Touchscreen Housing Sensing for Flexible Simulated Button Placement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing touch screen terminals have fixed locations for simulated hardware buttons, limiting flexibility in their arrangement and requiring a dedicated non-display touchable region.
Innovation Solution
A touch screen terminal with a touch sensing unit, detection reporting unit, and operation confirmation unit, where network nodes corresponding to pixel points on the touch screen are arranged on the terminal housing, allowing simulated hardware buttons to be flexibly positioned outside the screen by sensing user operations and reporting pixel information to determine the corresponding functions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If simulated hardware buttons are arranged in a fixed location within a dedicated non-display touchable region, then the button layout is simple to implement, but the arrangement flexibility is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The network nodes originally designed for touch screen pixel detection are made multi-functional by extending their sensing capability to detect touches on simulated hardware buttons located outside the touch screen boundary. This allows the same detection system to serve both internal touch screen operations and external button operations, eliminating the need for separate detection mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extends the detection coverage from the two-dimensional touch screen area to the three-dimensional space surrounding the terminal by placing network nodes on the inner surface of the terminal housing. This dimensional extension allows detection of touches on buttons located outside the traditional screen boundary while maintaining system integration.
2Area of stationary object
If a dedicated non-display touchable region is used for simulated hardware buttons, then the button detection is reliable, but the terminal housing space is wasted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the function of the dedicated non-display touchable region with the terminal housing structure itself. By integrating network nodes into the housing's inner surface, the housing simultaneously serves as both structural support and detection medium, eliminating wasted space while maintaining detection reliability through the continuous network coverage.
3Adaptability or versatility
If network nodes are arranged on the inner side surface of terminal housing outside the touch screen, then the simulated hardware button layout becomes flexible, but the detection precision for pixel point correspondence becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces the concept of virtual pixel point correspondence as an intermediary mechanism. When a network node outside the touch screen detects a touch, it maps the detection location to a corresponding pixel point on the touch screen through coordinate transformation algorithms. This intermediary mapping relationship maintains measurement precision despite the physical separation between network nodes and touch screen pixels.
Data Source
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AI summary
Disclosed are a simulation hardware button operation method and a touch screen terminal, applied to the technical field of electronic information. In the touch screen terminal, the network node (121) of at least one pixel in the upper boundary region of a touch screen (110) is arranged on the inner side surface of the terminal housing outside of the touch screen (110), and when a detection reporting unit (20) detects a touch sensing unit (10) sensing through the network node (120) an user operating the touch button of the terminal, the detection reporting unit (20) reports the corresponding pixel information of the sensed network node; an operation confirmation unit (30) confirms the function of the operation to the touch button by the user according to the report of the detection reporting unit (10). Thus the location of the simulation hardware button of the touch screen terminal is not restricted and can be flexibly arranged at any location on the housing of the terminal outside of the touch screen, and furthermore, a dedicated non-displaying touch area is not needed to concentrate the arrangement of simulated hardware buttons.