Flexible display apparatus and display method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10114476-B2
Application number	US-201715857743-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 29, 2017
Priority date	Jul 30, 2012
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

A flexible display apparatus includes a flexible display, a sensor which senses bending of the flexible display, and a controller which determines a screen activation region and a screen inactivation region from among a plurality of display regions of the flexible display based on the sensed bending, and displays a predetermined screen on the screen activation region.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A flexible display apparatus comprising:
a flexible display;
a sensor; and
a controller configured to, in response to a bending of the flexible display being sensed by the sensor, display information related to an application on a first region, from among the first region and a second region of the flexible display, that are divided from the flexible display by the bending,
wherein the information related to the application varies according to a size of the first region, and
wherein the controller, if the size of the first region is less than a certain size, displays first information provided by the application, and if the size of the first region is greater than the certain size, displays the first information with second information provided by the application.

2. The flexible display apparatus of claim 1 , wherein quantity or a display format of the information varies according to the size of the first region.

3. The flexible display apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller displays, on the first region, information related to an application corresponding to a position of the first region on the flexible display.

4. The flexible display apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller identifies the first region as a screen activation region and the second region which is a remaining region as a screen inactivation region,
wherein the size of the first region is less than a size of the second region.

5. The flexible display apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller, if the size of the first region is less than a certain size, displays an icon of the application, and if the size of the first region is greater than the certain size, displays an execution screen of the application.

6. The flexible display apparatus of claim 5 , wherein, if the application is a message application, an execution screen of the application comprises a received message.

7. The flexible display apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller, if the size of the first region is less than a certain size, displays information provided by the application to be in a first size, and if the size of the first region is greater than the certain size, displays information provided by the application to be in a second size, and
wherein the second size is greater than the first size.

8. The flexible display apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller, while information provided by the application is being displayed on the first region, in response to a user command for changing the size of the first area is being input, changes the size of the first area and modifies the information provided by the application based on the changed size of the first area.

9. The flexible display apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the size of the first region is changed by a drag and drop manipulation on a bending line which is formed by the bending.

10. A display method of a flexible display apparatus, the display method comprising:
sensing a bending of the flexible display; and
displaying information related to an application on a first region, from among the first region and a second region of the flexible display, that are divided from the flexible display by the bending,
wherein the information related to the application varies according to a size of the first region, and
wherein the displaying comprises, if the size of the first region is less than a certain size, displaying first information provided by the application, and if the size of the first region is greater than the certain size, displaying the first information with second information provided by the application.

11. The display method of claim 10 , wherein quantity or a display format of the information varies according to the size of the first region.

12. The display method of claim 10 , further comprising:
displaying, on the first region, information related to an application corresponding to a position of the first region on the flexible display.

13. The display method of claim 10 , further comprising:
determining the first region as a screen activation region and the second region which is a remaining region as a screen inactivation region,
wherein the size of the first region is less than a size of the second region.

14. The display method of claim 10 , wherein the displaying comprises, if the size of the first region is less than a certain size, displaying an icon of the application, and if the size of the first region is greater than the certain size, displaying an execution screen of the application.

15. The display method of claim 14 , wherein, if the application is a message application, an execution screen of the application comprises a received message.

16. The display method of claim 10 , wherein the displaying, if the size of the first region is less than a certain size, displaying information provided by the application to be in a first size, and if the size of the first region is greater than the certain size, displaying information provided by the application to be in a second size, and
wherein the second size is greater than the first size.

17. The display method of claim 10 , wherein the displaying comprises, while the information provided by the application is being displayed on the first region, in response to a user command for changing the size of the first area is being input, changing the size of the first area and modifying the information provided by the application based on the changed size of the first area.

18. The display method of claim 17 , where in the size of the first region is changed by a drag and drop manipulation on a bending line which is formed by the bending.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Seo Joon-Kyu
• Sohn Jung-Joo
• Kim Hyun-Jin
• Lee Geun-Ho

Classifications

• G06F3/0486

  Drag-and-drop · CPC title

• G06F2203/04803

  Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas · CPC title

• G06F1/1652 Primary

  the display being flexible, e.g. mimicking a sheet of paper, or rollable · CPC title

• G06F3/017

  Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures (interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883) · CPC title

• G06F3/033 Primary

  Pointing devices displaced or positioned by the user {, e.g. mice, trackballs, pens or joysticks}; Accessories therefor (digitisers characterised by the transducing means G06F3/041) · CPC title