JP4802962B2 - Mobile terminal device and function activation method for mobile terminal device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a portable terminal device and a function activation method of the portable terminal device, and more particularly to a portable terminal device operated using a touch pad and a function activation method of the portable terminal device.

  Conventionally, in an information processing apparatus, many types of means (or input means) for instructing various processing contents on the screen with respect to the contents displayed on the screen are already known. For example, a mouse, a trackball, a touch pen, a touch panel, etc. In recent years, software development for portable electronic devices, particularly mobile telecommunications devices, has incorporated portable devices with multiple functions, including phone books, diaries, and text messaging. Thus, the user often has to make multiple selections to access the functions he needs.

  Therefore, touch sensitive clean is known in which functions can be selected simply by touching a screen. There has been proposed an information processing apparatus including an input unit that directly points with a finger or the like from a touch panel attached on a computer screen and generates input signals for various operations equivalent to those of a mouse and some keyboard keys. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

  However, it is difficult to select a small icon accurately, and when the finger is moved on the screen, the screen is difficult to see and the selection may be wrong. Further, when the screen is touched excessively, the screen may become dirty or become dirty with grease. Therefore, a portable electronic device is proposed in which a touch pad is installed on the back of a mobile communication device having a screen on the front of the device, and a selection cursor controlled by the touch pad is displayed on the display screen. (For example, refer to Patent Document 2).

  In addition, a technique related to character input has been proposed in addition to displaying a selection cursor and selecting an icon among input means. There has been proposed a touch pad that is provided with a keyboard touch pad for inputting characters at a place different from the screen display unit, detects a position touched by the user, and emits a coordinate signal corresponding to the detected position (for example, see Patent Document 3). . As a result, even if a touch pad is used, key input can be performed like a conventional keyboard, and it can also be used as a pointing device for designating an arbitrary point on the screen.

Also in the field of digital audio video, for example, a touch control inner ring area is formed, and the user touches the touch control inner ring area of the thin film coating layer with a finger to control various functions of the digital audio video playback device. It has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 4).
JP 2002-55781 A JP 2004-135340 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-254624 JP 2006-172419 A

  However, any of the above techniques uses a touch pad to select a button such as an icon displayed on the display screen and select a function. Moreover, even if the touchpad sensor is mounted, there is a problem that it is not fully utilized because it is limited to an alternative means for a specific operation, for example, vertical scrolling or horizontal scrolling. In recent portable terminal devices such as mobile phones, PHS (Personal Handyphone System), PDA (Personal Data Assistance, Personal Digital Assistants), etc. Depending on the case, the starting method becomes complicated. In some cases, several steps or steps must be taken to display an icon for selecting the required function. A solution to such a problem is not presented in any of the above-described techniques, and a further advanced function is required in addition to displaying a selection cursor on the screen and operating the touch pad.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and in a mobile terminal device equipped with a touch pad, by starting an application or function set in advance by an operation such as tracing the touch pad one or more times, The purpose is to make it possible to easily activate necessary functions even in a portable terminal that has become highly functional and multifunctional, and to further improve the usability of the user.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides, as a first aspect, a circular touch pad, detection means for detecting a point touched by the touch pad, and outputting the detected signal as an electrical signal, and the touch pad. Based on this signal, signal analysis means for analyzing the change in the position of the touched point, and various functions of the portable terminal device based on the change in the position of the touched point analyzed by the signal analysis means A change in the position of the point touched by the touch pad analyzed by the signal analysis unit, the number of laps from the start point and the lap direction from the point touched by the touch pad , and the said function activation unit analyzes the laps and the circumferential direction of the point touched on the touch pad, there is to start a predetermined function based on the cycle number and the circumferential direction, analysis If the number of turns circumferential direction is the same different which is to provide a portable terminal device, wherein the function initiated by the function starting means can be set differently.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides, as a second aspect, a step of detecting a point touching a circular touch pad provided in a mobile terminal device and outputting it as an electrical signal; A function of analyzing the change in the position of the touched point based on the signal from the device, and various functions of the portable terminal device based on the change in the position of the point touched by the touchpad analyzed in the analyzing step The change in the position of the point touched by the touch pad analyzed by the analyzing step is the number of laps and the lap direction from the start point starting from the point touched by the touch pad. the at startup to step analyzes the laps and the circumferential direction of the point touched on the touch pad, and activates a predetermined function based on the cycle number and the circumferential direction, it is analyzed circumferential direction same If the number of circulations there is different, function initiated by the step of the boot is intended to provide a function starting method of the mobile terminal apparatus characterized in that it is set differently.

  According to the present invention, even if a complicated operation is not performed, a necessary function can be activated only by tracing the touch pad, and the operation is simplified.

  Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. The embodiments described below are preferred embodiments of the present invention, and thus various technically preferable limitations are given. However, the scope of the present invention is particularly limited in the following description. As long as there is no description which limits, it is not restricted to these aspects.

  FIG. 1 is an external view of a mobile terminal device including a circular touch pad 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The circular touch pad 1 is disposed on either the front surface (see FIG. 1A), the side surface (see FIG. 1B) or the back surface (see FIGS. 1C and 1D) of the apparatus body. It is a pressure type, electrostatic type or movable type input means. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the circular touch pad 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1A is an external view of a movable touch pad. A hatched portion indicated by reference numeral 2 moves to the left and right with the central portion indicated by reference numeral 3 as an axis in the figure. FIG. 2B is an external view of a pressure-sensitive or electrostatic touch pad. For example, the touch pad 1 is traced with the finger x in the direction of the arrow in the figure. A detection unit (not shown) detects finger contact (for example, detection by pressing) and activates a preset function based on the number of turns, the direction of rotation (clockwise or counterclockwise), and the like. In the above description, a case where a circular touch pad is mounted has been described. However, the present invention includes an elliptical touch pad, a polygonal touch pad, and the like.

  FIG. 3 is a functional configuration block diagram of the mobile terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention. A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 5 for controlling each part in the apparatus, a working memory 6, a non-volatile memory 7 for holding various setting contents, a ROM 8, a speaker 9, a microphone 10, an input unit 11, a display control unit 13 The transmission / reception unit 15 is connected via a bus 16. The display control unit 13 is connected to a display unit 14 that displays various settings and communication status. The input unit 11 is connected to input keys for performing various settings and inputs and the circular touch pad 1.

  The display unit 14 is disposed on the front surface of the apparatus main body, and is a display unit such as a monochrome or color liquid crystal panel or organic EL (electrofluorescence). The input unit 11 detects a key input from the input key 12 and a signal from the circular touch pad 1. The transmission / reception unit 15 is a circuit that performs incoming call, outgoing call, telephone call, and communication wirelessly. The working memory 6 is constituted by a RAM (Random Access Memory), and stores data temporarily required for the CPU 5 to execute the program.

  The nonvolatile memory 7 is a semiconductor memory in which data can be freely erased and written, and the contents are not lost even when the power is turned off. Phone book data, various setting values, user data, and the like can be held. The ROM 8 is a read-only memory that stores fixed data such as various control programs to be executed by the CPU 5. The speaker 9 is a device for outputting melody, voice, confirmation sound, and the like. The microphone 10 is a device for transmitting and speaking voice.

  Table 1 below is a correspondence table when functions activated by operating the circular touch pad 1 according to the present embodiment are set in advance.

  With the settings shown in Table 1, the telephone book function, mail function, dictionary function, copy function, and paste function can be easily activated by operating the circular touchpad 1. Specifically, tracing the circular touchpad 1 one turn to the right activates the phone book function, tracing two turns to the right activates the mail function, and tracing four turns to the right activates the dictionary function, It is a table | surface which shows the setting which copies a character string, if it traces 2 turns to the left, and pastes a character string, if it traces 3 turns to the left. The settings in Table 1 can be freely changed by a user operation.

  Next, an operation process of function activation by operating the circular touch pad 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation process of function activation by operating the circular touch pad 1 according to the present embodiment. Specifically, a preset function is activated according to the number of operation laps and the direction of rotation of the circular touch pad 1. In FIG. 4, as an example, a case where the mail function is activated by tracing the circular touchpad twice in the right direction on the standby screen will be described.

  When the standby screen is displayed, the operation of the circular touch pad is awaited (step S1). When the operation has been performed, it is detected whether or not the circular touch pad operation has been performed once or more (step S2). If the circular touchpad operation is less than one rotation (step S2 / No), it is treated as an invalid operation and the process is terminated without activating the function.

  On the other hand, when the circular touch pad operation is one rotation or more (step S2 / Yes), the set function is further activated based on the number of laps and the detection result of the lap direction (step S3). With the set function, for example, when it is detected that two consecutive traces in the right direction are detected, the mail function is activated as in the setting of Table 1 above. Further, when the robot stops at a place traced to the right, the telephone directory function is activated as described in Table 1 above.

  According to the above-described embodiment, the function can be activated only by tracing the circular touch pad 1 without performing a complicated operation, and the operation is simplified. It also makes effective use of a circular touchpad.

  Next, another embodiment according to the present invention will be described. In the description of the above embodiment, the case of a mobile phone terminal has been described (see FIG. 1), but it can be similarly applied to other mobile terminal devices such as PHS, and functions due to the operation of the touchpad and the touchpad. With the means for starting, the same effect as the above embodiment can be obtained. The touchpad can be implemented by using an elliptical or polygonal touchpad in addition to a circular shape.

  As another embodiment, up to seven touch pad settings can be made in Table 1 above, but any number can be set. In addition, in Table 1 above, symbols are used for notations representing right rotation and left rotation, but specific character strings such as “right” and “left” may be used. In the above description, the operation in units of one rotation has been described, but half rotation, quarter rotation, and the like may be used as units.

  In the above description, the operation of activating the function based on the number of laps and the direction of lap has been described. However, an operation for making a call to a preset telephone number may be enabled based on the number of laps and the direction of lap. It is also possible to send mail to a mail address and create mail. Moreover, the activation function to be set in advance may be preset. The function to be activated may be fixed in the number of laps and the lap direction, and the setting function may be omitted.

  The program for the CPU to execute the processing shown in the flowchart constitutes a program according to the present invention. As a recording medium for recording the program, a semiconductor storage unit, an optical and / or magnetic storage unit, or the like can be used. By using such a program and a recording medium in a system having a configuration different from that of each of the above-described embodiments and causing the CPU to execute the program, substantially the same effect as the present invention can be obtained.

  Although the present invention has been specifically described above based on the preferred embodiments, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above-described ones and can be variously modified without departing from the gist thereof.

1 is an external view of a mobile terminal device including a circular touch pad 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the circular touchpad 1 which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a functional structure block diagram of the portable terminal device which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement process of the function starting by operation of the circular touchpad 1 which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 circular touchpad 5 CPU (Central Processing Unit)
6 Working memory 7 Non-volatile memory 8 ROM
9 Speaker 10 Microphone 11 Input unit 12 Input key 13 Display control unit 14 Display unit 15 Transmission / reception unit 16 Bus

Claims (4)

A circular touchpad,
Detecting means for detecting a point touched by the touchpad and outputting as an electrical signal;
Based on the signal from the touchpad, signal analysis means for analyzing the change in the position of the touched point;
A function activation unit that activates various functions of the mobile terminal device based on a change in the position of the point touched by the touch pad analyzed by the signal analysis unit;
The change in the position of the point touched by the touch pad analyzed by the signal analysis means is the number of laps from the start point and the lap direction from the point touched by the touch pad,
The function activation means analyzes the number of laps and the lap direction of the point touched by the touchpad, and activates a predetermined function based on the number of laps and the lap direction ,
A portable terminal device , wherein the function activated by the function activation means can be set differently when the analyzed circulation directions are the same and the rotation numbers are different . The mobile terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising a function setting unit that sets a function activated by the function activation unit by a user operation . Function initiated by the function activation means, at least, claim 1, characterized in that it comprises transmitting to a predetermined telephone number, e-mail transmission to Jo Tokoro email address, one of the launch of the e-mail creation screen Or the portable terminal device of 2. Detecting a point touched by a circular touchpad provided in the mobile terminal device, and outputting as an electrical signal;
Analyzing the change in the position of the touched point based on the signal from the touchpad;
Starting various functions of the portable terminal device based on a change in the position of the point touched by the touch pad analyzed by the analyzing step,
The change in the position of the point touched by the touch pad to be analyzed by the analyzing step is the number of laps and the lap direction from the start point starting from the point touched by the touch pad,
In the starting step, the number of turns and the turning direction of the point touching the touchpad are analyzed, and a predetermined function is started based on the number of turns and the turning direction .
A function activation method for a portable terminal device, wherein the function activated by the activation step can be set differently when the analyzed circulation directions are the same and the number of circulations is different .

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