Unlocking electronic devices using touch-based sensors
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsSudish Mukundan, Christopher Charles Kruger
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In some examples, an electronic device includes a touch-based sensor, a proximity sensor, and a processor to in response to determining, based on output from the proximity sensor, that the electronic device is in an enclosed space: determine whether a specified number of multiple touches of the touch-based sensor has been detected by the touch-based sensor, and in response to determining that the specified number of multiple touches of the touch-based sensor has been detected by the touch-based sensor, unlock the electronic device.
Claims20
An electronic device comprising:
- a touch-based sensor;
- a proximity sensor;
- and
- a processor to:
- determine, based on output from the proximity sensor, whether the electronic device is in an enclosed space;
- in response to determining that the electronic device is in the enclosed space, activate a count-based unlocking process that comprises:
- counting a number of multiple touches of the touch-based sensor,
- determining, based on the counting, whether a specified number of the multiple touches of the touch-based sensor has been detected by the touch-based sensor, and
- in response to determining that the specified number of the multiple touches of the touch-based sensor has been detected by the touch-based sensor, unlock the electronic device that is determined to be in the enclosed space;
- and
- in response to determining that the electronic device is not in the enclosed space, activate a different unlocking process that comprises:
- unlocking the electronic device determined to not be in the enclosed space in response to a single touch of the touch-based sensor.
A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions that upon execution by an electronic device cause the electronic device to:
- determine, based on an output of a proximity sensor, whether the electronic device is in an enclosed space;
- in response to determining that the electronic device is in the enclosed space, activate a count-based unlocking process of the electronic device, the count-based unlocking process comprising:
- counting a number of multiple touches of a touch-based sensor,
- determining, based on the counting, whether a specified number of the multiple touches of the touch-based sensor has been detected by the touch-based sensor, and
- in response to determining that the specified number of the multiple touches of the touch-based sensor has been detected by the touch-based sensor, unlock the electronic device that is determined to be in the enclosed space;
- and
- in response to determining that the electronic device is not in the enclosed space, activate a different unlocking process that comprises:
- unlocking the electronic device determined to not be in the enclosed space in response to a single touch of the touch-based sensor.
A method of an electronic device, comprising:
- in response to determining, based on output from a proximity sensor, that the electronic device is in an enclosed space, activating a count-based unlocking process that comprises:
- counting a number of multiple touches of a touch-based sensor,
- determining, based on the counting, whether a specified number of the multiple touches of the touch-based sensor has been detected by the touch-based sensor, and
- in response to determining that the specified number of the multiple touches of the touch-based sensor has been detected by the touch-based sensor, unlocking the electronic device that is determined to be in the enclosed space;
- and
- in response to determining that the electronic device is not in the enclosed space, activating a different unlocking process that comprises:
- unlocking the electronic device determined to not be in the enclosed space in response to a single touch of the touch-based sensor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.