KR20100020389A - Input method using size of touching spot and device thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An input method using size of touching spot and a device are provided to perform writing and erasing without a special tool selecting procedure. CONSTITUTION: An input mode setting unit(220) calculates the size of the contact point by using a coordinate according to the coordinate recognizing unit. The input mode setting unit is set to an erasure mode when the contact point size is above a predetermined threshold value. The input mode setting unit is set to a writing mode when the contact point size is below a predetermined threshold value. An input processing unit(230) processes the coordinate value according to the contact point and an input value according to an input mode which is set by an input mode setting unit.

Description

Input method using size of touching spot and device

The present invention relates to a touch input method in an electronic device, and more particularly, to an input method and an apparatus using the size of a contact point.

Most portable electronic devices on the market are equipped with a user input function for creating a message, drawing a picture, etc., as well as simply inputting a specific command. A typical example of the input method is a keypad used for a mobile phone or the like. The keypad is typically implemented as a button type. Recently, however, there has been a rapid increase in the provision of mobile phones using touch screens for user input convenience. The touch screen method provides various input functions such as writing letters and drawing using an electronic pen as well as simply inputting characters. Most of the recently released electronic devices are equipped with this touch screen input function.

Touching the screen directly with a finger or ball-point pen is called a touch screen, which is a screen designed to recognize a contact and execute a command or move the position of the cursor. The principle of how touch screens work varies, but the most common case is a pressure-sensitive device that closely installs a string of sensors that respond to pressure on the surface of the screen to determine its position in coordinates, and charges on the surface of the screen (current flow). It can be divided into a capacitive type that detects where the contact is made by charging the device and installing sensors around it and detecting the loss of charge at the time of contact. In short, the touch screen method recognizes coordinates where an object such as an electronic pen or a finger is touched and processes a specific input signal in the recognized coordinates.

The touch screen method has an advantage of easier writing and drawing than a button-type input method.

1 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a user interface screen according to a drawing function using a touch screen that is generally used.

Referring to FIG. 1, a menu window 100 for selecting any one of various input tools such as drawing 110, erasing 120, and coloring 130 is displayed on one side of a screen, and a user may You can select an input tool to draw or delete a picture, or to paint where you want. Hereinafter, a function of inputting specific information, such as drawing and coloring, will be referred to as a "write function", and a function of erasing the input information will be referred to as a "erase function".

Suppose that the drawing function is performed using the touch pen 150. If there is a part to be erased while drawing or writing by selecting a drawing tool, touch an icon according to the erase tool of the menu window. Touch the pen 150 to select the erase function. Then, after touching all of the parts to be erased by touching the touch pen 150, in order to perform a writing function such as a redraw function or a coloring function, an icon according to the corresponding tool of the menu window 100 must be touched.

When you draw a picture or write a letter, you may need to perform the erase function. In this case, as described above, it is inconvenient to select a tool according to the write function or the erase function. In addition, the eraser according to the erasing tool has a constant size and is usually implemented not so large so that even small details can be erased. Accordingly, the user may feel uncomfortable when deleting a large portion.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, the input method and apparatus using the size of the contact point in the electronic device having a touch screen input function that can select the writing function and the erase function more conveniently It is to provide.

Other objects of the present invention will become more apparent through the preferred embodiments described below.

According to an aspect of the present invention, an input method in an electronic device having a touch screen, the method comprising: calculating a size of a contact point when an object comes into contact with the touch screen; Comparing the calculated size of the contact point with a preset threshold value; And setting the input mode to the erase mode when the size of the touch point is greater than or equal to the threshold value, and setting the input mode to the write mode when the size of the touch point is less than the threshold value. An input method used and a recording medium recording the method are provided.

The size of the contact point may be calculated by measuring the width of the contact point, or by calculating the diameter of the contact point, or by measuring the number of coordinate points of the touch screen corresponding to the contact point. Can be.

The method may further include determining whether the eraser locking mode is set. When the eraser locking mode is set, the input mode may be set to the writing mode regardless of the size of the contact point.

According to another aspect of the present invention, an electronic device having a touch screen, comprising: a coordinate recognition unit for recognizing one or more coordinate values according to a contact point when an object touches the provided touch screen; The size of the contact point is calculated using the coordinate value according to the coordinate recognition unit, and if the size of the contact point is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, the input mode is set to an erase mode, and the size of the contact point is less than the threshold value. An input mode setting unit for setting the input mode to a write mode; And an input processor configured to process the coordinate value according to the contact point and the input value according to the input mode set by the input mode setting unit.

Here, the input mode setting unit may calculate the size of the contact point by measuring any one of the width, diameter, or the number of coordinate points of the touch screen corresponding to the contact point.

The input mode setting unit may determine whether the eraser lock mode is set, and when the eraser lock mode is set, the input mode may be set as the write mode regardless of the size of the contact point.

And, there is a touch pen used as an input means on the touch screen, the body portion is formed so that the user can be held by the hand; In order to perform a writing function on an electronic device having a touch screen in which a writing mode or an erasing mode is set according to whether the contact point to be touched is equal to or greater than a preset threshold, the bottom portion of the body is formed on the touch screen. A nib formed to contact an area of a size smaller than the threshold when contacted; And an eraser part formed at an upper end of the body part, the eraser part being formed to contact an area having a size greater than or equal to the threshold value when the electronic device is in contact with the touch screen to perform an erase function on the electronic device. do.

Here, the eraser portion may be formed of a soft material to prevent scratches of the touch screen when the touch screen is in contact with the touch screen.

According to the present invention, the writing function and the erasing function can be performed without a separate tool selection procedure, thereby providing an input method and apparatus using the size of a contact point having convenience.

In addition, according to the present invention, the area for the erasing function can be set in various ways according to the size of the point in contact with the screen, which has the effect of performing the eraser function more conveniently.

As the invention allows for various changes and numerous embodiments, particular embodiments will be illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the written description. However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to specific embodiments, it should be understood to include all modifications, equivalents, and substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Terms including ordinal numbers such as first and second may be used to describe various components, but the components are not limited by the terms.

The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. For example, without departing from the scope of the present invention, the first component may be referred to as the second component, and similarly, the second component may also be referred to as the first component. The term and / or includes a combination of a plurality of related items or any item of a plurality of related items.

When a component is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another component, it may be directly connected to or connected to that other component, but it may be understood that other components may be present in between. Should be. On the other hand, when a component is said to be "directly connected" or "directly connected" to another component, it should be understood that there is no other component in between.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In this application, the terms "comprise" or "have" are intended to indicate that there is a feature, number, step, operation, component, part, or combination thereof described in the specification, and one or more other features. It is to be understood that the present invention does not exclude the possibility of the presence or the addition of numbers, steps, operations, components, components, or a combination thereof.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. Terms such as those defined in the commonly used dictionaries should be construed as having meanings consistent with the meanings in the context of the related art and shall not be construed in ideal or excessively formal meanings unless expressly defined in this application. Do not.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, and in describing the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, the same or corresponding elements are denoted by the same reference numerals regardless of the reference numerals, and duplicates thereof. The description will be omitted.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration according to a function of an electronic device having a touch screen function according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 illustrates an erase function in a touch screen according to an embodiment of the present invention. 4 is an exemplary view illustrating a user interface screen for the eraser locking function according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figures 5 to 7 are views of the contact point according to each embodiment of the present invention It is an exemplary diagram illustrating a method of calculating the size.

First, the input processing method of the electronic device according to the present embodiment will be described briefly. The size of the point where the object (for example, a touch pen or a finger) is touched on the touch screen (ie, the number of areas, diameters, and coordinates) And the like) are determined to be equal to or greater than a preset size, and are set as either a write function or an erase function according to the size of the contact point to process the input. For example, if a user touches the touch screen with a touch pen, the tip of the touch pen is pointed so that the area or diameter of the point where the touch pen touches the screen is small, in which case the writing function is set, and the finger touches the screen. In this case, the erase function is set because the area or diameter of the contact point on the screen is large. Therefore, if a user draws a picture or writes a text using a touch pen and there is a part to delete, the user simply touches a part to be erased using a finger without selecting an erase tool.

Of course, the writing function is simply a writing, there may be a variety of functions, such as drawing a line, such as curve / straight line drawing, drawing a rectangle / circle, such as painting. If there is no separate function setting input, the initial writing function may be set as a default, and various input functions such as line drawing and figure drawing according to drawing may be set by the user. Hereinafter, for convenience of explanation, a description will be made in consideration of a case where only a writing function is provided as a writing function. However, coloring, line drawing, and the like may also be applied.

Referring to FIG. 2, the electronic device having the touch screen function according to the present embodiment includes a coordinate recognition unit 210, an input mode setting unit 220, and an input processing unit 230.

The coordinate recognition unit 210 functions to recognize the coordinates of the part where any object is in contact with the touch screen. That is, the touch screen is provided with a plurality of sensors to recognize the contact of the object and its coordinates, of course, if the contacted area is a large number of recognized coordinates is natural.

The input mode setting unit 220 sets the input mode according to the size of the contact point that is simultaneously recognized by the coordinate recognition unit 210 (that is, the area, the diameter, the number of coordinates included in the plane, etc.). Function. For example, when using the area of the contacted surface, the input mode setting unit 220 determines whether the contact area is greater than or equal to the preset size, and sets the input mode to the erase mode when the contact area is greater than or equal to the preset size. . The predetermined size (hereinafter referred to as "critical width") should be larger than the width of the nib portion of the touch pen (ie, the portion in contact with the screen) and smaller than the width of the tip of the finger that is primarily in contact with the screen.

Referring to FIG. 5, according to an embodiment of a method of recognizing a size of a touched point, the input mode setting unit 220 uses the number of coordinates recognized by the coordinate recognition unit 210 to determine the size. Can be calculated. In general, a touch screen has a coordinate of n * m. For example, if there are a total of 128 * 128 coordinates, a total of 16384 coordinate points exist. Therefore, the number of coordinate points included in the contacted point can be recognized. For example, as shown in the figure, it can be seen that the number of coordinate points included in the contact point 510 among a total of 120 coordinates according to 10 * 12 is six.

Therefore, the size can be calculated using the number of coordinates according to all the points in contact at the same time. Therefore, either the write mode or the erase mode may be set according to whether the number of coordinates in which the contact is recognized is greater than or equal to a preset number.

Referring to FIG. 6 according to another embodiment, the input mode setting unit 220 uses the portion of coordinates (eg, coordinates of the top, bottom, left, and right ends of the contact area) at which the simultaneous contact is recognized to determine the area of the contact point. It can also be calculated. That is, as shown in the figure, the area of the rectangle 610 when connecting any four points located at the end of the coordinates included in the contact point by a line can be calculated as the contact area. Of course, this is only one embodiment, and it is obvious that all methods for calculating an interview of a point of contact may be applied in addition to the above-described method.

Referring to FIG. 7 according to another embodiment, the length between the minimum coordinates (ie, the leftmost top coordinate) and the highest coordinates (ie, the rightmost bottom coordinate) among the contacted coordinates is recognized as a diameter 710. The size of the contact point can be calculated.

That is, in the input method according to the present invention, when an object comes into contact with the touch screen, the size of the contact point is calculated using the area, diameter, number of coordinates included in the corresponding point, and the calculated size is previously determined. The input mode is set according to whether or not the threshold is set.

Accordingly, the input mode setting unit 220 sets the input mode to the erase mode when the size of the contact point is greater than or equal to the threshold value, and sets the input mode to the write mode when the size of the contact point is less than the threshold value.

The input processing unit 230 functions to process an input according to the input mode recognized by the input mode setting unit 220 at the coordinate recognized by the coordinate recognition unit 210. For example, when the input mode setting unit 220 recognizes the writing mode, an input value according to the writing mode is processed in the coordinates where the contact is recognized and displayed on the display provided therewith.

For example, it is assumed that the user draws a line from the coordinates (10, 15) to (30, 40) using the touch pen. In this case, the coordinate recognition unit 210 recognizes all the coordinates moved from the coordinates (10, 15) to (30, 40), and the input mode setting unit 220 of the point contacted to the initial coordinates (10, 15). The input mode is set to the write mode by recognizing the size and recognizing that the size is smaller than the threshold. Thereafter, the input processor 230 processes the input values in the write mode set by the input mode setting unit 220 at positions corresponding to the coordinates recognized by the coordinate recognition unit 210 to coordinates 10 and 15 to ( A line is displayed at points along the coordinates of 30 and 40).

Referring to FIG. 3, when a user touches a portion to be erased using a finger, the coordinate recognizer 210 recognizes coordinates of all touched portions, and the input mode setting unit 220 of the first touched point. The erase mode is set by calculating the size and comparing it with the threshold value, and the input processor 230 processes and displays the contents of the touched points to be erased.

In addition, according to an exemplary embodiment, a user may want to write bold text using an object having a wide contact range such as a finger instead of a touch pen.

Accordingly, the electronic device may have a separate eraser locking mode. That is, when the eraser lock mode is set, all of them may be processed in the write mode regardless of the area of the contact point. After the user touches and executes the eraser lock function icon 410 of the menu window as illustrated in FIG. 4, the user may write a text using a finger. Of course, if the eraser lock function is released, it is natural that the erase function can be used again by using a large object such as a finger.

Here, it is assumed that the writing function uses a touch pen and the erasing function uses a finger, but the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, you can use a small fingernail to write, and use a larger fingertip to erase.

8 is a perspective view illustrating a touch pen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 8, the touch pen according to the present exemplary embodiment includes a pen tip 810, a body 820, and an eraser 830. The nib 810 of the touch pen is formed at the lower end of the body 820 and is formed such that the area of its tip is smaller than the threshold value, such as a pencil, and the eraser 830 is opposite to the nib 810. That is, provided on the upper side of the opposite side of the body portion 820 is formed so that the area of the end has a size greater than the threshold value. In addition, the eraser 830 is preferably formed of a soft material such as cotton so as not to scratch the touch screen.

That is, the touch pen according to the present embodiment may use the writing function as the pen tip 810 and the erase function as the eraser 830 formed on the opposite side as the pencil with an eraser. In the case of using the touch pen according to the present embodiment, there is an effect of preventing a fingerprint from being applied to the touch screen as a finger touches it.

As described above, a user who uses an electronic device of an input method using the size of a contact point according to the present invention may write or draw using a touch pen, and a contact portion (that is, a contact) such as a finger. Clear objects can be used without inputting a function by using a large area of the point).

When the input method according to the present invention is applied to a mobile phone equipped with a recently released full browsing function, the user may be useful when inputting a search word in a search box of a specific internet site or deleting the input search word.

Hereinafter, an input processing process of performing a write or erase function using the size of the contact point will be described.

9 is a flowchart illustrating an input processing process using a contact area according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 9, when any object comes into contact with the provided touch screen, the electronic device recognizes one or more coordinates according to the contact point (S910).

The electronic device calculates the size according to the area, diameter, number of coordinates, etc. of the contact point according to the recognized coordinates (S920), and determines whether the size of the calculated contact point is greater than or equal to a preset threshold (S930).

As a result, when the size of the contact point is greater than or equal to the threshold value, the input mode is set to the erase mode (s940). If the size of the contact point is smaller than the threshold value, the input mode is set to the write mode (s945). Of course, if the eraser lock function is set as described above, the input mode is unconditionally set to the write mode.

Subsequently, an input according to a writing function or an erasing function is processed at a position corresponding to the coordinate at which the contact is recognized, and the screen is displayed accordingly (S950).

The method of the present invention as described above may be implemented in a program and stored in a computer-readable recording medium (CD-ROM, RAM, ROM, floppy disk, hard disk, magneto-optical disk, etc.).

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and many variations are possible by those skilled in the art within the spirit of the present invention.

1 is an exemplary view illustrating a user interface screen according to a drawing function using a touch screen that is generally used.

Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration according to the function of the electronic device with a touch screen function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is an exemplary view of performing a erase function on a touch screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a user interface screen for the eraser locking function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 to 7 are exemplary views illustrating a method of calculating the size of the contact point according to each embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a perspective view illustrating a touch pen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

9 is a flowchart illustrating an input processing process using a contact area according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (11)

In the input method in an electronic device provided with a touch screen, Calculating a size of a contact point when any object comes into contact with the touch screen; Comparing the calculated size of the contact point with a preset threshold value; And Setting an input mode to an erase mode when the size of the touch point is greater than or equal to the threshold value, and setting the input mode to a write mode when the size of the touch point is less than the threshold value. Input method. The method of claim 1, The size of the contact point input method using the size of the contact point, characterized in that calculated by measuring the area of the contact point. The method of claim 1, The size of the contact point input method using the size of the contact point, characterized in that calculated by measuring the diameter of the contact point. The method of claim 1, The size of the touch point input method using the size of the touch point, characterized in that calculated by measuring the number of coordinate points of the touch screen corresponding to the touch point. The method of claim 1, Determining whether the eraser lock mode is set, When the eraser lock mode is set, the input mode is set to the write mode regardless of the size of the contact point. A recording medium in which a combination of instructions for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 5 is tangibly embodied and in which a program readable by a digital information processing apparatus is recorded. In an electronic device having a touch screen, A coordinate recognition unit recognizing one or more coordinate values according to a contact point when an object touches the provided touch screen; The size of the contact point is calculated using the coordinate value according to the coordinate recognition unit, and if the size of the contact point is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, the input mode is set to an erase mode, and the size of the contact point is less than the threshold value. An input mode setting unit for setting the input mode to a write mode; And And an input processing unit configured to process the coordinate value according to the contact point and the input value according to the input mode set by the input mode setting unit. The method of claim 7, wherein The input mode setting unit calculates the size of the contact point by measuring any one of an area, a diameter of the contact point, or the number of coordinate points of the touch screen corresponding to the contact point. Input method used. The method of claim 7, wherein The input mode setting unit determines whether the eraser locking mode is set, and when the eraser locking mode is set, sets the input mode to the writing mode regardless of the size of the contact point. device. There is a touch pen used as an input means on the touch screen, A body portion formed to be gripped by a user by hand; In order to perform a writing function on an electronic device having a touch screen in which a writing mode or an erasing mode is set according to whether the contact point to be touched is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, the bottom portion of the body is formed on the touch screen. A nib formed to contact an area of a size smaller than the threshold when contacted; And And an eraser portion formed at an upper end of the body portion and formed to contact an area having a size greater than or equal to the threshold value when the electronic device is in contact with the touch screen to perform an erase function on the electronic device. The method of claim 10, The eraser unit is a touch screen touch pen, characterized in that formed in a soft material to prevent scratches of the touch screen when the touch screen.

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