Additional Touch-Gesture Sensors for Rear or Sides of Mobile Devices

Abstract

A method for providing user interface features to a mobile device involving locating a touch-responsive sensor touchpad to the rear and / or at least one side of a mobile device. Touch-gesture measurement information from the touch-responsive sensor touchpad is processed and used to create an output signal responsive to a touch gesture imparted wherein the output signal is used to control an aspect of a software application operating on the mobile device. The mobile device can be configured to be selectively responsive to particular temporal patterns of touch, particular regions of touch, and / or particular movements of touch. Touch gestures can include various types of squeezing gestures, path-tracing touch gestures, and touch pattern gestures. Recognized gestures can be used to control the mobile device and / or software application running on the mobile device.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 12 / 541,948 filed Aug. 15, 2009, which claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application 61 / 089386, filed Aug. 15, 2008, the contents of which are incorporated herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]It is well known that conventional, low-dimensional pointing devices like the mouse, which have only two independent ways of moving or degrees of freedom (DOFs), can be tedious and inefficient to use. The small size of cell phones and many other consumer electronic devices exacerbates the problem, making them even less efficient, and more difficult, to use. Contributing to the solution of these problems will help address the larger problem of improving the usability of computing systems and devices -- that is, to provide interfaces that make operating such systems intuitive, efficient and appealing.DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART[0003]The need the technology disclosed herein addresses i...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

There are two main problems that these existing interfaces pose: the low-dimensionality problem (LDP) and the small-format problem (SFP).

Thus the small number of pointer parameters creates a bottleneck, forcing the user to carry out many additional or overhead operations that could be avoided with a pointing device with more degrees of freedom.

The second problem, the SFP, is a special case of the LDP: it is the LDP as it occurs in using small, portable or handheld devices.

The lack of a high-dimensional pointing device is a more severe problem in using small devices than larger ones because the small size of the visual display or control surface limits the size and number of partitions that can be created.

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