Information handling system collaborative touchpad cursor over control icons
AssigneeDell Products L.P.
InventorsBarry Paul Easter, Andelon Xuan Tra
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An information handling system touchpad includes an application area with a display to present control icons of an application executing on the information handling system, such as camera and microphone icons to control camera and microphone functions of a videoconference application or a calculator user interface. The touchpad accepts inputs at the control icons with a predetermined touch, such as a tap or a double tap. The touchpad continues to provide cursor touch inputs across the full touch surface, including over the control icons by applying separate touch logic to isolate control icon inputs, such as isolating finger taps as control icon inputs when control icons are presented.
Claims20
An information handling system comprising:
- a housing;
- a processor disposed in the housing and operable to execute instructions to process information;
- a memory interfaced with the processor and operable to store the instructions and information;
- a display included in the housing and interfaced with the processor, the display operable to present the information as visual images;
- a persistent storage device having memory storing an operating system and plural applications configured to execute as instructions on the processor;
- a touchpad included in the housing and having a touch detection surface, a touchpad display, a processing resource and a non-transitory memory interfaced with the processing resource;
- and
- instructions stored in the non-transitory memory that when executed on the processing resource cause the touchpad touch detection surface to detect touches in a cursor mode and a touchpad display mode, the cursor mode detecting touches as cursor inputs across a full touch detection surface area, the touchpad display mode simultaneously detecting a first set of touches as cursor inputs across the full touch detection surface area and a second set of touches as touchscreen display inputs at predetermined locations of the touch detection surface, the first and second set of touches distinguished by one or more touch characteristics.
A method for interpreting touch inputs at a touch detection surface, the method comprising:
- presenting visual images at a display of the information handling system;
- detecting touches at a touch detection surface separate from the display;
- applying the touches across the entire surface area of the touch detection surface as cursor inputs;
- detecting a predetermined condition;
- and
- responding to the predetermined condition to simultaneously apply a first set of touches as cursor inputs across the entire surface area of the touch detection surface and to apply a second set of touches as inputs to icons presented at a touchpad display, the first and second set of touches distinguished by one or more touch characteristics.
A touchpad comprising:
- a touch detection surface;
- a touchpad display operable to present visual images;
- a processing resource interfaced with the touch detection surface and touchpad display;
- and
- a non-transitory memory interfaced with the processing resource and storing instructions that when executed on the processing resource cause the touchpad touch detection surface to detect touches in a cursor mode and a touchpad display mode, the cursor mode detecting touches as cursor inputs across a full touch detection surface area, the touchpad display mode simultaneously detecting a first set of touches as cursor inputs across the full touch detection surface area and a second set of touches as touchscreen display inputs at predetermined locations of the touch detection surface, the first and second set of touches distinguished by one or more touch characteristics, the predetermined locations each having a videoconferencing application control icon presented, the second set of touches interpreted as commands to the videoconferencing application.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.