Patent Publication Number: US-2011060986-A1

Title: Method for Controlling the Display of a Touch Screen, User Interface of the Touch Screen, and an Electronic Device using The Same

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a method for controlling a display of a touch screen, a user interface of the touch screen, and an electronic device using the same. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     The development of touch screens has provided users with an alternative to using peripheral devices such as a keyboard or a mouse to input data/instructions. All kinds of touch devices comprising touch screens bring convenience to people&#39;s lives; for example, a user can write or click on the touch screen of a personal data assistant to input data/instructions. 
     Nowadays some touch screens have evolved to have multi-point input capabilities; for example, the touch screen of the iPhone™ provides multi-touch gesture control functions. The multi-touch capabilities of iPhone™ can let a user input data/instructions with his/her two fingers (usually the thumb and the index finger), and uses related software/hardware to calculate the direction of movement and the distance between the two fingers to determine the corresponding movement, such as zoom in/out or rotating displayed contents such as photos and web pages. 
     In practice, when a user performs multi-touch rotation function with one hand, the maximum angle for one continuous rotation is limited by the simultaneous movements of the two fingers, usually less than 180 degrees; therefore, when it is necessary to rotate a larger angle such as 270 degrees, the user has to make several movements to finish the rotation. 
     Furthermore, when the user is riding in a car or is walking, it is difficult for the user to perform precise and stable multi-touch operations on a small touch screen, such as one on a mobile phone or a PDA, with only one hand. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for controlling a display of a touch screen, a user interface of the touch screen, and an electronic device using the same for the user to control the display of the touch screen. 
     It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for controlling a display of a touch screen, a user interface of the touch screen, and an electronic device using the same for the user to easily rotate, move, or zoom in/out the content of the display. 
     In order to achieve the above object, an embodiment of the present invention discloses a method for controlling a display of a touch screen, the method comprising: 
     displaying at least one mode selection on the display of the touch screen, wherein each one of the at least one mode selections corresponds to a gesture control mode; 
     receiving a selection command for selecting one of the at least one mode selections; 
     entering the gesture control mode corresponding to the selected mode selection according to the selection command; 
     receiving a gesture control command adapted for the gesture control mode; and 
     executing a specific operation according to the gesture control command. 
     In response to the above embodiment, the present invention discloses a touch screen user interface, which comprises a first input region and a second input region; the first input region is provided for a user to select at least one gesture control mode; and the second input region is provided for the user to input a gesture control command adapted for the selected gesture control mode. 
     In another embodiment of the present invention, the present invention discloses a method for controlling a display of a touch screen and adapted for an electronic device comprising a touch screen, wherein the electronic device further comprises at least one button, which is electrically connected to the touch screen, the method comprising: 
     receiving a selection command by using the at least one button; 
     entering a gesture control mode according to the selection command; 
     receiving a gesture control command adapted for the gesture control mode; and 
     executing a specific operation according to the gesture control command. 
     A further embodiment of the present invention discloses a touch-based electronic device comprising a touch screen, a memory, and a processor, wherein the memory and the touch screen are electrically connected with the processor respectively, and the memory stores a control program for enabling the touch-based electronic device to control the display of the touch screen by using the method as described above. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram of an electronic device according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a flowchart of a method for controlling a display of a touch screen according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  to  FIG. 8  illustrate views of controlling various displays of the touch screen in the present invention; and 
         FIG. 9  illustrates a flowchart of a method for controlling a display of a touch screen according to another embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The advantages and innovative features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 1 . The present invention provides a method for controlling a display of a touch screen. The method is adapted for a touch screen  91  in an electronic device  9 , such as a mobile phone, a personal data assistant (PDA), a portable navigation device (PND), and so on. The electronic device  9  further includes a memory  92  and a processor  93 , wherein the memory  92  and the touch screen  91  are electrically connected with the processor  93  respectively, and the memory  92  stores software  920 . The methods described below can be substantially implemented by the processor  93  executing the software  920 ; however, the methods can also be implemented by other means, such as a firmware or the like. 
     Furthermore, the touch screen  91  used in the present invention generally refers to all kinds of touch screens using resistive-type, capacitive-type, electromagnetic-type, supersonic-type, optical-type, or vision-type object detection techniques with direct or indirect contact mechanisms; for example, in electromagnetic-type, supersonic-type, optical-type, or vision-type object detection techniques, it is possible to detect the position relative to the object without the object touching the screen. 
     Please refer to both the flowchart of  FIG. 2  and display view of  FIG. 3 . In this embodiment, the method comprises the following steps: 
     Step S 11 : First receiving an activation signal inputted by a user to enter the operation flow in the example. The user can touch a specific selection or any part of a display  2  of the touch screen of the electronic device  9 , or press a preset physical button  94  of the electronic device  9  (as shown in  FIG. 1 ), or input the activation signal by using another prior art input mechanism. 
     Step S 12 : Displaying at least one mode selection  21  on the display  2  of the touch screen, and each mode selection  21  corresponds to a gesture control mode respectively. The mode selection  21  can be shown on the display  2  of the touch screen in the form of a virtual button for the user to identify and select. 
     In other words, the mode selection  21  is shown on the display  2  of the touch screen after the user inputs the activation signal in Step S 11  and S 12 ; however, in other embodiments, the mode selection  21  can reside on the display  2  permanently. 
     For convenience, the mode selection  21  can be disposed at four corners of the display  2  of the rectangular touch screen, thereby allowing the user to use his/her finger of the hand holding the electronic device  9  to press the mode selection  21 . For a user accustomed to holding the electronic device with his/her left hand to perform a gesture control command with his/her right hand, the mode selection  21  is preferably disposed at the lower left corner of the display  2 . 
     In this embodiment, the gesture control mode can be a zoom in/out, a move, or a rotation mode. The mode selection  21  shown in  FIG. 3  corresponds to a zoom in/out gesture control mode. In another embodiment, shown in  FIG. 5 , the plurality of mode selections  21  correspond to a move, rotation, or zoom in/out gesture control mode from top to bottom respectively; in addition, different mode selections  21  are preferably illustrated by icons that can be intuitively linked with real gesture control movements. For example, the rotation gesture control mode of the mode selection  21  could correspond to a rotating arrow. Of course, the mode selection  21  can be illustrated with words, such as “rotation” or other suitable expressions. 
     Furthermore, as described above, the gesture control mode can be operated with the user&#39;s finger directly contacting the touch screen, or can be operated by a stylus pen or other tools, as in the applications of electromagnetic-type or optical-type touch screens, without the user&#39;s finger directly contacting the touch screen. 
     Furthermore, the zoom in/out, move, or rotation gesture control modes are better carried out in a single-touch manner; however, they can be carried out in a multi-touch manner as well. In addition, the gesture control modes can comprise other applications, such as switching photos, adjusting photo colors, adjusting the volume, etc. 
     Step S 13 : Receiving a switching command inputted by the user to switch the mode selections  21  corresponding to different gesture control modes. 
     In the embodiment shown in  FIG. 3 , the display  2  of the touch screen can only show a single mode selection  21 ; therefore, by using the step S 13  to receive a switch command from the user, a plurality of mode selections  21  can be shown on the display  2  by turns. For example, the switch command can be activated by clicking twice continuously on the mode selection  21 , and then another mode selection  21  is shown on the display  2 . For example, the switch command can switch the display from the mode selection  21  corresponding to the zoom in/out operation to the mode selection  21  corresponding to rotation operation. 
     On the other hand, in the embodiment shown in  FIG. 5 , a plurality of mode selections  21  is shown on the display  2 , and the mode selections  21  are disposed at the lower left corner of the display  2  from top to bottom sequentially; therefore, it is not necessary to switch the mode selections  21  at this time. 
     Step S 14 : Receiving a selection command which selects one of the mode selections  21 . As shown in  FIG. 4 , in this embodiment, the user uses his/her finger  31  to press the mode selection  21  directly to generate the selection command. 
     Step S 15 : Determining if the selection command lasts for a predetermined time, such as two seconds; if it is determined that the selection command lasts for the predetermined time, the process goes to step S 16 ; if not, then no further step is executed. In other words, this step prevents accidental misclicks from being regarded as selection commands and lists them as invalid selection commands. 
     Step S 16 : Entering the gesture control mode corresponding to the selected mode selection  21 . As shown in  FIG. 4 , when the user presses the mode selection  21  corresponding to zoom in/out, the process goes to the zoom in/out gesture control mode. 
     Step S 17 : As shown in  FIG. 6 , displaying a pointer  23  around the center of the display  2  of the touch screen, wherein the pointer  23  corresponds to the mode selection  21  selected by the user in the display  2 , which makes it easier for the user to identify the current gesture control mode. For example, a rotation pointer  23  is shown in  FIG. 6  to represent that the current gesture control mode is the rotation gesture control mode; when the user selects a mode selection  21  corresponding to a zoom in/out or a move gesture control mode, the point around the center of the display  2  represents the zoom in/out or the move pointer  23 . In this example, the icon used for the pointer  23  corresponds to the icon for the respective mode selection  21  to let the user intuitively identify the icon without remembering every icon; however, the icon of the pointer does not have to be the same as that of the mode selection. 
     Furthermore, the pointer  23   a  shown in  FIG. 7  can be enlarged or shrunk according to the content of the display  7  of the touch screen; for example, the zoom in/out pointer  23   a  in  FIG. 8  can be enlarged to be the zoom in/out pointer  23   b.    
     Step S 18 : Receiving a gesture control command adapted for the gesture control mode. As shown in  FIG. 4 , at this time, the user uses his/her right hand finger  32  to drag the pointer outward from the center of the display  2  to execute the gesture control command adapted for the zoom in/out gesture control mode. 
     Step S 19 : Executing a specific operation according to the gesture control command; this is shown in  FIG. 4  as executing the specific operation of enlarging the display  2 . For other gesture control modes, the specific operation can be move or rotation of at least part of the display  2 . The content of the display  2  can be, for example, a web page, a desktop of an operating system, a photo, or other application software. The techniques of applying zoom in/out, move, or rotation to the content of the display  2  are well known in the art and therefore will not be further described. 
     As described in  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 6 , when the user uses his/her finger  31  to press the mode selection  21  to enter the gesture control mode, the mode selections  21  on the lower left of the display  2  disappear; however, in other embodiments, the mode selections  21  can remain in the display  21 . That is, the user can use a finger on his/her left hand to press or to switch the mode selections  21 , and use his/her right hand to execute the gesture control command. 
     According to the above method, the present invention discloses a software-based touch screen user interface. As shown in  FIG. 1 , a touch-based electronic device  9  comprises a touch screen  91 , a memory  92 , and a processor  93 , wherein the memory  92  and the touch screen  91  are electrically connected with the processor  93  respectively; the memory  92  stores a software  920 , wherein the software can be implemented to execute all the methods in the present invention. The touch screen  91  comprises a first input region and a second input region; the first input region is provided for a user to select at least one gesture control mode; and the second input region is disposed at a position other than that of the first region and is provided for the user to input a gesture control command adapted for the selected gesture control mode. 
     In the embodiment shown in  FIG. 3 , the first input region is where the mode selections  21  reside and is provided for the user to select the gesture control mode corresponding to the selected mode selection  21 ; the second input region is a region that doesn&#39;t include the mode selections  21  in the display  21 ; while in the embodiment shown in  FIG. 5 , the first input region further includes a plurality of mode selections  21 . As described above, the user can operate the first input region and the second input region simultaneously; that is, the user can press the mode selection  21  with a finger on his/her left hand and execute the gesture control command with his/her right hand. 
     Please refer to the flowchart in  FIG. 9  for another embodiment in the present invention. The difference between the present embodiment and that disclosed in  FIG. 2  is that this flowchart skips step S 12  in  FIG. 2  and does not show the mode selection  21  in the display  2 ; alternatively, the electronic device  9  further comprises at least one button  94  representing a mode selection (as shown in  FIG. 1 ); therefore, the user can press the button  94  with his/her finger to generate the selection command. Apart from using the button  94  to generate the selection command, various methods can be applied to generate the selection command; for example, a selection signal can be generated when the user touches the touch screen. After the selection command is received, a pointer is shown on the display for the user to identify the gesture control mode; therefore, the step S 12  of displaying the mode selection is substantially skipped. 
     Additionally, as shown in  FIG. 1 , the present invention further discloses an electronic device  9  comprising a touch screen  91 ; the electronic device  9  can be a small touch screen notebook computer, a personal data assistant (PDA), or a touch screen mobile phone. The electronic device  9  uses the methods described above to control the display of the touch screen  91 . 
     In summary, the present invention discloses a novel multi-touch method to let the user press to select or to switch one or more mode selections with his/her finger, such as a finger on the left hand and execute the gesture control command with another hand, such as his/her right hand. Compared with prior art multi-touch techniques, the present invention is obviously advantageous in: 
     1. The prior art multi-touch technique requires the user to use two fingers to operate at the center of the touch screen; on the contrary, the present invention practically requires only one finger (such as the right hand index finger) to execute the gesture control command; therefore, the present invention covers less area in application and helps the user view the content of the display more clearly. 
     2. In practice, the prior art multi-touch technique requires the user to use two fingers to finish the rotation operation; therefore, the maximum angle for one continuous rotation is limited by the simultaneous movements of the two fingers and is usually less than 180 degrees; on the contrary, the present invention only requires the user to use one finger to execute the rotation gesture control command, so one continuous rotation of over 360 degrees can be easily accomplished. 
     3. The prior art multi-touch technique requires the user to employ two fingers; on the contrary, the present invention can let the user hold the electronic device with one hand and execute the gesture control command with one finger of the other hand; therefore, the user can hold and operate the electronic device more stably and precisely to avoid misclicking. 
     4. Since most users are still accustomed to inputting instructions/data with stylus pens, in the present invention, it is possible for a user to use a stylus pen instead of his/her finger to perform the gesture control command, thereby providing a friendly and flexible operation environment. 
     5. The mode selection function can be implemented by hardware or buttons in any other forms and is not limited to using the touch screen to receive the gesture control command and to work with a software; therefore, the touch screen used in the present invention is not necessarily a touch screen such as a capacitive-type touch screen which can support a multi-touch function; it can be a non multi-touch touch screen like a traditional resistive-type touch screen to save material costs. 
     It is noted that the above-mentioned embodiments are only for illustration. It is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents. Therefore, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention.