Patent Publication Number: US-2013232451-A1

Title: Electronic device and method for switching between applications

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     1. Technical Field 
     Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to application program managements technology, and particularly to an electronic device and method for switching between applications using the electronic device. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     When a plurality of applications are running simultaneously in an electronic device having a touch panel, a user needs to switch between the running applications using a keystroke (e.g., a physical key or a virtual key) of the electronic device. Otherwise, the user has to close a current application and then select another application. Thus, it is inefficient for the user to switch between multiple applications. Therefore, an efficient method for switching between applications using the electronic device is desired. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of an electronic device including a switching system. 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of function modules of the switching system in the electronic device. 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a switch menu provided by the switching system. 
         FIG. 4  is a flowchart of one embodiment of a method for switching between applications using the switching system. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     All of the processes described below may be embodied in, and fully automated via, functional code modules executed by one or more general purpose electronic devices or processors. The code modules may be stored in any type of non-transitory computer-readable medium or other storage device. Some or all of the methods may alternatively be embodied in specialized hardware. Depending on the embodiment, the non-transitory computer-readable medium may be a hard disk drive, a compact disc, a digital video disc, a tape drive or other suitable storage medium. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram of one embodiment of an electronic device  1  including a switching system  10 . The electronic device  1  further includes at least one processor  11 , a storage device  12 , and a touch panel  13 .  FIG. 1  illustrates only one example of the electronic device  1  that may include more or fewer components than illustrated, or have a different configuration of the various components in other embodiments. 
     The switching system  10  is used to switch between running applications of the electronic device  1 . A detailed description of the switching system  10  will be given in the following paragraphs. 
     In one embodiment, the electronic device  1  may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a personal digital assistant, a notebook computer, or any other device. In one embodiment, the switching system  10  may include computerized instructions in the form of one or more programs that are executed by the at least one processor  11  and stored in the storage device  12 . The storage device  12  stores one or more programs, such as operating systems, applications of the electronic device  1 , and various kinds of data, such as images. In some embodiments, the storage device  12  may be an external storage card, such as a memory stick, a smart media card, a compact flash card, a secure digital card, or any other type of memory storage device. The touch panel  13  may display data in visible form, such as images, and receive user operations on the touch panel  13 . 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of function modules of the switching system  10  included in the electronic device  1 . In one embodiment, the switching system  10  may include one or more modules, for example, a setting module  100 , a display module  102 , a determination module  104 , and a switch module  106 . In general, the word “module”, as used herein, refers to logic embodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of software instructions, written in a programming language, such as, Java, C, or assembly. One or more software instructions in the modules may be embedded in firmware, such as in an EPROM. The modules described herein may be implemented as either software and/or hardware modules and may be stored in any type of non-transitory computer-readable medium or other storage device. Some non-limiting examples of non-transitory computer-readable medium include CDs, DVDs, BLU-RAY, flash memory, and hard disk drives. 
       FIG. 4  is a flowchart of one embodiment of a method for switching between applications using the switching system  10 . Depending on the embodiment, additional steps may be added, others removed, and the ordering of the steps may be changed. 
     In step S 2 , the setting module  100  sets a switch mode, and sets an activation condition of the switch mode. In some embodiments, the switch mode is activated when the activation condition is triggered, and the activation condition is a one-touch operation or a multi-touch operation carried out on the touch panel for a predetermined time period (e.g., 5 seconds). 
     In step S 4 , the display module  102  determines whether the switch mode has been activated by determining whether the activation condition is triggered. When the activation condition is triggered, the switch mode is activated. If the switch mode is not activated, step S 4  is repeated. 
     For example, when a user of the electronic device  1  touches/taps/clicks/drags/slides on the touch panel  13  using a single finger (or a stylus) for the predetermined time period, that is, the one-touch operation is executed by the user, the display module  102  receives a one-touch signal, determines the switch mode is activated, and displays the switch menu on the touch panel  13 . 
     For another example, the user may touch/tap/click/drag/slide on the touch panel  13  using at least two single fingers (or styluses) for the predetermined time period, that is, when the multi-touch operation is executed by the user, the display module  102  receives a multi-touch signal, determines that the switch mode is activated, and displays the switch menu on the touch panel  13 . 
     In other embodiments, the activation condition may be a predetermined gesture to be implemented on the touch panel  13 . For example, the predetermined gesture may be implemented by drawing a figure (e.g., a circle) on the touch panel  13 , or by completing predetermined operations (e.g., tapping the touch panel  13  three times), or by clicking a preset hotkey. 
     If the switch mode is activated, in step S 6 , the display module  102  displays a switch menu on a current user interface of the touch panel  13 . The switch menu includes icons of running applications of the electronic device. In some embodiments, the current user interface is a desktop of the electronic device  1 , or a software interface of one of the running applications. 
     In some embodiments, a format, display contents, a display mode and a display position of the switch menu may be preset by the setting module  100 . The display position of the switch menu may be changed according to a drag operation of the user. In some embodiments, the display position of the switch menu may be a position near to a tapped/pressed position implemented by the user. For example, a distance between the display position of the switch menu and the tapped/pressed position may be 1 centimeter. 
     The display mode of the switch menu also may be changed by recognizing another specified gesture that is different from the above mentioned predetermined gesture. For example, when the user slides his finger up and down on the touch panel  13 , the icons in the switch menu may be arranged vertically. As shown in  FIG. 3 , the icons are arranged vertically. For another example, when the user slides his finger on the touch panel  13  horizontally from left to right, the icons in the switch menu may be displayed horizontally from left and right. 
     The icons in the switch menu may be scrolled up, scrolled down, scrolled left, or scrolled right according to a slide operation received by the electronic device  1 . For example, when the user presses the touch panel  13  using two fingers for the predetermined time period, the switch mode is activated. Then when the user slides one finger on the touch panel  13 , the display module  102  displays the icons in the switch menu vertically as shown in  FIG. 3 . Furthermore, the user may scroll through the switch menu to select a desired icon to enter a specified running application. 
     In some embodiments, the display module  104  displays the switch menu on the current user interface by: determining the running applications of the electronic device, and appending the icons of the running applications into the switch menu. In some embodiments, the running applications represent applications which are already running in the electronic device  1 . The display module  104  further determines an icon corresponding to a closed application when one of the running applications has been closed, and removes the determined icon from the switch menu. 
     When there is only one running application in the electronic device  1 , the display module  102  may output a prompt to prompt that there is no need to switch between the applications. 
     In step S 8 , the determination module  104  determines a selected icon in response to receiving a touch signal on the selected icon in the switch menu, and determines which one of the running applications corresponds to the selected icon. 
     In step S 10 , the switch module  106  switches the current user interface to a software interface of the determined running application 
     It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of the present disclosure, particularly, any embodiments, are merely possible examples of implementations, set forth for a clear understanding of the principles of the disclosure. Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-described embodiment(s) of the disclosure without departing substantially from the spirit and principles of the disclosure. All such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure and the present disclosure and protected by the following claims.