Abstract:
A multi-functional touchpad remote controller has multiple functional modes to select therefrom and has a touchpad to support touch input. Different patterns may be shown on the touchpad for different functional modes. For the current operation mode, the specific pattern shown on the touchpad allows simple and intuitive to use the multi-functional touchpad remote controller.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. section 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/183,228, filed on Jun. 2, 2009. This application also claims the foreign priority benefit under 35 U.S.C. section 119(a) of Taiwanese Patent Application No. 098137933, filed on Nov. 9, 2009. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention is related generally to a remote controller and, more particularly, to a multi-functional touchpad remote controller. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    Remote controllers have been used for a long time in various household appliances such as TV sets, air conditioners, audio/video equipment, electric fans and the like as well as in electrically controllable units such as toys and electrically operated gates. Nowadays, both concepts and products of multimedia computers for use in home theaters become increasingly developed. Such multimedia computers have multimedia components integrated into personal computers and output multimedia information on large-scale displays such as TV sets, projectors or the like, and it has now become possible to have calculation units or integrated circuits with powerful multimedia functions incorporated into large-scale displays. Even further, Microsoft Corporation has developed Media Center Edition (MCE) Operation System, which provides humanity-oriented operation interfaces for multimedia playing so as to allow users, by means of remote controllers, to enjoy a wide variety of digital entertainment programs, e.g., photographs, music, TV programs, movies, home videos, broadcasts, and worldwide programs and services. This tendency towards multimedia integration requires the remote controllers to undertake more tasks. However, nearly all existing technologies focus only on improvement of host terminals but neglect the inconveniences caused by the remote controllers. 
         [0004]    Conventional, a typical remote controller is advantageous in that it is intuitive and convenient to operate. Such a remote controller is provided with around twenty buttons, which occupy most of the surface area of the remote controller. If the remote controller is made to have a smaller volume, the buttons would become too small and too dense, making them difficult to operate. On the contrary, if the buttons are made to be relatively larger and sparser, the remote controller would have a bulky volume. For an integrated system, in order to manipulate more kinds of media devices, the remote controller needs to have more buttons, for example, a power switch, audio volume setting buttons, channel selection buttons, numeral buttons, skip buttons, selection buttons of various media functions, operational buttons of single media functions, upward, downward, rightward and leftward movement buttons, a playing button, a reverse button, a fast forward button, a stop button, a recording button and the like. It is much inconvenient for users to choose a desired button among so many buttons without mistakenly depressing other buttons during the operation. 
         [0005]    One solution to reduce the number of buttons of a remote controller is to integrate a lot of different functions into some common buttons. For example, selection of a media or function item is accomplished by use of a functional button and direction buttons, so operations through several layers of menus must be performed in order to select an item. Especially, as systematic or media functions become more diversified and complex gradually, operation through several layers of menus is more inconvenient. It is possible that several actions have to be done by users with a dexterous hand in order to accomplish a single control. Even with such integration, the number of buttons of a remote controller may still amount to twenty-five to thirty; moreover, the operation becomes more complex, making it more likely to cause mal-operations. The complex operation usually hinders those unskilled in operating remote controllers to use such a remote controller, for example, the elders, children, those having poor eyesight, those hand-handicapped and those unaccustomed to computer operations. 
         [0006]    Use of button operations may also cause limitations on some control functions. For instance, when the remote controller is used to adjust the audio volume, depressing the volume increase or decrease button for the first time will result in appearance of a volume bar, and every subsequent depressing will result in increase or decrease of the audio volume by one unit; and continuous depressing on the button will result in increase or decrease of the audio volume at a fixed changing rate. The same also applies to channel adjustment. When the remote controller is used to adjust luminance, contrast or color of a screen, the user must firstly operate a corresponding button to invoke the specific function and, consequently, an adjustment bar, and then depress the increase or decrease button to increase or decrease the corresponding parameter value by on unit for each depressing operation. If the button is continuously depressed, the parameter value will be increased or decreased at a fixed changing rate. It is impossible to quickly achieve a desired setting in this way of operation. Another way of adjustment is to operate a corresponding button to invoke the specific function and then input a numeric value by depressing numeral buttons so as to have the numeric value come into effect after a while. The latter way of operation is mostly used for channel selection, and still requires the user to look for a specific button on the remote controller. 
         [0007]    As currently many electronic products have various multimedia devices integrated therein, it is apparent that functions of the conventional remote controllers have become inadequate for applications in multi-functional systems; for example, it is impossible to execute functions of zooming in, zooming out, dragging and rotating of a frame as well as touch input. 
         [0008]    Therefore, it is desired an easy-to-use multi-functional remote controller. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    An object of the present invention is to propose an easy-to-use multi-functional touchpad remote controller. 
         [0010]    According to the present invention, a multi-functional touchpad remote controller has a touchpad to detect operation of an object thereon, and multiple light guide films beneath the touchpad for different functional modes respectively. 
         [0011]    According to the present invention, a control method for a multi-functional touchpad remote controller having a touchpad comprises enabling an operation mode selected from a plurality of functional modes according to a first control signal, and manipulating a game role with the touchpad responsive to a second control signal if a game controller mode is enabled. 
         [0012]    According to the present invention, a control method for a multi-functional touchpad remote controller having a touchpad comprises enabling an operation mode selected from a plurality of functional modes according to a control signal, and detecting a number of objects on the touchpad to determine how to operate if a mouse mode is enabled. In the mouse mode, when the number is one, a pointer on a controlled device is controlled to move or click responsive to movement or clicking of a detected object on the touchpad, and when the number is two, a command is generated depending on an action combination of two detected objects on said touchpad. 
         [0013]    According to the present invention, a control method for a multi-functional touchpad remote controller having a touchpad comprises enabling a game controller mode, defining a movement control zone and a functional button control zone on the touchpad, detecting an object movement on said movement control zone to control movement of a game role, and detecting a touched position on said functional button control zone to trigger a functional button which is defined for said touched position. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0014]    These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
           [0015]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a system according to the present invention, in which a multi-functional touchpad remote controller is used to control a controlled device; 
           [0016]      FIG. 2  is a schematic view illustrating operations when using a multi-functional touchpad remote controller according to the present invention; 
           [0017]      FIG. 3  illustrates the keyboard mode of an embodiment control method for a multi-functional touchpad remote controller according to the present invention; 
           [0018]      FIG. 4  illustrates the game controller mode of an embodiment control method for a multi-functional touchpad remote controller according to the present invention; 
           [0019]      FIG. 5  illustrates the biometrics identifier mode of an embodiment control method for a multi-functional touchpad remote controller according to the present invention; 
           [0020]      FIG. 6  illustrates the writing pad mode of an embodiment control method for a multi-functional touchpad remote controller according to the present invention; 
           [0021]      FIG. 7  illustrates the remote controller mode of an embodiment control method for a multi-functional touchpad remote controller according to the present invention; 
           [0022]      FIG. 8  illustrates the mouse mode of an embodiment control method for a multi-functional touchpad remote controller according to the present invention; 
           [0023]      FIG. 9  illustrates the presenter mode of an embodiment control method for a multi-functional touchpad remote controller according to the present invention; 
           [0024]      FIG. 10  illustrates a first embodiment of a multi-functional touchpad remote controller according to the present invention, which uses multiple light guide films; and 
           [0025]      FIG. 11  illustrates a second embodiment of a multi-functional touchpad remote controller according to the present invention, which uses a multi-layered light guide film. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0026]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a system according to the present invention, in which a multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  is used to control a controlled device  16 . The multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  includes a touchpad  12  and a function selection unit  14 . The touchpad  12  detects the object(s) thereon and the operations of the object(s) to determine control signals S 1  and S 2  which are sent to the function selection unit  14  and the controlled device  16 , respectively, to switch between multiple functional modes and to control the controlled device  16 . Responsive to the control signal S 1 , the function selection unit  14  enables an operation mode selected from the multiple functional modes and directs the controlled device  16  to display a menu or a graphic interface by a control signal S 3 , so that the user may be informed of the selected functional mode. The control signal S 1  may be generated by touching one of a group of functional buttons defined on the touchpad  12 , or by performing a gesture on the touchpad  12 . Preferably, the gesture may be defined by the user. According to the selected functional mode, the control signal S 2  includes commands to instruct the controlled device  16 . In other embodiments, as shown in  FIG. 1 , the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  may include an auxiliary element  18 , e.g. a button, to generate the control signal S 1 , so that the user may quickly select an operation mode or switch between the multiple functional modes. 
         [0027]      FIG. 2  is a schematic view illustrating operations when using a multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  according to the present invention. In this case, the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  has two touchpads  20 ,  22 , a button assembly  26  including a button  24 , a group of biosensors  28  at both sides of the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10 , and a function selection unit (not shown in  FIG. 2 ). When the user presses the button  24 , a control signal is generated to signal the function selection unit within the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  as shown in  FIG. 1 , to direct a controlled device to display an operation interface  32  on a display  30 , which includes multiple icons, such as a game controller  40 , a presenter  42 , a keyboard  44 , a biometrics identifier  46 , a writing pad  48 , a mouse  50 , a remote controller  52 , representative of the options for the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  able to operate the controlled device. When the operation interface  32  is displayed, a functional mode dialog  34  appears at the center of the operation interface  32  to indicate the functional mode to be selected. When the user moves his finger on the touchpad  20  or  22 , the position of the user&#39;s finger is displayed by the operation interface  32  as a pointer  36  on the display  30 . As the pointer  36  moves among the selectable icons, the name of the functional mode currently pointed by the pointer  36  will be displayed by the functional mode dialog  34 , which makes it convenient for the user to know which functional mode is represented by the pointed icon. Once an icon is clicked, the corresponding functional mode will be activated. In other embodiments, a group of functional buttons may be defined on the touchpad  20  or  22  to replace the button assembly  26 ; alternatively, instead of pressing the button  24 , a gesture may be performed by the user on the touchpad  20  or  22  to display the operation interface  32  on the display  30 . 
         [0028]      FIGS. 3-9  schematically illustrate the operations of the functional modes in a control method of the system shown in  FIG. 2 . 
         [0029]      FIG. 3  illustrates the keyboard mode. When the keyboard icon  44  shown in  FIG. 2  is clicked, the keyboard mode is enabled, and a graphic interface defining a virtual keyboard  70  is displayed on the display  30 . As two fingers  62  and  64  move on the touchpads  20  and  22 , pointers  66  and  68  representative of the fingers  62  and  64  on the touchpads  20  and  22  will be displayed on the display  30  so that the user can know the positions of the fingers  62  and  64  directly from the pointers  66  and  68  without having to look at the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10 . In this keyboard mode, the touchpads  20  and  22  are defined as sensing blocks corresponding to the virtual keyboard  70 , which includes virtual keys defined as the keys of basic symbols, numerals or English letters on the virtual keyboard  70 . By operating the touchpads  20  and  22  with the fingers  62  and  64 , corresponding key input is accomplished as typing on the virtual keyboard  70 . 
         [0030]      FIG. 4  illustrates the game controller mode. When the game controller icon  40  shown in  FIG. 2  is clicked, the game controller mode is enabled, and the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  becomes a game pad by rotating it to the horizontal orientation. In this embodiment, the touchpads  20  and  22  are defined as a movement control zone and a functional button control zone, respectively. Functions of the touchpads  20  and  22  may be swapped with each other depending on the user&#39;s habits. When playing a game, through movement of the finger  62  on the touchpad  20 , movement of a game role  74  on the game interface  72  is controlled correspondingly. Because progress of the game is controlled directly by movement of the finger  62 , a more convenient hand feeling is obtained as compared to the typical four-directional, eight-directional or analog game pads. Furthermore, by slightly touching the positions defined as the functional buttons on the touchpad  22  with the finger  64 , the game role  74  will be enabled to perform a corresponding action, for example, firing bullets  76 . 
         [0031]      FIG. 5  illustrates the biometrics identifier mode. When the biometrics identifier icon  46  shown in  FIG. 2  is clicked, the biometrics identifier mode is enabled, and a biometrics interface  82  is displayed on the display  30 . When the user places his fingers  62  and  64  on the biosensors  20  shown in  FIG. 2 , a loop circuit will be established by the user and the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10 , so that a bio-signal  84 , e.g. heart beat information, of the user may be sensed by the biosensors  20  and displayed in a bio-signal displaying window  86 . Through the measurement, a database of the user&#39;s own bio-signals can be established in a user database  88  of the biometrics interface  82 . The user database  88  may be configured to store bio-signals of different users. As each user&#39;s bio-signal  84  has its own unique characteristics, identity of the current user of the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  may be identified by comparing the data sensed by the biosensors with those of the database. The aforesaid identification function has a lot of advantages and may be used in a lot of situations, for example, to validate a user&#39;s identity in a computer game competition or to provide a data confidentiality function for the user so as to greatly improve the security as compared to the conventional password approaches. Alternatively, by establishing in the user database  88  interrelations between identities of individual users and their preference settings, preference settings, e.g., audio volume, picture quality, etc., of a user can be chosen automatically once the user identity is determined. On the other hand, these preference settings may be also used to prevent minors at home from accessing unhealthy media information such as violent programs, games and so on. 
         [0032]      FIG. 6  illustrates the writing pad mode. Once the writing pad icon  48  shown in  FIG. 2  is clicked, the writing pad mode is enabled, and a writing input window  96  is popped up for the user to input texts, symbols or freehand graphics. As the user&#39;s finger  92  slightly touches and slides on the touchpad  22 , the movement trace of the finger  92  appears in the writing input window  96 . The movement trace is then identified by text recognition software to accomplish the purpose of inputting texts or symbols. In other embodiments, a drawing recognition program or an image processing program may be also used in combination to input a desired image by hand on the touchpad  22 . 
         [0033]      FIG. 7  illustrates the remote controller mode. When the remote controller icon  52  shown in  FIG. 2  is clicked, the remote controller mode is enabled, and a graphic interface defining a virtual remote controller  100  is displayed on the display  30 . The touchpad  22 , corresponding to the portion  104  of the virtual remote controller  100  displayed on the display  30 , is defined with input buttons thereon, e.g., numeral buttons, enter button, delete button, etc. The other touchpad  20  may be defined with different functional buttons thereon; for example, the portion  102  of the virtual remote controller  100  shown in  FIG. 7  includes functional buttons for upward or downward channel selection, audio volume adjustment, muting and so on. As the finger  64  slightly touches and slides on the touchpads  20  and  22 , a pointer  106  displayed on the display  30  moves correspondingly to facilitate selection of individual buttons by the user from the graphic interface  100 . In this mode, the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  may be further configured into a plurality of functional modes to respond to different controlled devices. For example, in a TV remote controller mode, the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  may be used to select a TV channel; in a VCR remote controller mode, the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  may be used to control playing, fast forward or selection of a section of a movie to watch; and in a jukebox remote controller mode, the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  may be used to select a music piece. 
         [0034]      FIG. 8  illustrates the mouse mode. When the mouse icon  50  shown in  FIG. 2  is clicked, the mouse mode is enabled. Besides that the functions of a typical mouse, such as moving a cursor, single-click for selection, double-click for execution, may be accomplished, it may also be defined that actions made by two fingers  62  and  64  on the touchpads  20  and  22  trigger different commands, e.g., paging up or down, zooming in or out, and rotation, so as to make it convenient for the user to browse a file. In  FIG. 8 , if both the fingers  62  and  64  slide towards the leftwards directions  112  and  116  on the touchpads  20  and  22  at the same time, it represents that a “page up” instruction will be issued; or if both the fingers  62  and  64  slide towards the rightwards directions  114  and  118  at the same time, it represents that a “page down” instruction will be issued. If the fingers  62  and  64  slide towards the opposite directions  112  and  118  respectively, it represents that a “zoom in” instruction will be issued; contrarily, if the fingers  20  and  22  slide towards the opposite directions  114  and  116  respectively, it represents that a “zoom out” instruction will be issued. If the finger  62  is placed fixedly on the touchpad  20  while the other finger  64  slides on the touchpad  22  downwards in a direction  120  or upwards in a direction  122  shown in  FIG. 8 , it represents that a “clockwise rotation” instruction or a “counterclockwise rotation” instruction will be issued. 
         [0035]      FIG. 9  illustrates the presenter mode. When the presenter icon  42  shown in  FIG. 2  is clicked, the presenter mode is enabled, and the touchpad  22  is defined with four directional buttons, namely, an upward button, a downward button, a leftward button, and a rightward button. When the user presses one&#39; of these directional buttons, the directional button  132  on the display  30  will display the pressed directional button and a function corresponding to the pressed directional button will be performed, for example, to page up, to page down and so on. In this case, the touchpad  20  has the functions of a typical mouse and a cursor  134  is displayed on the display  30 , so that a finger moves on the touchpad  20 , the cursor  134  will move correspondingly. 
         [0036]    Light guide films may be used in the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10 . For example, as shown in  FIG. 10 , the touchpads  20  and  22  shown in  FIG. 2  include multiple light guide films  142 ,  146 , and  150 , each of which is connected with a respective one of side-emitting light-emitting elements  143 ,  147 , and  151 . In this structure, the light-emitting elements  143 ,  147 , and  151  are used to provide light for the light guide films  142 ,  146 , and  150  respectively, and the latter will guide the light by refraction principle. Each of the light guide films  142 ,  146 , and  150  has a pattern for one of the multiple functional modes, and with the light provided by the corresponding one of the light-emitting elements  143 ,  147 , and  151 , this pattern will be shown on the touchpads  20  and  22 . For instance, when the game controller mode is enabled, only the light-emitting element  143  connected to the light guide film  142  functions so as to render only the pattern  144  on the light guide film  142  visible and therefore, as shown by the pattern  144 , items such as the movement control zone and the functional button control zone will be shown on the touchpads  20  and  22 . When the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  is switched to the remote controller mode, only the light-emitting element  147  connected to the light guide film  146  functions so as to render the pattern  148  on the light guide film  146  visible and therefore, as shown by the pattern  148 , numeral buttons and functional buttons will be shown on the touchpads  20  and  22 . When the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  10  is switched to the keyboard mode, only the light-emitting element  151  connected to the light guide film  150  functions so as to render the pattern  152  on the light guide film  150  visible and therefore, as shown by the pattern  152 , basic symbols, numerals and English letters will be shown on the touchpads  20  and  22 . 
         [0037]      FIG. 11  illustrates another embodiment of the multi-functional touchpad remote controller  154  which includes two touchpads  156  and  158  and functional button assembly  162  and  164  to switch the touchpads  156  and  158  between multiple functional modes. The touchpad  156  includes a multi-layered light guide film to show the pattern  166  or  168  depending on the enabled functional mode. When the user uses the functional button assembly  162  above the touchpad  156  to enable a keypad mode, a defined keypad zone will be displayed on the touchpad  156  through the pattern  166  on the multi-layered light guide film for the user to input numerals into a multimedia computer, to input texts in a Chinese Pinyin input method by means of the virtual keypad built-in the multimedia computer, or to select a channel. When a multimedia mode is enabled by the user, a defined multimedia control zone will be displayed on the touchpad  156  through the pattern  168  on the multi-layered light guide film for the user to execute a multimedia operation, for example, including functions of audio  86  video (AV) playing, pause, stop, video recording, fast forwarding, fast reversing, scrolling up, scrolling down or the like. In addition to a mode button  170  for enabling different functional modes of the touchpad  156 , functional buttons for use in conjunction with a multimedia computer are defined in the functional button assembly  162 , e.g., a sleep/enable button  172 , an operation system functional button  174 , a page-up button  176  and the like. The other touchpad  158  is for implementing the functions such as quick searching, quick channel switching, audio volume adjustment, channel switching and directional (e.g. upward, downward, leftward and rightward) movement, etc. For example, clockwise rotation of a finger on the touchpad  158  represents an increase in audio volume, upward channel switching, upward movement or rightward movement; contrarily, counterclockwise rotation of a finger on the touchpad  158  represents a decrease in audio volume, downward channel switching, downward movement or leftward movement. Thus, manipulation can be accomplished by the user simply by selecting a desired functional mode through the functional button assembly  164  located above the touchpad  158 . 
         [0038]    As can be appreciated from the above description of the present invention, by using a touchpad as an input interface of a remote controller and defining arrangement of the touchpad according to different functional modes, the remote controller can be provided with a plurality of functions. According to the present invention, the user may operate the touchpad of a multi-functional touchpad remote controller by means of an operation interface displayed on a display, which obviously makes the multi-functional touchpad remote controller simple and intuitive to use. By integrating the multiple light guide films shown in  FIG. 10  or the multi-layered light guide film shown in  FIG. 11  into the touchpad, the multi-functional touchpad remote controller of the present invention is allowed to display different operation interfaces depending on different functional modes. Furthermore, conventional channel selection buttons and functional adjustment buttons may be further disposed on a back side of the multi-functional touchpad remote controller of the present invention so that the multi-functional touchpad remote controller can be turned over for use; alternatively, buttons may be sandwiched into an interlayer, in which case the buttons can be used after the touchpad disposed thereon is flipped open or slid open. 
         [0039]    While the present invention has been described in conjunction with preferred embodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope thereof as set forth in the appended claims.