Electronic device with infrared touch panel and method for configuring the infrared touch panel

Relevant subject matter is disclosed in a copending application entitled, “ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH INFRARED TOUCH PANEL AND TOUCH INPUT METHOD THEREOF”, filed Aug. 30, 2010 Ser. No. 12/871,832, and assigned to the same assignee as named herein.

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to electronic devices with touch panels and, particularly, to an electronic device with an infrared touch panel and a method for configuring the infrared touch panel.

2. Description of Related Art

Nowadays, electronic devices equipped with touch panels are very popular. Infrared matrix type touch panels are commonly used. A conventional infrared matrix type touch panel has infrared emitters and infrared receivers that are arranged on four sides of the panel to produce infrared rays in the shape of very close cross stripes on the panel. When an object touches a spot on the panel, the object blocks an infrared ray passing through the touched spot, and the position information of the touched spot is determined by detecting which infrared ray is blocked

In a conventional infrared matrix type touch panel, all of the infrared emitters and infrared receivers are in a working state when an electronic device is turned on. Under some conditions, if less icons are displayed, correspondingly less touch points may be touched, if all of the infrared emitters and infrared receivers are in a working state an extra burden may be added to the electronic device and thus can be a waste of energy. The phrase “touch icon” means a graphic user interface (GUI) element that can be displayed and is capable of triggering a function in response to user's touch.

Therefore, it is desirable to provide an electronic device with infrared touch panel to overcome the above-mentioned limitations.

Many aspects of the present disclosure should be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present disclosure. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is an exploded view of an electronic device with an infrared touch panel, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the electronic device of FIG. 1 , in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the electronic device of FIG. 1 .

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a configuration method applied in the electronic device of FIG. 1 , in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

Embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described in detail below, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1 , an electronic device 100 includes an infrared touch panel 1 , a processing unit 2 , a display unit 3 , a frame 4 , and a cover 5 . The frame 4 and the cover 5 cooperatively form a space to accommodate the infrared touch panel 1 , the display unit 3 , and the processing unit 2 . The processing unit 2 is connected to the infrared touch panel 1 and the display unit 3 . The infrared touch panel 1 includes a number of infrared receivers 10 , at least one emitter 11 , and a circuit board 12 . In the embodiment, the circuit board 12 is substantially rectangular. The infrared receivers 10 and the at least one infrared emitter 11 are set on the circuit board 12 .

Referring also to FIG. 2 , the infrared touch panel 1 also includes a microcontroller 13 set on the circuit board 12 . The microcontroller 13 is connected to the infrared receivers 10 and the at least one infrared emitter 11 , and is configured to control the at least one infrared emitter 11 to send infrared signals to the infrared receivers 10 , thus infrared lines corresponding to the infrared signals are formed between the at least one infrared emitter 11 and the infrared receivers 10 . The microcontroller 13 is also configured to determine that whether an object, such as a finger or a stylus, blocks an infrared line. In the embodiment, if one infrared receiver 10 does not receive an infrared signal from the infrared emitter 11 , then the microcontroller 13 determines an object has blocked the infrared line corresponding to the infrared signal.

Referring also to FIG. 3 , in the embodiment, the number of the at least one infrared emitters 11 is two, and the number of the infrared receivers 10 is eight. Hereinafter, the two infrared emitters are referred to as infrared emitters 11 a and 11 b , and the eight infrared receivers 10 are referred to as infrared receivers 10 a ˜ 10 h . In the embodiment, the infrared emitters 11 a and 11 b are respectively set at the left side and at the upper side of the circuit board 12 close to the top left corner of the circuit board 12 . The eight infrared receivers 10 a ˜ 10 h are set at the bottom side and the right side of the circuit board 12 and are distributed uniformly. The infrared emitter 11 a is capable of transmitting infrared signals to the infrared receiver 10 a ˜ 10 d , thus four infrared lines L 1 ˜L 4 are formed between the infrared emitter 11 a and the four infrared receivers 10 a ˜ 10 d . The infrared emitter 11 b is capable of transmitting infrared signals to the four infrared receivers 10 e ˜ 10 h , thus four infrared lines L 5 ˜L 8 are formed between the infrared emitter 11 b and the four infrared receivers 10 e ˜ 10 h . The numbers and the arrangement of the infrared emitters 11 and the infrared receivers 10 can vary according to need. For example, the number of the at least one infrared emitter 11 may be one, and the number of the infrared receivers 10 may be ten. The infrared emitter 11 sends infrared signals to the infrared receivers 10 , forming ten infrared lines between the infrared emitter 11 and the ten infrared receivers 10 .

The processing unit 2 is configured for controlling the display unit 3 to display visual information. In the embodiment, the display unit 3 is divided into eight display areas corresponding to the eight infrared lines L 1 ˜L 8 . For each display area, only one infrared line passes through it. For example, as shown in FIG. 3 , display area A 1 corresponds to the infrared line L 1 and only the infrared line L 1 passes through the display area A 1 . The display area A 8 corresponds to the infrared line L 8 and only the infrared line L 8 passes through the display area A 8 . The processing unit 2 is further configured for determining whether the visual information displayed on the display unit 3 includes at least one touch icon. If the processing unit 2 determines that the visual information includes one or more touch icons, the processing unit 2 determines which of the infrared lines pass through the one or more touch icons. Then determines which of the infrared emitters 11 a or 11 b and which of the infrared receivers 10 a ˜ 10 d form the one or more determined infrared lines.

In the embodiment, each display area only displays one touch icon. When the processing unit 2 determines that the visual information includes at least one icon, the processing unit 2 then determines in which display area the icon is displayed, and determines which infrared line is corresponding to the display area.

In the embodiment, when the processing unit 2 determines which of the infrared emitters 11 a and 11 b and which of the infrared receivers 10 a - 10 h form the one or more determined infrared lines, the processing unit 2 sends a configuration instruction including the information of the determined infrared emitters 11 and the infrared receivers 10 to the microcontroller 13 . The microcontroller 13 turns on the determined infrared emitters 11 and the infrared receivers 10 , and turns off the other infrared emitters 11 and the infrared receivers 10 when receiving the configuration instruction. For example, as shown in FIG. 3 , if the processing unit 2 determines the visual information displayed on the display unit 3 includes two touch icons A and B. The processing unit 2 determines the display areas corresponding to the touch icons A and B, the two infrared lines L 1 and L 2 corresponding to the two display areas, and then determines that the infrared emitter 11 a and the infrared receivers 10 a and 10 b are forming the infrared lines L 1 and L 2 . The processing unit 2 turns on the infrared emitter 11 a and the infrared receivers 10 a and 10 b then turns off the infrared receivers 10 c - 10 h and infrared emitter 11 b . Therefore, the electronic device 100 can avoid power waste by turning off unnecessary infrared emitters 11 and infrared receivers 10 .

The processing unit 2 is further configured for determining a display area touched by a user, and determining a touch icon displayed on the display area, and executing the function of the touch icon. For example, if the processing unit 2 determines the icon displayed on the display area that is touched by the user is an email icon, the processing unit 2 executes email function.

In the embodiment, the processing unit 2 determines which display area a user touches and which touch icon is touched on the display area in the following steps. The processing unit 2 checks whether the microcontroller 13 detects an infrared signal from the infrared receiver 10 or not. If the microcontroller 13 detects an infrared receiver 10 does not receive the infrared signal, the processing unit 2 further determines that which of the infrared emitter 11 is corresponding to the infrared receiver 10 that does not receive the infrared signal, and determines that the infrared line between the infrared receiver 10 , which does not receive the infrared signal and the corresponding infrared emitter 11 , is blocked. The processing unit 2 determines the display area corresponding to the infrared line, and then determines the touch icon displayed on the display area accordingly. In the embodiment, because the infrared emitter 11 a sends the infrared signals to the infrared receivers 11 a - 11 d and the infrared emitter 11 a sends the infrared signals to the infrared receivers 11 e - 11 h , then the processing unit is capable of determining the infrared emitter 11 corresponding to the infrared receiver 10 .

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a configuration method applied in an electronic device with an infrared touch panel in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

In step S 11 , the processing unit 2 controls the display unit 3 to display visual information.

In step S 12 , the processing unit 2 determines whether the visual information includes touch icons.

If the processing unit 2 determines that the visual information does not include touch icons, the process returns to step S 11 . Otherwise, in step S 13 , the processing unit 2 determines the display areas displaying the touch icons.

In step S 14 , the processing unit 2 determines the infrared lines corresponding to the display areas.

In step S 15 , the processing unit 2 determines the infrared emitters 11 and the infrared receivers 10 forming the infrared lines, and sends a configuration instruction including the information of the determined infrared emitters 11 and infrared receiver 10 to the microcontroller 13 .

In step S 16 , the microcontroller 2 turns on the determined infrared emitters 11 and the infrared receivers 10 , and turns off the other infrared emitters 11 and infrared receivers 10 when receiving the configuration instruction.

It is believed that the present embodiments and their advantages will be understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the examples hereinbefore described merely being exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.