Method for controlling electronic apparatus and electronic apparatus, recording medium using the method

This non-provisional application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 61/015,671, filed on Dec. 21, 2007 and included herein by reference.

1. Field of the Invention

The application relates to a control method of an electronic apparatus, and more particularly, to a method of controlling an electronic apparatus to execute a predetermined function, and an apparatus and a recording medium using the method.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Controlling an electronic apparatus using a touch control method is common practice. Generally speaking, an electronic apparatus includes a touch sensitive module on which a user can move his/her finger(s) to control the electronic apparatus to execute a specific predetermined function. It is desirable that the electronic apparatus can distinguish between a user\'s different finger movements on the touch sensitive module in order to execute different predetermined functions.

In light of this, the application provides a control method of an electronic apparatus which detects whether a moving motion on a touch sensitive module of the electronic apparatus is terminated in a predetermined period of time to control the electronic apparatus to execute a first predetermined function or a second predetermined function.

According to one embodiment of the application, a control method of an electronic apparatus is disclosed. The control method includes: detecting a moving motion on a touch sensitive module to generate a sensing signal corresponding to the moving motion; and controlling an operation of the electronic apparatus according to the sensing signal. The step of controlling the operation of the electronic apparatus according to the sensing signal includes: when the moving motion is determined not terminated in a predetermined period of time according to the sensing signal, controlling the electronic apparatus to execute a first predetermined function; and when the moving motion is determined terminated in the predetermined period of time according to the sensing signal, controlling the electronic apparatus to execute a second predetermined function which is different from the first predetermined function.

According to another embodiment of the application, an electronic apparatus is disclosed. The electronic apparatus includes a touch sensitive module, a controller, and a processing unit. The controller is coupled to the touch sensitive module, and is used for detecting a moving motion on the touch sensitive module to generate a sensing signal corresponding to the moving motion. The processing unit is coupled to the controller, and is used for controlling an operation of the electronic apparatus according to the sensing signal. When the processing unit determines that the moving motion is not terminated in a predetermined period of time according to the sensing signal, the processing unit controls the electronic apparatus to execute a first predetermined function. When the processing unit determines that the moving motion is terminated in the predetermined period of time according to the sensing signal, the processing unit controls the electronic apparatus to execute a second predetermined function which is different from the first predetermined function.

According to yet another embodiment of the application, a recording medium is disclosed. The recording medium includes program codes for executing the following steps: detecting a moving motion on a touch sensitive module to generate a sensing signal corresponding to the moving motion; and controlling an operation of the electronic apparatus according to the sensing signal. The step of controlling the operation of the electronic apparatus according to the sensing signal includes: when the moving motion is determined not terminated in a predetermined period of time according to the sensing signal, controlling the electronic apparatus to execute a first predetermined function; and when the moving motion is determined terminated in the predetermined period of time according to the sensing signal, controlling the electronic apparatus to execute a second predetermined function which is different from the first predetermined function.

These and other objectives of the application will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.

Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a control method for an electronic apparatus according to the application. The control method is summarized as follows:

S110: Detect a moving motion on a touch sensitive module to generate a sensing signal corresponding to the moving motion.

S120: Determine whether the moving motion is terminated in a predetermined period of time according to the sensing signal. If so, go to step S140; otherwise, go to step S130.

S130: Control the electronic apparatus to execute a first predetermined function.

S140: Control the electronic apparatus to execute a second predetermined function which is different from the first predetermined function.

Additionally, the application also provides an electronic apparatus which employs the control method described above. For example, the electronic apparatus is a handheld electronic apparatus (e.g., a cell phone, a smartphone, or a personal digital assistant). However, this is for illustrative purposes only, and is not meant to be a limitation of the application. Please refer to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is one exemplary embodiment of an electronic apparatus 200 which employs the control method of the application. As shown in FIG. 2, the electronic apparatus 200 includes a touch sensitive module 210, a controller 220 and a processing unit 230. Exemplary embodiments of the touch sensitive module 210 include a touch pad, a touch panel, a touch screen, etc. It should be noted that these are not meant to be limitations of the application. The controller 220 is coupled to the touch sensitive module 210, and is used to detect a moving motion on the touch sensitive module 210 to generate a sensing signal corresponding to the moving motion. The processing unit 230 is coupled to the controller 220. When the processing unit 230 detects that the moving motion is not terminated in a predetermined period of time according to the sensing signal, the processing unit 230 controls the electronic apparatus 200 to execute a first predetermined function; when the processing unit 230 detects that the moving motion is terminated in the predetermined period of time according to the sensing signal, the processing unit 230 controls the electronic apparatus 200 to execute a second predetermined function which is different from the first predetermined function. The following will use the electronic apparatus 200 as an example to further address the aforementioned control method of the electronic apparatus.

In an embodiment of the application, the first predetermined function is a panning function, and the second predetermined function is a scrolling function. Under this assumption, when a user\'s finger is moving on the touch sensitive module 210 of the electronic apparatus 200, the controller 220 will detect the moving motion and generate a moving signal S corresponding to the moving motion of the user\'s finger. If the period of time of the user\'s finger moving on the touch sensitive module 210 is longer, and therefore the processing unit 230 determines that the moving motion is not terminated in a predetermined period of time T according to the moving signal S, the processing unit 230 controls the electronic apparatus 200 to execute, for example, the panning function (i.e., the first predetermined function) for panning a page displayed on the display screen of the electronic apparatus 200. On the other hand, when the period of time of the user\'s finger moving on the touch sensitive module 210 is shorter, and therefore the processing unit 230 determines that the moving motion is terminated in the predetermined period of time T according to the moving signal S, the processing unit 230 controls the electronic apparatus 200 to execute, for example, the scrolling function (i.e., the second predetermined function) for scrolling a list, such as a contact list, a song list, or a file name list, displayed on the display screen of the electronic apparatus 200.

In one embodiment of the application for the step of the processing unit 230 controlling the electronic apparatus 200 to execute the scrolling function, the processing unit 230 controls the electronic apparatus 200 to scroll at a constant speed. The processing unit 230 determines the scrolling speed based on a speed of the user\'s finger moving motion, which is determined according to a moving signal S. For example, the scrolling speed can be determined based on the final speed of the finger\'s moving motion on the touch sensitive module 210. The faster the final speed of the finger\'s moving motion on the touch sensitive module 210 is, the faster the electronic apparatus 200 scrolls a contact list. In addition, when the electronic apparatus 200 is executing the scrolling function, if the processing unit 230 detects another sensing signal S′ corresponding to another moving motion, the processing unit 230 will increase the scrolling speed. For instance, when the electronic apparatus 200 is executing the scrolling function, if the user\'s finger moves again on the touch sensitive module 210, the processing unit 230 will increase the scrolling speed to make the electronic apparatus 200 scroll the contact list at a higher speed. For another instance, when the electronic apparatus 200 is executing the scrolling function, if the user\'s finger moves again on the touch sensitive module 210 and the processing unit 230 determines that the user\'s finger moving motion is terminated in the predetermined period of time T according to the moving signal S, the processing unit 230 will increase the scrolling function to make the electronic apparatus 200 scroll the contact list at a higher speed.

In another embodiment of the application for the processing unit 230 controlling the electronic apparatus 200 to execute the scrolling function, the controlling unit 230 also controls the electronic apparatus 200 to scroll at a decreasing speed. The processing unit 230 determines the scrolling distance of the electronic apparatus 200 based on a speed of the user\'s finger moving motion, which is determined according to a moving signal S. For example, the scrolling speed can be determined based on the final speed of the finger\'s moving motion on the touch sensitive module 210. The faster the final speed of the finger\'s moving motion on the touch sensitive module 210 is, the longer the electronic apparatus 200 scrolls a contact list.

In addition, when the electronic apparatus 200 is executing the scrolling function, if the processing unit 230 detects another sensing signal S′ corresponding to another moving motion, the processing unit 230 will increase the scrolling distance. For instance, when the electronic apparatus 200 is executing the scrolling function, if the user\'s finger moves again on the touch sensitive module 210, the processing unit 230 will increase the scrolling distance to make the electronic apparatus 200 scroll the contact list with a longer scrolling distance.

For another instance, when the electronic apparatus 200 is executing the scrolling function, if the user\'s finger moves again on the touch sensitive module 210 and the processing unit 230 determines that the user\'s finger moving motion is terminated in the predetermined period of time T according to the moving signal S, the processing unit 230 will increase the scrolling distance to make the electronic apparatus 200 scroll the contact list with a longer scrolling distance.

In addition, in this embodiment, the controller 220 further detects a touch motion on the touch sensitive module 210 to generate a touch signal corresponding to the touch motion. When the processing unit 230 receives the touch signal while the electronic apparatus 200 is executing the scrolling function, the processing unit 230 controls the electronic apparatus 200 to stop executing the scrolling function. For instance, when the electronic apparatus 200 is executing the scrolling function, if the user\'s finger touches the touch sensitive module 210 of the electronic apparatus 200 without moving on the touch sensitive module 210, the controller 220 will detect the touch motion to generate a touch signal ST according to the touch motion, and the processing unit 230 will control the electronic apparatus 200 to stop executing the scrolling function.

Please note that, in the above embodiment, the first predetermined function and the second predetermined function are not limited to the panning function and the scrolling function. In a practical implementation, the first predetermined function and the second predetermined function can be any two different predetermined functions.

In another embodiment of the application, when the processing unit 230 determines that the user\'s finger moving motion is terminated in the predetermined period of time T according to the sensing signal S corresponding to the user\'s finger moving motion, and within a predetermined period of time T′ after the sensing signal S is terminated, the processing unit 230 determines that another finger moving motion is terminated in the predetermined period of time T according to the sensing signal S′ corresponding to the another finger moving motion, the processing unit 230 will then control the electronic apparatus 200 to execute a third predetermined function which is different from the first and the second predetermined functions. For example, the third predetermined function can be a letter-jumping function to rapidly browse a list by displaying a first contact person\'s name in each of the contact groups which are sorted alphabetically. Under this assumption, when a user\'s finger moves on the touch sensitive module 210 and leaves, and then moves on the touch sensitive module 210 and leaves again, and each of the two moving motions on the touch sensitive module 210 does not exceed the predetermined period of time T and the time interval between these two moving motions does not exceed T′, the processing unit 230 controls the electronic apparatus 200 to execute the letter-jumping function.

The application also provides a recording medium for recording a computer program used to perform the aforementioned control method of an electronic apparatus. The computer program is basically composed of multiple program code segments (e.g., a program code segment of establishing an organization chart, a program code segment of sign-off forms, a program code segment of configuration, and a program code segment of allocation), and after those program code segments are loaded and executed in an electronic device (e.g., the electronic device 200), the above-mentioned steps and functions of the aforementioned control method of the electronic device are then accomplished.

In summary, according to the application, a control method of an electronic apparatus, and an apparatus and a recording medium using the control method detect whether a moving motion on a touch sensitive module of an electronic apparatus is terminated within a predetermined period of time or not in order to control the electronic apparatus to execute a first predetermined function (e.g., a panning function) or a second predetermined function (e.g., a scrolling function). In this way, a user can control the electronic apparatus to execute a panning function or a scrolling function according to the duration of his/her finger moving on the touch sensitive module.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.