Patent Publication Number: US-11644969-B2

Title: Invalid area specifying method for touch panel of mobile terminal

Description:
This is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/789,543, filed Feb. 13, 2020, which is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/559,124 filed Sep. 3, 2019, which is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/162,870 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,447,845) filed Oct. 17, 2018 which is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/819,026 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,135,967) filed Nov. 21, 2017, which is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/002,467 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,843,664) filed Jan. 21, 2016, which is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/114,129 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,277,045) filed Oct. 25, 2013, which is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/JP2012/061381, filed on Apr. 27, 2012, which claims priority on Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-102784 filed May 2, 2011, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present invention relates to a touch-panel cellular phone and an input operation method. 
     BACKGROUND ART 
     Recently, cellular phones having touch-panel input devices have been spread all over the world. Touch panels are combinations of display devices such as LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and input devices such as touch pads. Touch-panel cellular phones guarantee intuitive operations for users to touch the touch panels with fingers without complex operations needed; hence, they are favorable for users in comparison with conventional cellular phones needing operations with buttons and switches. 
     Recent cellular phones incorporate touch panels covering the entire surfaces of cellular phones with large screen sizes. Since the entire surface screens of touch panels function as input devices, users holding cellular phones while touching the touch panels with fingers or hands may cause error operations to be accepted by cellular phones. To prevent error operations, cellular phones can be designed not to accept an operation at a second touch position when a user concurrently touches two positions on a touch panel. This type of cellular phones may incur another possibility in that, when a touch panel is touched by a user&#39;s finger or a user&#39;s hand holding a cellular phone, the cellular phone cannot recognize a user&#39;s operation of touching the touch panel of the cellular phone with the other finger or the other hand. Additionally, when a user holds a cellular phone without touching a touch panel with a finger or a hand, a cellular phone may be hardly maintained at a desired position in space and become unstable in positioning, thus incurring the possibility that the user may drop the cellular phone on the floor by mistake. 
     Various technologies have been developed to solve the above problems. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a touch-panel information processing device, which executes a function assigned to a touch area on a touch panel when an amount of a touch time a user touches the touch panel with a finger or a hand does not reach a predetermined time but which does not execute the function assigned to the touch area on the touch panel when an amount of a touch time the user touches the touch panel reaches the predetermined time. This is based on a prediction that, when a user holding a cellular phone touches a touch panel with a finger or a hand, the user may be touching the touch panel with a finger for a longer period of time than a touch time assigned to a normal input operation. For this reason, it is possible to reduce the frequency of a user&#39;s error operations on a touch panel by use of the method disclosed in Patent Literature 1. 
     Patent Literature 2 discloses a touch-panel cellular phone, which makes it easy for a user to operate a touch panel with a user&#39;s finger or a user&#39;s hand holding a cellular phone because the cellular phone is equipped with a plurality of sensors used for detecting a holding position of the cellular phone in the longitudinal direction so as to shift a key display area and display it on the touch panel in correspondence with the holding position. 
     CITATION LIST 
     Patent Literature 
     Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-39990 
     Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-154090 
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
     Technical Problem 
     The input operation method disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is applicable to an input operation in which any key displayed on a touch panel is operated for a short touch time but inapplicable to another input operation such as a handwriting input operation needing a long touch time. 
     The present invention is made in consideration of the aforementioned circumstances, wherein it is an object of the invention to provide a cellular phone and an input operation method which are able to prevent an error operation in which a user&#39;s finger or a user&#39;s hand holding the cellular phone touches a touch panel by mistake irrespective of a touch time on the touch panel. 
     Solution to Problem 
     The present invention provides a touch-panel cellular phone including an invalid area specifying part used for specifying an invalid area which does not accept a user&#39;s input operation on a touch panel and an input part which detects a user&#39;s touch area on the touch panel so as to execute a function pre-assigned to the touch area which is not encompassed by the invalid area. 
     Additionally, the present invention provides an input operation method for a touch-panel cellular phone, including the steps of specifying an invalid area which does not accept a user&#39;s input operation on a touch panel; detecting a user&#39;s touch area on the touch panel; and executing a function pre-assigned to the touch area which is not encompassed by the invalid area. 
     Moreover, the present invention provides a program which causes a computer controlling an input operation on a touch panel to implement the above input operation method. 
     Advantageous Effects of Invention 
     According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent an error operation due a user holding a cellular phone and inadvertently touching a touch panel with a finger or a hand. The input operation method of the present invention does not need complex processing used for accepting an input operation in response to a time of a user touching a touch panel; hence, it is possible to reliably prevent an error operation on a touch panel with a simple configuration and process. Additionally, it is possible to realize an optimum display of images for each user when images are displayed in reduced sizes to circumvent an invalid area, which is set for each user holding a cellular phone, on a touch panel. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    includes a front view, a side view, and a rear view showing the exterior appearance of a cellular phone according to a first embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG.  2    is a functional block diagram of the cellular phone of the first embodiment. 
         FIG.  3    is a flowchart showing an invalid area setting process in the cellular phone of the first embodiment. 
         FIG.  4    includes front views showing messages displayed on the touch panel of the cellular phone according to the invalid area setting process shown in  FIG.  3   . 
         FIG.  5    is a flowchart showing the operation of the cellular phone after the invalid area setting process. 
         FIG.  6    is a block diagram of a cellular phone according to a second embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG.  7    is a flowchart showing the operation of the cellular phone of the second embodiment after the invalid area setting process. 
         FIG.  8    shows states of images being reduced in sizes and displayed on the touch panel of the cellular phone. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
     A touch-panel cellular phone and an input operation method according to the present invention will be described by way of examples with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     First Embodiment 
       FIG.  1    shows the exterior appearance of a cellular phone  5  according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In  FIG.  1   , (A) is a front view of the cellular phone  5 ; (B) is a side view of the cellular phone  5 ; and (C) is a rear view of the cellular phone  5 . 
     A touch panel  51  used for accepting a user&#39;s operation is arranged on the front face of the cellular phone  5 . The touch panel  51  is configured of a display device such as an LCD and an input device such as a touch pad so as to display predetermined images and accept touch operations with a user&#39;s fingers and hands. As the touch panel  51 , for example, it is possible to use an electrostatic-capacity touch panel implementing multiple-touch detection ability. A plurality of menu icons pre-assigned to an initial screen of the cellular phone  5  is displayed on the touch panel  51 . 
     The cellular phone  5  is equipped with a plurality of sensors  52 . Specifically, sensors  52 - 1  and  52 - 2  are arranged on the side face of the cellular phone  5 , while sensors  52 - 3  to  52 - 6  are arranged on the rear face of the cellular phone  5 . These sensors  52  are used to detect that a user is holding and touching the cellular phone  5  with fingers or hands, wherein each sensor  52  is turned on when touched but turned off when not touched. 
       FIG.  2    is a functional block diagram of the cellular phone  5  of the first embodiment.  FIG.  1    does not include an illustration of a microcomputer (or a computer system) which is embedded inside the cellular phone  5 . Using a computer system which reads and executes programs stored in computer-readable storage media, it is possible to implement an application execution part  501 , a touch input detection part  502 , a grip detection part  503 , a user identification part  504 , an invalid area specifying part  505 , a storage unit  506 , a recording part  507 , an input part  508 , and a display control part  509 . Herein, computer-readable storage media denotes magnetic disks, magneto-optical disks, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and semiconductor memories. 
     The application execution part  501  executes an application program stored in a storage medium of the cellular phone  5 . The application program includes at least an invalid area setting application. The touch input detection part  502  determines whether or not a user touches the touch panel  51  so as to detect a touch area as an area of coordinates being touched by a user on the touch panel  51 . The grip detection part  503  determines whether or not the cellular phone  5  is being held by user&#39;s fingers or a user&#39;s hand based on the ON/OFF information of the sensors  52 . The user identification part  504  retrieves user identification information based on the ON/OFF information of the sensors  52 . 
     The invalid area specifying part  505  specifies an invalid area as a touch area detected by the touch input detection part  502  when the application execution part  501  executes the invalid area setting application. 
     The storage unit  506  stores the user identification information retrieved by the user identification part  504  in connection with the invalid area specified by the invalid area specifying part  505 . The recording part  507  records the user identification information retrieved by the user identification part  504  in connection with the invalid area which is specified by the invalid area specifying part  505 . 
     The input part  508  notifies the application execution part  501  of the touch area which is detected by the touch input detection part  502  but which is not encompassed by the invalid area stored in the storage unit  506 . The display control part  509  accepts the screen information from the application execution part  501  so as to display the screen information on the touch panel  51 . 
     Next, the operation of the cellular phone  5  of the first embodiment will be described. 
     First, the invalid area setting process of the cellular phone  5  will be described.  FIG.  3    is a flowchart showing the invalid area setting process of the cellular phone  5 . The application execution part  501  executes the invalid area setting application when a user touches a menu icon, representing the invalid area setting application, displayed on the touch panel  51  with a finger. When starting the invalid area setting application, the application execution part  501  sends an instruction to display a message which requests a user to hold the cellular phone  5 , e.g. “PLEASE HOLD WITH HAND”, to the display control part  509 . As shown in  FIG.  4 (A) , the display control part  509  displays a message received from the application execution part  501  on the touch panel  51  (step S 1 ).  FIG.  4    shows messages which are displayed on the touch panel  51  of the cellular phone  5  at an invalid area setting mode. 
     When the display control part  509  displays a message, shown in  FIG.  4 (A) , on the touch panel  51 , the grip detection part  503  determines whether or not a user holds the cellular phone  5  with a finger or a hand (step S 2 ). Specifically, a decision as to whether or not a user holds the cellular phone  5  depends on a decision as to whether or not any one of the sensors  52  is turned on. When the grip detection part  503  determines that a user does not hold the cellular phone  5  (i.e. a decision result “NO” in step S 2 ), the flow returns to step S 2  so as to repeat step S 2  until any one of the sensors  52  is turned on. 
     Upon detecting a user&#39;s grip of the cellular phone  5  (i.e. a decision result “YES” in step S 2 ), the grip detection part  503  sends a grip detection signal to the user identification part  504  and the invalid area specifying part  505 . Upon receiving the grip detection signal from the grip detection part  503 , the invalid area specifying part  505  retrieves the touch area on the touch panel  51  which is currently detected by the touch input detection part  502  (step S 3 ), thus notifying the recording part  507  of the touch area as the invalid area. Upon detecting the grip detection signal from the grip detection part  503 , the user identification part  504  obtains the user identification information as the ON/OFF information of each sensor  52  (step S 4 ) so as to send the user identification information to the recording part  507 . 
     The recording part  507  determines whether or not the storage unit  506  stores the user identification information identical to or approximately equal to the user identification information identified by the user identification part  504  (step S 5 ). The storage unit  506  stores the user identification information reflecting the ON/OFF information of the sensors  52 . Therefore, the recording part  507  determines whether or not the storage unit  506  stores the user identification information matching with the ON/OFF information of each sensor  52 . The recording part  507  determines that the user identification information, which reflects the ON/OFF information of the sensors  52  but in which the number of pieces of unmatched ON/OFF information is less than a threshold (e.g. one), is identical to or approximately equal to the user identification information identified by the user identification part  504 . 
     Upon determining that the storage unit  506  does not store the user identification information identical to or approximately equal to the user identification information identified by the user identification part  504  (i.e. a decision result “NO” in step S 5 ), the recording part  507  stores the user identification information identified by the user identification part  504  in the storage part  506  in connection with the invalid area specified by the invalid area specifying part  505  (step S 6 ). 
     Upon determining that the storage unit  506  stores the user identification information identical to or approximately equal to the user identification information specified by the user identification part  504  (i.e. a decision result “YES” in step S 5 ), the recording part  507  rewrites the invalid area, which is stored in the storage unit  506  in connection with the user identification information, with the invalid area specified by the invalid area specifying part  505  (step S 7 ). 
     When the recording part  507  updates the invalid area in the storage unit  506 , the application execution part  501  sends an instruction to display a message representing the end of the invalid area setting application, e.g. “REGISTRATION COMPLETED”, on the touch panel  51  to the display control part  509 . As shown in  FIG.  4 (B) , the display control part  509  displays a message received from the application execution part  501  on the touch panel  51 . Thereafter, the application execution part  501  exits the invalid area setting application. 
     Next, the operation of the cellular phone  5  after the invalid area setting process shown in  FIG.  3    will be described.  FIG.  5    is a flowchart showing the operation of the cellular phone  5  after the invalid area setting process. 
     After exiting the invalid area setting application to set the invalid area to the touch panel  51 , the touch input detection part  502  determines whether or not a user touches the touch panel  51  in an acceptable state to accept an operation of an application managed by the application execution part  501  (step S 11 ). Upon determining that a user does not touch the touch panel  51  (i.e. a decision result “NO” in step S 11 ), the flow returns to step S 11  so as to repeat step S 11  until the touch input detection part  502  detects a user&#39;s touch on the touch panel  51 . 
     Upon detecting a user&#39;s touch on the touch panel  51  (i.e. a decision result “YES” in step S 11 ), the touch input detection part  502  sends the coordinates of the touch area on the touch panel  51  to the input part  508 . Thereafter, the grip detection part  503  determines whether or not a user holds the cellular phone  5  (step S 12 ). Upon determining a user&#39;s grip of the cellular phone  5  (i.e. a decision result “YES” in step S 12 ), the user identification part  504  retrieves the user identification information as the ON/OFF information of each sensor  52  so as to send it to the input part  508  (step S 13 ). 
     The input part  508  determines whether or not the storage unit  506  stores the user identification information identical to or approximately equal to the user identification information identified by the user identification part  504  (step S 14 ). Upon determining that the storage unit  506  stores the user identification information identical to or approximately equal to the user identification information identified by the user identification part  504  (i.e. a decision result “YES” in step S 14 ), the input part  508  reads the invalid area, which is connected to the user identification information, from the storage part  506 . Thereafter, the input part  508  determines whether or not the touch area detected by the touch input detection part  502  is encompassed by the invalid area read from the storage unit  506  (step S 15 ). 
     Upon determining that the touch area detected by the touch input detection part  502  is encompassed by the invalid area read from the storage unit  506  (i.e. a decision result “YES” in step S 15 ), the input part  508  does not handle a user&#39;s input operation on the touch area, whereby the flow returns to step S 11 , and therefore the touch input detection part  502  determines again whether or not a user touches the touch panel  51 . 
     When the grip detection part  503  determines that the cellular phone  5  is not held by a user (i.e. a decision result “NO” in step S 12 ), when the input part  508  determines that the storage unit  506  does not store the user identification information identical to or approximately equal to the user identification information identified by the user identification part  504  (i.e. a decision result “NO” in step S 14 ), or when the input part  508  determines that the touch area detected by the touch input detection part  502  is not encompassed by the invalid area read from the storage unit  506  (i.e. a decision result “NO” in step S 15 ), the input part  508  notifies the application execution part  501  of the touch area detected by the touch input detection part  502  (step S 16 ). 
     The cellular phone  5  of the first embodiment does not regard a user&#39;s finger touching the pre-recorded invalid area as an input operation. That is, it is possible to prevent an error operation (i.e. an input operation mistake) due to an event in which a user holding the cellular phone  5  with a hand inadvertently touches the touch panel  51  regardless of the amount of time a user touches the touch panel  51 . 
     The first embodiment is designed to store the invalid area for each user in the storage unit  506  in connection with the user identification information. Since the cellular phone  5  is registered with the invalid area suited to the holding method for each user in advance, the input part  508  is able to determine whether an input operation is valid or invalid based on the invalid area for each user. 
     The first embodiment employs the user identification information as the ON/OFF information of the sensors  52 ; but this is not a restriction. For example, it is possible to employ the user identification information as a user ID. However, it is possible to improve usability in the first embodiment employing the user identification information as the ON/OFF information of the sensors  52  because the cellular phone  5  is able to automatically retrieve the user identification information without needing an input process of a user ID. 
     Second Embodiment 
     Next, the second embodiment of the present invention will be described. The second embodiment adapted to the cellular phone  5  differs from the first embodiment in that it implements a function of automatically aligning display areas of menu icons outside the invalid area and a function of displaying menu icons with reduced sizes. 
       FIG.  6    is a functional block diagram of the cellular phone  5  according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The cellular phone  5  of the second embodiment includes an inscribed quadrilateral calculation part  510 , a ratio calculation part  511 , and a reduction part  512  in addition to the constituent elements  501  to  509  of the first embodiment shown in  FIG.  1   . 
     The inscribed quadrilateral calculation part  510  presumes a quadrilateral having the same aspect ratio as the touch panel  51 , which is inscribed in the display area unmatched with the invalid area, so as to calculate the coordinates and the size of the quadrilateral. The ratio calculation part  511  calculates the ratio of the size of the quadrilateral, calculated by the inscribed quadrilateral calculation part  510 , to the size of the touch panel  51 . The reduction part  512  retrieves an image displayed on the touch panel  51  from the application execution part  501  so as to reduce the image with the ratio calculated by the ratio calculation part  511 . 
     Next, the operation of the cellular phone  5  of the second embodiment will be described. 
     The second embodiment executes the same invalid area setting process as the first embodiment; hence, detailed descriptions thereof will be omitted here. The second embodiment illustrates the operation of the cellular phone  5  after the invalid area setting process.  FIG.  7    is a flowchart showing the operation of the cellular phone  5  of the second embodiment after the invalid area setting process. 
     Upon completing the invalid area setting application setting the invalid area on the touch panel  51 , the grip detection part  503  determines whether or not the cellular phone  5  is being held by a user (step S 21 ). When the grip detection part  503  determines that the cellular phone  5  is being held by a user (i.e. a decision result “YES” in step S 21 ), the user identification part  504  retrieves the user identification information as the ON/OFF information of the sensors  52  so as to send it to the inscribed quadrilateral calculation part  510  (step S 22 ). 
     The inscribed quadrilateral calculation part  510  determines whether or not the storage unit  506  stores the user identification information identical to or approximately equal to the user identification information identified by the user identification part  504  (step S 23 ). Upon determining that the storage unit  506  stores the user identification information identical to or approximately equal to the user identification information identified by the user identification part  504  (i.e. a decision result “YES” in step S 23 ), the inscribed quadrilateral calculation part  510  reads the invalid area related to the user identification information from the storage unit  506 . 
     The inscribed quadrilateral calculation part  510  produces a quadrilateral having the same aspect ratio as the touch panel  51 , which is inscribed to the display area precluding the invalid area on the touch panel  51  (step S 24 ). The inscribed quadrilateral calculation part  510  calculates the size and the coordinates (e.g. coordinates at an upper-left corner) of the inscribed quadrilateral (step S 25 ). The ratio calculation part  11  calculates the ratio of the inscribed quadrilateral to the display area on the touch panel  51  (step S 26 ). The reduction part  512  retrieves an image displayed on the touch panel  51  from the application execution part  501  so as to reduce the image with the ratio calculated by the ratio calculation part  511  (step S 27 ). The display control part  509  retrieves the image reduced by the reduction part  512  so as to display the reduced image inside the inscribed quadrilateral based on the coordinates calculated by the inscribed quadrilateral calculation part  510  (step S 28 ). 
       FIG.  8    shows the states of the cellular phone  5  used to display images (i.e. menu icons) which are being reduced in sizes on the touch panel  51 . 
       FIG.  8 (A)  shows an inscribed quadrilateral which is created in the center area, precluding invalid areas, interposed between the left and right sides on the touch panel  51 .  FIG.  8 (B)  shows an inscribed quadrilateral which is reduced with a reduction ratio N % and which is moved towards the lower-left corner on the touch panel  51 .  FIG.  8 (C)  shows reduced images displayed inside the inscribed quadrilateral shown in  FIG.  8 (B) .  FIG.  8 (D)  shows reduced images displayed inside the quadrilateral shown in  FIG.  8 (A) . 
     When the inscribed quadrilateral calculation part  510  determines that the storage unit  506  does not store the user identification information identical to or approximately equal to the user identification information identified by the user identification part  504  in step S 23  of  FIG.  7    (i.e. a decision result “NO” in step S 23 ), the ratio calculation part  511  does not need to calculate a reduction ratio for images, wherein the reduction part  512  retrieves images from the application execution part  501  so as to directly send them to the display control part  509  (step S 29 ). 
     The cellular phone  5  of the second embodiment is able to reduce and display the display areas of images not overlapped with the invalid areas on the touch panel  51 . Thus, it is possible to reduce and display a part of images, which are hidden with user&#39;s fingers or a user&#39;s hand holding the cellular phone  5 , at an easy-to-see position in a user&#39;s view. 
     It is possible to modify the first and second embodiment in such a way that a microcomputer (or a computer system) embedded in the cellular phone  5  reads a program from a computer-readable storage medium so as to execute the foregoing processes. This program can be drafted in the form combined with a main program pre-installed in a computer system, e.g. a differential file (or a differential program). Alternatively, this program can be downloaded to a computer system via a communication line, and therefore the computer system may execute the program. 
     Lastly, the present invention is not limited to the foregoing embodiments, which may embrace a variety of modifications and design changes within the scope of the invention defined by the appended claims. 
     INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY 
     The present invention is able to automatically display images, which are hidden with user&#39;s fingers or a user&#39;s hand in a touch-panel cellular phone, at a desired position on a touch panel with a desired reduction ratio, and related to the technology which guarantees a display device to display images while freely changing their positions and sizes based on the detection results of sensors; hence, the present invention is not necessarily limited to handheld information terminals but applicable to any electronic devices equipped with displays and sensors. 
     
       
         
           
               
             
               
                   
               
               
                 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 
               
               
                   
               
             
            
               
                   
               
            
           
           
               
               
            
               
                 1 
                 cellular phone 
               
               
                 51 
                 touch panel 
               
               
                 52 
                 sensor 
               
               
                 501 
                 application execution part 
               
               
                 502 
                 touch input detection part 
               
               
                 503 
                 grip detection part 
               
               
                 504 
                 user identification part 
               
               
                 505 
                 invalid area specifying part 
               
               
                 506 
                 storage unit 
               
               
                 507 
                 recording part 
               
               
                 508 
                 input part 
               
               
                 509 
                 display control part 
               
               
                 510 
                 inscribed quadrilateral  
               
               
                   
                 calculation part 
               
               
                 511 
                 ratio calculation part 
               
               
                 512 
                 reduction part