WO2008098946A2

WO2008098946A2 - Touchpad

Info

Publication number: WO2008098946A2
Application number: PCT/EP2008/051696
Authority: WO
Inventors: Alan Scott; Ian Murphy
Original assignee: Me2B Holdings Limited
Priority date: 2007-02-12
Filing date: 2008-02-12
Publication date: 2008-08-21
Also published as: GB2446468A; GB0702689D0; WO2008098946A3

Abstract

An electronic device comprising processing means, a graphical display screen electrically coupled to said processing means and a touchpad electrically coupled to said processing means, said touchpad comprising a touch-sensitive detector array in a touchpad area separate from said graphical display screen, the touchpad being designed to detect relative movement between a contact device and said detector array whilst the contact device is continuously in contact with said touchpad area and to produce an output signal based on said detected relative movement, which output signal is capable of being used to control an image on said graphical display screen, characterised in that: said touchpad further comprises a plurality of display elements located in said touchpad area, said plurality of display elements being electrically coupled to said processing means and being capable of being selectively activated by said processing means to provide a visual indication of a user control mode of said touchpad.

Description

Touchpad

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a touchpad, and to an electronic device comprising a touchpad.

Background of the Invention

A touchpad is an input device used in various electronic devices such as laptop computers, and may be used as a pointing device, instead of a computer mouse, for moving a pointer such as a cursor across a screen of a graphical display screen. A touchpad is typically used to move a pointing device on the screen of the electronic device by detecting relative motion of a contact device, such as a user's finger, and in this sense a touchpad is a relative motion device. Motion of the contact device relative to the touchpad, irrespective of the initial point of touch, causes corresponding motion of a cursor relative to the screen of the electronic device. Further input devices such as buttons may be located around the touchpad and serve as standard input buttons. Touchpads have been provided with various additional functionality, for example a function whereby a user may also conduct input actions by tapping input on the touchpad. Depending on the software application run on the computer, a user may prefer to use some form of linear control, rotary control or D-pads.

It is an object of the present invention to improve the functionality of touchpads, and of devices incorporating touchpads.

Summary of the Invention

The features of the present invention are set out in the appended claims. Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments of the invention, given by way of example only, which is made with reference to the accompanying drawings. Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 shows an electronic device comprising a touchpad according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 2 shows an arrangement of display elements in a touchpad according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 3 shows a diagram of the components of an electronic device comprising a touchpad according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figures 4 and 5 show a plurality of illumination schemes corresponding to a plurality of user control modes of a touchpad according to an embodiment of the pre sent invention ;

Figures 6 shows an arrangement of components in a touchpad according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Figure 7 shows a layout of connections to a touchpad microcontroller according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description of the Invention

Figure 1 shows an electronic device 2 comprising a touchpad 6 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Touchpads are well known, and will not be described in detail here. The touchpad 6 of the present invention, referred to below as a "display touchpad", could use any known touchpad technology such as capacitive, resistive or inductive systems, and may be activated by a user's finger or stylus or other contact device.

As mentioned above, the touchpad 6 is an input device which may be used as a pointing device, instead of a computer mouse, for moving a pointer such as a cursor across a screen of a graphical display screen. The touchpad is typically used to move a pointing device on the screen of the electronic device by detecting relative motion of a contact device, and in this sense a touchpad is a relative motion device. Motion of a contact device relative to the touchpad, irrespective of the initial point of touch, causes corresponding motion of a cursor relative to the screen of the electronic device. Further input devices such as buttons may be located around the touchpad and serve as standard input buttons. The touchpad may be provided with various additional functionality, for example a function whereby a user may also conduct input actions by tapping input on the touchpad.

The touchpad of the present invention is a multi-mode touchpad which may be used as a user input device for software applications run on the electronic device. The electronic device could be a computer, laptop device, handheld device, PDA, phone or any computing device such as media player, portable TV, etc.

As shown in Figure 1, the electronic device 2 may have a main graphical display screen 4, which the user can interact with using the touchpad 6 of the present invention. The touchpad comprises a touch sensitive detector array (shown in Figure 6), in the touchpad area 6. The touchpad could use any known technology such as capacitive, resistive or inductive systems, activated by finger or stylus or other contact device. In the present invention, the mode of operation of the touchpad is controlled by the software application according to what kind of user input the software application needs.

An embodiment of display touchpad according to the present invention is shown in Figure 2. A means of displaying information in the touchpad is provided to prompt the user in relation to different operating modes of the touchpad. The different modes are indicated to the user by the selective activation of different display elements 10. In the preferred embodiments the display elements 10 are lighting elements. Illumination may be provided by light-emitting diodes (LEDs), light guides, etc. Alternative forms of light emitting display, such as electroluminescence (EL), organic light-emitting diode (OLED), cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL), may be used to provide individually controlled elements or regions of illumination. The display elements may be provided as an array of individual non-matrix elements arranged at fixed locations in the form of individual point-like display elements or display elements in the form of icons. Alternatively, the display elements may be arranged in a matrix, such as a dot matrix display. Each element, or co- located elements, may be selectively activated using one or more colours. In any of these arrangements, the display elements may be placed behind the touchpad. In this case, the touchpad is either provided with apertures corresponding to the location of the display elements, or the touch sensing array may be formed from a semi-transparent material or a light transmissive material, such as Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), in order to allow the display elements to be seen through the touchpad. Alternatively, the touchpad may be mounted below the display elements.

One or more additional display elements may be selectively activated to provide a visual indication of the functions of input devices in the form of buttons 12 located adjacent the touchpad area 6. The buttons are capable of being used to control a function of the electronic device 2.

As shown in the diagram of Figure 3, the touchpad in this embodiment of the present invention is scanned using a control system. The control system may be in the form of a touchpad microcontroller or other hardware device, or is scanned directly by the application processor. The display elements can be controlled by the same microcontroller or other hardware device or by other independent hardware. The control system is capable of scanning the touchpad to recognise a continuous-motion input by the user's finger, to encode the directional information and to transmit this information to the application processor. The control system is also capable of scanning the touchpad to recognise a tap-input by the user' s finger, to encode the X-Y coordinates of the tap-input point and to transmit this information to the application processor. The software application, running on the application processor, chooses a particular operating mode for the touchpad and uses the control system to send a corresponding display command to the application processor, which in turn illuminates the appropriate display elements and enables the touchpad scanning process.

Examples of different user input modes of the touchpad, of which examples are illustrated in Figures 4 and 5, include: • An X-Y touchpad input mode for moving a cursor on the graphical display screen - in this mode, motion of a user's finger relative to the touchpad, when in continuous contact and irrespective of the initial point of touch, causes corresponding motion of a cursor relative to the graphical display screen of the electronic device. In this mode, no display elements are activated.

• A D-pad input mode in which a number of display elements are activated to show fixed tap-input actuating areas each corresponding to a different input action. Five display elements may be activated in a D-Pad configuration for up, down, left, right, enter inputs.

• A rotary control input mode, such as volume control or video jog wheel, in which a ring of display elements is activated in one of more colours, to show the user that he can make a rotary control input by motion of the user's finger relative to the touchpad, when in continuous contact with the touchpad, in a circular motion relative to the touchpad.

• A gesture recognition input mode - in this mode, motion of a user's finger relative to the touchpad, when in continuous contact with the touchpad, causes recognition of a certain pattern of input movement across the touchpad. • A linear slider input mode in which motion is detected in the X and/or the Y direction. A line of display elements are activated to show that the user can make a linear control input by motion of the user's finger relative to the touchpad, when in continuous contact with the touchpad, in a linear motion relative to the touchpad. • A compass mode in which different display elements are selectively activated to show compass heading.

• A navigation mode in which different display elements are selectively activated to show at least one fixed tap-input actuating area corresponding to an input requesting navigation information such as "next turn" information. Depending upon the mode selected by the software application currently running, the control system converts the scanned information from the touchpad into mode- specific information. For example, a fixed button mode could produce the appropriate key codes for each button touched. In the D-Pad example, touching the touchpad at top centre is converted to an Up key code, touching at right centre is converted to Right key code. The converted information is then used by the software application to allow the user to control its operation or settings or to enter information.

In linear Y slider mode, the control system may be instructed to selectively activate a vertical line of display elements. As the user moves his finger up and down the touchpad the change in Y value can be used by the software application to scroll an image on the graphical display screen up and down.

In rotary control mode, the control system may be instructed to selectively activate a circular arrangement of display elements and as the user makes a rotary touch action the input may be converted to volume-up and volume-down commands. At the same time the display elements may be selectively activated, and/or changed in colour, to indicate the current volume setting.

If the device is hand-held or otherwise movable, the device can include means allowing a software application to detect the orientation of the device and change the operating mode according to how the device is being used. For instance, an accelerometer may be used to measure the orientation of the device relative to gravity. The user would thus be allowed to use the touchpad, when fitted to a hand-held device, in portrait or landscape modes.

Figure 6 illustrates a device construction according to an embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, the touchpad device includes a touch- sensitive array consisting of individually addressable touch-sensitive elements corresponding to X-Y positions C0-C5 and R0-R4, arranged on a substrate B in which there are formed apertures A corresponding to the positions of display elements. The touchpad also includes a set of display elements E, in the form of bi-colour Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), arranged on a printed circuit board (PCB) G. The PCB G also includes a set of input device buttons F, and an in- built microcontroller D. The two parts, namely the substrate B and the PCB G, of the device are preferably connected using a flexible connector, and connected together as shown on the right hand side of Figure 6. The substrate B includes an overlay K which is printed with icons corresponding to the button positions, and apertures corresponding to the display element positions, in this embodiment LEDs J, which are separated using light shields I.

Figure 7 illustrates the connection arrangement for the microcontroller D of the embodiment shown in Figure 6.

Further understanding of the invention will be gained from the bullet points below.

• The touchpad provides intuitive functionality in its default configuration for software applications that are not display touchpad-enabled, and allow display touchpad-enabled enhanced applications to override its functionality for both feedback and input. • In a preferred embodiment, the touchpad is a device including 17 display elements, for example in the form of bicolour or multicolour LEDs, arranged with 12 on the circumference of a circle within the touchpad, one in the centre, and a further 4 on the vertical and horizontal axes.

• The display elements may for example be red and green, and can be both switched on at the same time to produce orange as a third colour.

• Individual display elements or combinations indicate to the user which mode is active.

• Click domes may be provided beneath the 5 off D-Pad positions.

• The fixed function buttons may be single colour backlit (Blue, Red, Green for instance) and may be provided with click domes beneath.

• The fixed function buttons comprise a Send button which may be a green phone icon, an End button which may be a red phone icon, a Radio button which may be an antenna symbol, a Task button, an OK button, a Start button, a Home button and Special Function (SF) Keys in the form of SFl and SF2 buttons. The legends/icons may remain visible when not backlit. The lighting is preferably white. Send and End buttons are preferably colour printed Green and Red respectively.

• Button based input - For applications that are not aware of the display touchpad's existence, it provides outputs in the form of standard Windows keystrokes that replace the D-Pad and other buttons typically installed on standard computing devices.

• Tapping Input - Tapping the touchpad in the North, West, East, South and Centre areas will cause the control system to produce D-Pad compatible key code events: North tap: VK_TUP + VK_DPAD: Up

West tap: VKJTLEFT + VK_DPAD: Down East tap: VKJTRIGHT + VK_DPAD: Right South tap: VKJTDOWN + VK_DPAD: Left Centre tap: VK JTACTION + VK_DPAD: Select • Gesture Input - Gestures are a type of user interaction that involve dragging motions in a simple or complex pattern. Gestures add additional functionality to the default touchpad configuration. A set of gesture patterns may be used by default, but users may define their own gestures as well.

• Rotary Gestures - Rotary type functionality can be activated by clockwise and anti-clockwise gestures around the outside of the gesture pad. This can be used to scroll quickly through lists of items (as in the iPod™), or to control a logical dial control. Rotary control functionality may also be used to provide a volume control on the touchpad. By default, rotary actions will cause the control system to produce sequences of VK_TUP+VK_DPAD events for anti-clockwise motion, and sequences of

VKJTDOWN+VK_DPAD events for clockwise motion.

• Up-Down Gesture - A top to bottom gesture will be detected by the control system to produce a VKJNEXT event and a bottom to top gesture to VK_PRIOR event to facilitate scrolling through documents. • Left-Right Gesture - Stroking left to right or right to left is another gesture that is supported in the display touchpad of the present invention. In a media player software application, this may act as fast-forward and rewind. Tapping input may be used to select the next track. If it is possible to scroll sideways through standard keystrokes, then these may be bound to the left/right gesture by default. • Further input options - the tap and gesture zones are large enough that the user can easily activate them. Other input is provided in the form of tap zones that do not overlap (e.g. the corners outside of the circle of display elements), and gestures which are not ambiguous. NW, NE, SW, SE taps may be available, along with NW-SE, NE-SW, SW-NE, SE-NW gestures, up/down/left/right gestures along the edges of the touchpad, and more complex gestures (<, >, V, ^Λ, L, O).

• Gestures that involve lifting the finger from the touchpad may be used, however timeouts are needed to determine if the two strokes are part of the same gesture or two separate gestures. • Pointing device input - the display touchpad of the present invention has a mode which acts as a replacement for stylus and mouse input. When switching into this mode, the mouse cursor is made visible through a call to SetCursor(LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_ARR0W)), and is placed in a location where the user will easily find it (e.g. centre of screen, or last used location if used recently). When switching out of this mode, the presence of another attached pointing device (via USB or Bluetooth) is checked for before making the cursor invisible via a call to SetCursor(NULL). In this mode, any directional gesture, in the form of continuous contact directional movement irrespective of the initial point of contact in the touchpad area, is translated by the control system to WM_M0USEM0VE events, and a tapping input is translated to WM_LBUTT0ND0WN, WM_LBUTTONUP and potentially WM_LB UTTONDB LCLK events. Tap and hold inputs are translated to WM_RBUTT0ND0WN and WM_RBUTTONUP events.

• The display touchpad may be arranged to feed its detected gestures into a transcriber, block recogniser and/or letter recogniser. • Page scrolling - the linear sliders may be enabled by the control system when a software application indicates that a page on the display screen has scroll bars, whether horizontal or vertical or both. The right and bottom edges of the touchpad may be used to detect this input without interfering with other gestures which are defined.

• User feedback - the display touchpad provides visual clues about how to use it. A typical user is able to pick up a suitably enabled device and begin using the touchpad, at least as a D-Pad replacement without reading any documentation. • D-Pad feedback - in the default input mode, the North, West, East, South and centre display elements are activated to indicate the tap areas for the D- Pad.

• Pointing device feedback - in pointing device mode, the display elements will be left inactive, as the area available for touchpad input reaches outside the circular arrangement of display elements, and activating display elements in this mode could be confusing to the user.

• Circular display feedback - when using the rotary control or other control to set a current level, for example a volume control setting, either through a touchpad gesture, volume buttons or on-screen, the touchpad may provide feedback about the current level setting. Feedback may be displayed for a few seconds after a level change to give the user a chance to see the current level. Feedback can be provided either using a vertical column of display elements in the middle of the touchpad, or the display elements arranged around the circumference of a clock dial, with 0 at 7 o'clock and 10 at 5 o ' clock for example .

• Colours may be used to indicate the current level or high levels in the rotary display. In the vertical display, a different colour could be used to differentiate odd from even levels, for example when displaying 10 levels using display elements. • Clock feedback - in an embodiment in which there are twelve display elements around the circumference of the touchpad, the approximate time can be indicated by using one colour for the hour, and the other colour for the minutes rounded to the nearest 5 minute interval. To give the user an indication that this is a clock, the seconds may also be indicated by a flashing display element moving around the clock. This allows the approximate time to be optionally displayed when the device is idle with the main graphical display screen off.

• Notification feedback - notifications could be shown on the touchpad by flashing a display element, with different colours where multiple states need to be shown. The user may then activate the main graphical display screen to see what that notification is.

• Silent ring - a silent ring in a telephony device can be indicated, for example by sequencing the touchpad' s display elements in a starburst pattern.

• Display touchpad-enabled applications - display touchpad-enabled applications can control the display elements themselves. They may also define different gestures and taps or reduce or increase the size of the tap- zones. Display touchpad-enabled applications may need to be written especially for the display touchpad-enabled device, and some examples are listed below: o GPS Navigation - GPS Navigation software could use the display elements as an indicator of upcoming turns, or as a compass. It may also want to increase the sizes of the tap zones for D-Pad functionality, as a control system will be less precise in their movements due to vibration, concentration being elsewhere and the device being in a cradle rather than in their hands. Alternatively it may switch into pointing device mode for one handed operation, or redefine the tap zones completely. o Media Player - A media player could use the display elements as a level indicator or Vu Meter, a progress indicator for the current track, or draw more complex patterns in response to audio. When playing a video, display elements should be kept static to avoid distraction from the main content. Basic controls could be assigned to the touchpad either by using the D-Pad layout and assigning meanings to the directions, or by redefining the layout completely. We could also have a single dot walking around the circle to show playing media or even 5 dots going round like a spool. o Games - Games could use the touchpad as an analog input device, and the display elements used to indicate status, proximity of opponents, compass etc.

• Input from the touchpad may be sampled by the control system at least 10 times per second, and preferably at least 40 times per second by default, but this may be adjustable to higher rates, for example up to 200 samples per second for games and other applications that require fine control. The control system may be programmed to generate interrupts at a defined sample rate, or to poll, or to aggregate signals at some faster sample rate.

• The touchpad middleware is a software-based service running on the device which takes the raw touchpad input, and either passes it directly to Windows with the mouse_event() system call or translates it into key events based on taps or gestures via a call to kbd_event(), depending on the mode in which the touchpad is working. The touchpad middleware will also be responsible for keeping track of the display element states, and switching them on and off as necessary. When the device orientation changes, it will need to change the way that input is translated, and modify the mappings of logical display element positions to physical positions.

• The control system may allow the middleware to register a callback for receiving raw touchpad events. • The middleware may interpret the events based on device orientation and the mode of the touchpad.

• Control panel applet - A control panel applet may be provided for the user to configure the default gestures. All gestures may be user configurable.

The above embodiments are to be understood as illustrative examples of the invention. Further embodiments of the invention are envisaged. For example, the electronic device may not comprise a graphical display screen. The display elements need not be in a non-matrix arrangement but they may also be in a matrix arrangement. It is to be understood that any feature described in relation to any one embodiment may be used alone, or in combination with other features described, and may also be used in combination with one or more features of any other of the embodiments, or any combination of any other of the embodiments. Furthermore, equivalents and modifications not described above may also be employed without departing from the scope of the invention, which is defined in the accompanying claims.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising processing means, a graphical display screen electrically coupled to said processing means and a touchpad electrically coupled to said processing means, said touchpad comprising a touch- sensitive detector array in a touchpad area separate from said graphical display screen, the touchpad being designed to detect relative movement between a contact device and said detector array whilst the contact device is continuously in contact with said touchpad area and to produce an output signal based on said detected relative movement, which output signal is capable of being used to control an image on said graphical display screen, characterised in that: said touchpad further comprises a plurality of display elements located in said touchpad area, said plurality of display elements being electrically coupled to said processing means and being capable of being selectively activated by said processing means to provide a visual indication of a user control mode of said touchpad.

2. An electronic device according to claim 1, said plurality of display elements being arranged in a non-matrix arrangement.

3. An electronic device according to claim 2, said non-matrix arrangement comprising a circular arrangement of display elements.

4. An electronic device according to claim 3, said non-matrix arrangement comprising a display element which is positioned at the centre of said circular arrangement of display elements.

5. An electronic device according to claim 3 or 4, said non-matrix arrangement comprising a first linear arrangement of display elements.

6. An electronic device according to claim 5, said non-matrix arrangement comprising a second linear arrangement of display elements which is orthogonal to said first linear arrangement of display elements.

7. An electronic device according to claim 2, comprising: a circular arrangement of display elements; a first linear arrangement of display elements; a second linear arrangement of display elements, said second linear arrangement of display elements being orthogonal to said first linear arrangement of display elements; and a display element which is positioned at the centre of said circular arrangement of display elements, said centre of said circular arrangement of display elements corresponding to the centre of said first and second linear arrangement of display elements.

8. An electronic device according to claim 1, said plurality of display elements being arranged in a matrix.

9. An electronic device according to any preceding claim, said touchpad being designed to detect a user tapping input using said detector array and to produce an output signal based on said position of said tapping input in relation to said detector array.

10. An electronic device according to any preceding claim, said touchpad having a plurality of user control modes, each user control mode being visually indicated by the selected activation of said display elements by said processing means.

11. An electronic device according to any preceding claim, said plurality of display elements being further capable of being selectively activated by said processing means to provide a visual indication of a parameter associated with a status of said electronic device.

12. An electronic device according to any preceding claim, said device having an orientation detector electrically coupled to said processing means, said selected activation of display elements being reconfigurable by said processing means according to said detected orientation.

13. A touchpad according to any preceding claim, wherein said touchpad has a linear slider user control mode, and said display elements are capable of being selectively activated to provide a visual indication corresponding to said linear slider user control mode.

14. A touchpad comprising a touch sensitive detector array in a touchpad area, the touchpad being designed to detect relative movement between a contact device and said detector array whilst the contact device is continuously in contact with said touchpad area and to produce an output signal based on said detected relative movement, characterised in that: said touchpad further comprises a plurality of display elements located in said touchpad area, said plurality of display elements being capable of being selectively activated by said processing means to provide a visual indication of a user control mode of said touchpad.