Flexible apparatus and control method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9563279-B2
Application number	US-201313974363-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 23, 2013
Priority date	Aug 23, 2012
Publication date	Feb 7, 2017
Grant date	Feb 7, 2017

Abstract

A flexible apparatus is provided. The flexible apparatus includes: a sensor configured to sense bending of the flexible apparatus; and when it is determined that a rubbing gesture of rubbing a plurality of different areas of the flexible apparatus is performed based on a result of the sensing, a controller configured to perform an operation corresponding to the rubbing gesture.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A flexible apparatus comprising:
a flexible display;
a sensor configured to sense bending of the flexible display; and
a controller configured to determine the bending of the flexible display based on the sensing of the sensor, determine a rubbing gesture of two areas associated with the bending, and to control the flexible display to perform an operation corresponding to the rubbing gesture, in response to determining the rubbing gesture,
wherein the rubbing gesture comprises rubbing the two areas associated with the bending of the flexible display while the two areas associated with the bending of the flexible display contact each other.

2. The flexible apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the two areas are divided by the bending.

3. The flexible apparatus as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the controller determines the rubbing gesture if a location of the bending is continuously moved during a predetermined time.

4. The flexible apparatus as claimed in claim 2 ,
wherein the controller determines the rubbing gesture if a contacted location between the two areas is continuously changed during a predetermined time.

5. The flexible apparatus as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the controller is configured to perform a function related to an object displayed on at least one of the two areas in response to determining the rubbing gesture.

6. The flexible apparatus as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the function is one of deleting the object displayed on the at least one of the two areas, moving the object to another area and displays the moved object, or copying the object into another area and displays the copied object, in response to determining the rubbing gesture.

7. The flexible apparatus as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the function is one of with respect to all content displayed on the screen or all content executed on the screen and with respect to some of the content displayed on the at least one of the two areas or some contents executed in the at least one of the two areas.

8. The flexible apparatus as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the controller control the flexible display to provide a feedback effect of the rubbing gesture.

9. The flexible apparatus as claimed in claim 5 , further comprising a communicator configured to communicate with an electronic apparatus,
wherein the controller is further configured to generate a control signal to instruct the electronic apparatus to perform an operation corresponding to the rubbing gesture, and transmits the control signal to the electronic apparatus.

10. A method for controlling of a flexible apparatus, the method comprising:
sensing bending of a flexible display of the flexible apparatus;
determining the bending of the flexible display based on a result of the sensing and a rubbing gesture of two areas associated with the bending; and
performing an operation corresponding to the rubbing gesture, in response to determining the rubbing gesture,
wherein the rubbing gesture comprises rubbing the two areas associated with the bending of the flexible display while the two areas associated with the bending of the flexible display contact each other.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the two areas are divided by the bending.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the determining comprises determining the rubbing gesture if a location of the bending is continuously moved during a predetermined time.

13. The method as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the performing comprises performing the operation related to an object displayed on at least one of the two areas.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the performing comprises one of deleting an object displayed on the at least one of the two areas, moving the object to another area and displaying the moved object, or copying the object into another area and displaying the copied object.

15. The method as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the operation is one of a function with respect to all content displayed on the screen or all content executed on the screen and a function with respect to some of the content displayed on the at least one of the two areas or some contents executed in the at least one of the plurality of the two areas.

16. The method as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the performing comprises providing a feedback effect of the rubbing gesture.

17. The method as claimed in claim 11 , further comprising communicating with an electronic apparatus,
wherein the performing comprises generating a control signal to instruct the electronic apparatus to perform an operation corresponding to the rubbing gesture, and transmitting the control signal to the electronic apparatus.

18. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the determining comprises determining the rubbing gesture if a contact area contacted location between the two areas is continuously changed during a predetermined time.

19. A flexible display apparatus comprising:
a sensor configured to sense a deformation of the flexible display apparatus; and
a controller configured to determine the deformation of the flexible display apparatus based on the sensing of the sensor, determine whether the deformation corresponds to a rubbing deformation of the flexible display apparatus, and perform a function corresponding to the rubbing deformation in response to determining that the deformation corresponds to the rubbing deformation,
wherein the rubbing deformation comprises rubbing areas associated with the deformation of the flexible display while the two areas associated with the bending of the flexible display contact each other.

20. The flexible display apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the rubbing deformation is a deformation in which areas of the flexible display apparatus contact each other for a predetermined period of time.

21. The flexible display apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the areas of the flexible display apparatus change the contact during the predetermined period of time.

22. The flexible display apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the areas of the flexible display apparatus continuously change the contact during the predetermined period of time.

23. The flexible display apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the contact oscillates between the areas during the predetermined period of time.

24. The flexible display apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the contact between the areas during the predetermined period of time corresponds to a rubbing pattern.

25. The flexible display apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the rubbing deformation is a deformation in which the flexible display apparatus is deformed along a bending line of the deformation.

26. The flexible display apparatus of claim 25 , wherein a position of the bending line is varied during a predetermined period of time.

27. The flexible display apparatus of claim 26 , wherein the position of the bending line is continuously varied during the predetermined period of time.

28. The flexible display apparatus of claim 26 , wherein the position of the bending line oscillates during the predetermined period of time.

29. The flexible display apparatus of claim 28 , wherein the position of the bending line oscillates between a first position of the bending line and a second position of the bending line.

30. The flexible display apparatus of claim 19 , further compri

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Seo Joon-Kyu
• Kang Kyung-A
• Yun Il-Kook
• Jung Sang-Keun
• Lee Geun-Ho

Classifications

• G06F1/1652 Primary

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

• G06F1/1643 Primary

  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

• G06F3/017 Primary

  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

• G06F3/04883

  for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text · CPC title

• G06F1/1626

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