JP2014021788A - Portable information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize an easy operation for releasing lock of a portable information processor.SOLUTION: A smart phone 1 comprises a side surface sensor 3 on a side surface of a main body 2 detecting a user operation for releasing screen lock. The smart phone 1 further includes: an operation part 4 for releasing an off-state of a screen display and displaying a lock screen; a pattern collation part for storing a first touch pattern in which a user's finger sequentially traces over a plurality of sensor parts 3 as a default pattern, and collating, when a touch pattern is detected by the plurality of sensor parts 3, the detected touch pattern with the first touch pattern; and a lock release part for releasing the screen lock when the patterns are determined to coincide with each other.

Description

  The present invention relates to a screen lock of a portable information processing apparatus.

  2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, full-touch type portable information processing apparatuses such as tablet terminals that have few hardware keys and can be operated mainly by touching icons and software keyboards on the screen have become widespread. A portable information processing apparatus such as a smartphone or an electronic book reader usually has a function called screen lock, which will be described later.

  Specifically, even if the power is turned on, the screen display disappears if the portable information processing apparatus is not operated for a certain period of time. Thereafter, when the screen display is turned on by an operation such as a user touching the power button or the screen or an incoming call, a lock screen that does not accept an operation via the touch panel is displayed. That is, the portable information processing apparatus is controlled to be locked. The function of controlling the portable information processing apparatus to the locked state as described above is called screen lock. In order to release the locked state, the user needs to perform a specific unlocking operation.

  Such a screen lock is provided as a function for preventing malfunction, power saving, and unauthorized use by others due to the touch panel coming into contact with an external device during transportation or the like.

  In addition, with the increase in the screen size of portable information processing devices, it is particularly difficult to operate with one hand. In recent years, a lock that allows a user to slide a finger to follow a specific pattern while touching the lock screen. Technologies that can be unlocked without performing the unlocking operation (for example, unlocking by face authentication) have also appeared.

  Patent Document 1 listed below discloses a technique that facilitates an operation of locking or unlocking a touch panel by detecting a relative position between sliding upper and lower casings.

  Specifically, the user slides the first housing with respect to the second housing while touching the touch panel to change the form of the portable information processing apparatus, or the first housing is touched without touching the touch panel. The document 1 describes that the input mode can be switched by performing any of operations for changing the form of the portable information processing device by sliding the second housing.

  Patent Document 2 listed below discloses a technique that facilitates unlocking by an intuitive operation on a touch panel.

  Specifically, when a key operation is performed while the lock state is set on the mobile phone, an object such as a closed curtain indicating that the lock state is set is displayed on the display. Here, when the user slides on the screen in a specific direction, the display of the object is updated and the locked state is released so that the background image hidden in the curtain is gradually displayed. It is described in the literature 2.

JP 2009-157809 A (released on July 16, 2009) JP 2012-49872 A (published March 8, 2012)

  However, in the conventional unlocking method described above, the other hand must be used for the unlocking operation while holding the portable information processing apparatus with one hand. Therefore, it is difficult to support and unlock the portable information processing apparatus with only one hand.

  Since full-touch type portable information processing devices tend to have a large screen, it has become a challenge to improve the operability by enabling unlocking without using both hands.

  In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a portable information processing apparatus that can be easily unlocked with one hand.

In order to solve the above problems, a portable information processing apparatus according to the present invention provides:
(1) A main body equipped with a touch panel,
(2) It is provided with a sensor that is provided on a side surface of the main body and detects a user operation for releasing the screen lock.

  When the portable information processing apparatus is supported with one hand, it is common to hold the finger of one hand in contact with the side of the main body. Therefore, according to the above configuration, since the sensor is provided on the side surface of the main body, the user can touch the sensor with the finger of one hand while supporting the portable information processing apparatus with one hand.

  Therefore, the portable information processing apparatus according to the present invention can easily perform the unlocking operation with one hand.

  The side surface on which the sensor is provided is preferably the left side surface or the right side surface corresponding to the left-right direction with reference to the up-down direction of the erect image displayed on the screen.

A portable information processing apparatus according to the present invention
(1) It is provided on the side surface and includes an operation unit for canceling the off state of the screen display and displaying the lock screen.

  According to said structure, the said operation part and a sensor are provided in the same side surface. As a result, the operation of touching the operation unit to release the screen display off state and display the lock screen and the operation of touching the sensor to release the screen lock can be completed with one action using the same finger. Can do. For example, the operation of first touching the operation unit with a finger of one hand supporting the portable information processing apparatus, sliding the finger toward the sensor, and then touching the sensor can be continuously performed.

  Therefore, the operation related to the release of the screen lock becomes easier.

  In the portable information processing apparatus according to the present invention, the sensor includes a plurality of sensor units, and the plurality of sensor units are arranged on the side surface.

  According to the above configuration, it is possible to instruct unlocking by pattern input by tracing with a finger along a predetermined pattern on an array of a plurality of sensor units. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a malfunction in which the screen lock is released simply by touching the sensor by mistake.

  Further, when the number of sensor units is 3, for example, the total number of permutations when the operation of continuously tracing the sensor unit with the finger four times at maximum is 16, so that 16 predetermined patterns can be created. Further, by increasing the number of times the sensor unit is traced, or by combining an operation other than tracing with a finger (for example, long press of the sensor unit), a pattern more than the total number of simple permutations can be created.

  The operation of continuously tracing the sensor unit with the finger is described more specifically in the column of the embodiment. However, the finger touching the sensor unit is not lifted from the side surface, and the finger is applied to the side surface. Means an operation of moving between a plurality of sensor units while keeping touching.

  Therefore, unless another person obtains a predetermined pattern, unlocking by pattern input is not easy, and this is a measure for improving security.

  If the number of sensor units is increased, the number of patterns also increases, so the security level can be improved. In addition, the security level can be adjusted by adjusting the number of sensor units.

A portable information processing apparatus according to the present invention
(1) The sensor includes a plurality of sensor units, and the plurality of sensor units are arranged on the side surface,
(2) Provided on the side surface, an operation unit for releasing the screen display off state and displaying the lock screen;
(3) A storage unit that stores, as a default pattern, a first touch pattern in which the plurality of sensor units are sequentially traced with a finger along a direction from the operation unit toward the sensor;
(4) when a touch pattern is detected by the plurality of sensor units, a pattern matching unit that determines whether the detected touch pattern matches or does not match the first touch pattern;
(5) The image processing apparatus further includes a lock release unit that releases the screen lock when the pattern matching unit determines the match.

  According to the above configuration, the user first uses the finger of one hand supporting the portable information processing device to touch the operation unit on the side surface to display the lock screen, and then uses the same finger of the sensor unit. The screen lock can be released by a simple operation of sliding in the direction and tracing the arrangement of the sensor portions in one direction.

  Note that if the lock is released simply by touching one of the plurality of sensor units, there is a possibility of causing an erroneous operation unintended by the user. The above configuration can facilitate the operation related to the unlocking of the screen while preventing the occurrence of such an erroneous operation.

  Since the portable information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a sensor for detecting a user operation for releasing the screen lock on the side surface of the main body including the touch panel, only one hand supporting the portable information processing apparatus is used. Thus, there is an effect that the unlocking operation can be easily performed.

It is a perspective view which shows the general view of the smart phone which is an example of the portable information processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the internal structure of the said smart phone. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the control procedure for canceling | releaseing the screen lock in a smart phone. It is explanatory drawing which shows the smart phone whose operation mode is a power saving mode. It is explanatory drawing which shows the smart phone which operation mode changed to the lock screen display mode from the power saving mode. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of user operation which cancels | releases the locked state of a smart phone. It is explanatory drawing which shows the smart phone which operation mode changed from the screen lock to the home screen display mode. It is explanatory drawing which shows the other example of a lock screen.

  An embodiment of the portable information processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

(External configuration of portable information processing device)
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an overview of a smartphone 1 which is an example of a portable information processing apparatus according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the smartphone 1 includes a main body 2 including a touch panel, and a side sensor 3 (sensor) that is provided on a side surface of the main body 2 and detects a user operation for releasing the screen lock. The smartphone 1 further includes a power key 4 (an operation unit) that is provided on the side surface and that releases the screen display off state and displays the lock screen.

  The side sensor 3 includes a plurality of sensor units 3a, and the plurality of sensor units 3a are arranged on the side surface. More specifically, the sensor unit 3a is an electrode constituting, for example, a capacitive touch sensor, and is embedded in the side surface.

  Therefore, since the sensor part 3a is not exposed to the said side surface, the side case member is designed so that a user can know the presence of the sensor part 3a. For example, using a color different from the color of the case member, a mark indicating the position of the sensor unit 3a is attached to the case member, or the case member is locally roughened so as to correspond to the sensor unit 3a. That's fine.

  The portable information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment has a size that allows a user to perform a touch operation via the touch panel and an operation via the side sensor 3 with one hand.

(Internal configuration of portable information processing device)
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the smartphone 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the smartphone 1 includes a central control unit 10, a touch panel control circuit 12 connected to the touch panel 11, and a side sensor control circuit 13 connected to the side sensor 3 as configurations related to various control operations of the smartphone 1. A pattern matching unit 14, an unlocking unit 15, and a display driver 17 for driving the display 16.

  The touch panel control circuit 12, the side sensor control circuit 13, the pattern matching unit 14, the lock release unit 15, and the display driver 17 are connected to the central control unit 10.

  As another configuration, the central control unit 10 is connected to the power key 4, the wireless communication circuit 18, the flash memory 19 (storage unit), and the RAM 20.

  The central control unit 10 controls the overall operation of the smartphone 1 and is configured as a processor together with the pattern matching unit 14 and the lock release unit 15.

  When a pointer such as a finger touches the touch panel 11, the touch panel 11 outputs a signal indicating a change in capacitance or electrical resistance according to the position of the pointer to the touch panel control circuit 12.

  The touch panel control circuit 12 specifies the position of the pointer touching the touch panel 11 from the signal output from the touch panel 11, generates coordinate data indicating the position, and outputs the coordinate data to the central control unit 10.

  As described above, the side sensor 3 includes an array of a plurality of sensor units 3a. Therefore, the sensor unit 3a corresponding to the position touched by the finger in the area of the side sensor 3 is a signal indicating a change in capacitance. Is output to the side sensor control circuit 13.

  The side sensor control circuit 13 generates position data representing the position of the finger in the area of the side sensor 3 based on the signal output from the sensor unit 3 a and outputs the position data to the central control unit 10. This position data represents a touch pattern indicating how the finger touches the area of the side sensor 3 (in which order the finger touches selectively).

  The pattern matching unit 14 receives the touch pattern data detected by the side sensor control circuit 13 from the central control unit 10, and determines whether the touch pattern stored in the RAM 20 matches or does not match. The determination result by the pattern matching unit 14 is output to the lock release unit 15.

  When the central control unit 10 is in the screen lock control mode, the lock release unit 15 sends an instruction to release the screen lock to the central control unit 10 when the pattern matching unit 14 determines that the touch pattern matches. .

  The flash memory 19 stores various programs that control the operation of the smartphone 1 and various fixed data that does not need to be rewritten, as well as characters, images, sounds, and videos that are displayed or output on the smartphone 1. Content data is recorded. The various programs include a program for enabling the screen lock of the smartphone 1 and a program for releasing the screen lock.

  The RAM 20 is mainly used as a work area and a buffer area of the central control unit 10.

(Screen lock control action)
Hereinafter, the screen lock control operation in the smartphone 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 8.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a screen lock control procedure in the smartphone 1. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the smartphone 1 whose operation mode is the power saving mode. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the smartphone 1 whose operation mode has changed from the power saving mode to the lock screen display mode. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a user operation for releasing the locked state of the smartphone 1. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing the smartphone 1 whose operation mode has changed from the screen lock to the home screen display mode. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram illustrating another example of the lock screen.

  As illustrated in FIG. 4, when the operation mode of the smartphone 1 is in the power saving mode, the light source (backlight) of the display 16 is turned off and the screen is shifted to a screen lock state in which user operation via the touch panel 11 is not accepted. In the screen lock state, the central control unit 10 is supplied with power, but voltage application to the touch panel 11 and the side sensor 3 is controlled to be off.

  For the smartphone 1 in the power saving mode, as shown in FIG. 4, when a user holding the smartphone 1 with one hand operates the power key 4 with the finger of one hand, a signal output from the power key 4 is It is sent to the central control unit 10. Thus, the central control unit 10 starts a control operation for releasing the screen lock shown in FIG.

  First, in response to an instruction from the central control unit 10, the light source (backlight) of the display 16 is turned on (step 1; hereinafter abbreviated as S1), and a voltage is applied to the side sensor 3, whereby the side sensor 3 is turned on (S2).

  In this state, as shown in FIG. 5, the display driver 17 drives the display 16 so that the lock screen is displayed. An icon 31 for accepting a user operation for unlocking is displayed at the bottom of the lock screen. Although the display of the icon 31 is not essential, in the present embodiment, the unlocking operation can be performed by the user with the side sensor 3 or with the icon 31.

  Following the processing of S2, the central control unit 10 determines whether or not the touch panel control circuit 12 has output coordinate data indicating that a user operation for unlocking the touch panel 11 using the icon 31 has been performed (S3). ).

  If the determination result in S3 is YES, the lock release unit 15 releases the screen lock based on the determination result. As a result, the operation mode of the smartphone 1 changes from the screen lock to the mode for displaying the home screen shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, if the determination result in S3 is NO, the central controller 10 determines whether the side sensor control circuit 13 has output position data indicating that the capacitance has changed in the side sensor 3 (S4). . However, the determination in S4 is accompanied by a condition that a change in capacitance in the side sensor 3 is detected within a certain time from the time when the side sensor 3 is turned on.

  If the determination result in S4 is NO, the unlocking control operation ends, and the operation mode of the smartphone 1 shifts to the power saving mode shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, if the determination result in S4 is YES, the central control unit 10 determines whether or not the user has registered a specific touch pattern related to how to touch the side sensor 3 (S5).

  If the determination result in S5 is NO, it is determined whether the side sensor 3 is traced with a finger along the direction from the power key 4 toward the side sensor 3, as indicated by a one-way arrow as the touch pattern A in FIG. The central control unit 10 determines (S7). More specifically, whether or not the side sensor control circuit 13 outputs position data indicating that the capacitances of the three sensor units 3a1, 3a2, 3a3 arranged as the side sensor 3 have changed in this order. The central control unit 10 determines.

  If the determination result in S7 is NO, the unlocking control operation ends, and the operation mode of the smartphone 1 shifts to the power saving mode. On the other hand, if the determination result in S7 is YES, based on the determination result, the lock release unit 15 releases the screen lock (S8), and the home screen is displayed on the display 16 as described above.

  It should be noted that there is a possibility that an erroneous operation unintended by the user may occur in the form in which the lock is released only by touching one of the sensor units 3a1, 3a2, 3a3. On the other hand, the touch pattern A is the simplest touch pattern, but can prevent such an erroneous operation. In addition, since the touch pattern is simple, an operation with only one hand holding the smartphone 1 is also difficult.

  If the determination result in S5 is YES, the central control unit 10 activates the pattern matching unit 14. The pattern matching unit 14 receives the position data output from the side sensor control circuit 13 from the central control unit 10, and collates the touch pattern represented by the position data with the registered pattern read from the flash memory 19 (S6). .

  An example of the registered pattern is shown as a touch pattern B in FIG. In the touch pattern B, the order of touching the sensor units 3a1, 3a2, 3a3 is, for example, 3a1, 3a2, 3a1, 3a2, 3a3.

  When the three sensor units 3a1, 3a2, 3a3 are arranged on the side, the total number of permutations is 16 when the sensor unit is continuously traced with a finger up to four times as a method of selecting the three sensor units. Become.

  In addition, the operation of continuously tracing the sensor unit with the finger means that the finger touching the sensor unit moves between the plurality of sensor units while keeping the finger touching the side surface without floating from the side surface. Means operation.

  The operation of continuously tracing the sensor unit with a finger enables the user to smoothly operate the sensor unit without removing the finger from the sensor unit.

In particular,
(1) A pattern for selecting one of the sensor parts (the following three patterns)
3a1, 3a2, 3a3,
(2) A pattern that selects two of the sensor parts in succession (the following four patterns)
3a1 → 3a2, 3a2 → 3a1, 3a2 → 3a3, 3a3 → 3a2,
(3) A pattern that selects three of the sensor units in succession (the following five patterns)
3a1 → 3a2 → 3a3, 3a1 → 3a2 → 3a1, 3a2 → 3a1 → 3a2,
3a2 → 3a3 → 3a2, 3a3 → 3a2 → 3a1,
(4) A pattern that selects three of the sensor parts four times in succession (the following four patterns)
3a1 → 3a2 → 3a3 → 3a2, 3a2 → 3a3 → 3a2 → 3a1,
3a2 → 3a1 → 3a2 → 3a3, 3a3 → 3a2 → 3a1 → 3a2
As above, 16 patterns can be created.

  Further, by increasing the number of times the sensor unit is traced, or by combining an operation other than tracing with a finger (for example, long press of the sensor unit), a pattern more than the total number of simple permutations can be created.

  In this way, if the touch pattern and the registered pattern are collated using a plurality of arrays of the sensor unit 3a, security can be improved and an effect of preventing an erroneous operation unintended by the user can be achieved. Can be increased.

  When the collation result in S6 is YES, based on the collation result, the lock release unit 15 releases the screen lock (S8). On the other hand, if the determination result in S6 is NO, the unlocking control operation is terminated, and the operation mode of the smartphone 1 shifts to the power saving mode.

  Note that the procedure for unlocking when an event such as an incoming call or mail occurs and the lock screen is displayed without operating the power key 4 is the same as the procedure described in S1 to S8 above.

(Supplement 1 of screen lock control operation)
In the control procedure described above, the process of S5 is performed in which the central control unit 10 determines whether or not a specific touch pattern is registered. However, the process of S5 is not essential and can be omitted. For example, the simple touch pattern A described above is also registered in the flash memory 19 as a default pattern. In S <b> 4, the touch pattern detected through the side sensor control circuit 13 is collated with all touch patterns (A and B etc.) registered in the flash memory 19. In this way, S5 can be omitted and the processes of S4 and S6 can be continued.

(Supplement of screen lock control operation 2)
If the touch pattern on the side sensor 3 is illegal, the central control unit 10 or the pattern matching unit 14 may terminate the screen lock release process only once, but the fraud determination is allowed multiple times. By doing so, the usability of the smartphone 1 is improved for the user.

  In this embodiment, when the collation result in S6 is NO, a process of determining whether the collation count has reached the reference count (for example, 3) (referred to as S6 ′) is added, and the collation count reaches the reference count. The processes of S6 and S6 ′ may be repeated until As a result, when the number of collations reaches the reference number, the process proceeds to S8.

(Supplement 3 of screen lock control operation)
A user operation for releasing the screen lock may be performed not only via the side sensor 3 but also via the touch panel 11.

  For example, as shown in another example of the lock screen in FIG. 8, nine square lattice points are displayed on the display 16 and a touch pattern in which a plurality of square lattice points are traced with a finger is registered. When canceling the screen lock, it is determined whether or not the touch pattern obtained by the user tracing a plurality of square lattice points with the finger matches the registered touch pattern.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments and supplementary examples, and various modifications are possible within the scope of the claims, and the technical means disclosed in the embodiments and supplemental examples are appropriately combined. The obtained embodiment is also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

The present invention can be applied to all portable information processing apparatuses having a screen lock function.

1 Smartphone (portable information processing device)
2 Body 3 Side sensor (sensor)
3a1, 3a2, 3a3 Sensor part 4 Power key (operation part)
11 Touch Panel 14 Pattern Matching Unit 15 Unlocking Unit 16 Display 19 Flash Memory (Storage Unit)

Claims (4)

A main body with a touch panel;
A portable information processing apparatus comprising a sensor provided on a side surface of the main body and detecting a user operation for releasing a screen lock. The portable information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an operation unit that is provided on the side surface and that releases an off state of the screen display and displays a lock screen. The sensor includes a plurality of sensor units,
The portable information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensor units are arranged on the side surface. The sensor includes a plurality of sensor units, and the plurality of sensor units are arranged on the side surface,
An operation unit provided on the side surface for releasing the screen display off state and displaying the lock screen;
A storage unit that stores, as a default pattern, a first touch pattern that traces the plurality of sensor units in order with a finger along a direction from the operation unit toward the sensor;
When a touch pattern is detected by the plurality of sensor units, a pattern matching unit that determines a match or mismatch between the detected touch pattern and the first touch pattern;
The portable information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a lock release unit that releases a screen lock when the pattern matching unit determines the match.

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