KR101436588B1 - Method for providing user interface using one point touch, and apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and a device for providing a user interface using a multi-point touch capable of executing various user commands with a single touch operation without performing a complicated touch gesture or drawing a predetermined pattern, Detecting a contact with a different point, detecting a direction of a force applied to the points in the contacted state, respectively, and executing a user command according to a combination of directions of the detected forces.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a method for providing a user interface using a multi-point touch,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a touch-type user interface, and more particularly, to a touch-type user interface that allows a user to drag, tap, and slide. And more particularly, to a method and a device for providing a user interface using a multi-point touch capable of performing various user commands with a single touch operation without performing a complicated touch gesture such as pinching or drawing a predetermined pattern.

To manipulate a computer system today, there are many types of input devices, such as a keypad, a mouse, a trackball, a touchpad, a joystick, a touch screen, etc., that include multiple buttons or keys. Such an input device is used for inputting data such as characters, symbols, pictures and the like desired by a user into a computer system or inputting a signal for requesting a specific command to the computer system.

Among these various input devices, touch input means such as a touch screen, which can realize the miniaturization and simplification of the user apparatus by simultaneously realizing the input means and the output function at the same time, are commonly used.

The touch input means can detect touch of a part of the user's body or a touch area by means of contact means such as a touch pen, and can be classified into a depressurization type, an electrostatic type, an optical type, etc. according to a method of sensing a touch. The electrostatic type is a method of sensing a touch through a change in electric charge at a contact point due to a contact of a part of a user's body, Is a method of detecting a touch position using an infrared camera and infrared light.

The initial user interface providing method using the touch input means displays operating means such as a plurality of buttons on the screen and performs the corresponding function based on the detected position of the contact. Tapping, sliding, sliding, etc., in combination with various information such as a contact start position, a contact start time, a contact end time, and a contact end position in order to improve operability. A user touch gesture such as pinching is recognized and various user commands are executed in accordance with the touch gesture. In addition, a plurality of touch points are recognized in the touch area, A method of causing a user command to be executed through a number, a position, a combination, and an interval change is also used.

However, in the conventional user interface method using a touch, a user has to take a complex touch gesture or draw a complicated pattern by touching a plurality of points, so that it is inconvenient that a user is difficult to operate in a situation where only one hand is available.

Further, since it takes a certain time to take a touch gesture or a touch pattern and recognize it, there are limitations in providing detailed and operation and immediate response.

Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem [8] The present invention has been proposed in order to solve the above-described problems of the related art. A method of providing a user interface using a multi-point touch capable of executing various user commands in a single touch operation without performing a complex touch gesture such as pinching or drawing a predetermined pattern, and an apparatus therefor.

In particular, the present invention provides a user interface providing method using a multi-point touch capable of instantaneously executing various user commands by changing a direction of a force applied to three or more other points simultaneously touching on a touch area, and an apparatus therefor do.

According to the present invention, there is provided a device for solving the aforementioned problems, comprising: a device including a touch-sensitive touch area; Detecting a direction of a force applied to each point in a state in which the contact is fixed with respect to points at which the contact is sensed; And executing a predetermined user command according to a combination of directions of forces detected at the points and a direction of a force detected at the points.

In the method of providing a user interface according to an embodiment of the present invention, the step of detecting the direction of the force may include extracting a contact area having a predetermined area for each point of contact sensing; Confirming the strength of the detected force at a plurality of sensing points in the extracted contact area; Determining the direction of the force applied to the point based on the intensity distribution of the force at the multiple sensing points, wherein the strength of the largest force is detected relative to the center of the contact region The direction of the sensing point can be determined as the direction of the force.

In addition, the method of providing a user interface according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include extracting a combination pattern according to a time of direction of a detected force for a predetermined time, Direction combination, and the combination pattern.

The method of providing a user interface according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include extracting a combination pattern of forces represented by connecting the directions of forces detected at the points in a predetermined order, The user command can be executed according to the combination pattern of the extracted forces.

In the method of providing a user interface according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the step of executing the user command may include rotating, moving, zooming in, zooming out, panning ), And tilting. ≪ / RTI >

In particular, in a method of providing a user interface according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, in the step of executing the user command, a position of three or more points and a direction of three or more detected forces are combined, Move, zoom in, zoom out, panning, and tilting can be performed.

In addition, the present invention provides, as another means for solving the above-mentioned problems, a touch sensing device comprising a touch area capable of touch sensing, and comprising at least one of contact with the touch area, contact position, A touch input unit for detecting the touch input; And detecting a direction of a force applied to the points in a touched state when sensing contact with at least three different points of the touch region through the touch input unit, And a controller for executing a user command. The apparatus for a user interface using a multi-point touch is provided.

The apparatus further includes a pattern extracting module for confirming a combination pattern of forces by connecting the directions of forces detected at the different points on the three or more points in a predetermined order, The user command can be executed according to the combination pattern of the identified forces.

Further, in the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, the controller sets a contact area having a predetermined area with respect to a point at which the contact is sensed, compares strengths of the plurality of sensing points existing in the contact area And a touch event processing module for determining a direction of a force applied to the point.

A method and apparatus for providing a user interface using a multi-point touch according to the present invention is a method for providing a user interface using a multi-point touch when detecting touches on at least three different points in a touch region, By executing a user command in accordance with a combination of the directions of the forces, by adjusting only the direction of the force applied to the contact point without drawing a movement or complicated pattern while the user touches a specific point, There is an excellent effect of executing a user command.

Particularly, since the present invention can be operated by adjusting only the direction of the force without contacting the contact point after making contact with a specific point, it is possible to easily operate the portable device such as a smart phone, Can be improved.

Further, the present invention enables to execute various user commands including rotation, tilting, panning, zooming in and zooming out by executing a user command according to a combination of directions of forces applied to a plurality of fixedly contacted points .

In addition, since the present invention can reduce the time required to recognize a touch gesture or a touch pattern in performing a user interface, it enables finer and quick operation and response.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus for a user interface using a multi-point touch according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of providing a user interface using a multi-point touch according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of detecting a force direction in a method of providing a user interface using a multi-point touch according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is an exemplary view of a user interface screen using a multi-point touch according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a schematic diagram for explaining a process of detecting a combination of directions of forces on a plurality of contact points according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a mapping table of a combination pattern of directions of forces and a user command according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIGS. 7 and 8 are exemplary diagrams of a user command execution state according to a combination pattern of directions of forces according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description and the accompanying drawings, detailed description of well-known functions or constructions that may obscure the subject matter of the present invention will be omitted. It should be noted that the same constituent elements are denoted by the same reference numerals as possible throughout the drawings.

A method for providing a user interface using a multi-point touch according to the present invention is implemented by an apparatus including a touch area capable of sensing contact by a user's body part (e.g., a finger) or a contact part such as a touch pen . The apparatus may be applied to any apparatus including a touch screen such as a touch screen capable of simultaneous touch detection and screen output or a touch input means such as a touch pad capable of sensing a touch operation. For example, an apparatus for providing a user interface using a multi-point touch according to the present invention may be a smart phone, a mobile phone, a tablet PC, a notebook PC, a desktop PC, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) And the like.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus for providing a user interface using a multi-point touch according to the present invention. Here, the components of the apparatus only disclose configurations related to providing a user interface according to the present invention, and the apparatus may further include various other configurations according to functions. In addition, it is to be understood that the structure described below is expressed in functional units merely for convenience of description, and may be implemented in hardware or software or a combination of hardware and software in actual implementation.

Referring to FIG. 1, an apparatus 100 for a user interface using a multi-point touch according to the present invention includes a touch input unit 110, a control unit 120, a storage unit 130, an output unit 140, . ≪ / RTI >

The touch input unit 110 includes a touch area capable of sensing touch, and is a unit for sensing various information related to the touch operation with respect to the touch area. In particular, the touch input unit 110 may sense at least one of contact, contact, contact force, and force direction. The touch input unit 110 may be implemented as one of a touch pad or a touch screen. In addition, the touch input unit 110 may sense various information related to the touch operation in at least one of a depressurization type, an electrostatic type, an optical type, and an ultrasonic type. In addition, the touch input unit 110 may sense simultaneous touches on three or more different points of the touch region. In the present invention, simultaneous contact means that contact is made at different points within a predetermined error range. That is, the touch input unit 110 detects simultaneous touches to three or more different points on the touch area, and detects at least one of a position, a force at the time of contact, and a force direction of the three or more points .

Information corresponding to at least one of contact, contact, contact force, and force direction with respect to points of the touch region detected by the touch input unit 110 is transmitted to the controller 120. [

The controller 120 is a device for performing a user interface process using a multi-point touch according to the present invention, and recognizes a touch-type user input and controls the function or service corresponding to a user input. Particularly, in the present invention, when the controller 120 detects simultaneous contact of at least three different points in the touch area through the touch input unit 110, So as to execute a predetermined user command according to a combination of the directions of the forces applied to the two sides. In addition, the control unit 120 further considers position information of three or more points simultaneously contacted in the touch area from the sensing signal transmitted from the touch input unit 110 to the combination of the directions of the forces, do. In addition, the control unit 120 may combine the directions of the forces of the three or more points or the positions of the three or more points and the direction of the force to extract a combination pattern of forces. The combination pattern of the forces is information capable of extracting an operation to be performed by the user in contact with three or more points, and more specifically, information indicating a rotation operation, an unmoving operation, / Zoom out ratio, etc.). In particular, in executing the user command, the present invention combines the positions of three points and the directions of forces detected at three points to enable three-dimensional motion control.

In addition, the user command executed according to the combination pattern of the direction of the force may be variously set, for example, mapped and set as shown in FIG. Referring to Fig. 6, for example, when a user simultaneously touches three points and takes an operation to turn to the left without changing the contact position, a combination pattern as shown by? In Fig. 6 may be detected. In this case, Quot; rotation in the leftward direction " At this time, the rotation angle can be adjusted based on the information such as the intensity of the force detected at the three points, the contact time, the distance of three points, and the position. On the contrary, when the user touches the three points simultaneously and takes an operation to turn right without changing the contact position, the combination pattern as shown by 2 in Fig. 6 is detected and the "rotation in the rightward direction" Likewise, when a user simultaneously touches three points and takes a motion to turn upward or downward without changing the contact position, a combination pattern as shown in (3) or (4) in FIG. 6 is detected, Rotation " In addition, when the user touches three points simultaneously and moves inward in three directions without changing the contact position or widening in the outward direction, a combination pattern such as ⑤ or ⑥ in FIG. 6 is detected , Zoom in or zoom out can be performed. In other words, zooming in is performed when a widening operation in which the zooming in can be intuitively expressed by touching three points is performed. Conversely, when the zooming operation is performed, the zooming operation is performed on the zooming-out side. The combination patterns and user commands shown in FIG. 6 are merely examples, but the present invention is not limited thereto and can be applied in various forms.

In addition, when the touch input unit 110 can not detect the direction of the force, the controller 120 controls the touch event processing module 110 to determine the direction of the force based on the information detected from the touch input unit 110, (121).

The touch event processing module 121 sets a contact area having a predetermined area with respect to a point at which a touch in the touch area of the touch input unit 110 is sensed and determines a strength of a plurality of sensing points existing in the contact area To determine the direction of the force exerted against the point. More specifically, the touch event processing module 121 can determine the direction of the force in accordance with the intensity distribution of the force detected at a plurality of sensing points included in the contact area. For example, The direction of the force is determined to the left direction and the direction of the force is determined to be the right direction when the intensity of the detected force on the right side of the contact region is larger. In addition, the touch event processing module 121 may determine the direction of the force as the direction of the sensing point at which the greatest strength of force is detected with respect to the center of the contact area. The touch event processing module 121 may detect the direction of the force with respect to three or more points in simultaneous contact.

In addition, the control unit 120 may further include a pattern extracting module 122 for extracting a combination pattern of directions of forces applied to the three or more simultaneously contacted points.

The pattern extracting module 122 extracts a combination pattern of forces by arranging directions of forces with respect to three or more points detected through the touch event processing module 121 in a predetermined order. At this time, It is possible to extract a combination pattern of the directions of the forces.

The storage unit 130 stores a program and data for operation of the apparatus 100. In particular, the storage unit 130 stores a program for touch event processing executed by the control unit 120 and a multi- And can further store setting information in which a combination pattern of direction of force and a user command to be executed when detecting the combination pattern are mapped.

The controller 120 may execute the program and data stored in the storage unit 130 to provide a user interface according to the present invention.

The output unit 140 outputs the user interface screen under the control of the controller 120. The output unit 140 may include a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emitting diode (OLED) Type display panel, and may be implemented with a structure including a display panel and a touch panel according to a manufacturing form, for example, a touch screen. When the display device is formed in the form of a touch screen, the output unit 140 and the touch input unit 110 may be integrally formed.

The operation of the apparatus 100 for providing a user interface according to the present invention constructed as above can be more easily understood from the description of the method for providing a user interface according to the present invention with reference to FIG. 2 and FIG.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for providing a user interface using a multi-point touch according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for providing a user interface using a multi-point touch according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining an example of a process of detecting a direction.

Referring to FIG. 2, the apparatus 100 for a user interface using a multi-point touch according to the present invention sets a combination pattern for directions of three or more detectable forces in step S110, A user command for instructing to perform a predetermined function can be mapped and set. The step S110 may be performed according to the user's selection, and may be preset to the device 100 as a default operation in the manufacturing or sales stage regardless of the user selection. That is, if the user command according to the combination pattern of the direction of the force is previously set in the apparatus 100, the step S110 may be omitted.

Then, in step S120, the apparatus 100 detects simultaneous touches to three or more points of the touch area through the touch input unit 110. [ Here, touch detection of the touch area can be performed through one of a depressurization type, an electrostatic type, an optical type, and an ultrasonic type. In step S120, the controller 120 may perform touch detection through a touch input unit 110 implemented by a touch screen or a touch pad that senses contact through one of a depressurization type, an electrostatic type, an optical type, and an ultrasonic type. It can be understood as a confirmation process. Here, the point at which the touch is performed may be an area for displaying an object or a screen to be operated by the user in the touch area provided by the touch input unit 110, or an area for user operation in accordance with the direction of force in the touch area .

In this manner, when simultaneous contact of at least three points of the touch area is detected, the control unit 120 of the apparatus 100 according to the present invention, at step S130, And the direction of the force applied to each of the plurality of contact portions. Here, the direction of the force refers to the direction of the force applied to the touch surface of the corresponding point as it contacts the specific point of the touch area. The direction of the force is a touch that changes the contact point as in the touch gesture such as drag, It is different from the direction. Typically, the touch direction refers to a contact position after a predetermined time at an initial contact position or a direction to a final contact position, and a contact position sensed according to a time change is changed. On the other hand, in the direction of the force sensed in the step S130, the position value of the contact point where the touch occurs is not changed. The direction of this force may be expressed in the form of extending radially around the point at which the contact occurs, and may be an angular value in the range of 0 to 360 degrees relative to a predetermined reference axis, or an angular value in the east-west and / Can be expressed on the left and right. In addition, the detection of the direction of the force in the step S130 may be repeated at a predetermined sampling interval while the fixed contact is made with respect to the points.

In step S140, the controller 120 of the apparatus 100 according to the present invention extracts a combination pattern of directions of forces detected at the three or more points. The step S140 may be performed by the pattern extracting module 122 of the control unit 120. Specifically, the pattern extracting module 122 may arrange and connect the directions of the detected forces with respect to three or more points simultaneously in contact with each other in a predetermined order . In addition, the pattern extracting module 122 may extract the combined pattern by considering position information about three or more points along with the direction of the force. That is, the directions of the forces detected at the three or more points may be arranged at respective detected positions, and the directions of the arranged forces may be connected in a predetermined order.

When the combination pattern of the direction of the force applied to the contact point is extracted as described above, the control unit 120 of the apparatus 100 according to the present invention, in step S150, Execute the set user command. The user command to be executed here instructs to perform a predetermined operation to be performed on a specific object displayed on a screen or a user interface screen. For example, the user command may be rotation, movement, zoom in, Zooming out, panning, or tilting. [0035] At this time, the rotation, movement, zoom in, zoom out, panning, and tilting are performed by combining the positions of the three or more contact points and the directions of forces applied to the three or more contact points. Angle, distance, and the like with respect to the three-dimensional space. In this case, rotation, movement, zoom in, zoom out, panning, and tilting can be implemented in the three-dimensional space.

In addition, the present invention is capable of executing user commands in consideration of other information, such as strength of force, distance between points of contact, contact time, etc., as well as a combination pattern of directions of forces.

According to the above description, the user does not need to take a touch gesture, such as dragging or sliding, or move the contact position while touching at least three points in the touch area, Quot ;, various user commands can be executed.

In addition, in step S130 of the method for providing a user interface according to the present invention, the detection of the direction of the force applied to the contact point may be performed in various ways. For example, the force applied to the contact point In the case where the touch input unit 110 provided in the apparatus 100 can not detect the direction of the force, the present invention can be detected by the touch input unit 110, Information can be used to determine the direction of force.

3 is a flowchart for explaining a process of detecting a direction of a force applied to a contact point according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, in order to detect the direction of a force applied to a point where the contact is detected in step S130, the controller 120 of the apparatus 100 according to the present invention first detects the direction of the force And sets a contact area having a predetermined area with respect to the detected point. The step S210 may be performed by setting the range of the predetermined area based on the point as the contact area or by connecting one or more sensing points adjacent to each other in the touch area. More specifically, the touch region usually includes a plurality of sensing points arranged at regular intervals, and the touch sensitivity may vary depending on the number of sensing points or the interval or unit area of sensing points. In the present invention, when the touch area is contacted by a contact means such as a user's finger or a touch pen, the contact area can be arranged at an interval smaller than the size of the finger or the touch pen so that the touch can be detected at a plurality of sensing points In this case, it is possible to set a region where a plurality of sensing points sensing touch by the user's finger or contact means in the touch region are connected or a region of a predetermined area based on the plurality of sensing points as the contact region.

In this manner, when the contact area is set, the controller 120 of the apparatus 100 according to the present invention detects the strength of the force at the plurality of sensing points included in the contact area in step S220. Here, the strength of the force can be expressed by the magnitude of the pressure applied by the contact.

The controller 120 of the apparatus 100 determines the direction of the force according to the intensity distribution of the force detected at the plurality of sensing points included in the contact area in step S230. More specifically, determining the direction of the force in accordance with the intensity distribution of the force is to detect the applied direction of the force of greater intensity on the contact area in the direction of the force, for example, The direction of the sensing point at which the intensity of the greatest force is detected can be determined as the direction of the force. Here, the direction of the force may be represented by one of forward and backward and / or left / right, east-west and / or north-south, or may be expressed by an angle with respect to the reference axis. Further, the direction of the force may be a direction in a two-dimensional plane with respect to the touch region or a three-dimensional space including a direction perpendicular to the lower portion with respect to the touch region.

The user interface providing method of the present invention may be implemented in a form of software readable by various computer means and recorded in a computer-readable recording medium. Here, the recording medium may include program commands, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination. Program instructions to be recorded on a recording medium may be those specially designed and constructed for the present invention or may be available to those skilled in the art of computer software. For example, the recording medium may be an optical recording medium such as a magnetic medium such as a hard disk, a floppy disk and a magnetic tape, a compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM), a digital video disk (DVD) Includes a hardware device that is specially configured to store and execute program instructions such as a magneto-optical medium such as a floppy disk and a ROM, a random access memory (RAM), a flash memory, do. Examples of program instructions may include machine language code such as those generated by a compiler, as well as high-level language code that may be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. Such a hardware device may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the present invention, and vice versa.

The user interface providing method using the multi-point touch according to the present invention can be more easily understood by referring to the drawings of FIGS.

4 is an exemplary view of a user interface screen using a multi-point touch according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, reference numeral 40 denotes a portable terminal device including a touch screen such as a smart phone, which provides a user interface using a multi-point touch according to the present invention. Reference numeral 41 denotes a user interface screen provided in the portable terminal device 40. The user interface screen 41 includes an object 42 to be operated by a user, that is, an object to be executed by a user command, and a touch area 43 for operating the object 42.

The touch area 43 may be formed as a whole or a partial area of the user interface screen 41 and may be formed independently of the user interface screen 41. Also, the touch area 43 may be set as an area mapped to the object 42 to be executed by the user command. In the latter case, by touching the object 42, selection of an execution target of the user command and execution of the user command according to the direction of the force can be performed at the same time.

In this state, when the user touches three points in the touch area 43 with his fingers, the portable terminal device 40 senses it, and detects the direction of the force applied by the user with respect to the position of the three points and the set point Respectively. Here, reference numerals 44a, 44b, and 44c represent contact areas set or detected at three points where the finger is contacted. The direction of the force applied to the three points can be detected through a predetermined sensor included in the touch input unit 110 and the force intensity distribution of the contact areas 44a, 44b, 44c in contact with the user's finger As shown in FIG.

Particularly, when the touch input unit 110 can not detect the direction of the force, the portable terminal device 40 can determine the direction of the force using the sensed information (intensity of the force) detected by the touch input unit 110 have.

5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a process of detecting a force direction and a combination pattern according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5A, when a user touches three points of the touch area 43, a predetermined area (hereinafter, referred to as " area " The contact areas 44a, 44b, and 44c having the contact areas 44a, 44b, and 44c, respectively, are set or extracted. The contact areas 44a, 44b and 44c are set to a predetermined area range based on a specific coordinate (for example, a center coordinate) of each point, or a plurality of sensing point zoom A plurality of adjacent sensing points that detect user touches can be connected and set.

Then, as shown in FIG. 5 (b), the intensity of the force detected at a plurality of sensing points of the contact areas 44a, 44b, 44c is confirmed. The strength of the force detected at a plurality of sensing points of the contact areas 44a, 44b, 44c varies depending on the direction in which the user applies the force, and in particular, the strength of the force at the sensing point in the direction in which the user applies the force is detected .

,

,

)으로 검출한다.5 (c), the portable terminal device 40 according to the present invention is configured such that the strength of the greatest force among the plurality of sensing points from the center of the contact areas 44a, 44b, 44c is The direction of the large sensing point is defined as the direction of the force applied to the contact areas 44a, 44b, 44c

,

,

).

,

,

)을 기 설정된 순서로 연결하여 도 5의 (d)와 같이 반시계 방향으로의 회전이라는 조합 패턴을 도출한다. 그리고, 조합 패턴에 따라서 객체(42)를 반시계 방향으로 회전시키게 된다.Finally, the direction of the force detected in Fig. 5 (c)

,

,

) In a predetermined order to derive a combination pattern of rotation in the counterclockwise direction as shown in Fig. 5 (d). Then, the object 42 is rotated counterclockwise according to the combination pattern.

7 and 8 illustrate another embodiment of the method for providing a user interface of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7, in a state where the user touches the contact areas 43a, 43b, and 43c 6, the combination pattern is detected. In this case, the operation of pushing the object 42 displayed on the screen to only the upper part of the screen is executed. On the contrary, when the user pulls down the screen in the state in which the user is in contact with the contact areas 43a, 43b, and 43c, a combination pattern as shown by 4 in Fig. 6 is detected In this case, an operation of pulling the object 42 displayed on the screen to the lower side of the screen can be executed.

As described above, in the case of using the combination pattern of the direction of the force applied to three or more points, the combination pattern in the two-dimensional and three-dimensional space can be derived according to the method of combining the position information and the force direction of three or more, By using this, it is possible to perform not only two-dimensional manipulation but also three-dimensional manipulation.

While the apparatus and method according to embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it will be appreciated that the functional operations and subject matter implementations described herein may be implemented with other types of digital electronic circuitry, or with the structures disclosed herein and their structural equivalents Firmware, or hardware, or any combination of the foregoing. Implementations of the subject matter described herein may be embodied in one or more computer program products, i. E. One for computer program instructions encoded on a program storage medium of the type for < RTI ID = 0.0 & And can be implemented as a module as described above. The computer-readable medium can be a machine-readable storage device, a machine-readable storage substrate, a memory device, a composition of matter that affects the machine readable propagation type signal, or a combination of one or more of the foregoing.

While the specification contains a detailed description of a number of specific implementations, it should be understood that they are not to be construed as limitations on the scope of any invention or claimable, and should be understood as an explanation of features that may be specific to a particular embodiment of the invention do.

In addition, while the drawings and operations are depicted herein in a specific order, it should be understood that it should be understood that all such depicted operations should be performed in order to achieve the desired result, . In certain cases, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be practical exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, It will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Furthermore, although specific terms are used in this specification and the drawings, they are used in a generic sense only to facilitate the description of the invention and to facilitate understanding of the invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

A method and apparatus for providing a user interface using a multi-point touch according to the present invention is a method for providing a user interface using a multi-point touch, comprising the steps of: detecting a contact with a point of a touch region; And by executing a user command in accordance with the detected direction of the force, by adjusting only the direction of the force applied to the contact point without drawing a movement or complicated pattern while the user touches a specific point, There is an excellent effect that can be executed.

In particular, since the present invention can be operated by adjusting only the direction of the force after contact with a specific point, the portable device such as a smart phone can be easily operated by the user with one hand. As a result, .

Further, according to the present invention, rotation, tilting, panning, zooming in, zooming out, etc. can be more effectively operated by executing a user command according to a combination pattern of directions of forces applied to fixed contact points. For example, when the object is to be rotated, the rotation of the object can be manipulated by changing the direction of the force in the direction in which the object is to be rotated, by taking a rotation that rotates in a direction to rotate with respect to the fixed contact point.

In addition, the present invention utilizes the movement distance and position in performing a user interface, thereby enabling a finer and quick operation and response.

110: Touch input unit
120:
130:
140:

Claims (10)

An apparatus including a touch-sensitive touch area,
Sensing contact with at least three different points within the touch region;
Detecting a direction of a force applied to at least three contact positions where contact is sensed;
Executing a predetermined user command according to a combination of directions of forces detected at the contact positions;
Lt; / RTI >
The step of detecting the direction of the force
Extracting a contact area having a predetermined area based on the contact position;
Confirming the strength of the detected force at a plurality of sensing points in the extracted contact area;
Determining a direction of a force applied to the contact position based on a force intensity distribution at a plurality of sensing points;
/ RTI >
The step of determining the direction of the force
The direction of the sensing point at which the intensity of the largest force is detected with respect to the center of the contact region is determined as the direction of the force,
The step of executing the user command
Wherein the user command is executed in accordance with a combination pattern of forces represented by connecting a direction of a force applied to the contact position in a predetermined order. delete delete delete delete 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of executing the user command further comprises:
Executing a user command including at least one of rotation, movement, zoom in, zoom out, panning, and tilting for a specific object or screen. A method for providing a user interface. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein executing the user command further comprises:
Moving, zooming in, zooming out, panning, and tilting in three-dimensional space by combining the detected directions of three or more forces based on three or more contact positions The method of claim 1, further comprising: A touch input unit for detecting at least one of a contact position, an intensity of a force applied to the contact position, and a force direction when at least one contact is sensed in the touch area;
A touch direction detecting unit for detecting a direction of a force applied to three or more contact positions from the sensed result of the touch input unit when sensing touches to different points of the touch region, A control unit for executing;
Lt; / RTI >
The control unit
A touch event processing module for setting a contact area having a predetermined area based on a contact position, comparing strengths of a plurality of sensing points existing in the contact area, and determining a direction of a force applied to the corresponding point;
Further comprising:
The touch event processing module
Detecting a direction of the sensing point at which the intensity of the largest force is detected with respect to the center of the contact region in the direction of the force,
The control unit
Further comprising a pattern extraction module for verifying a combination pattern of forces by connecting the directions of forces applied to the three or more different contact positions in a predetermined order so as to execute the user command according to the identified combination pattern of forces Wherein the user interface is provided with a multi-point touch. delete delete

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