Abstract:
A method and apparatus are provided for displaying data on a touch sensitive display ( 2 ) a detector ( 4 ) and CPU ( 6 ) detect contact with the touch sensitive display ( 2 ) and control the display of data. The system is responsive to a predetermined swiping duration of a finger on the display or to a manual selectable switch to change the display of data between a scrolling of data and a paging of data.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of PCT/GB2010/002045, filed on Aug. 11, 2010, entitled “Touch Sensitive Display” and claims priority to GB 0919516.5, filed on Nov. 6, 2009, and entitled “Touch Sensitive Display”, both of which are incorporated by reference entirely herein for all purposes. 
     This invention relates to a method and apparatus for displaying data on a touch sensitive display. 
     Touch sensitive displays are used in many devices including mobile telephones, PDA&#39;s, and also radio receivers such as internet radios which are able to play a plurality of radio channels provided over the internet and streamed over a WiFi link to the internet radio. 
     In many devices which use touch sensitive displays it is possible to scroll through a list of items on the display by swiping a finger on the touch sensitive display in the direction in which it is desired to scroll. 
     It is a feature of such scrolling systems that in many applications, scrolling stops when the finger is removed from the touch sensitive display. In some systems, the list scrolls at a speed dependent on the speed at which the finger is swiped on the touch sensitive display and continues to scroll whilst decelerating from that speed to a stopping point somewhere further down the list. Systems of this type are described in US2007/0150830 A1. 
    
    
     SUMMARY 
     None of the systems currently available allow users to page through a scrollable list using this type of touch sensitive display system and we have appreciated that this would be a desirable feature to implement. 
     In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a touch sensitive display for displaying a list which is scrollable in response to swiping of a finger on the touch sensitive display, wherein the system is controllable to scroll through the list in response to a swipe or to page through the list in response to a swipe. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described in detail by way of example with reference to the drawings in which: 
         FIG. 1  shows a block diagram of a touch sensitive display system; and 
         FIG. 2  shows a flow diagram of the steps performed in an embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The diagram of  FIG. 1  shows a touch sensitive display  2  which is coupled to a detector  4 . The detector  4  is responsive to signals provided by the touch sensitive display in response to touching of the display. These signals indicate the area of display which is being touched and the detector provides data representative of this to a CPU  6 . When the touch sensitive display  2  is swiped by sliding a finger across the display then the signals provided to the detector  4  changes and thus the data provided to CPU  6  changes. The rate of change of the data is proportional to the speed of swiping of the finger on the display and the change in the data indicates direction and this can be detected by the CPU  6 . 
     A display memory  8  stores data for display on the touch sensitive display  2  and this data is provided under the control of the CPU  6  from system memory  10 . This data may comprise a list of items which may be a list of selectable items, or it may be an electronic document such as a text or image document with or without predefined page breaks. 
     In this embodiment, the CPU is arranged to be responsive to a swipe to page through a list being displayed on the touch sensitive display  2  from the system memory  10  via display memory  8 . When the CPU detects that a swipe has taken place in, for example, the vertical direction with an upwards movement then it controls the system memory  10  and display memory  8  to continue scrolling through the list after the swipe until the item visible at the bottom of the display before the swipe is the top item in the display after the swipe i.e. until a page equivalent to the length of the display area less one line has been displayed. Alternatively the paging can be controlled using the whole length of the display and therefore will not display the item previously at the bottom of the display. Repeated swipes will therefore cause the system to page through the list in a similar manner. 
     When a text document is being displayed, the system can be similarly controlled to display a line of the text previously at the bottom of the display before a swipe at the top of the display after the swipe. Alternatively a full page can be scrolled through and all of the data subsequently displayed will be from the next page in the text document. If the text document contains page breaks, then swiping can be controlled to move the image displayed to the portion following the next page break. 
     In the case of an image a similar control system may be applied. The system can be controlled to move to the portion of the image next adjacent to the previously displayed portion without any overlap being displayed, or alternatively can be controlled to display a small overlap. If page breaks are provided in the image document then the system can be controlled to move to display the portion of the image following the next page break. 
     The system can also be configured to scroll through the list in a manner such as to continue to scroll after removal of the finger beyond the last item displayed before scrolling began. This can be achieved by having the CPU configured to be responsive to different types of swipe, for example, a continuous scrolling could be implemented in response to a long swipe of the finger across most of the display area and paging could be implemented in response to a short hard swipe over only part of the display. Alternatively, a manual switch could be provided to enable the system to switch between two types of scrolling. 
     A flow diagram showing the steps required to implement the embodiment of the invention is illustrated in  FIG. 2 . In this, a swipe on the screen is detected at the decision box  20  (movement detected). If there is movement detected then the system determines at  22  whether paging has been selected. Paging may be selected in response to the speed and length of the swipe or by a manual switch provided on the display unit. If paging has been selected then at  24  the system displays the next page. At  26  a determination is made as to whether or not the finger which performed the swiping has been moved to an edge zone. If it has, and this is the edge zone required to maintain paging in the direction of the swipe then at  28  a next page is displayed and a determination made again at  26  as to whether or not the finger is in the edge zone. When the finger is removed from the edge zone the system returns to the decision box  20  to determine whether or not movement is detected. It will continue to loop around through this decision box until movement is next detected. 
     If a determination is made in response to the speed and length of the swipe or from a manual switch on the unit that paging has not been selected the system passes to decision box  30  to determine whether scrolling has been selected. If it has not then the system returns to the movement detection decision at  20 . If scrolling has been detected then the system starts to scroll data at  32  at a rate dependent on the direction and speed of the swipe of a finger on the touch sensitive display. At  34  a determination is made as to whether the swiping finger has been moved to an edge zone. If it has then at  36  the system continues scrolling before looping round to the decision unit  34 . When the finger is removed from the edge zone then the determination at  34  will be no and the system will again start to look for detected movement at  20 . 
     Using such an arrangement enables a user to page through a list being displayed without losing his place in the list or missing items which he may wish to review.