TWI390431B - Electronic device and input method thereof - Google Patents

Description

Electronic device and input method thereof

The present invention relates to an electronic device having a touch screen that can be coupled to an external display device. In particular, the touch screen of the electronic device of the present invention can be used as a virtual keyboard to input data, and the output data is displayed on the external display device.

Touch screens (also known as touch panels) typically have both display and input functions, providing an intimate and vivid human interface. When a user touches a specific area on the screen with a finger or a stylus, the related application is triggered to perform a specific function, so the touch screen can replace the mechanical button and be provided by the display screen. Vivid video effects.

Touch screens are very versatile, such as cash machines, touch point sales systems, and so on. And more and more personal electronic devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, GPS, electronic game instruments, are also equipped with touch screens. Taking a PDA as an example, a general PDA has a processor and a memory, and a touch screen and a stylus are used as input devices of the PDA.

However, a portable electronic device similar to a PDA is generally small in size for carrying, and relatively small in size of the touch screen. Therefore, the user can additionally connect an external display device to provide a larger screen. .

However, when the conventional portable electronic device uses an external display device, the user can only use a very small number of buttons of the portable electronic device itself or an external keyboard as an input device, which is quite inconvenient to use.

Therefore, there is a need for an electronic device. When an external display device is externally connected, the touch screen itself can be used as an input keyboard to input data, and the output data is displayed on the external display device. In particular, such a device does not significantly increase the cost and is easy to implement.

In view of the lack of prior art, the present invention provides an electronic device. When an external display device is externally connected, the touch screen itself can be used as a virtual input keyboard to input data, and the output data is displayed on the external display device. In particular, the user can dynamically adjust the position and size of the virtual keyboard for different typing habits of the right and left hands.

In an embodiment of the invention, the electronic device is coupled to an external display device. The electronic device has a connector coupled to the external display device and a memory for storing the application. The electronic device additionally includes a touch screen, a processor, a touch screen driver, and an external display driver. The processor executes the application, and divides the touch screen into a plurality of areas according to a planning method, wherein each area corresponds to one character, and the user inputs characters by touching the area. The processor further controls the touch screen driver to drive the touch screen to display the plurality of areas, and the processor controls the external display driver to drive the external display device to display the input characters.

In another embodiment of the present invention, an input method for an electronic device is provided. The electronic device is coupled to an external display device, and the electronic device includes a touch screen. The method includes: touching according to a planning manner. The control screen is divided into a plurality of areas, wherein at least one area corresponds to one character; the touch screen displays the plurality of areas; the touch area inputs a character; and the external display device displays the character.

The objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description of the preferred embodiments illustrated herein.

Figure 1 shows an embodiment of an electronic device of the present invention. The electronic device is preferably a portable electronic device such as a PDA, a mobile phone, a GPS, a handheld electronic game instrument, or the like.

In order to illustrate the present invention, in the following embodiments, the electronic device 10 is a smart phone without a keyboard, and includes a GSM mobile phone wireless communication module 100. Details on the part of the electronic device 10, reference may be produced by Apple Inc. iPhone ^TM phone. As far as the skilled person is concerned, the iPhone is a 4-band GSM mobile phone that supports EDGE and 802.11b/g wireless Internet access, and supports e-mail, mobile calls, SMS, web browsing and other wireless communication services. In particular, the iPhone does not have a keyboard, and it has only a few physical buttons as power switches and volume control buttons, and a 3.5-inch touch screen as a display and input device. The electronic device 10 of the embodiment of the present invention has other features similar to those of the iPhone described above, and has other features, which will be described below.

The electronic device 10 has a connector 102, a memory 104, a processor 106, a touch screen 108, a touch screen driver 110, and an external display driver 112. In a basic usage mode, the electronic device 10 is not connected to the external display device 20. At this time, the electronic device 10 itself can be used as an intelligent mobile phone as the iPhone. In particular, the electronic device 10 has no physical buttons. The control screen 108 displays a virtual number key, and the user can use the touch screen 108 to input the phone number to be dialed to make a call.

As shown in FIG. 1, in another usage mode, the electronic device 10 is coupled to the external display device 20 by a connector 102. The connector 102 can be a multi-function connector, in addition to being used to connect to the external display device 20, as a USB or power connection device, or to provide a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI). Display device 20 can be a projector or a liquid crystal display screen, and preferably is similar in size to electronic device 10 for ease of carrying. The external display device 20 itself may have an independent power supply, and may also be powered by the electronic device 10 through the connector 102.

The memory 104 can be an SRAM, a PSRAM, a Mobile DRAM, a Flash memory module built in the electronic device 10, or an external Flash memory card, or a combination thereof. The memory 104 stores an application AP, and preferably, the electronic device 10 itself has an operating system such as Microsoft Mobile, Symbian, OS X, or Linux, and the application AP can be built in as part of the operating system. Or independent of the operating system.

The processor 106, the touch screen driver 110, and the external display driver 112 can be integrated into a single integrated circuit or implemented as three independent integrated circuits. In one embodiment, the touch screen driver 110 drives the touch screen 108 with a low voltage differential signal (LVDS), and the external display device 20 is designed to be directly driven with a low voltage differential signal, so the external display driver 112 is connected. The device 102 also directly drives the external display device 20 with a low voltage differential signal without the need for an additional conversion device to convert the drive signal into a VGA signal. In another embodiment, the external display driver 112 requires an additional conversion device to convert the low voltage differential signal into a VGA signal to drive the external display device 20.

The processor 106 accesses the memory 104 to execute the application AP. When the application processor AP executes the application AP, the touch screen 108 is divided into a plurality of regions according to a planning manner, which includes determining the location and size of the region, and determining the number of regions. The processor 106 sends a signal to the touch screen driver 110. The touch screen driver 110 thus drives the touch screen 108 to display the divided plurality of areas, some of which are marked with corresponding characters, wherein the characters can be Contains letters, numbers, or punctuation. In other words, these areas together form a virtual keyboard, each area is a virtual key, and the user can use the finger or the stylus to touch each area (virtual key) and input different characters (see the touch of FIG. 2A). Control screen 208).

In this embodiment, the plurality of areas divided in the touch screen 108 have at least 26 areas, that is, 26 virtual keys, and the 26 virtual keys respectively correspond to 26 letters of English from A to Z (in FIG. 1). Not shown). After receiving the character input by the user using the touch screen 108, the processor 106 sends a signal to the outside. The display driver 112, the external display driver 112 thus drives the external display device 20 through the connector 102 to display the characters input by the user; preferably, the characters input by the user are only displayed on the external display device 20, and The display screen is not repeatedly displayed on the touch screen 108. The advantage is that there is no need to reserve a specific area for displaying the input characters in the touch screen 108, so that more areas can be used as virtual keyboards, for example, A virtual key can be larger to facilitate user manipulation.

In another embodiment, the application program AP further includes a Chinese Phonetic Input program, and the processor 106 receives a plurality of English characters after input by the user, and outputs a corresponding Chinese character, and the external display driver 112 drives the external display device 20 to display the Chinese text. In another embodiment, after the processor inputs a plurality of English characters, the processor 106 executes the Chinese pinyin input application to output a plurality of candidate Chinese characters (having the same pronunciation), and the processor 106 further selects candidates. In the Chinese text, a part of the output data, for example, the most commonly used text, is displayed on the external display device 20 through the external display driver 112, and the other output portion of the data, such as the candidate Chinese characters, is displayed on the touch screen driver 110. The touch screen 108 is further selected by the user.

2A shows a touch screen 208 of the electronic device 10 in another embodiment, wherein the touch screen 208 has a plurality of virtual keys. As shown, the virtual key 2081 corresponds to the number 1, the virtual key 2082 corresponds to the letter Q, and the virtual key 2083 corresponds to the letter W. In addition, in FIG. 2A, the touch screen 208 further includes a virtual key 2084 to correspond to an "enlarge" command. When the user touches the virtual key 2084 to enter this When the instruction is enlarged, the processor 106 enlarges the virtual key 2082 of the corresponding character Q, the virtual key 2083 of the character W, and other virtual keys together and moves to the four sides of the screen according to the enlarged instruction, and the original corresponding to the number 1 The virtual key 2081 gradually moves from the screen to disappear from the edge. Therefore, while the virtual key is enlarged and moved, the arrangement of the virtual keys on the touch screen 208 is also changed, and the number of virtual keys is also reduced, as shown in FIG. 2B.

Next, the touch screen 208 also includes a virtual key 2085 to correspond to a "zoom out" command. When the user touches the virtual key 2085 to input the zoom instruction, the processor 106 will corresponding the character Q according to the zoom instruction. The virtual key 2082, the virtual key 2083 of the character W, and other virtual keys are reduced and moved together, and the virtual key 2081 corresponding to the number 1 gradually appears from the edge of the screen, and the number of virtual keys on the touch screen 208 is also increased. Go back to the situation of Figure 2A.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2B, the touch screen 208 further includes virtual keys 2086 and 2087 respectively corresponding to a “left shift” command and a “right shift” command, for example, when the user touches the virtual key. 2086, when the left shift instruction is input, the processor 106 moves the virtual key 2082 of the corresponding character Q, the virtual key 2083 of the character W, and other virtual keys to the left side of the screen according to the left shift instruction, and the corresponding word The virtual key 2082 of the meta-Q will gradually disappear from the left side of the screen. At this time, when the user touches the virtual key 2086 to input the right shift instruction, the processor 106 adds the virtual key 2083 of the character W according to the right shift instruction. As well as other virtual keys moving to the right of the screen, the virtual key 2082 corresponding to the character Q gradually appears from the left side of the screen. In addition, the user can also hold down any virtual key and drag the virtual key.

FIG. 3 shows a touch screen 308 of the electronic device 10 in another embodiment. The touch screen 308 first has two main areas 308a and 308b, and each main area is further divided into a plurality of areas, that is, a plurality of virtual keys. As shown in the figure, in the main area 308a on the left side, the virtual key 3081a corresponds to the letter Q, and the virtual key 3082a corresponds to the letter V. In the main area 308b on the right side, the virtual key 3081b corresponds to the letter O, and the virtual key 3082b corresponds to The number is 0. In addition, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3A, the touch screen 308 has virtual keys 3084-3087 in addition to the main areas 308a and 308b, wherein the virtual key 3084 corresponds to an "enlarged" command, and the virtual key 3085 corresponds to a " The "down" command, the virtual key 3086 corresponds to a "left shift" command, and the virtual key 3087 corresponds to a "right shift" command. Unlike the virtual key 2084-2087 in FIG. 2A, when the user inputs with the virtual key 3084-3087, At the time of the instruction, the processor 106 processes only one of the two left and right main areas 308a and 308b, and the other remains unchanged.

For example, when the user first touches the virtual key 3082a corresponding to the letter V in the main area 308a (or any virtual key in the main area 308a), then touch the virtual key 3084 to input an "enlarge" command (or Touching the virtual keys 3085-3087 to input other commands), all the virtual keys in the main area 308a are enlarged or moved together, and some of the virtual keys near the edge of the screen may disappear, but at the same time in the other main area 308b. All virtual keys remain fixed. Therefore, the user can dynamically adjust the configuration and size of the virtual keyboard for different typing habits of the right and left hands, and the use can be more convenient.

Although the present invention has been disclosed in the above embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention, and any one having ordinary knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention pertains does not deviate from the present invention. The scope of the present invention is defined by the scope of the appended claims, and the scope of the invention is defined by the scope of the appended claims.

Electronic device ‧‧10

Wireless communication module ‧‧100

Connector ‧‧‧102

Memory ‧‧104

Processor ‧‧106

Touch screen ‧‧108

Touch screen driver ‧‧110

External display driver ‧‧‧112

External display device ‧‧20

Area (virtual key) ‧‧ 2081-2087, 3081a, 3082a, 3081b, 3082b, 3084-3087

Main areas ‧ ‧ 308a, 308b

1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an electronic device according to the present invention; FIGS. 2A and 2B show a touch screen of the electronic device 10 in another embodiment; and FIG. 3 shows a touch screen of the electronic device 10 in still another embodiment.

Electronic device ‧‧10

Wireless communication module ‧‧100

Connector ‧‧‧102

Memory ‧‧104

Processor ‧‧106

Touch screen ‧‧108

Touch screen driver ‧‧110

External display driver ‧‧‧112

External display device ‧‧20

Claims (26)

An electronic device for connecting to an external display device, the electronic device comprising: a touch screen; a connector for connecting to the external display device; a memory for storing at least one application; a processor for Executing the application, the touch screen is divided into a plurality of regions according to a planning manner, wherein at least one region corresponds to a character, and the user inputs the character by touching the region; a touch screen And a processor that controls the touch screen driver to drive the touch screen to display the plurality of areas; and an external display driver that controls the external display driver to drive the external display device to display the character. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the touch screen driver drives the touch screen with a low voltage differential signal (LVDS), and the external display driver drives the external display device with a low voltage differential signal via the connector. . The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the user inputs the character as input data of the application by touching the area. The electronic device of claim 3, wherein the processor executes the application to generate an output data according to the input data, and the external display driver drives the external display device to display the output data. The electronic device of claim 3, wherein the processor executes the application to generate an output data according to the input data, and the external display driver drives The external display device displays a portion of the output data, and the touch screen driver drives the touch screen to display another portion of the output data. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of areas include an instruction area corresponding to an adjustment instruction, and the user inputs the adjustment instruction by touching the instruction area, and the processor changes the planning mode according to the adjustment instruction. The electronic device of claim 6, wherein the processor enlarges or reduces the area corresponding to the character according to the adjustment instruction. The electronic device of claim 7, when the area corresponding to the character is enlarged or reduced, the processor changes the number of the plurality of regions according to the adjustment instruction. The electronic device of claim 7, when the area corresponding to the character is enlarged or reduced, the processor moves another area of the plurality of areas according to the adjustment instruction. The electronic device of claim 7, wherein when the area corresponding to the character is enlarged or reduced, another of the plurality of areas is fixed. The electronic device of claim 6, wherein the processor moves the area corresponding to the character according to the adjustment instruction. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein when the area corresponding to the character is moved, another area of the plurality of areas is fixed. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the character input is displayed only on the external display device. An input method for an electronic device, the electronic device is coupled to an external display device, and the electronic device includes a touch screen, the method comprising: (a) dividing the touch screen into a plurality of numbers according to a planning manner a region, wherein at least one region corresponds to one character; (b) the touch screen displays the plurality of regions; (c) touching the region to input the character; and (d) the external display device displays the character. The method of claim 14, wherein the step (b) comprises driving the touch screen with a low voltage differential signal, and the step (d) comprises driving the external display device with a low voltage differential signal. The method of claim 14, wherein the electronic device is configured to execute an application, the method further comprising inputting the character as input data of the application by touching the area. The method of claim 16, further comprising: generating an output data according to the input data; and displaying, by the external display device, the output data. The method of claim 16, further comprising: generating an output data according to the input data; the external display device displaying a portion of the output data; The touch screen displays another portion of the output data. The method of claim 14, wherein the plurality of regions include an instruction region corresponding to an adjustment instruction, and step (a) further comprises: (aa) inputting the adjustment instruction by touching the instruction region; and (ab) According to the adjustment instruction, the planning mode is changed. The method of claim 19, wherein the step (ab) comprises: zooming in or out of the area corresponding to the character. The method of claim 20, wherein the step (ab) further comprises: changing the number of the plurality of regions when the region corresponding to the character is enlarged or reduced. The method of claim 20, wherein the step (ab) further comprises: moving another area of the plurality of areas when the area corresponding to the character is enlarged or reduced. The method of claim 20, wherein the step (ab) further comprises: fixing another area of the plurality of areas when the area corresponding to the character is enlarged or reduced. The method of claim 19, wherein the step (ab) comprises: moving the region corresponding to the character. The method of claim 24, wherein the step (ab) further comprises: fixing another of the plurality of regions when the region corresponding to the character is moved. The method of claim 14, wherein the character entered is displayed only on the external display device.