1. Field of Invention
The disclosure relates to an electronic device and, more particularly, to a touch display device and a control method thereof.
2. Related Art
Although a touch display device becomes lighter, smaller and thinner, some physical hot keys, such as a power button, page-up and page-down keys, a volume button and a home button, are still necessary for intuitive operation. When the touch display device is rotated from an upright mode to a horizontal mode according to the requirement, although the content can be automatically adjusted to be displayed in the horizontal mode, the positions of the hot keys with physical functions for the upright mode cannot be adjusted accordingly. It easily causes the disorientation for users and results in operation errors.
With a touch display device and a control method disclosed herein, the conventional fixed physical hot keys can be replaced. When the touch display device disclosed herein is rotated, the touch event of the user is detected by a detecting module to correspondingly adjust and reset a function control zone. Consequently, the user does not need to comply with the fixed physical hot keys of various devices, but the devices automatically adapt the function control zone to the user instead, so as to avoid disorientation and operation errors, and improve efficiency and comfort feeling in usage.
A touch display device includes a main body, a detecting module and a touch display module. The detecting module includes a plurality of sensing elements to sense a position of a touch event at the main body and provide a touch signal to the detecting module. The touch display module is disposed at the main body and electrically connected to the detecting module. The touch display device generates a function control zone corresponding to the touch position in accordance with the touch signal.
A control method of the touch display device is further provided. The touch display device includes a main body, a detecting module and a touch display module. The detecting module includes a plurality of sensing elements. The touch display module is disposed at the main body and electrically connected to the detecting module.
The control method includes following steps: sensing a touch position of the user at the main body via the sensing elements; generating a touch signal to the detecting module; and generating a function control zone by the touch display device corresponding to the touch position in accordance with the touch signal.
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present disclosure will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings.
A touch display device and a control method thereof in embodiments are illustrated with relating figures, and the same symbols denote the same components.
The touch display device 1 includes a main body 11 and a touch display module 12 disposed at one side of the main body 11. The main body 11 includes a casing 111 covering components therein. The touch display module 12 provides the function of touching control and display. The casing 111 may cover the main body 11 to form a frame as shown in
As shown in
The detecting module 14 includes a plurality of sensing elements 141 electrically connected to the processing module 13 and the touch display module 12. In one embodiment, the sensing elements 141 are disposed around or at the back of the main body 11 for detecting a touch position at the main body 11. The sensing elements 141 may be one or a combination of touch sensors, pressure sensors, temperature sensors and light sensors, which is not limited herein.
To show the position of the detecting module 14 more clearly, as shown in
The sensing elements 141 may be disposed around the accommodation space 113, such as at any position of the casing 111 as shown in
The user usually operates the touch display device by holding, grasping or supporting, and the sensing elements 141 at the back side 114, at periphery, or at the casing 111 of the main body 11 can sense the touch event in different using modes.
The touch position at the main body sensed by the sensing elements is not limited to specific positions. For example, as shown in
The touch position CP may be a point, an area, multiple points or multiple areas at the main body 31a when the user touches. The contact shape CS may be an outline of a touch position or outlines of multiple touch positions respectively at the main body 31a.
In the embodiment, after the sensing elements sense a touch position CP1 and a contact shape CS1 of the thenar eminence and a touch position CP2 and a contact shape CS2 of the thumb, the sensing elements provides the touch signal to the detecting module. The processing module generates a function control zone at the touch position CP1 and CP2 and nearby or at an opposite side for the user to touch according to a signal from the detecting module. The sensing elements also may sense the contact area of the user.
As shown in
It is not limited to three function control zones, and one, two or more function control zones also may be formed. For example, a function control zone not only may be correspondingly formed at the touch display module independently, but also may be correspondingly formed at the touch display module simultaneously to avoid that the finger already touches the function control zone when the sensing elements sense a touch event.
The distance between the function control zone and the touch position, the size and the shape of the function control zone are not limited. The function control zone can be formed in any size or any shape as shown in
When the user touches the position at the main body where the sensing elements are disposed, the touch display device generates the function control zone corresponding to the touch position for the user to control, and thus the physical hot keys are not needed.
The touch display device not only generates the function control zones 351d and 352d according to the touch event, but also can defines the function control units FU1 to FU4 at appropriate positions to facilitate operation according to hand characteristics and different holding habits. The function control units FU1 to FU4 can used to control power consuming, displayed page up and down, volume adjustment or back home, which is not limited herein.
The sensing elements can sense a touch event instantly and the touch display device 3a will generate new function control zones 353a and 354a. Thus, the user does not need to look for target icons or recall memories of the various positions to find the physical hot keys, and further to instantly and intuitively operate the touch display device 3a. Thus the disorientation and operation errors are reduced.
When the sensing elements are disposed at the periphery 315a, no matter where the user holds or grasps at any position around the touch display device, the function control zone can be formed. Even the touch positions of two hands at the main body are not at the same level of height, such as one touch position is higher or lower than the other, the function control zone can be formed at the touch position, nearby, or at the opposite side of the touch position.
In the embodiment, the touch display module 52 displays two auxiliary control units 561 and 562 corresponding to the function control zone 551a for visual auxiliary to help the user to touch easily and precisely. It is to be understood, the displayed auxiliary control units 561 and 562 at the touch display module 52 disclosed in this embodiment includes visual image functions only, they're not the same as it is disclosed in previous embodiment that the function control zone generated at the touch display module 52 is for receiving touch events to execute corresponding functions.
However, according to the concept above, additional display module also may be disposed in the periphery to directly display the auxiliary control unit at the same position. Furthermore, since the touch display module includes touch detection function and image display function, the touch display module of the touch display device can be extended to the edge or even the back side of the main body to achieve both visual and touch detecting functions.
A control method of a touch display device is also provided herein. The touch display device applying the control method includes a main body, a detecting module and a touch display module. The detecting module includes a plurality of sensing elements. The touch display module is disposed at the main body and electrically connected to the detecting module. The component structures and technology features are the same as that of the touch display device in the embodiments above, which is omitted herein.
In sum, a touch display device and a control method disclosed herein detect a touch position (or a touch position and a contact shape of a hand in holding) of the user at a main body via a detecting module and sensing elements, even after the main body is rotated, and a function control zone is generated correspondingly to receive a touch event. Different function control units can be further defined according to different fingers to form an operation interface. Consequently, the touch display device can spontaneously adapt to different holding ways of the user, and it can improve the convenience without looking for physical hot keys around the main body and avoid disorientation or operation errors.
Conventionally, the positions of physical hot keys are fixed to facilitate learning and memorizing the operations in a fixed operation direction. However, since the locations of the hot keys cannot be adjusted along with displayed content synchronously, the operation habits limited by hardware would become a main reason of recognition difficulty and operation errors after the rotation of the touch display device. In contrast, with the touch display device and the control method thereof in the embodiment, the conventional physical hot keys can be replaced. Furthermore, the position of the function control unit can be defined according to hand characteristics of different users, so as to improve efficiency and comfort feeling in usage.
Although the present invention has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, the disclosure is not for limiting the scope. Persons having ordinary skill in the art may make various modifications and changes without departing from the scope. Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the preferred embodiments described above.
The application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application with Ser. No. 61/383,338 filed on Sep. 16, 2010. This and all other extrinsic materials discussed herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61383338 | Sep 2010 | US |