Patent Application
20190138199
The application relates to a touch sensitive display screen, particularly to a touch sensitive display screen which can detect a finger swipe gesture.
Many consumer device screens have swipe and pinch gesture features. People are so used to such features, that they make such gestures almost automatically, or as a matter of habit.
According to one aspect, a touch sensitive display screen system for performing a touch screen finger swipe operation includes a touch sensitive display having a screen edge along an outer screen perimeter. A processor is communicatively coupled to the touch sensitive display and operatively coupled to a memory. The processor runs a trigger on release button process stored on the memory. The touch sensitive display displays at least one trigger on release button defined by a button area disposed at about an edge of the touch sensitive display as an edge button. A finger swipe motion from a position on the touch sensitive display outside of the button area, to the edge button and continuing over the screen edge, causes an action to be performed by the processor based on an indication of a screen swipe event.
In one embodiment, the touch sensitive display includes a display of a controller device.
In another embodiment, the edge button is displayed adjacent to a right edge of the touch sensitive display or adjacent to a left edge of the touch sensitive display.
In yet another embodiment, the button area includes a visible display area on the touch sensitive display.
In yet another embodiment, the visible display area includes an icon or text indicative of a function of the edge button.
In yet another embodiment, the button area includes a display area not visible on the touch sensitive display.
In yet another embodiment, the touch sensitive display screen system includes a display screen of a controller device of a water heater.
In yet another embodiment, the at least one trigger on release button includes the edge button having a rectangular button area that runs along about an entire left edge or about an entire right edge outer screen perimeter of the touch sensitive display.
In yet another embodiment, the touch sensitive display screen system includes a plurality of edge buttons disposed along a left edge or a right edge or any combination thereof of the outer screen perimeter of the touch sensitive display.
According to another aspect, a method, includes, at a controller device with a touch screen display: placing an edge button, about adjacent to an outer edge of the touch screen display, the edge button including a trigger on release bottom type; indicating by a processor of a controller, a finger swipe which begins from anywhere on a touch screen other than a button area of the edge button, and which moves while in contact with a surface of the touch screen over the edge button and then off a screen edge, as a detection of the finger swipe; and causing the controller device to take an action based on the detection of the finger swipe.
In one embodiment, the step of placing the edge button includes placing a visible edge button.
In another embodiment, the step of placing the edge button includes placing an invisible edge button.
In yet another embodiment, the controller includes a controller of a water heater.
According to yet another aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium for processing a swipe gesture, the non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions instruction which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to: receive a detection of a swipe gesture via a touch screen, wherein the detection of the swipe gesture includes a finger swipe which begins from anywhere on the touch screen other than a button area of a touch screen trigger on release button as an edge button, and which moves while in contact with a surface of the touch screen over the edge button and then off a screen edge; and to provide an indication of a detected finger swipe to cause an action by the computer based on the indication of the detected finger swipe.
The foregoing and other aspects, features, and advantages of the application will become more apparent from the following description and from the claims.
The features of the application can be better understood with reference to the drawings described below, and the claims. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead generally being placed upon illustrating the principles described herein. In the drawings, like numerals are used to indicate like parts throughout the various views.
Many consumer device screens have swipe and pinch gesture features. Such computationally intensive screen systems locate, follow, and react to finger touch points and finger movement anywhere on a touch sensitive screen, such as a capacitive touch screen. One problem is that advanced features such as the swipe function are expensive to provide and support when using less powerful controllers. The new “edge buttons” of the Application mimic the screen swipe function while using only minimal controller (processor) resources.
Press events and release events: Buttons on an electronic display (computer monitor or touchscreen) can be triggered on multiple events including a button Press Event or a Release Event. When a button is programmed to trigger on a Release Event, the button is activated when the user lifts their finger when the finger is above the button. To cancel the user just needs to move their finger off the button while still pressing. This is done to give the user the opportunity to “cancel” their choice after that have pressed the button.
In
Solution—Trigger on release edge buttons which mimic the screen swipe feature
Using this press event and release event functionality, the edge button forces the button to be released when the user is still on the button. It was realized that the position of the edge button at about a physical edge of the display, does not allow the user to lift their finger off the button in a way that can be detected by pixels of the touch sensitive display, when moving in a left-right motion (for a right side edge button) or right-left motion (for a left side edge button). There is no additional screen space for the user to lift their finger, so the finger lift appears to the processor, to occur when the finger is still over the button.
For example, in
Detection of a swipe gesture, typically a finger swipe, of the prior art relies on detection and movement of the finger over many sensitive pixels. As the technology has advanced, swipe detection has grown to include velocity of movement, acceleration of movement, vector directions, both straight line and curved, and even a varying pressure applied to the screen as a function of time.
What is different is that in the new system and method according to the Application is that, a swipe gesture can be detected in effect with a single point of data. Because an edge button is at a physical edge of the touch sensitive display screen, direction is established merely by the location of the edge button itself. That is, the finger gesture must by definition begin at some point within the screen and move towards, and the over the edge button and over the edge of the display. Each edge button thus, establishes about the direction of the swipe from inside the screen (within the edge perimeter) to, and over the edge button. For example, an edge button located at the right edge of the display defines a left to right finger wipe direction of motion to cause a finger swipe detection. Moreover, within some limits of the timing of the trigger on release button type, which is either fixed, or in some embodiments can be set to any suitable time scales, there is no need to measure speed and/or rate of acceleration of the finger movement over the screen. There only needs to be a positive detection by the trigger on release button that a finger has been registered as “pushing” the button.
It can now be better understood that while the original intent of the new system and method according to the Application was to save processor overhead (processing cost) for relatively inexpensive controller touch screens (economic cost), the benefits of overall efficiency are considerable and can apply more widely to any suitable touch screen or touch sensitive surface, including any suitable multifunction device ranging from smart phones, video gaming to all types of commercial and industrial controllers.
On detection of a finger swipe gesture by a finger so passing over an edge button, the processor can take some action based on the detection of the finger swipe gesture associated with or assigned to that edge button. There can be any suitable number of edge buttons about adjacent to any outer physical edge of the touch display. Typically, the edge buttons will be aligned along a right side edge of the touch display to detect a swipe right direct motion, along the left edge of the touch display to detect a left swipe motion, or any combination thereof.
An action performed by a processor or controller can be any suitable action which can be programmatically controlled. For example, a right swipe gesture can cause another page to be displayed on a controller. The another page can further have edge buttons associated with other actions. One of those edge buttons can, for example, cause the processor or controller to display the last page. Other suitable actions include more hardware oriented actions. For example, an edge button can cause a calibration routine page to be displayed by a controller of a water heater. An edge button on the calibration page can cause a calibration routine to begin. Or, an edge button of water heater controller can cause a diagnostic mode to begin, a diagnostic page to show, or a certain set of measured parameters indicative of a state of the water heater at that time or at some time in the past where performance data was previously recorded. Or, and edge button can part of a controller set up page, where, for example, the presence of a certain electronics card is chosen as part of factory or field configuration routine. These exemplary actions are merely exemplary non-limiting illustrations of the any suitable actions which a processor or controller could take based on detection of finger swipe.
It is understood that an edge button as described hereinabove can be provided by running code on any suitable processor, typically a microcomputer embedded in the display, or a microcomputer which operates the display. Any suitable processor can be used, including any suitable logic devices, programmable arrays, etc. which can execute a computer code to show the edge buttons on the screen and provide the desired trigger on release operation. It is unimportant whether the processor is physically part of the display, or on a separate board or module which controls a touch sensitive display. The processor is typically operatively coupled to at least one memory device of any suitable memory device type. A computer as used herein includes any suitable processor operatively coupled to any suitable memory to perform a finger swipe gesture by a finger pass over an edge button of a trigger on release type button as described hereinabove.
Firmware or software to cause edge trigger on release buttons as described hereinabove can be provided on a computer readable non-transitory storage medium. A computer readable non-transitory storage medium as non-transitory data storage includes any data stored on any suitable media in a non-fleeting manner Such data storage includes any suitable computer readable non-transitory storage medium, including, but not limited to hard drives, non-volatile ROM or RAM, SSD devices, CDs, DVDs, etc.
It will be appreciated that variants of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be combined into many other different systems or applications. Various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations, or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
This application claims priority to and the benefit of co-pending U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/582,572, TOUCHSCREEN EDGE BUTTONS PROVIDE A SWIPE EFFECT WITH MINIMAL CONTROLLER RESOURCES, filed Nov. 7, 2017, which application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62582572 | Nov 2017 | US |
