Patent Application
20070171188
The present invention relates generally to handheld electronic devices. More particularly, it relates to a sensor that illuminates one or more user controls for a handheld device if the device is being held within the hand of a user.
A rich variety of handheld electronic devices are presently available to consumers. These include portable media players, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, remote control units, still and video cameras, handheld computers, calculators, satellite positioning units, and home maintenance tools such as laser levelers. The trend today is to merge selected functional capabilities of existing tool types into new composite device classes. Miniaturization, computerization, the enormous opportunity and intense competition in the consumer electronics marketplace, and a growing awareness of the need for interoperability among electronic devices are also driving the development of ever smaller, yet more complex, handheld devices.
Exemplifying this trend, early mobile phones simply supported the sending and receiving of telephone communications. Within a few short years, hundreds of features have been incorporated into mobile phones, including extensive digital address books, voice mail, call forwarding and call waiting capabilities, alarms, still and video photography, radio reception, games, text messaging, and Internet access.
To provide the user with access to such extensive functionality, handheld devices today must necessarily have a multitude of tiny controls, including buttons, switches, dials, and often a flat panel display delivering a graphical user interface (GUI). A GUI, exploiting computer technology, can provide a nearly limitless and sometimes bewildering hierarchy of on-screen virtual controls (e.g., menus, trees, and buttons). Additionally, a handheld device may have one or more ports or connections for interoperation with other equipment. Connection capability might be provided, for example, for power connections or for wireless, FireWire, or Universal Serial Bus (USB) communications.
Hereinafter, we shall use the term “control” to encompass any component (tangible or visual) designed to allow the user to interact with the device, modifying its state or invoking its functional features. Thus, such handheld device components as connectors, ports, and antennas shall also (i.e., in addition to components more obviously regarded as controls, such as buttons, switches, and GUI controls) be considered controls within the broad sense intended by our use of the word.
To access device features through a GUI, the user must necessarily look at the device. But even if a device such as a television remote control unit utilizes only tangible controls (e.g., buttons), a number of factors conspire to render purely tactile operation relatively difficult-the small size of the typical device, the enormous variety of capabilities, and the lack of standardization of the controls (often even among similar products from a single manufacturer). Moreover, unlike controls that many people learn once for a lifetime to operate solely by physical touch, such as the basic controls for driving a motor vehicle and the buttons of a QWERTY keyboard, the rapid improvement in handheld electronic devices for almost every aspect of life at home and at work causes frequent changes in control configuration. To take advantage of innovation, one must be willing to repeatedly start over in learning how to effectively manipulate device controls.
Thus, whether navigating a GUI or utilizing a complex and not completely familiar handheld device, being able to actually view the controls by eye is critical to operation of the device. For visibility, a GUI must typically be backlighted when in use at any time of day. Tactile controls, such as buttons, must be illuminated to be visible in an environment where ambient lighting is limited. With respect to the need for connector visibility, it perhaps suffices to say that a square peg cannot be put into a round hole.
A handheld device today usually spends at least a phase of its daily life cycle in a wire-free configuration, during which the device is powered by battery. Whether a handheld device is adapted to rechargeable batteries, non-rechargeable batteries, or both, the usefulness of the device when deployed wire-free is constrained by the lifetime of the battery charge. During an interval while the device controls are lighted, a significant drain may be imposed on the battery charge. Most handheld electronic devices, therefore, have control lights that are first illuminated upon the occurrence of an initial triggering event, such as the opening of the cover of a flip phone. Typically, the control lights go off automatically after a fixed interval of time, measured either from the initial triggering event itself or from the most recent control manipulation by the user (e.g., a button press on a cell phone).
This involuntary shutdown of control lighting based upon an arbitrary criterion outside the user's control is inconvenient indeed if, for whatever reason, the user is unable to complete an interaction with the device before the lighting times out. With a cell phone in particular, the user must typically press another key or dose and reopen the phone to make the control lights come back on. Such arbitrary signals to the device, given with the intention of restoring lighting, are usually disruptive of the command that the user had been in the midst of communicating to the device when the control lighting failed. For example, if the lights go out while a user, sitting in the back seat of a dark automobile, is typing a target number into a cell phone, then he might be presented with the choice of starting over (e.g., by closing and reopening the lid) or pressing another number key (which he would then have to figure out how to undo). It is easy to imagine emergency situations in which having the lights of a cell phone remain lit might prevent disaster. On the other hand, continuing to illuminate the controls beyond the time period during which control visibility is needed wastes the battery charge.
In addition to their suboptimal handling of the timing of illumination of controls, prior art devices require that the user initially trigger illumination by means of an affirmative action-the flip of a switch, the press of a button, or the opening of a cover. This step is logically superfluous at best.
The present invention is designed to address these problems in the prior art handheld devices regarding illumination of controls; namely, that (1) control lighting turns off automatically at unintended times; (2) control lighting stays on after it is no longer in use, unnecessarily draining the battery charge; (3) triggering the illumination of control lighting requires an affirmative and sometimes superfluous act of the user; and (4) such an affirmative act to initially illuminate, or to re-illuminate the controls in the midst of communicating a command (e.g., entering the digits of a phone number), might result in an undesirable signal being sent to the device.
The present invention is a sensor, which can be incorporated into nearly any handheld device, that illuminates the control lighting while a user holds the device in her hand. The sensor can distinguish a human hand from an inanimate holder, so that the controls do not inappropriately become automatically illuminated when the device rests within, say, a dashboard retainer in a motor vehicle or a docking station connecting the device to a computer or a sound system.
In one embodiment, the sensor includes two regions of electrically conductive material on the surface of the handheld device. The sensor detects a voltage change when a person grips the device, and illuminates the control lights. When the user puts the device down, the sensor detects that as well, turning the control lights off. The sensor exploits the differences in electrical properties between an inanimate holder and a human hand.
In the preferred embodiment, for a handheld device whose shape approximates a rectangular solid, the sensor includes two strips of metal protruding slightly from opposite sides of the device and an electronic detector within the device that can turn illumination of controls on or off depending on whether the device is being held at a given time. In this embodiment, the sensor includes a capacitance switch operated by touch.
In some situations, the user might want the control lights to be illuminated when they are not grasping the device, or unilluminated while they are holding it. For this reason, the device may optionally be equipped with a switch (or a functional equivalent) whereby the user can override the sensor, manually turning the control lights on or off as desired. When a manual override is used to illuminate the lights, the device can be configured to turn the control lights off either after a given interval of inactivity or upon an affirmative signal from the user. Optionally, parameters controlling some or all automated behavior related to illumination of controls may be set by the user.
a is a front view of a handheld device equipped with the sensor of the present invention.
b is a top view of a handheld device equipped with the sensor of the present invention, shown when a human hand is gripping the device.
a shows a front view of an illustrative handheld device 100 equipped with the sensor of the present invention. A typical handheld device 100, such as a mobile phone or a portable media player, will have a variety of controls to provide the user with an interface to the functionality of the device. The particular device of
The present invention consists of a sensor that can be incorporated into most types of handheld devices 100 and that can (1) detect when the device 100 is being held and (2) distinguish the grasp of a human from that of an inanimate holder. In one embodiment, the sensor consists of two touch zones 110 on the surface of the device 100, connected internally within the device by an electrical circuit 200. The circuit 200 senses when a human hand is in contact with the two touch zones 110, causing one or more lamps 210 within the device to illuminate one or more controls, connectors, or other components. For example, in a portable media player or a mobile phone, the backlight 210 for a flat panel screen 120 would be illuminated, as well as possibly selected switches or buttons.
In the preferred configuration of the external touch zones 110 shown in FUG. 1a, the sensor includes two metal strips 110 embedded within, and projecting slightly out from opposite side surfaces of the device 100. The top view of the handheld device 100 shown in
Other embodiments of the invention might contain a single touch zone 110, or many touch zones 110. Also, the shape of a touch zone 110 need not be rectangular. The essence of the invention is that the sensor turns on the control illumination when a designated form of human contact with the sensor is established and maintained.
In an actual implementation, one or more lights 210 would be arranged to illuminate GUI screens, buttons, and other controls, connectors, and components as desired. For example, a GUI in a flat panel screen 120 might be illuminated by a backlight.
Under some circumstances, it might be desirable for the controls to be illuminated even when the user is not holding the device 100 or, conversely, to be dimmed when the device 100 is being held. The device 100 can optionally incorporate one or more switches to suppress automation of control lighting and dimming. Such switches might be of any kind, such as a buttons, toggles, or voice operated switches.
The present invention is not limited to all the above details, as modifications and variations may be made without departing from the intent or scope of the invention. Consequently, the invention should be limited only by the following claims and equivalent constructions.
