JP2010231753A - Method for operating touch pad equipped with key function - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for operating a touch pad equipped with key functions. <P>SOLUTION: When a finger is brought into contact with a cursor area to press it or to release the press, they are regarded as a cursor control instruction (a). When the finger enters a key area after the contact with the cursor area to press it or to release the press, they are regarded as a cursor control instruction (b). When the finger enters the cursor area after the contact with the key area to press it or to release the press, they are regarded as a cursor control instruction (c). When the finger is separated from the touch pad, brought into contact with the key area at an original position again within a set time to press the key area or to release the press after the finger is brought into contact with the cursor area and enters the key area, it is regarded as a cursor control instruction (d). When the finger does not slide after the finger is brought into contact with the key area to press it, it is regarded as a key control instruction (e). A user controls a cursor on a screen by the touch pad, and can also use the touch pad to input a key control instruction, which reduces the burden on the user who moves between the touch pad and the keyboard for operations. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method of operating a touchpad having a kind of key function, and allows a user to perform screen cursor control with the touchpad and also allows the user to input key control commands using the touchpad. In addition, the present invention relates to an operation method of a touch pad having a key function, which reduces a burden of a user reciprocating between a touch pad and a keyboard.

  There are various types of cursor control devices, and the mouse is the most popular and convenient for computer operation. In addition to the cursor control, the mouse usually has other common keys such as scroll (up / down / left / right), and further enlargement. Functions such as reduction, previous page, next page, etc. that are commonly used for browsing home pages or documents can be added. These functions can also be operated with a normal keyboard, but each key on the keyboard has an existing definition. In order to achieve the above, a composite key must be combined, which complicates the user's operation and creates a memory burden.

  Adding a special quick key to the mouse is a very convenient interface tool for the user, but the mouse is not equipped with a laptop, and the laptop has a touchpad instead. Yes. However, because the touchpad has a limited usable area, the touchpad and the left and right buttons of the mouse are installed on the notebook PC, but it is difficult to add quick keys for regular function operations.

  The touch pad is provided with a scroll axis area at a specific position, usually the right side or the lower edge, and the scroll axis is scrolled by operating the scroll axis up and down and left and right along the edge. In addition, there is an upper and lower page area on the upper side, and the instruction of the previous page can be sent by sliding the finger to the left in the area, and the finger can be slid to the right in the area Can send the next page command. Furthermore, contact and movement of two or more fingers are detected, and when the two fingers touch and are opened outward, an image enlargement command is sent, and the two fingers touch and close inward. And send out a reduction command.

  The above-mentioned method gives the function of a quick key to a finite touchpad area, but the movement of the sliding hand is similar to the movement of the cursor, and the eyes are looking at the screen at the time of the cursor operation. The position of the hand cannot be accurately grasped, and if the fingers are inadvertently moved to these special function areas, it is very easy to form a malfunction. The special function of the quick key brings convenience, but on the contrary, an unexpected malfunction occurs. However, it is not easy to reinforce the convenience just by bothering the head, the special functions provided by these quick keys are difficult to display, and the user has to rely on memory to operate. Loss sex.

  Based on the above reasons, even though almost all notebook PCs are equipped with touchpads, a high percentage of people use and connect a mouse when using a notebook PC. In addition to excellent cursor operability, the convenience of the operation is increased by functions other than the cursor control of the mouse.

  Patent Document 1 provides an integrally formed touch pad module, in which a touch pad in which peripheral function keys are aligned is attached to the bottom of the case, and thus a mechanism for using the touch pad module needs to be perforated. It does not require an extra physical key, achieves the purpose of integral molding, cost reduction, waterproof and dustproof, this touch pad is divided into two upper and lower blocks, the upper block is the cursor operation area, the lower block is Function key.

  Patent Document 2 provides a capacitive touchpad in which keys and handwriting functions are matched, and it has various operation modes of keys, handwriting input or mouse, and a plurality of areas are defined on the touchpad. A plurality of designs corresponding to the operation modes to be provided thereon are printed, and the designs include a mode changeover switch for use in selecting an operation mode by the user. For example, in the key mode, the key design included in these designs is a keyboard. In the handwriting input mode, the handwriting recognition area is included for handwriting input. In the mouse mode, the cursor operation area, horizontal and vertical scroll areas are further included. To do.

  U.S. Patent No. 6,057,034 provides a key touchpad module, which is composed of an insulating material area, a soft touchpad and a key set. Utilizing the characteristics of the soft printed circuit board of the soft touchpad, the light can be evenly projected onto the light emitting diode at the bottom of the key touchpad module, and the user can feel the touch control during use, and the user presses the key It has a feeling and improves the non-linear problem of the touch pad sensitivity.

  Patent Document 4 provides a word input method using a touchpad, which can input words using a touchpad of a notebook PC.

  Patent Document 5 provides a touch control axis having a key function, which has a plurality of scroll axis sensitive areas and at least one key sensitive area, and the key sensitive areas are installed between adjacent scroll axis sensitive areas, The vicinity of the key sensitive area is defined as a virtual key.

Taiwan Patent No. 094209869 specification Taiwan Patent No. 092205217 Specification Taiwan Patent No. 094216400 Specification Taiwan Patent No. 090106673 Specification Taiwan Patent No. 094219497 specification

  The techniques related to the cursor movement control on the screen according to the prior art described above require the cursor on the screen to be quickly moved to the target position for use, and the user's finger is placed between the touch pad and the key. It is also necessary to consider reducing the burden of reciprocal movement. For this reason, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of operating a touch pad having a key function that solves the problems of this known technique.

  The operation method of a touch pad having a key function according to the present invention detects a finger contact state with the touch pad, and sets the operation on the screen as a cursor movement or key input operation mode.

The method of the present invention includes the following steps a to e. That is,
a. Any operation in which the finger touches the cursor area and presses or releases the press is regarded as a cursor control command.
b. An operation in which a finger enters the key area after touching the cursor area and presses or releases the press is regarded as a cursor control command.
c. The operation in which the finger enters the cursor area after touching the key area and presses or releases the pressure is regarded as a cursor control command.
d. After the finger touches the cursor area and enters the key area, the finger leaves the touchpad, and the finger touches the key area at the original position and presses or releases the press within the set time. Is considered.
e. If the finger touches the key area and does not slide after being pressed, it is regarded as a key control command.
According to the above steps, the disadvantages of the known touchpad are solved, the operation convenience is achieved, and the burden on the user's fingers is reduced.

  During the above step e, when a finger presses a key on the touchpad to start sliding and the slide of the finger exceeds the set distance, it is regarded as cursor movement control.

  During the above step e, if the finger presses the key on the touchpad to start sliding and is in the key area, and the sliding direction of the finger is toward the key area, it is regarded as cursor movement control, If the finger slide direction is toward the adjacent key area, the cursor movement function is not executed.

  During the above step e, if the finger is not released within the set time after being pressed in the key area, the cursor operation is executed (at this time, the key input is not executed).

  The method of the present invention allows the user to perform screen cursor control with the touchpad, and also allows the user to input key control commands using the touchpad, thereby burdening the user to reciprocate between the touchpad and the keyboard. Reduce.

It is sectional drawing of the touchpad apparatus by which this invention is operated. It is an example display figure of the touchpad which this invention is operated. It is a step display figure of the control method of the present invention. It is a specific implementation flowchart of this invention. It is an operation order and operation result correspondence figure of the present invention.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object of the present invention, the method of the present invention detects the state of finger touching the touch pad, and the operation on the screen is a cursor movement or key input operation. Controls the mode. The touch pad 11 includes a touch pad 11 that can move up and down and a key 12 provided below the touch pad 11. The touch pad 11 includes a cursor area 111 and a key area 112 (including at least one key a, b, and c). This is applied to the touch pad device 1 provided with “Yes”.

Under the basic structure of the touchpad device 1 of the present invention described above, the operation method of the present invention includes the following steps as shown in FIG. 3 (the operation flowchart of the present invention of FIG. 4 and the operation sequence of FIG. (See also the operation result map).
a. Any operation in which the finger touches the cursor area and is pressed or released is regarded as a cursor control command (step 201).
That is, the touchpad 1 detects a finger contact (step 211) and determines whether the contact position is in the key area 112 (step 212). If yes, it indicates that the finger is in the key area 112. If no, it indicates that the finger is in the cursor area 111, and when the finger performs a continuous operation of pressing or releasing the key 12 below the touch pad 11 after the touch (step 215) A control command is executed (step 216) to control the movement of the cursor.
b. The operation of the finger entering the key area after touching the cursor area and pressing or releasing the pressing is regarded as a cursor control command (step 202).
That is, after the finger touches the cursor area 111 (step 214) and enters the key area 112 (steps 217 and 218), the finger 12 presses or releases the key 12 below the touch pad 11 (releases after pressing). When this is done (step 219), a cursor control command is executed (step 216).
c. An operation in which the finger enters the cursor area after touching the key area and presses or releases the pressure is regarded as a cursor control command (step 203).
That is, after the finger touches the key area 112 (step 213) and enters the cursor area 111 (steps 222, 223, 224, 214), the finger 12 presses or releases the key 12 below the touch pad 11 (after pressing). When it is released (step 215), a cursor control command is executed (step 216).
d. After the finger touches the cursor area and enters the key area, the finger leaves the touchpad, and the finger touches the key area again at the original position and is pressed or released (released after pressing) within the set time. Is regarded as a cursor control command (step 204).
That is, after the finger touches the cursor area 111 (step 214) and enters the key area 112 (steps 215, 217, and 218), the finger leaves the touch pad 11 (steps 219 and 220) and within the set time t3. When the finger returns to the original position again (step 221) and the key 12 below the touch pad 11 is pressed or released (released after pressing) (step 215), a cursor control command is executed (step 216).
e. If the finger touches the key area and does not slide after being pressed, it is regarded as a key control command (step 205).
That is, when the finger touches the key area 112 (step 213) and the time when the touch pad 11 is not slid after pressing the touch pad 11 is greater than the first set time t1, and the time when it is not released is less than the second set time t2 ( Steps 222, 228, and 229), a key command is executed (Step 231), and a key input function is executed.

  During the above step e of the method of the present invention, when the finger starts to slide after pressing the key 12 of the touch pad 11 (when step 228 is NO), the sliding direction of the finger is changed within the key area 112. If it is directed to the key area 112, it is regarded as cursor movement control (steps 225 and 216). Conversely, if the finger slide direction is directed to the adjacent key area, the cursor movement function is not executed (step). When 225 is no).

  During the above step e, when the finger starts to slide after pressing the key 12 of the touch pad 11 (when step 228 is NO), the finger is in the key area 112 and the finger slide is set at the set distance D. Is exceeded (step 226), a cursor control command is executed (step 216).

  During the above step e, the finger starts to slide after pressing the key 12 of the touchpad 11 (when step 228 is NO), and the finger is within the key area 112 and the finger is in the position of one key a. When a slide movement is made from the range to another key b range (step 227) and the pressing operation is performed at the last position, it is regarded as a key input at the last pressed position (steps 230, 231), and the cursor movement operation is thus performed. In addition to control, it is possible to switch to key command control operation within a short time.

  In summary, the touchpad operation method having the key function according to the present invention allows the user to control the cursor of the screen with the touchpad, and also allows the user to input key control commands using the touchpad. Reduce the burden of reciprocating between the pad and keyboard.

1 Touchpad Device 11 Touchpad 12 Key 111 Cursor Area 112 Key Area a, b, c Key

Claims (6)

Operation of a touchpad having a key function that is applied to a touchpad device that includes a touchpad that can move up and down and keys provided below the touchpad and that includes a cursor area and a key area. In the method
a. Any operation in which the finger touches the cursor area and presses or releases the press is regarded as a cursor control command.
b. The operation that a finger enters the key area after touching the cursor area and presses or releases the pressure is regarded as a cursor control command.
c. The operation that the finger enters the cursor area after touching the key area and presses or releases the pressure is regarded as a cursor control command.
d. After the finger touches the cursor area and enters the key area, the finger leaves the touchpad, and the finger touches the key area at the original position again within the set time and the operation of pressing or releasing the press is a cursor control command. Considered,
e. If the finger touches the key area and does not slide after being pressed, it is regarded as a key control command.
A method for operating a touchpad having a key function, comprising the steps a to e.   The touchpad operation method having a key function according to claim 1, wherein, during the step e, when a finger starts to slide by pressing a key of the touchpad and the slide of the finger exceeds a set distance, An operation method of a touchpad having a key function, characterized by being regarded as cursor movement control.   The touchpad operating method having a key function according to claim 1, wherein, during the step e, a finger starts to slide by pressing a key of the touchpad, and the finger is within the key area. A method of operating a touch pad having a key function, wherein sliding from one key range to another key range and pressing operation results in key input at the last pressing position.   The touchpad operation method having a key function according to claim 1, wherein, during the step e, a finger starts to slide by pressing a key of the touchpad, and is in the key area, and the sliding direction of the finger If it is directed to the key area, it is regarded as cursor movement control. If the finger slide direction is directed to the adjacent key area, the cursor movement function is not executed. Touchpad operation method.   The touch pad operating method having a key function according to claim 1, wherein, during the step e, if the time that the finger presses in the key area is longer than a first set time, a key input is executed. How to operate a touchpad with key functions.   2. The touchpad operation method having a key function according to claim 1, wherein, during the step e, if the finger is pressed in the key area and the time of incompetence is smaller than a second set time, key input is executed. An operation method of a touch pad having a key function.

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