JP2018097469A - Glass film with operation aiding function and manufacturing method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a glass film with an operation aiding function for portable terminal devices, which can be placed over a touch panel of a portable terminal device to improve operability of the touch panel, and to provide a manufacturing method therefor.SOLUTION: A glass film 50 with an operation aiding function is placed over a touch panel 12 of a smartphone 10. The glass film 50 consists of a single transparent glass member. The glass film 50 has an operation aiding recess 52 for indicating a point to be touched or direction to be swiped, or both a point to be touched and direction to be swiped when performing prescribed touch manipulation.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a glass film with an operation assisting function for a mobile terminal device configured to be placed on a touch panel of a mobile terminal device such as a smartphone or a tablet, and a production method thereof.

  Almost all mobile terminal devices such as smartphones and tablets that have been widely used in recent years are provided with a touch panel. Buttons, switches, and the like provided in portable terminal devices are decreasing year by year, and most operations are performed through a touch panel.

  Meanwhile, in order to protect the touch panel and improve the functionality, various cover films such as a touch panel protective film, an anti-fingerprint film, and an antireflection film are commercially available. Moreover, the request | requirement of improving the decoration property of a portable terminal device using a cover film is also increasing, and the glass film for responding to such a request has also appeared (for example, patent document 1).

JP2016-1000077

  However, the conventional glass film has been devised with attention paid to the protection and decoration of the display, but no attempt has been made to improve the operability with the glass film. In particular, the operation through the touch panel has a less tactile sensation such as a hit feeling, a click feeling, and a push-down feeling than operations through the buttons and switches. For this reason, erroneous operation is likely to occur. It is also difficult to perform a touch operation at an accurate position or to perform a swipe operation accurately in the direction to be moved. For this reason, it can be said that it is extremely meaningful to work on improving the operability of the touch panel.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a glass film with an operation assisting function for a mobile terminal device having a function of improving the operability of the touch panel by being placed over the touch panel of the mobile terminal device, and a production method thereof. It is.

  The glass film with an operation assisting function according to the present invention is configured to be placed on a touch panel of a mobile terminal device. This glass film with an operation assistance function is comprised with the single transparent glass member. Further, the glass film with an operation assisting function has a position to be touched in a predetermined touch operation, a region to be touched, or a direction to be swiped, or a position to be touched, a region to be touched, and a direction to be swipeed. At least one of the operation assistance concave part or the operation assistance convex part for teaching at least two of them is provided.

  Examples of the configuration of the operation assist concave portion and the operation assist convex portion include, for example, circular, elliptical, and polygonal (triangular, etc.) concave portions or convex portions disposed at predetermined positions. In such a configuration, the position to be touched (home position such as a keyboard, the appearance position of a game character, the target position on the game (arrangement position of the instrument, etc.)), the area to be touched (swipe operation range), etc. It becomes easy to touch accurately.

  In the above-described configuration, the operation assist concave portion and the operation assist convex portion are respectively linear, curved, circular, polygonal or elliptical guide grooves, and linear, curved, circular, polygonal or elliptical. The guide rib is preferably used. The operation auxiliary recess and operation auxiliary protrusion have a guide function that can be used during swipe operations (straight, circular, arc, oval, triangle, quadrilateral, pentagon, hexagon, etc.) , Such as grooves and ribs) makes it easy to perform a swipe operation in the correct direction.

  It is preferable to produce the glass film with an operation assisting function described above by the following production method. That is, the production method of the glass film with an operation assisting function according to the present invention includes a step of attaching an acid-resistant protective film to the glass film, and a step of patterning the protective film attached to the glass film into a desired shape, It is preferable to include a step of etching the glass film after the patterning and a step of peeling the protective film from the glass film after the etching treatment.

  By adopting such a production method, it becomes easy to form operation assist concave portions and operation assist convex portions having various shapes. In addition, since the operation assisting concave portion and the edge portion of the operation assisting convex portion are likely to be smooth due to etching, it is easier to fit the finger and a comfortable touch operation and swipe operation can be performed.

  According to this invention, it becomes possible to improve the operativity of this touch panel by arrange | positioning on the touch panel of a portable terminal device so that it may overlap.

It is a figure which shows schematic structure of the glass film which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the use condition of a glass film. It is a figure which shows an example of the production process of a glass film. It is a figure which shows the example of a variation of a structure of a glass film. It is a figure which shows the example of a variation of a structure of a glass film. It is a figure which shows the example of a variation of a structure of a glass film. It is a figure which shows the example of a variation of a structure of a glass film.

  FIG. 1 schematically shows a smartphone 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention and a glass film 50 applied thereto. The smartphone 10 includes a touch panel unit 12, operation buttons 14, a speaker 16, and the like. The touch panel unit 12 is disposed at a position corresponding to a liquid crystal display provided at the upper part of the housing. A number of IC chips such as a CPU are stored in this casing, and the display operation and communication operation of the smartphone 10 are comprehensively controlled by these IC chips.

  The operation button 14 is configured to accept an operation from the user. When the user presses the operation button 14, various operations such as shifting to the sleep mode, returning to the normal mode, and displaying the menu screen are performed. The speaker 16 is configured to output sound. Although not shown, the smartphone 10 is provided with a power switch, a volume adjustment button, a microphone, and the like on the end surface. The configuration of the smartphone 10 is merely an example, and the glass film 50 according to the present invention can be applied to a mobile terminal device such as a smartphone, a tablet, or a mobile phone other than the configuration described above.

  The glass film 50 has a shape corresponding to the shape of the smartphone 10, and is placed on the touch panel portion 12 of the smartphone 10. The glass film 50 is comprised with the single transparent glass member. In this embodiment, an aluminosilicate glass plate having a thickness of about 300 μm is employed. However, the glass material and the plate thickness used for the glass film 50 are not limited to this, and a glass material having desired transparency, thickness, strength, and processing performance can be arbitrarily selected.

  The glass film 50 is provided with a button through hole 54 at a position corresponding to the operation button 14 of the smartphone 10 and a speaker through hole 56 at a position corresponding to the speaker 16. The button through hole 54 and the speaker through hole 56 are both optional components in the present invention. Depending on the configuration of a mobile terminal device such as a smartphone or a tablet, a configuration that does not include one or both of the button through hole 54 and the speaker through hole 56 can be employed.

  The glass film 50 further includes an operation assist recess 52 for teaching a position to be touched or a direction to be swiped in a predetermined touch operation, or both a position to be touched and a direction to be swiped. The operation auxiliary recess 52 is configured such that the plate thickness is thinner than the other surface of the glass film 50. The operation auxiliary recess 52 has a circular portion that fits the user's finger and a linear groove portion that serves as a guide for the user to perform a swipe operation straight.

  Next, an example of the operation of the smartphone 10 using the operation auxiliary recess 52 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 shows a state in which a game application (application software for enjoying a game) is operating on the smartphone 10. In this game, the user can enjoy the game by rolling the bowling ball 122 displayed on the screen toward the target pin 124 and competing for the number of pins that have fallen. In order to obtain a higher score, it is required that the user touches the position of the bowling ball 122 accurately to stop and swipes straight toward the pin 124 at a predetermined timing.

  Since normal glass film is flat, it is difficult to touch, stand still and swipe linearly. However, the glass film 50 according to the embodiment of the present invention comes to rest while touching the circular portion of the operation assisting recess 52, and swipes the straight groove portion as a guide, so that the bowling ball 122 is properly directed to the pin 124. It becomes easy to realize the movement to throw. Although an example of a bowling game has been described here, application software that can utilize the operation assisting recess 52 is not limited to this. For example, the operation assist recess 52 is preferably used in situations where it is required to touch an accurate position or perform a straight swipe operation, such as a game in which a weapon or a capture device is flew toward a target such as a monster. It is possible.

  Then, an example of the process which produces the glass film 50 is demonstrated using FIG. 3 (A)-FIG.3 (C). The basic structure of the glass film 50 can be made by adopting a conventionally used glass film production process. When the operation auxiliary recess 52 is further formed with respect to the basic configuration of the glass film 50, first, as shown in FIG. 3A, the protective film is entirely wrapped from both sides of the glass film 50. 100 laminating procedures are performed. Here, a film for electronics manufactured by Sumilon Co., Ltd. is adopted as the protective film 100, but other films can be used as long as they are protective films having etching resistance.

  The glass film 50 on which the protective film 100 has been laminated is subjected to the patterning process shown in FIG. Specifically, the position where the operation assist recess is formed in the glass film 50 is removed by a laser such as a pico laser. Here, after processing the contour portion of the region to be removed by the pico laser, the inside is peeled off, but the present invention is not limited to this method. The patterning of the protective film 100 can also be performed by another laser such as an IR laser. Further, blasting or the like may be employed as means other than laser processing.

  When the patterning of the protective film 100 is finished, as shown in FIG. 3C, the glass film 50 is introduced into the etching apparatus 300 and is subjected to an etching process with an etching solution containing hydrofluoric acid and hydrochloric acid. In the etching apparatus 300, the glass film 50 is conveyed by the conveyance roller, and the etching process is performed on the glass film 50 by spraying an etching solution on one or both surfaces of the glass film 50 in the etching chamber. Here, since the glass film 50 is thin and small in size, a plurality of glass films 50 are set on the acid-resistant tray 200 made of polyvinyl chloride or the like and etching is performed. In this embodiment, the etching process is performed for about 10 minutes to 60 minutes using 1 to 5% by weight of hydrofluoric acid and 5 to 15% by weight of hydrochloric acid, but the present invention is not limited to these. The composition of the etching solution, the etching conditions, and the like can be appropriately selected as appropriate.

  When the glass film 50 passes through the etching apparatus 300, only the portion corresponding to the operation auxiliary recess 52 that is not protected by the protective film 100 is etched to form the operation auxiliary recess 52. And the glass film 50 in which the operation assistance recessed part 52 was completed transfers to the peeling process of the protective film 100. FIG. The production of the glass film 50 is completed by removing the protective film 100 safely.

  As described above, by using the glass film 50 according to the present embodiment, it is possible to touch an accurate position on the smartphone 10 or perform a straight swipe operation. In addition, since the glass film 50 is transparent, the visibility of the display screen of the smartphone 10 is hardly deteriorated due to the presence of the operation assist recess 52, so that there is almost no risk of hindering normal operations other than game applications. Absent. In particular, when the antireflection process or the antiglare process or the like is performed on the glass film 50 as necessary, the operation assisting recessed part 52 becomes more inconspicuous.

  In the above-described embodiment, it is assumed that the glass film 50 is attached to the smartphone 10 via an adhesive or the like, but the fixing method of the glass film 50 is not limited to this. For example, the glass film 50 can be used as a part of a case that covers the smartphone 10 as a whole. Moreover, it is also possible to comprise so that the glass film 50 becomes removable with respect to the smart phone 10 using magnetic force, an electrostatic force, etc.

  Then, the structural example of the variation of the glass film 50 is demonstrated using FIG. 4 (A)-FIG.4 (C). FIG. 4A shows a glass film 60 that achieves the same operational feeling as a two-button type cross controller of a console game device. By using the cross-shaped recess 62, it is easy to move the player character on the game in four directions such as up, down, left and right, and the two circular recesses 64 allow the player character to perform predetermined actions (jump, attack, defense, dash, etc.). It will be easier to do.

  FIG. 4B shows an example of a glass film 70 having a donut-shaped recess 72. By rotating the finger along the donut-shaped recess 72, it becomes easy to rotate the target or operate a hip-hop music game.

  Furthermore, FIG. 4C shows an example of a glass film 80 having a plurality of circular recesses 82 arranged in a dispersed manner at a predetermined position. By associating the position of the circular recess 82 with the position of the target appearing on the game (for example, the position of each drum in the drum set), the user can touch the exact position and perform the operation of hitting the drum accurately. Can be realized.

 FIG. 5A shows an example of a glass film 110 having a triangular shape (more specifically, a vertebra shape having a rounded apex portion) recess 112. For example, when performing an operation of imparting rotation to the ball in a bowling game or the like, the swipe can be effectively performed by swiping so as to trace the outline of the triangular recess 112. Further, the triangular recess 112 contributes to improving the design of the smartphone 10 in a normal standby screen or power-off state. Moreover, since the entire glass film 110 is transparent, the presence of the triangular recess 112 does not deteriorate the visibility of the smartphone 10.

  FIG. 5B shows an example of a glass film 120 having a circular concave portion 122 having a straight line extending in a tangential direction from the circle based on a circle. Similarly to the glass film 110 shown in FIG. 5A, when performing an operation of imparting rotation to the ball in a bowling game or the like, the rotation is effectively imparted by swiping to trace the outline of the circular portion. In addition, swiping in the tangential direction makes it possible to throw the rotated ball in the proper direction. Further, similarly to the glass film 110 shown in FIG. 5A, the circular concave portion 122 also has a decorative property, and thus it can be said that it contributes to the improvement of the design of the smartphone 10.

  FIG. 6A shows an example of a glass film 130 having a circular recess 132 having a straight line extending in a tangential direction from a circle based on a circle. This is a variation of the glass film 120 shown in FIG. 5 (B) and has the same effects as the glass film 120. FIG. 6B shows an example of a glass film 140 having an elliptical concave portion 142. Basically, the same effect as that of the circular concave portion is obtained. However, compared to the circular shape, the elliptical shape has a plurality of curves having different radii of curvature, and thus has an advantage that variations in operation increase. Moreover, it can be said that the decorativeness is higher than that of a circle and contributes to the improvement of the design of the smartphone 10.

  FIG. 7A shows an example of a glass film 150 having a numeric keypad-shaped recess 152 capable of inputting numerical values. Opportunities to use a tablet or smartphone as a POS (ordering terminal) have increased in recent years, but the use of the numeric keypad-shaped recess 152 makes it difficult to erroneously input numerical values. As a result, it is possible to efficiently input the quantity.

  FIG. 7B shows an example of a glass film 160 having circular steering depressions 162 and 164. Opportunities for maneuvering a drone with a tablet or smartphone or manipulating a radio controlled car have increased in recent years. By using the glass film 160, it is possible to maneuver a drone with the smartphone 10 application accurately. become. In particular, it is important for the drone to be accurately maneuvered. By using the glass film 160, it becomes possible to realize high operability equivalent to that of a dedicated controller.

  In the above-described embodiment, the operation assist concave portion has been described, but the operation assist convex portion can be used in the same manner. About the operation assistance convex part, in patterning of the protective film 100 demonstrated in FIG.3 (B), by removing the protective film of places other than an operation assistance convex part, after that, by the production process similar to an operation assistance recessed part It is possible to form.

  The above description of the embodiment is to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is shown not by the above embodiments but by the claims. Furthermore, the scope of the present invention is intended to include all modifications within the meaning and scope equivalent to the scope of the claims.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10- Smartphone 12- Touch panel part 14- Operation button 16- Speaker 50- Glass film 52- Operation assistance recessed part 54- Button through-hole 56- Speaker through-hole 100- Protection film 200- Acid-resistant tray 300- Etching apparatus

Claims (3)

It is a glass film with an operation assistance function configured to be placed on the touch panel of a mobile terminal device,
It consists of a single transparent glass member,
To teach at least two of a position to be touched, an area to be touched, or a direction to be swiped, or a position to be touched, an area to be touched, and a direction to be swipeed during a predetermined touch operation A glass film with an operation assistance function, comprising at least one of an operation assistance recess or an operation assistance projection.   The operation auxiliary recesses and the operation auxiliary projections are linear, curved, circular, polygonal or elliptical guide grooves, and linear, curved, circular, polygonal or elliptical guide ribs, respectively. The glass film with an operation assistance function according to claim 1. A method for producing the glass film with an operation assisting function according to claim 1 or 2,
A step of attaching an acid-resistant protective film to the glass film;
Patterning the protective film affixed to the glass film into a desired shape;
Etching the glass film after the patterning;
After the etching process, peeling the protective film from the glass film;
Of production of glass film with operation assisting function including

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