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EP-3759578-B1 - MOBILE DEVICE AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING THE RELIABILITY OF TOUCHES ON TOUCHSCREEN

EP3759578B1EP 3759578 B1EP3759578 B1EP 3759578B1EP-3759578-B1

Inventors

  • JAMES, ROBERT

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20180328

Claims (15)

  1. A mobile device (100) for improving the reliability of a user's touch on a touchscreen (102), comprising said touchscreen (102) adapted to display a keyboard zone (103) comprising a plurality of keys, and processing means (202) configured for - receiving an input signal from said touchscreen (102) carrying data on a user's touch event, - computing, on the basis of said input signal, a selected position of said user's touch, - discerning if said selected position of the user's touch belongs to a first zone (104) of said keyboard zone (103), where touching the keys is difficult for the user, or a second zone (105) of said keyboard zone (103), where the user can easily touch the keys, - computing a corrected position of said detected touch if the selected position of said user's touch belongs to said first zone (104), by executing correction instructions defining the correction to apply to touches belonging to said first zone (104), - associating said selected position or corrected position with at least one of the keys displayed on said keyboard zone (103) and generating a signal corresponding to a touch on said at least one key, characterized in that a first plurality of first keys of said plurality of keys are disposed within said first zone (104) and a second plurality of second keys of said plurality of keys are disposed within the second zone (105) and in that said processing means (201) are further configured such that, if said selected position of said user's touch belongs to said second zone (105), said selected position is considered as a correct position.
  2. The mobile device (100) according to claim 1, wherein said processing means (202) are also configured for setting said second zone (105) as a disk-shaped area contained in said keyboard zone (103).
  3. The mobile device (100) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said processing means (202) are also configured for setting said first zone (104) as the relative complement of said second zone (105) in said keyboard zone (103), and wherein the correction instructions are apt to compute said position correction as a function of the distance of said selected position from a point of said second zone (105).
  4. The mobile device (100) according to claim 3, wherein the correction instructions are apt to set the corrected position in the key which is the farthest from a point of said second zone (105), if said selected position is located between two keys of said first zone (104).
  5. The mobile device (100) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said processing means (202) are also configured for reading handle data defining whether said touchscreen (102) is in the right hand or the left hand or both the hands of the user, setting the shape and/or position of said first zone (104) and/or said second zone (105) on the basis of said handle data.
  6. The mobile device (100) according to claim 5, comprising accelerometers (204) in communication with said processing means (202), wherein said processing means (202) are also configured for reading tilt and motion data, which represent the motion of said mobile device (100), from said accelerometers (204), inferring the handle data on the basis of said tilt and motion data.
  7. The mobile device (100) according to claim 5 or 6, wherein said processing means (202) are configured for inferring the handle data also on the basis of historical data representing at least user's habits and/or outcomes of past touches.
  8. A method for improving the reliability of a user's touch on a touchscreen (102) that comprises a keyboard zone (103) displaying a plurality of keys, comprising a touching phase (303), wherein a user generates an input signal by touching a point on the keyboard zone (103) of said touchscreen (102), a detection phase (304), wherein a selected position by said touch is computed on the basis of said input signal by means of processing means (202), a discerning phase (305), wherein it is evaluated, by means of the processing means (202), if said selected position belongs to a first zone (104) of said keyboard zone (103), where touching the keys is difficult for the user, or a second zone (105) of said keyboard zone (103), where the user can easily touch the keys, a correction phase (306), wherein, if the selected position of said detected touch belongs to said first zone (104), a corrected position of said touch is computed, through the processing means (202), on the basis of said selected position by executing correction instructions defining the correction to apply to touches belonging to said first zone (104), an association phase (307), wherein said selected position or corrected position is associated, by means of the processing means (202), with at least one of the keys displayed on said keyboard zone (103); an output phase (308), wherein a signal corresponding to a touch on said at least one key is generated by means of said processing means (202), characterized in that a first plurality of first keys of said plurality of keys are disposed within said first zone (104) and a second plurality of second keys of said plurality of keys are disposed within the second zone (105) and in that , in said correction phase (306), if said selected position of said user's touch belongs to said second zone (105), said selected position is considered as a correct position.
  9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said second zone (105) is a disk-shaped area contained in said keyboard zone (103).
  10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein said first zone (104) is the relative complement of said second zone (105) in said keyboard zone (103), and wherein the correction instructions are apt to set the position correction as a function of the distance of said selected position from a point of said second zone (105).
  11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the correction instructions are apt to set, during said correction phase (306), the corrected position in the key which is the farthest from a point of said second zone (105), if said selected position is located between two keys of said first zone (104).
  12. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 11, wherein the discerning phase (305) comprises sub-phases of reading handle data defining whether said touchscreen (102) is in the right hand or the left hand or both the hands of the user, setting the shape and/or position of said first zone (104) and/or said second zone (105) on the basis of said handle data.
  13. The method according to claim 12, wherein, during the discerning phase (305), tilt and motion data representing the motion of said mobile device (100) are read from accelerometers (204), and the handle data are inferred on the basis of said tilt and motion data by means of the processing means (202).
  14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, wherein the handle data are inferred also on the basis of historical data representing at least user's habits and/or outcomes of past touches.
  15. A computer program product comprising instructions to cause the mobile device of claim 1 to execute the steps of the method according to any one of claims 8 to 14.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a mobile device (i.e. a handheld device such as a smartphone, a tablet, or the like) and a method for improving the reliability of user's touches on a touchscreen of said device. In particular, it concerns the correction of the position of a touch made on an on-screen keyboard when the touchscreen is held in one hand and the user, using the fingers or the thumb of that hand, has some difficulty to correctly touch some keys of the on-screen keyboard, such as those near the corners of the virtual keyboard. DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART Many devices, in particular smartphones, have touchscreens through which a user can input data and commands by touching the keys of virtual keyboards or graphical elements, like buttons, icons, or the like. Touchscreens have many recognized pros, but they may cause errors when it is difficult to reach the position of some keys, as it can happen when the user holds the device with one hand. To mitigate the effects of bad touches some solutions based on various techniques have been proposed. Some propose arrangements with keyboard layouts in limited zones of the touchscreen, where the keys can easily be reached. This type of solution, however, involves a reduction in the size of the keys, which increases the difficulty of touching them at the appropriate points. Other solutions are based on the identification of the finger or thumb by which the user has touched a key and the application of some correction of the tactile position accordingly. However, the identification of the hand digits is cumbersome and difficult, therefore this kind of solution is not pretty practical and may leave room for interpretation errors again European patent application EP2410416 discloses an input device and related method to dynamically reassigns a recognition area of a touch pad. In particular, the logical mapping between different areas of the touch screen and corresponding logical keys are not directly shown to the user; instead, the input of the user is associated to logical keys according to an alternative mapping which is not shown to the user. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention aims at solving these and other problems by providing a mobile device and a method for improving the reliability of user's touches on the device touchscreen. The basic idea behind the method is defining a zone of the touchscreen, called "easy zone", where the user can easily touch the keys of a virtual keyboard displayed on the touchscreen, and a zone called "difficult zone", where the user may have some difficulty to correctly play a key. When the user touches the screen, the position of the touch is computed and it is discerned whether it belongs to the easy or difficult zone. After that, a correction is applied whether the touch belongs to the difficult zone, e.g. if the touch position belongs to the easy zone, the touch may be associated with the key nearest to the computed position, while, if the touch position is in the difficult zone, the touch may be most likely associated with the key which, among those located near the touched point, is the farthest from a point of the easy zone. The easy zone may be a disc covering the central part of the virtual keyboard and the difficult zone may be the relative complement of the easy zone in the keyboard zone. It is clear, however, that other shapes can be adopted for better fitting the touching range of fingers and thumb. In particular, they may be shaped according to whether said touchscreen is in the right hand or the left hand or both the hands of the user. The selection of the shapes of the easy zone and difficult zone may be made manually or automatically. In the latter case, it may be made by inferring the use of the user's hands on the basis of the tilt of the touchscreen, which can be derived from data provided by accelerometers. Moreover, a learning capability may be provided for better inferring whether said touchscreen is in the right hand or left hand or both the right and left hands of the user, namely the position of touches may be corrected on the basis of at least user's habits and/or outcomes of past touches. Further advantageous features of the present invention are set out in the appended claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These features as well as further advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of an embodiment thereof as shown in the annexed drawings, which are supplied by way of non-limiting examples, wherein: Fig. 1 shows an example of a mobile device, according to the invention, comprising a touchscreen on which a virtual keyboard is displayed;Fig. 2 shows a block diagram representing an architecture of the mobile device according to the invention;Fig. 3 is a flow chart representing the operation of one possible embodiment of the mobile device depicted in Fig. 2. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Any reference to "an embod