This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Taiwanese Patent Application No. 098110718, filed Mar. 31, 2009, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to touch detection technologies and, particularly to a method of determining input pattern which is adapted to be implemented on an electronic apparatus equipped with a touch panel and a computer readable storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, touch panel applications on various electronic apparatuses have become more and more popular, and types of gesture for operating touch panels are becoming more and more diversified also. For the aspect of multi-touch gestures, which can perform specific functions e.g., zoom in, zoom out, rotation of image and etc. of the electronic apparatuses in intuitive manners; however, movement spaces provided by small-sized touch panels to the multi-touch gestures are excessive small, which would result in inconvenience of the electronic apparatuses in use and operability and convenience of the electronic apparatuses are limited accordingly.
The present invention provides a method of determining input pattern, adapted to be implemented on an electronic apparatus equipped with a touch panel, so as to improve the operability and convenience of the electronic apparatus.
The present invention further provides a computer readable storage medium having a program stored therein, when the program is executed which enables an electronic apparatus equipped with a touch panel to implement a method of determining input pattern, so that the operability and convenience of the electronic apparatus can be improved.
In order to achieve one of, a part of or all of the above-mentioned objectives, or to achieve other objectives, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method of determining input pattern which is adapted to be implemented on an electronic apparatus equipped with a touch panel. The method of determining input pattern includes the follow steps: detecting a plurality of boundary points between an input pattern inputted through the touch panel and a circumscribed polygon of the input pattern, detecting an area ratio of a polygon defined by the boundary points to the circumscribed polygon; and determining the shape of the input pattern at least according to the area ratio.
In one embodiment, the input pattern is a non-linear pattern.
In one embodiment, degrees of internal angles of the circumscribed polygon respectively are preset fixed values. Moreover, the degrees of the internal angles of the circumscribed polygon can be preset to be identical with each other.
In one embodiment, the step of determining the shape of the input pattern at least according to the area ratio includes: when the area ratio is above an area ratio threshold, determining the input pattern as a circle; and when the area ratio is below the area ratio threshold, determining the input pattern as an arc.
In one embodiment, the determining of the shape of the input pattern is further according to the amount of the boundary points. In this circumstance, the determining of the shape of the input pattern can include the steps of: when the area ratio is above an area ratio threshold and the amount of the boundary points is equal to the amount of sides of the circumscribed polygon, determining the input pattern as a circle; and when the area ratio is below the area ratio threshold or the amount of the boundary points is less than the amount of the sides of the circumscribed polygon, determining the input pattern as an arc.
In one embodiment, during the input of the input pattern, when detecting a touch object used for inputting the input pattern keeps on still on the touch panel for a predetermined time interval or detecting the touch object has left from the touch panel, determining the input of the input pattern is completed. The step of detecting the boundary points and the step of detecting the area ratio are started to be implemented after the input of the input pattern is completed.
In one embodiment, the method of determining input pattern further includes the step of: generating a corresponding identification code according to the determined shape of the input pattern, so as to perform a corresponding operation.
In one embodiment, the method of determining input pattern further includes the step of: when the area of the polygon defined by the boundary points is below an area threshold, determining no the input pattern is inputted.
In one embodiment, the method of determining input pattern further includes the step of: determining the direction of the input pattern according to the order of appearance of the boundary points during the input of the input pattern. The determined direction of the input pattern can be clockwise direction or counter clockwise direction. Moreover, a corresponding identification code can be generated according to both the determined shape and direction of the input pattern, so as to perform a corresponding operation.
In order to achieve one of, a part of or all of the above-mentioned objectives, or to achieve other objectives, another embodiment of the present invention provides a computer readable storage medium having a program stored therein. When the program is executed, which enables an electronic apparatus equipped with a touch panel to implement the determining of the shape and/or direction of an input pattern inputted through the touch panel.
Compared with the prior art, the method of determining input pattern in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention can carry out an input operation which needs multiple fingers in the prior art, by single touch object (e.g., single finger). Accordingly, the drawback associated with the inconvenience of the electronic apparatus in use and resulting from a small-sized touch panel would not provide enough movement space for multi-touch gestures in the prior art can be overcome, and thus the operability and convenience of the electronic apparatus equipped with a touch panel can be greatly improved.
These and other features and advantages of the various embodiments disclosed herein will be better understood with respect to the following description and drawings, in which like numbers refer to like parts throughout, and in which:
a) and (b) illustrate the determining of clockwise circles, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
a) and (b) illustrate the determining of counter clockwise circles, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
A method of determining input pattern in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to accompanying drawings. The method of determining input pattern is adapted to be implemented on an electronic apparatus (not shown) equipped with a touch panel 10.
Referring to
The input pattern is the movement trace of the finger on the touch panel 10. The value of the predetermined time interval can be suitably set according to requirements of practical applications. The finger can be substituted by other touch object for example a stylus. During the input of the input pattern, coordinates of the movement trace of the finger on the touch panel 10 are continuously collected until the input of the input pattern is completed. For example, after the finger keeps on still for several seconds, the input pattern is determined to be completed; or as illustrated in
It is indicated that, the input patterns as illustrated in
After the input of the input pattern is completed, the method of determining input pattern in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention will implement the steps, as illustrated in
The illustration associated with the method of determining input pattern in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention how to determine an input pattern as a circle or an arc will be made below in detail with reference to
Referring to
Herein, since the area ratio of the polygon ABCD to the circumscribed quadrilateral STUV is above a preset area ratio threshold, and the amount of the boundary points between the input pattern 20a and the circumscribed quadrilateral STUV of the input pattern 20a is four which is equal to the amount of sides of the circumscribed quadrilateral STUV, the input pattern 20a accordingly meets the condition of being determined as a circle as illustrated in
Referring to
Herein, an area ratio of the polygon EFG to the circumscribed quadrilateral STUV is below the preset area ratio threshold, the amount of the boundary points between the input patterns 20b and the circumscribed quadrilateral STUV of the input pattern 20b is three which is less than the amount of sides of the circumscribed quadrilateral STUV, the input pattern 20b meets the condition of being determined as an arc accordingly, as illustrated in
It is indicated that, the determining of the shapes of the input patterns 20a, 20b as illustrated in
Referring to
More specifically, as illustrated in
As illustrated in
It is understood that, the above-mentioned approach for determining the directions of the circles also is applicable to other input pattern, for example, determining an input pattern as a clockwise arc or a counter clockwise arc according to the order of appearance of boundary points between the input pattern and a circumscribed quadrilateral of the input pattern.
In addition, it is indicated that the circumscribed polygon in accordance with the above-mentioned embodiment of the present invention is not limited to be a quadrilateral, and can be other polygons e.g., triangle, pentagon, hexagon, etc. Degrees of internal angles of the circumscribed polygon respectively can be preset fixed values, and even the degrees of the internal angles of the circumscribed polygon are identical with each other. Of course, the degrees of the internal angles of the circumscribed polygon can be random rather than preset fixed values, but the complexity of the determining for the boundary points is unfortunately increased. Hereinafter, only the circumstance of degrees of internal angles of a circumscribed polygon being preset fixed values is described in detail with reference to
Referring to
Referring to
In practical applications, in order to avoid the occurrence of a false operation caused by user's careless touch on the touch panel 10, the area of a polygon defined by a plurality of boundary points between an input pattern and a circumscribed polygon of the input pattern is given an area threshold. In particular, when the area of the polygon defined by the boundary points is above the area threshold, determining the input pattern is inputted; whereas, when the area of the polygon defined by the boundary points is below the area threshold, determining no the input pattern is inputted. The setting of the value of the area threshold is relevant to a pixel resolution and a panel size of the touch panel 10.
Moreover, the method of determining input pattern in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention can further include the step of generating a corresponding identification code according to the determined shape and/or direction of the input pattern, so as to perform a corresponding operation e.g., zoom in, zoom out, or rotation, etc.
In summary, the method of determining input pattern in accordance with the above-mentioned embodiment of the present invention can carry out an input operation which needs multiple fingers in the prior art, by single touch object (e.g., single finger). Accordingly, the drawback associated with the inconvenience of the electronic apparatus in use and resulting from a small-sized touch panel would not provide enough movement space for multi-touch gestures in the prior art can be overcome, and thus the operability and convenience of the electronic apparatus equipped with a touch panel can be improved. Of course, the method of determining input pattern in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention is applicable to an electronic apparatus equipped with any sized touch panel, rather than only limited to an electronic apparatus equipped with a small-sized touch panel.
Furthermore, the method of determining input pattern in accordance with the above-mentioned embodiment of the present invention can be stored in a computer readable storage medium as a program. When the program is executed, which enables an electronic apparatus equipped with the touch panel 10 to determine the shape and/or direction of an input pattern inputted through the touch panel 10.
The above description is given by way of example, and not limitation. Given the above disclosure, one skilled in the art could devise variations that are within the scope and spirit of the invention disclosed herein, including configurations ways of the recessed portions and materials and/or designs of the attaching structures. Further, the various features of the embodiments disclosed herein can be used alone, or in varying combinations with each other and are not intended to be limited to the specific combination described herein. Thus, the scope of the claims is not to be limited by the illustrated embodiments.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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098110718 | Mar 2009 | TW | national |