputted by a user, and a volume of the hand-held electronic device is controlled by the input action.

As mentioned above, in the hand-held electronic device, touch-sensing cover and computer-executed method of the invention, the user can execute the touch operation on the touch-sensing cover of the hand-held electronic device, so the finger of the user can't shade the view or the software object displayed by the panel, and also the touch for opening the link in the high information density image won't be erroneously executed. Besides, since the user operates the electronic device through the touch-sensing cover, the panel scratch situation can be reduced. Furthermore, because the user can execute the touch operation on the touch-sensing cover, the user can use multiple fingers such as the forefinger and middle finger to operate the electronic device while using the same hand holding the device. In comparison with the conventional art where the user just can use the thumb to execute the operation while using the same hand holding the device, this invention can provide more manual efficiency and convenience and can realize a better user experience.

Furthermore, when the user uses the hand-held electronic device under the strong sunlight, the user can hold the hand-held electronic device by one hand and also use the touch-sensing cover to block the sunlight or a light source. Since the content displayed on the panel is shielded from the sunlight by the touch-sensing cover, the sunlight readability of the display panel can be enhanced without using the novel OLED or e-paper display panel technology.

Besides, on the premise that the trigger quantity distribution, trigger time, trigger frequency, trigger morphology or trigger location conforms to the initiative determination condition, the touch-sensing cover just can be permitted to receive at least one input action inputted by the user for controlling the volume of the hand-held electronic device. Therefore, when other users want to operate the hand-held electronic device, the operation of the volume control will be forbidden because the trigger quantity distribution, trigger time, trigger frequency, trigger morphology or trigger location doesn't conform to the initiative determination condition set by the original user, and therefore the security of the hand-held electronic device can be enhanced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description and accompanying drawings, which are given for illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a hand-held electronic device of an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of the hand-held electronic device in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the hand-held electronic device of FIG. 1 in another viewing angle;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart of the computer-executed method of an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the detection point of the touch-sensing cover in FIG. 1 is triggered;

FIGS. 6A and 6B are other schematic diagrams showing that the detection point of the touch-sensing cover of FIG. 1 is triggered;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the user interface for the volume control of the hand-held electronic device in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 8A and 8B are schematic diagrams showing the user operates the hand-held electronic device 1 of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment; and

FIGS. 9A and 9B are schematic diagrams showing the user operates the hand-held electronic device 1 of FIG. 1 according to another embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the same references relate to the same elements.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a hand-held electronic device of an embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of the hand-held electronic device in FIG. 1. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the hand-held electronic device 1 of this embodiment includes a touch-sensing cover 11, a panel 12 and a control unit 13. The hand-held electronic device 1 of this embodiment can be a smart phone, a tablet or a personal digital assistant (PDA), and herein the smart phone is illustrated as an example. The panel 12 can include a display panel, i.e. a panel with the display function, or a touch display panel having both of the display and touch functions.

In this embodiment, the touch-sensing cover 11 is disposed on the side of the hand-held electronic device 1 opposite to the panel 12. In other words, the touch-sensing cover 11 and the panel 12 are disposed on the opposite sides of the hand-held electronic device 1, i.e. the rear side and the front side, respectively. Accordingly, when the user normally uses the hand-held electronic device 1, the side facing the user is the front side and the side against the user is the rear side. The touch-sensing cover 11 and the panel 12 are coupled with the control unit 13 so that the control unit 13 can receive the user's input through the touch-sensing cover 11 and control the content displayed by the panel 12.

In physical, the touch-sensing cover 11 of this embodiment provides an input interface which is used for interaction between the electronic device and the user. The panel 12 can display a user interface or a graphical user interface (GUI) for example. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 1, the user can see the content displayed by the panel 12 through the front side of the hand-held electronic device 1 and execute the input operation through the touch-sensing cover 11 on the rear side.

Besides, when the user uses the hand-held electronic device 1 under the strong sunlight, the user can operate the hand-held electronic device 1 by one hand and also make the touch-sensing cover 11 face the light source to block the sunlight or the light source. Because the panel 12 is against the light source, the touch-sensing cover 11 can block the sunlight and the sunlight readability of the panel 12 can be thus enhanced.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the hand-held electronic device of FIG. 1 in another viewing angle. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, in this embodiment, the touch-sensing cover 11 includes a cover 111 and a touch-sensing structure 112. Likewise, the cover 111 is disposed on the side of the hand-held electronic device 1 opposite to the panel 12. At least a part of the touch-sensing structure 112 can be disposed on the cover 111. In this embodiment, the touch-sensing structure 112 extends to the two sides of the cover 111, i.e. the two sides of the touch-sensing cover 11, so as to increase the area of the user's operation. In this case, the area of the touch-sensing structure 112 is larger than that of the panel 12. Of course, in other embodiments, another physical key can be replaced by the touch-sensing structure 112 of this embodiment. Moreover, the material of the touch-sensing structure 112 can comprise metal mesh, metal nanowires, transparent conducting film, carbon nanotube or graphene.

In other embodiments, for more effectively using the width of the cover 111 to dispose the touch-sensing structure 112, the width of the touch-sensing structure 112 can be slightly less than that of the cover 111 (such as by 5%˜10%). That is, the width of the touch-sensing structure 112 is about 90%˜95% that of the cover 111. The touch-sensing structure 112 also can be disposed around some places of the cover 111 where the camera lens or flash light is disposed for example, and that is, some places of the cover 111 may not be configured with the touch-sensing structure 112.

In other embodiments, the area of the touch-sensing structure 112 can be equal to that of the panel 12.

In this embodiment, the touch-sensing structure 112 is capacitive touch structure for example and formed on the inner surface of the cover 111 facing the panel 12, and that is the touch-sensing structure 112 is disposed on the inside of the hand-held electronic device 1 and directly formed on the cover 111 with the total area. Of course, in other embodiments, the touch-sensing structure 112 can be formed on the outer surface of the cover 111 opposite to the panel 12, and that is the touch-sensing structure 112 is disposed on the outside of the hand-held electronic device 1. If the touch-sensing structure 12 is disposed on the outer surface of the cover 111 which is against the panel 12, a protection layer is required for protecting the touch-sensing structure 112. To be noted, the material of the cover 111 can be glass, plastic material, metal or other materials, and the cover 111 is a part of the whole structure of the hand-held electronic device 1. In other words, the touch-sensing cover 11 is not an additional component (the additional component is the protection cover of the electronic device for example), so if the touch-sensing cover 11 is separated from the hand-held electronic device 1, the inside components of the hand-held electronic device 1, such as battery or integrated circuit, can be seen.

In this embodiment, the touch-sensing structure 112 is illustrated as a double-layer structure for example. The touch-sensing structure 112 can include a first sensing layer and a second sensing layer. The first sensing layer includes a plurality of first sensing lines which are spaced along the first direction (X direction). The second sensing layer includes a plurality of second sensing lines which are spaced along the second direction (Y direction).

In other embodiments, the touch-sensing structure may be a single-layer electrode structure. For example, the touch-sensing structure may include a plurality of sensing pads which are formed simultaneously, and the sensing pads may be in the form of a single-layer structure. The sensing pads may be a transparent conducting layer or a metal mesh. The shape of the sensing pad includes, for example but is not limited to, a diamond shape or triangle, as long as they can help to achieve touch sensing operations. Moreover, all sensing pads are unnecessary to have an identical shape.

The touch-sensing structure 112 can further include a transmitter circuit and a receiver circuit (i.e. the so-called Tx and Rx, not shown), and the material thereof can be metal mesh, metal nanowires, transparent conducting film, graphene or carbon nanotube, but this invention is not limited thereto. If the touch-sensing structure 112 is metal mesh, the Moire phenomenon can be reduced and also the material cost can be lowered down, and the wire width thereof will not be limited by the transparency requirement.

If the touch-sensing structure 112 is made by metal mesh, the metal texture effect can be exhibited on the appearance when the touch-sensing structure 112 is disposed on the outer surface (not the display surface) of the cover 111. Accordingly, because the metal texture effect can be achieved just by disposing the touch-sensing structure 112 composed of the metal mesh on the outer surface (not the display surface) of the cover 111 made by non-metal material, the metal-made cover (requiring a more complicated process) is not necessary to be used so as to further achieve the effect of saving the cost.

In this embodiment, the area of the touch-sensing structure 112 has a ratio relationship to the area of the panel 12, and the control unit 13 can change the touch points of the touch-sensing cover 11 to the corresponding positions of the panel 12 according to the ratio relationship. When the user executes the touch operation on the touch-sensing cover 11 by the finger for example, the panel 12 can display the corresponding operation according to the user's operation gesture (or called the hand gesture), wherein the control unit 13 will convert the input position of the touch-sensing structure 112 into the display position of the panel 12, and the panel 12 will display a visible sign (such as a prompt) on the display position so that the user can interact with the graphical user interface displayed on the panel 12.

Besides, a circuit board, a battery or a memory card can be disposed between the touch-sensing cover 11 and the panel 12.

The wiring connecting to the touch-sensing structure 112 can be gathered to a single side for the wiring outlet and then electrically connected with a circuit board, so as to enhance the flexibility of the circuit design.

As shown in FIG. 2, the touch-sensing structure 112 includes a plurality of detection points P, which can be triggered to induce a trigger event. For example, when a conductor (such as a stylus, user's finger or palm) touches the touch-sensing structure 112, the detection point P at the touch position can be triggered to generate the signal of the trigger event, and the signal will be transmitted to the control unit 13 for the determination and analysis of the control unit 13 to the trigger event. Accordingly, the trigger event can be generated by corresponding to the holding position of the user when the user holds the touch-sensing cover 11, or can be generated when the user executes the input operation through the touch-sensing cover 11.

Accordingly, because the touch-sensing cover 11 and the panel 12 are disposed on the opposite sides of the hand-held electronic device 1 respectively, so that the user's finger can be prevented from shading the image displayed by the panel 12 when the user operates the hand-held electronic device 1. Thereby, the purpose of the unblocked touch can be achieved and the erroneous touch can be further avoided.

As shown in FIG. 2, the hand-held electronic device 1 of this embodiment further includes a storage unit 14, which is, for example but not limited to, ROM (read-only memory), RAM (random access memory), flash, field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or other kinds of memory. Herein for example, the RAM is used as the storage unit 14 and coupled with the control unit 13 in a signal bus manner.

In this embodiment, the storage unit 14 stores the operation system, application programs, data processing programs and electronic data in various formats. The operation system is the program managing the computer hardware and software resources. The application program can be a word processing program, email program or others. The data processing program of this embodiment is used to detect the data structure of the above-mentioned electronic data and generate the corresponding connection instruction. In this embodiment, the control unit 13 includes a central processing unit (CPU) for example to execute the programs.

FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart of the computer-executed method of an embodiment of the invention. As shown in FIG. 4, the computer-executed method of this embodiment, on the hand-held electronic device 1, executes the following steps of: computing the trigger event of a plurality of detection points on the touch-sensing cover (step S10); comparing the trigger event with the initiative determination condition which is pre-stored in the hand-held electronic device (step S20); permitting the touch-sensing cover to receive at least an input action inputted by the user if the trigger event conforms to the initiative determination condition (step S30); and controlling the sound volume of the hand-held electronic device by the input action (step S40).

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 5, in physical, when the user operates the hand-held electronic device 1, the user can preset the holding usage through the setting interface, and the control unit 13 can analyze the trigger event that is made by the user triggering the detection points when operating the setting interface. The trigger event can be defined as the initiative determination condition and stored in the storage unit 14. The trigger event includes the trigger quantity distribution, trigger time, trigger frequency, trigger morphology or trigger location. As to the trigger event of the trigger quantity distribution, trigger morphology or trigger location for example, when the user holds the hand-held electronic device 1, the control unit 13 can analyze the detection point which is triggered by the user's holding and define the region where the number of the adjacent triggered detection points P is larger than a predetermined value as a triggered area 113. In this embodiment, one of the sidewalls of the touch-sensing cover 11 has a trigger area 113a, the other sidewall has two trigger areas 113b, and the surface of the touch-sensing cover 11 opposite to the panel 12 has a trigger area 113c. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the trigger quantity distribution and the trigger location indicate the quantity and the location of each trigger area, respectively, and the trigger morphology indicates the shape of each trigger area 113, i.e. the shapes of the trigger areas 113a, 113b and 113c. Moreover, the trigger frequency can indicate the click frequency at a certain position, and the trigger time indicates that the holding time exceeds a certain time or is related to the user's life habit.

Accordingly, after the user completes the setting in the setting interface and the storage unit 14 stores the initiative determination condition, the control unit 13 can compare other trigger events with the initiative determination condition. In physical, if other trigger events occur, the control unit 13 will compute the trigger quantity distribution, trigger time, trigger frequency, trigger morphology or trigger location of the detection point on the touch-sensing cover 11 triggered by other trigger events, and also compare the computed result with the initiative determination condition pre-stored in the hand-held electronic device 1. In other embodiments, in order to enhance the security of the hand-held electronic device 1, the control unit 13 will compute the trigger event on the touch-sensing cover 11 at the predetermined time intervals. In other word, the control unit 13 will compute the trigger quantity distribution, trigger time, trigger frequency, trigger morphology or trigger location of the detection point triggered at different times.

To be noted, if the trigger morphology of the trigger event exhibits a multiple area contacts, it will be directly determined not to conform to the initiative determination condition. In this embodiment, the area contact denotes that the diameter of a single trigger area caused by the user contacting the touch-sensing cover 11 is 7 mm or more. For example, the trigger area is caused by the user's palm contacting the touch-sensing cover 11. In physical, when the diameters of the plural trigger areas at different touch positions are all larger than 7 mm, it will be determined not to conform to the initiative determination condition. The above trigger areas may be caused by the touches of the palm, thumb and little finger for example. Moreover, when only a single trigger area occurs on the upper portion of the hand-held electronic device 1 and its diameter is larger than 7 mm, it will be also determined not to conform to the initiative determination condition.

If the trigger event conforms to the initiative determination condition, the touch-sensing structure 112 will be permitted to receive at least an input action inputted by the user. In other words, on the premise that the trigger quantity distribution, trigger time, trigger frequency, trigger morphology or trigger location conforms to the initiative determination condition, the control unit 13 just can execute other actions to permit the touch-sensing structure 112 to receive the user's input action, and then the hand-held electronic device 1 can execute the operation by the input action. To be noted, the input action in this embodiment is executed by one hand, and the operation of this embodiment especially includes controlling various kinds of volumes (sound) of the hand-held electronic device 1, and the detailed illustration will be given later. Therefore, when other users want to hold and operate the hand-held electronic device 1, the operation will be forbidden because the trigger quantity distribution, trigger time, trigger frequency, trigger morphology or trigger location doesn't conform to the initiative determination condition set by the original user, and therefore the security of the hand-held electronic device 1 can be enhanced.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are other schematic diagrams showing that the detection point of the touch-sensing cover of FIG. 1 is triggered. As shown in FIG. 6A, the illustration here is that if the touch morphology exhibits multiple area contacts, it will be directly determined not to conform to the initiative determination condition. Herein, multiple area contacts imply to two or more area contacts. In this embodiment, the “area contact” denotes that the diameter of a single trigger area triggered by the user contacting the touch-sensing cover 11 or the longest distance from an edge of the contact to the other edge of the contact is 7 mm or more. As shown in FIG. 6, because the trigger areas 113d, 113e and 113f are not circles, the trigger event will be directly determined not to conform to the initiative determination condition when the longest distance d1, d2, d3 from an edge of the contact to the other edge of the contact of each of the trigger areas 113d, 113e and 113f is larger than 7 mm. The case of the multiple area contacts is easily caused when the user just purely holds the hand-held electronic device 1 instead of touching or operating the hand-held electronic device 1, so the trigger event caused thereby is directly determined not to conform to the initiative determination condition. Moreover, as shown in FIG. 6B, if the trigger morphology of the trigger event exhibits a single area contact and occurs on the upper portion of the hand-held electronic device 1, it is also determined not to conform to the initiative determination condition. The above configuration is based on that if the user normally holds the hand-held electronic device 1 and executes the touch operation on the touch-sensing cover 11 by the finger, the palm of the user may be located at the lower portion of the hand-held electronic device 1 to form the trigger area of a area contact instead of forming the trigger area of a area contact at the upper portion. Besides, when the finger executing the touch operation on the upper portion contacts the touch-sensing cover to form a trigger area, the diameter of the trigger area or the longest distance from an edge of the contact to the other edge of the contact is often not larger than 7 mm. Therefore, when the trigger area 113g shown in FIG. 6B occurs on the upper portion of the hand-held electronic device 1 and the longest distance from an edge of the contact to the other edge of the contact is larger than 7 mm, it is quite possible that the user may clean the cover or purely hold the hand-held electronic device 1 instead of executing the touch operation. So, if the trigger morphology of the trigger event exhibits a single area contact and occurs on the upper portion of the hand-held electronic device 1, it is also determined not to conform to the initiative determination condition. Herein, the upper portion or the lower portion can be defined according to the center of the cover or the center of the touch-sensing structure and in the situation of the user operating the hand-held electronic device 1. The portion above the center is the upper portion while the portion below the center is the lower portion.

The following is especially about the volume control part illustrated by using the user interface displayed by the hand-held electronic device 1. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the user interface for the volume control of the hand-held electronic device in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 7, in this embodiment, the graphical user interface of the volume control can be displayed on the panel 12 when the trigger event conforms to the initiative determination condition. The graphical user interface of the volume control includes a plurality of volume control items 151, which include ringtone volume, alarm volume, notification volume, microphone volume, earphone volume and speaker volume for example. The user can use, for example, one or more fingers or a stylus to contact the touch-sensing cover 11 for executing the operation, such as a leftward slide or a rightward slide, to adjust the above-mentioned volume control items 151 so as to control the above-mentioned volumes. The ringtone volume denotes the volume of the ringtone displayed by the hand-held electronic device 1 when the hand-held electronic device 1 receives a phone call. The alarm volume denotes the volume played by the alarm which is preset in the hand-held electronic device 1 by the user. The notification volume includes the volume of the short message prompt sound, the volume of the push notification sound or other volumes of other system prompt sounds. The microphone volume denotes the volume of the sound of the opposite party emitted by the microphone when the communication is established. The earphone volume denotes the volume of a kind of the audio signal emitted by the earphone which is electrically connected with the hand-held electronic device 1. The speaker volume denotes the volume of a kind of audio signal emitted by the hand-held electronic device 1 when the user switches the hand-held electronic device 1 to the speaker mode.

To be noted, the above operation for controlling the volume of the hand-held electronic device 1 (FIG. 7) can be implemented in a preset manner by the user. The example shown in FIG. 7 is about the control of the notification volume, but this invention is not limited thereto. For example, the preset manner can refer to that the user can use the above-mentioned graphical user interface of the volume control to preset the ringtone volume before receiving any phone call, or that the user can use the above-mentioned graphical user interface of the volume control to preset the speaker volume before switching the hand-held electronic device 1 to the speaker mode. The rest volumes can be deduced by analogy, so the related illustrations are omitted here for conciseness.

Besides, when a kind of the audio signal is played, the user also can control the volume of the audio signal. FIGS. 8A and 8B are schematic diagrams showing the user operates the hand-held electronic device 1 of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment. For example, when the user is communicating by the hand-held electronic device 1, the user can do a slide on the touch-sensing cover 11 towards the first direction D1 by using the finger F1 that is original used to hold the hand-held electronic device 1 to turn down the volume S of the microphone if the user feels uncomfortable due to the too high sound volume of the opposite party. As shown in FIG. 8, the first direction D1 in this embodiment is a downward direction, but this invention is not limited thereto. Accordingly, the user can directly control the volume while keeping the same holding posture instead of moving the finger to the position of the physical key or using another hand to touch the display panel for controlling the volume as in the conventional art. Since at this time the user just uses the microphone to communicate and other sounds such as the alarm or ringtone are not played, the user's input action of moving the finger downwards will just affect the microphone volume. Likewise, when the user feels the sound of the opposite party too low so as not to clearly listen to the conversation, the user can move the finger F1 on the touch-sensing cover 11 towards the second direction D2 to turn up the volume S of the microphone, as shown in FIG. 8B. The second direction D2 of this embodiment is an upward direction, but this invention is not limited thereto. Herein, a downward slide and an upward slide are both regarded as a kind of input action. Furthermore, the volume S is not specifically of the microphone, it also can be of the ringtone, alarm, notification, earphone or speaker, and since the related illustrations can be comprehended by referring to the above description, they are omitted here for conciseness.

According to the above embodiment, the user can use one finger to control the volume. FIGS. 9A and 9B are schematic diagrams showing the user operates the hand-held electronic device 1 of FIG. 1 according to another embodiment. As shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B, in this embodiment, the user can execute the volume control by using two fingers on the touch-sensing cover 11. In physical, when two fingers F1, F2 do a pinch slide, the volume S can be turned down, as shown in FIG. 9A. When two fingers F1, F2 do a stretch slide, the volume S can be turned up, as shown in FIG. 9B. Herein, a pinch slide and a stretch slide both can be regarded as a kind of input action, and the volume S can include the above-mentioned ringtone volume, alarm volume, notification volume, microphone volume, earphone volume and speaker volume. The related illustrations can be comprehended by referring to the above description so they are omitted here for conciseness. Therefore, the user can directly control the volume while keeping the same holding posture instead of moving the finger to the position of the physical key or using another hand to touch the display panel for controlling the volume as in the conventional art.

Moreover, a touch-sensing cover of the hand-held electronic device is also disclosed. The hand-held electronic device includes a panel, a touch-sensing cover and a control unit. The touch-sensing cover includes a cover and a touch-sensing structure. The cover is disposed on the side of the hand-held electronic device opposite to the panel. At least a part of the touch-sensing structure is disposed on the cover. The touch-sensing structure is coupled with the control unit. The touch-sensing structure includes a plurality of detection points which can be triggered. The control unit computes the trigger event of the detection points and compares the trigger event with the initiative determination condition which is pre-stored in the hand-held electronic device. If the trigger event conforms to the initiative determination condition, the touch-sensing structure is permitted to receive at least an input action inputted by the user and the volume of the hand-held electronic device can be controlled by the input action. The structure and connection relation of other components of the touch-sensing cover can be comprehended by referring to the above description, so the related illustrations are omitted here for conciseness.

In one embodiment, the hand-held electronic device 1 can further include a near field communication unit, which includes a near field communication chip and an antenna. The near field communication chip is electrically connected with the control unit 13, and the antenna can be disposed on the cover 111 or the touch-sensing structure 112 for example, but this invention is not limited thereto. When the user wants to use the hand-held electronic device 1 to communicate with another electronic device through the near field communication (NFC), the hand-held electronic device 1 can be made closer to the another electronic device having the near field communication function to receive data from or transmit data to the another electronic device through the antenna and the near field communication chip.

Summarily, in the hand-held electronic device, touch-sensing cover and computer-executed method of the invention, the user can execute the touch operation on the touch-sensing cover of the hand-held electronic device, so the finger of the user can't shade the view or the software object displayed by the panel, and also the touch for opening the link in the high information density image won't be erroneously executed. Besides, since the user operates the electronic device through the touch-sensing cover, the panel scratch situation can be reduced. Furthermore, because the user can execute the touch operation on the touch-sensing cover, the user can use multiple fingers such as the forefinger and middle finger to operate the electronic device while using the same hand holding the device. In comparison with the conventional art where the user just can use the thumb to execute the operation while using the same hand holding the device, this invention can provide more manual efficiency and convenience and can realize a better user experience.

Although the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, this description is not meant to be construed in a limiting sense. Various modifications of the disclosed embodiments, as well as alternative embodiments, will be apparent to persons skilled in the art. It is, therefore, contemplated that the appended claims will cover all modifications that fall within the true scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A hand-held electronic device, comprising: a touch-sensing cover comprising a cover and a touch-sensing structure, wherein at least a part of the touch-sensing structure is disposed on the cover and the touch-sensing structure comprises a plurality of detection points;a panel; anda control unit electrically connected with the touch-sensing cover and the panel and executing the following steps of: computing a trigger event of the detection points;comparing the trigger event with an initiative determination condition which is pre-stored in the hand-held electronic device;permitting the touch-sensing structure to receive at least an input action inputted by a user if the trigger event conforms to the initiative determination condition; andcontrolling a volume of the hand-held electronic device by the input action.
2. The hand-held electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the trigger event comprises a trigger quantity distribution, a trigger time, a trigger frequency, a trigger morphology or a trigger location.
3. The hand-held electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the touch-sensing structure is a single-layer structure or a double-layer structure.
4. The hand-held electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein a wiring connecting to the touch-sensing structure is gathered to a single side for wiring outlet.
5. The hand-held electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein a width of the touch-sensing structure is less than that of the cover by 5%˜10%.
6. The hand-held electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the volume comprises a ringtone volume, an alarm volume, a notification volume, a microphone volume, an earphone volume or a speaker volume of the hand-held electronic device.
7. The hand-held electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the volume is turned down when the input action is a slide towards a first direction and turned up when the input action is a slide towards a second direction.
8. The hand-held electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the volume is turned up when the input action is a stretch slide and turned down when the input action is a pinch slide.
9. The hand-held electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the area of the touch-sensing structure has a ratio relationship to the area of the panel, and the control unit changes an input position of the touch-sensing structure to a display position of the panel according to the ratio relationship.
10. The hand-held electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the touch-sensing structure is capable of a wireless power transmission.
11. The hand-held electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the touch-sensing cover further comprises a near field communication unit, which comprises a near field communication chip and an antenna, the near field communication chip is electrically connected with the control unit, and the antenna is disposed on the cover or the touch-sensing structure.
12. The hand-held electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the material of the touch-sensing structure comprises metal mesh, metal nanowires, transparent conducting film, carbon nanotube or graphene.
13. The hand-held electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein a user operates the hand-held electronic device by one hand, and the touch-sensing cover faces a light source or the back of the panel faces the light source.
14. A computer-executed method applied to a hand-held electronic device comprising a touch-sensing cover, a panel and a control unit, the method executing, on the hand-held electronic device, following steps of: computing a trigger event of a plurality of detection points on the touch-sensing cover;comparing the trigger event with an initiative determination condition which is pre-stored in the hand-held electronic device;permitting the touch-sensing cover to receive at least an input action inputted by a user if the trigger event conforms to the initiative determination condition; andcontrolling a volume of the hand-held electronic device by the input action.
15. The computer-executed method as recited in claim 14, wherein the trigger event comprises a trigger quantity distribution, a trigger time, a trigger frequency, a trigger morphology or a trigger location.
16. The computer-executed method as recited in claim 15, wherein if the trigger morphology exhibits multiple area contacts, it is determined not to conform to the initiative determination condition, and the volume is not controlled when the trigger morphology is determined not to conform to the initiative determination condition.
17. The computer-executed method as recited in claim 14, wherein the volume comprises a ringtone volume, an alarm volume, a notification volume, a microphone volume, an earphone volume or a speaker volume of the hand-held electronic device.
18. The computer-executed method as recited in claim 14, wherein the volume is turned down when the input action is a slide towards a first direction and turned up when the input action is a slide towards a second direction.
19. The computer-executed method as recited in claim 14, wherein the volume is turned up when the input action is a stretch slide and turned down when the input action is a pinch slide.
20. A touch-sensing cover of a hand-held electronic device comprising the touch-sensing cover, a panel and a control unit, the touch-sensing cover comprising: a cover; anda touch-sensing structure, wherein at least a part of the touch-sensing structure is disposed on the cover and the touch-sensing structure comprises a plurality of detection points;wherein the control unit computes a trigger event of the detection points and compares the trigger event with an initiative determination condition which is pre-stored in the hand-held electronic device, if the trigger event conforms to the initiative determination condition, the touch-sensing structure is permitted to receive at least an input action inputted by a user, and a volume of the hand-held electronic device is controlled by the input action.

Priority Claims (1)

Number	Date	Country	Kind
201410358443.8	Jul 2014	CN	national

HAND-HELD ELECTRONIC DEVICE, COMPUTER-EXECUTED METHOD AND TOUCH-SENSING COVER

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Priority Claims (1)