Electronic device having flexible display and method for operating the electronic device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10509560-B2
Application number	US-201615384279-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 19, 2016
Priority date	Dec 28, 2015
Publication date	Dec 17, 2019
Grant date	Dec 17, 2019

Abstract

An electronic device having a flexible display and a method for operating the same are provided. The method includes displaying a first graphic user interface (GUI) for character input on a flexible display and detecting a change in a bending state of the flexible display. Changing the first GUI to a second GUI based on the detected change of the bending state of the flexible display, and then displaying the second GUI. In some embodiments, the method may include determining a moved area among the first area and the second area and displaying the second GUI based on the determined moved area and the angle between the first area and the second area. Determining the moved area may include detecting a first pressure corresponding to the first area and a second pressure corresponding to the second area, and then determining the moved area based on the first and second pressures.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for operating an electronic device having a flexible display, the method comprising:
displaying a first graphic user interface (GUI) for character input on a first part of an execution screen of an application on the flexible display, wherein a length of one side of the first GUI for character input is equal to a length of one side of the flexible display;
detecting a first angle between a first area and a second area of the flexible display;
selecting a second GUI for character input corresponding to the first angle between the first area and the second area from among a plurality of GUIs for character input based on pre-stored association information between angles between the first area and the second area and the plurality of GUIs for the character input, wherein a length of one side of the second GUI for character input is equal to the length of the second area;
displaying the second GUI for character input on a second part of the execution screen of the application on the flexible display;
detecting a second angle between the first area and the second area of the flexible display;
selecting a third GUI for character input corresponding to the second angle between the first area and the second area from among the plurality of GUIs for character input based on the pre-stored association information, the third GUI being different from the second GUI for character input, wherein the third GUI for character input is a same type as the second GUI and has a smaller size than the second GUI for character input; and
displaying the third GUI for character input on a third part of the execution screen of the application on the flexible display.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein displaying the second GUI comprises:
determining a moved area among the first area and the second area; and
displaying the second GUI for character input based on the determined moved area and the first angle between the first area and the second area.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining the moved area comprises:
detecting a first pressure corresponding to the first area and detecting a second pressure corresponding to the second area; and
determining the moved area based on the first pressure and the second pressure.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein determining the moved area based on the first pressure and the second pressure comprises:
in response to a difference between the first pressure and the second pressure being larger than a predetermined threshold, determining an area corresponding to a larger pressure between the first pressure and the second pressure as the moved area.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein determining the moved area based on the first pressure and the second pressure comprises:
in response to a difference between the first pressure and the second pressure being equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, determining that both the first area and the second area have moved.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining the moved area comprises determining the moved area based on at least one of:
sensing data from a first motion sensor disposed in correspondence with a first position of the first area, or
sensing data from a second motion sensor disposed in correspondence with a second position of the second area.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein displaying the second GUI for character input comprises:
in response to detecting that the first angle between the first area and the second area is larger than a previous angle corresponding to the first GUI for character input, displaying the second GUI for character input in a larger size than the first GUI for character input; and
in response to detecting that the first angle between the first area and the second area is smaller than the previous angle corresponding to the first GUI for character input, displaying the second GUI for character input in a smaller size than the first GUI for character input.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
determining a position of a bending axis upon which the flexible display is bent;
changing the first GUI to the second GUI for character input is based on the position of the bending axis; and
displaying the second GUI for character input based on the position of the bending axis.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein changing the first GUI for character input to the second GUI for character input comprises determining a size of the second GUI for character input in correspondence with a size of a part of the flexible display defined by the bending axis.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein displaying the third GUI for character input comprising displaying the third GUI for character input on a third part of the execution screen of the application on the flexible display based on the position of the bending axis.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a position change input for changing a position of the second GUI for character input; and
displaying the second GUI for character input at the changed position in correspondence with the received position change input.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second GUI for character input is at least one of
a same type as the first GUI for character input and has a different size than that of the first GUI for character input,
a different type than that of the first GUI for character input, or
in a shape different than that of the first GUI for character input, obtained by modifying the shape of the first GUI for character input.

13. An electronic device comprising:
a flexible display;
a memory configured to store one or more instructions; and
a processor connected electrically to the flexible display and to the memory, wherein the processor, upon execution of the stored one or more instructions, is configured to:
control the flexible display to display a first graphic user interface (GUI) for character input on a first part of an execution screen of an application, wherein a length of one side of the first GUI for character input is equal to a length of one side of the flexible display,
detect a first angle between a first area and a second area of the flexible display,
select a second GUI for character input corresponding to the first angle between the first area and the second area from among a plurality of GUIs for character input based on pre-stored association information between angles between the first area and the second area and the plurality of GUIs for character input for the character input, wherein a length of one side of the second GUI for character input is equal to the length of the second area,
control the flexible display to display the second GUI for character input on a second part of the execution screen of the application,
detect a second angle between the first area and the second area of the flexible display,
select a third GUI for character input corresponding to the second angle between the first area and the second area from among the plurality of GUIs for character input based on the pre-stored association information, the third GUI for character input being different from the second GUI for character input, wherein the third GUI for character input is a same type as the second GUI for character input and has a smaller size than the second GUI for character input, and
control the flexible display to display the third GUI for character input on a third part of the execution screen of the application on the flexible display.

14. The electronic device of claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to:
determine a moved area among the firs

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kim Chul-Woo
• An Sung-Youn
• Park Hang-Kyu

Classifications

• G06F1/1652

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

• G06F1/1643

  the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads (details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615) · CPC title

• G06F2203/04802

  3D-info-object: information is displayed on the internal or external surface of a three dimensional manipulable object, e.g. on the faces of a cube that can be rotated by the user · CPC title

• G06F1/1626

  with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs] · CPC title

• G06F3/04886 Primary

  by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus · CPC title