MOBILE TERMINAL

Technical Field

The present invention is related to a mobile terminal which is provided with a touch panel.

Background Art

A mobile terminal which is a portable type computer has been developed. This mobile terminal displays a plurality of icons, which can be selected by a user, on a display section. The user operates an operation section to select a desired icon from among the plurality of icons displayed on the display section. The mobile terminal displays the contents of the selected icon on the display section.

In recent years, the mobile terminal for which a touch panel of a capacitance type is provided instead of the display section has been developed. In the mobile terminal, the user can select a desired icon from among a plurality of icons by touching the touch panel with a finger. Because the mobile terminal has been miniaturized, the size of the touch panel which is provided for the mobile terminal is restrained. On the other hand, if the icons to be displayed once on the touch panel increase more, the user can select the desired icon the less number of times.

Also, when the touch panel of the capacitance type is provided for the mobile terminal, a plurality of transparent electrodes of linear sensors and so on are arranged on the touch panel in the pitch of about 5mm. In this case, the mobile terminal detects the capacitance values of the capacitances formed between the plurality of transparent electrodes and the finger when the finger touches the touch panel, and estimates the position of the finger. Therefore, it is difficult to specify the position of the finger on the touch panel and it is easy to cause an error. Thus, it is different from a method of selecting a position with a mouse, a stylus pen and so on. Also, a range of the icons on the panel which the can be selected through the touch is a part or its periphery of the displayed icon in many cases. When the displayed icon is small, it is difficult for the user to right select the icon.

Moreover, when the touch panel of the capacitance type is provided for the mobile terminal, it is general that the touch panel is touched with not a stylus pen but the finger. If the displayed icon is small, when the user tries to touch the touch panel, the desired icon can be concealed with the other fingers so that the desired icon can not be confirmed.

To prevent this problem, a technique which an object icon is displayed in an expanded state is described in JP 2009-86612A. In this technique, there is no detailed description of the position of an operation instructing section and a distance between a touch panel and of the operation instructing section. However, when the operation instructing section approaches the touch panel, the object icon of the plurality of icons which is displayed on the touch panel is displayed in an expansion state based on a capacitance value between the operation instructing section and the touch panel. Because the object icon is displayed in the expansion state when the operation instructing section approaches the touch panel, the improvement of operability can be attempted to the user and the user can handle it easily.

However, regardless of detecting a capacitance value between the operation instructing section and the touch panel, the operation instructing section may be a touch pen (a stylus pen) in addition to the finger. Therefore, when an object which is not the finger and the touch pen (such as a needle, a sharp pen, a ball-point pen, ...) approaches the touch panel, the object icon of the plurality of icons displayed on the touch panel is displayed in an expansion state based on the capacitance value between the object and the touch panel. In this case, there is a case that the icon which is not the object is displayed in the expansion state, and the operability is improved to the user.

As another technique, in JP 2006-236143A, a distance between a finger of a user and a touch panel is determined from an image showing a main display section (the touch panel) and its neighborhood and taken by a camera. When the distance is a predetermined distance, an icon is displayed on the touch panel in the expansion state. However, this technique needs the space where the camera is arranged.

Also, another technique is described in JP H08-212005A and JP H11-065769A, in which a distance detection mechanism emitting light is arranged around the touch panel. For example, when the light is interrupted at a position near the touch panel after light is interrupted at a position far from the touch panel, an icon is displayed on the touch panel in an expansion state. However, in this technique, because the distance detection mechanism is arranged around the touch panel, the depth would be provided to the touch panel.

Also, another technique is described in JP 2007-004660A and JP H05-046308a, in which an icon and a key are displayed in the expansion state in a size according to the size of a finger when the finger touches a touch panel.

Citation List

[Patent Literature 1] JP 2009-86612A
[Patent Literature 2] JP 2006-236143A
[Patent Literature 3] JP H08-212005A
[Patent Literature 4] JP H11-065769A
[Patent Literature 5] JP 2007-004660A
[Patent Literature 6] JP H05-046308A

Summary of the Invention

The present invention provides a mobile terminal in which a malfunction is prevents and the improvement of operability can be attempted.

A mobile terminal of the present invention is provided with a touch panel of a capacitance type, a display control section, a capacitance measuring section, a distance determining section, a distribution data generating section and a storage section. A plurality of transparent electrodes are arranged in the touch panel to show coordinates. The display control section displays a plurality of icons which can be selected by a user, on the touch panel. The capacitance measuring section periodically measures a capacitance value of each of a plurality of capacitances which are formed between the plurality of transparent electrodes and a finger of the user as a counter electrode. The coordinate determining section determines an estimation coordinate showing an estimation position of the finger based on the capacitance values and the coordinates corresponding to the plurality of transparent electrodes. The distance determining section calculates an estimation distance showing a distance between the touch panel and the finger based on a selection capacitance value, which has the maximum capacitance value, of the capacitance values. The distribution data generating section generates data showing a distribution of the measured capacitance values as capacitance distribution data. The storage section stores set-capacitance distribution data showing a distribution of a plurality of capacitance values set every distance between the finger position and the touch panel. The display control section displays the plurality of icons in a basic size when data similar to the capacitance distribution data does not exist in the set capacitance distribution data stored in the storage section. The display control section select as a candidate icon, one which is arranged in the estimation coordinate, of the plurality of icons displayed on the touch panel and controls the touch panel to display the selection icon in a selection size which is larger than the basic size, when the data similar to the capacitance distribution data exists in the set capacitance distribution data stored in the storage section.

According to the mobile terminal of the present invention, because the icon is displayed on the touch panel in the expansion state when detecting that the finger of the user is approaching the touch panel, the malfunction can be prevented and the improvement of operability can be attempted to the user.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The objects, the effect, and the features of the present invention would be made clear from the description of the exemplary embodiments in conjunction with the attached drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a mobile terminal according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a configuration of a part of a touch panel;

FIG. 3A is a diagram showing an operation of the mobile terminal according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3B is a diagram showing an operation of the mobile terminal according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 shows capacitance distribution data 60 which is generated by a distribution data generating section 25 in the form of a graph;

FIG. 5 shows the contents which are stored in a distance determination table 31 in the form of a graph;

FIG. 6 shows the contents which are stored in the size determination table 32 in the form of a graph;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the operation of the mobile terminal according to first and second exemplary embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the mobile terminal according to a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the mobile terminal according to a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 shows the contents of a period determination table 34 in the form of a graph; and

FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing the operation of the mobile terminal according to the third exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Description of Exemplary Embodiments

Hereafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings.

[First Exemplary Embodiment]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a mobile terminal according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The mobile terminal according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention is a portable type computer and is provided with a touch panel 1 of a capacitance type, a control section 2, a storage section 3 and an operation section 4. The touch panel 1 is an input/output unit from which data can be inputted by touching a screen while displaying letters, diagrams and so on, and displays a plurality of icons which are selectable by a user. The control section 2 takes various data therein from the storage section 3 by and stores a processed result in the storage section 3.

As the control section 2, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) is exemplified and as the storage section 3, a memory such as a storage medium is exemplified. A computer program executed by a computer is stored in the storage section 3. The control section 2 reads the computer program from the storage section 3 to execute it. Also, the control section 2 is provided with a display control section 21 which controls the touch panel 1 to display a plurality of icons which can be selected by the user on the touch panel 1 in a basic size. The display control section 21 controls the touch panel 1 to display the contents of a desired icon among the plurality of icons which are displayed on the touch panel 1 in response to an operation of the operation section 4 by the user.

The user can operate the operation section 4 which contains necessary and minimum keys. For example, the necessary and minimum keys contain a power supply key 41 to supply power to the mobile terminal.

The mobile terminal according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention can select the desired icon from among the plurality of icons by the user touching the touch panel 1 with the finger. In order to realize this, the control section 2 is further provided with a capacitance measuring section 22, a coordinate determining section 23, a distance determining section 24, and a distribution data generating section 25. These operations will be described later. Also, the storage section 3 is provided with a distance determination table 31 and a size determination table 32. The contents which are stored in these tables will be described later.

FIG. 2 shows a part of the configuration of the touch panel 1. A plurality of transparent electrodes 10 are arranged in m rows and columns on the touch panel 1 (m and n are integers equal to or more than 2). The plurality of transparent electrodes 10 show coordinates (X1,Yl) to (Xm, Yn) according to the arrangement positions.

Although being described later, the capacitance measuring section 22 measures capacitance values C(X1, Yl) to C(Xm, Yn) of a plurality of capacitances formed between the plurality of transparent electrodes 10 (XI, Yl) to (Xm, Yn) and a counter electrode. An object other than a finger (e.g. a touch pen, a needle, a sharp pen, a ball-point pen, .etc.) can function as the counter electrode. However, because the finger and the object other than the finger are different in dielectic constant, the capacitance values C(X1, Yl) to C(Xm, Yn) of the capacitances to be formed are different even if they are compared at a same position (coordinate) and in a same distance. That is, a distribution of plurality of capacitance values C(X1, Yl) to C(Xm, Yn) is different.

Therefore, in the mobile terminal according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention, set capacitance distribution data 33 is set to show the distribution of capacitance values C(X1, Yl) to C(Xm, Yn) for every finger position (coordinate) and every distance between the touch panel 1 and the finger and is stored in the storage section 3 in advance. It is desirable that that the distribution patterns to be set are plural. Thus, only when the object being approaching the touch panel 1 is the finger of the user, the icon which is displayed on the touch panel 1 can be displayed to be expanded. This operation will be described in detail.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the operation of the mobile terminal according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 7, a process of displaying the icons in the mobile terminal is started periodically. When not meeting timing of the period start (step S10-NO), the mobile terminal executes a display process (step S17) repeatedly. When meeting the timing of the period start (Step S10-YES), the capacitance measuring section 22 is started to measure the capacitance values C(X1, Yl) to C(Xm, Yn), and the distribution data generating section 25 generates capacitance distribution data 60 (Step Sll).

When the capacitance distribution data 60 is generated, the coordinate determining section 23 determines an estimation coordinate (X, Y) showing an estimated position of the finger based on the capacitance distribution data 60 (Step S12). The distance determining section 24 determines an estimation distance Dxy showing a distance between the touch panel 1 and the finger based on the capacitance distribution data 60 (Step S13).

When determining that the finger has touched the touch panel 1 (Step S14-YES), the display control section 21 executes a process after the selection under assumption of the selection of one icon. When determining (step S14-N0) that the finger has not touch the touch panel 1, the display control section 21 executes a usual displaying process or an expansion/reduction displaying process.

First, the display control section 21 determines whether or not a change of the icon size is required. When determining (step S15-N0) that it does not need the size change, the displaying process is executed without changing the size (Step S17). When determining that the size change is necessary (Step S15-YES), the display control section 21 selects the icon size (step S16) and executes the displaying process (Step S17).

Specifically, being described according to the operation order of the user, first, as shown in FIG. 3A, the display control section 21 controls the touch panel 1 to display the plurality of icons 50 selectable by the user on the touch panel 1 in the basic size (Step S10-NO, Step S17).

The capacitance measuring section 22 executes a measuring process periodically. Therefore, for every period T (Step S10-YES), the capacitance measuring section 22 executes the measuring process, that is, measures the capacitance values C(X1, Yl) to C(Xm, Yn) of the capacitances formed between the plurality of transparent electrodes 10 (X1, Yl) to (Xm, Yn) and the counter electrode which is the finger of the user (Step Sll).

When the measurement ends, the distribution data generating section 25 generates the capacitance distribution data 60 to show a distribution of the measured capacitance values C(X1, Yl) to C(Xm, Yn), as shown in FIG. 4. The distribution data generating section 25 stores the capacitance distribution data 60 in the storage section 3 temporarily (only for one period).

Next, the coordinate determining section 23 determines the estimation coordinate (X, Y) showing the estimated position of the finger based on the coordinates (X1, Yl) to (Xm, Yn) shown by the plurality of transparent electrodes 10 and the capacitance values C(X1, Yl) to C(Xm, Yn) (Step S12).

Here, a method of calculating the estimation coordinate (X, Y) will be described. The capacitance values in the coordinates (X1, Yl) to (Xm, Yn) shown by the plurality of transparent electrodes 10 are C(X1, Yl) to C(Xm, Yn), and the estimation coordinate (X, Y) is calculated from the following equations (1) and (2) :


The distance determining section 24 determines the estimation distance Dxy showing the distance between the touch panel 1 and the finger based on a selection capacitance value C(X, Y) which has the highest capacitance value among the capacitance values C(X1, Yl) to C(Xm, Yn) (Step S13).

Here, a method of calculating the estimation distance Dxy will be described. FIG. 5 shows the contents which are stored in the distance determination table 31 in a graph. In the distance determination table 31, the capacitance values in range from 0[F] to the maximum set capacitance value and the distances in a range from the maximum set distance to 0[mm] are related and are stored.

A distance, which is longer than 0[mm] and shorter than the maximum set distance, of the distances shown by the distance determination table 31 is defined as a first set distance DS1 and the shortest distance which is 0[mm] is defined as a second set distance DS2. Also, the capacitance value, corresponding to the first set distance DS1, of the capacitance values shown by the distance determination table 31 is defined as first capacitance value Csl, and a maximum set capacitance value is defined as a second capacitance value Cs2. In this case, the selection capacitance value C(X, Y) meets Csl < C(X, Y)^Cs2. Also, a distance immediately before the finger touches the touch panel 1 is defined as DS3 and a capacitance value at that time is defined as Cs3.

Basically, when the finger approaches the touch panel 1, the capacitance value increases. That is, in case of DS3DS1, the selected size Axy is shown as Axy = Al.

When the distance between the finger and the touch panel 1 is equal to or less than the first set distance DS1, that is, in case of DS2 meeting 0DS1, and

Axy = (A1-A2)*Dxy/DSl+A2 in case of 0