WO2014060128A1

WO2014060128A1 - Method and device for improved unlocking of an electronic device

Info

Publication number: WO2014060128A1
Application number: PCT/EP2013/065188
Authority: WO
Inventors: Eduardo Fullea Carrera
Original assignee: Telefonica Digital España, S.L.U.
Priority date: 2012-10-19
Filing date: 2013-07-18
Publication date: 2014-04-24

Abstract

A method and device for improved unlocking of an electronic device with a touch sensitive screen, by means of interacting with such touch-sensitive screen and eventually launching a specific application to be shown at the electronic device's screen when transitioning to the unlocked state. The embodiments of the present invention suggest an innovative approach, which allows optimizing the balance between usability and security of the unlock process.

Description

METHOD AND DEVICE FOR IMPROVED UNLOCKING OF AN

ELECTRONIC DEVICE

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Technical field

The present invention relates to the field of electronic devices operation and more specifically to a method and device for improving unlocking and launching of applications in electronic devices.

Description of related art In most of electronic devices (especially in portable devices which can be carried in a pocket, purse, bag, or a similar container), it is important to allow the device to be set to a locked state (also known as lock state) which prevents accidental access. This state avoids the unintentional invocation of device functions (e.g. making a phone call) by the contact with any of the device's input interfaces (e.g. buttons, touch screen).

This is especially useful in electronic devices with touch-sensitive screen like mobile phones or tablet computers, which are becoming popular and widely available nowadays. Interacting with electronic devices by means of this kind of screen is very intuitive and simple and thus reduces the level of complexity and the learning curve to deal with such appliances.

The electronic devices with a locked state (an state where the user interface is blocked so the electronic device does not react to the user instructions given through the device's input interfaces, of course except if it is an unlock instruction) require mechanisms to unlock the electronic device by means of interacting with the device's input interfaces. Nevertheless these mechanisms need to be intuitive, usable and easily discoverable by the user whilst not being easy to reproduce by means of an accidental interaction with the input interfaces. The touch screen represents a convenient input interface as it can provide visual guidance to the user to facilitate the discovery and execution of the unlock mechanism. On the other hand this kind of electronic devices usually have a few functions or applications (e- mail, photo camera, video camera, games or any other electronic devices applications so popular nowadays) that could be more frequently used than the rest or that need to be invoked more promptly, for instance the photo camera. An unlock mechanism that allows the invocation of this sort of preferred functions directly from the locked screen, resulting on this function or application being invoked or launched directly upon performing the unlock mechanism, constitutes a clear advantage as it allows the user to launch these applications more promptly and thus save some time.

A variety of mechanisms to unlock an electronic device are available in the state of the art. Some of these unlock mechanisms do not rely on the interaction with a touch screen, but rather with other input interfaces in the device, specially the physical buttons. Prior to the popularization of the touch screens unlock mechanisms were mainly based on the sequential pressing a series of buttons, for instance pressing the call disconnect button followed by the asterisk "^*" button. With the arrival of the touch screens (also known as touch sensitive screens or displays) more user-friendly unlock mechanism have arisen based on the user interaction with such screens, like the ones described below.

For example, US patent US7657849 describes a mechanism by which an electronic device is unlocked by means of moving an unlock image (unlock icon, that is, an image related or associated to the unlock action) along a predefined path on the touch screen in accordance to the contact with the screen, whilst keeping the device in locked state in case the detected contact does not follows the predefined path or US patent US8046721 which describes an electronic device which is unlocked by means of moving an unlock image from a predefined location in the screen to another predefined unlock area.

US8209637 describes a mechanism resulting in launching a first or a second application upon the user performing a predefined gesture, like moving an unlock image along a predefined path, respectively on a first or on a second unlock image while the device is in a locked state and on the other hand, US patent

US20120124644 depicts a procedure by which a user performs an input to unlock a device plus at least one more input to execute at least one command when transitioning to an unlocked state (also known as unlock state, in said state the user interface is not anymore blocked, so the electronic device reacts to the inputs of the user through the user interface). Several examples of this inputs are mentioned as for example dragging one command-related icon to an unlock icon and releasing over this other icon, or alternatively in the reverse order, that is dragging the unlock icon to a command-related icon and then releasing.

A method to unlock an electronic appliance whilst invoking at the same time a specific function is taught by US patent US20100162182; the method comprises detecting a set of specific gestures on the touch screen (e.g. drawing a "V" or a "/") each of them associated to a specific function and then unlocking the device and additionally invoking the function or application mapped with that gesture.

A different method to unlock a device is described in US20120169617 characterized in that the user needs to stroke the touch screen following a predetermined track and applying a predetermined force pattern in order to unlock the screen or in US20120174042 which describes an additional method to unlock screen by touching and dragging from a predetermined region along a predefined path over a predetermined distance. Additionally an application may be launched if the end point of the dragging gesture is located within one of a set of segmented regions, associated respectively to a plurality of applications.

Some of the unlock methods previously cited are not very intuitive for the user or not easy to remember, for instance those mechanisms based on the sequential pressing a series of buttons or those which requires the user to remember a specific pattern.

Another problem of existing unlock methods is the difficulty to find a right balance between the flexibility offered to the user to deviate from the established unlock interaction and on the other hand the security against an accidental undesired unlock, in other words, the balance between false negatives and false positives, especially if an attractive usability is to be offered at the same time.

To this regard some of the previous unlock methods require the user to follow a very specific pattern in the touch screen providing no or very limited flexibility to the user. This results in the device not being unlocked upon the user interacting with the touch screen following a pattern that slightly deviates from a strictly defined gesture. On the other hand other unlock methods in the state-of-the-art do not present a high enough level of security against an undesired unlock. In fact an accidental touch interaction with the screen may be interpreted as an unlock request and result in the device undesirably being unlocked. Hence, there is a need for an unlock mechanism which overcome the above mentioned drawbacks.

SUMMARY

The present invention describes a method and device for unlocking an electronic device provided with a touch-sensitive screen by means of interacting with such touch-sensitive screen according to a procedure described in this document and eventually launching a specific application to be shown at the electronic device's screen when transitioning to the unlocked state.

More specifically, the present invention discloses unlocking an electronic device with a touch sensitive screen (i.e. a touch sensitive display) by performing a gesture (the movement of the point of contact across the screen) on the screen, which presents a set of at least one icon, being one of that set of at least one icon an unlock icon and being each of the eventually existing rest of icons associated to a function of the electronic device, wherein the gesture comprises drawing a closed line by moving the point of contact across the screen and delimiting said closed line an area in which at least one of the icons is fully contained, resulting in the electronic device transitioning to an unlocked state and in case such delimited at least one icon is associated to a function of the electronic device, additionally invoking that function.

The problems found in prior art techniques are generally solved or circumvented, and technical advantages are generally achieved, by the disclosed embodiments

In a first aspect, it is disclosed a method for unlocking an electronic device with a touch sensitive screen, which displays a set of at least one icon, being one icon of that set an unlock icon, said method comprising:

- detecting a gesture on the screen performed by an user of the electronic device by moving a point of contact across the screen, while the device is in a locked state, wherein the method also comprises:

- the electronic device transitioning from a locked state to an unlocked state (it changes from an state where the user interface is blocked to a state where the user interface is not blocked) if said detected gesture comprises drawing a closed line by moving a point of contact across the screen, delimiting said closed line an area in which at least one icon of said set of icons is fully contained,

- if the at least one icon fully contained in the closed line is an icon associated to a function of the electronic device, the electronic device additionally invoking the function of the electronic device to which said at least one icon is associated.

In an embodiment, the electronic device transitions to an unlocked state if only a single icon is fully contained within the closed area delimited by the closed line drawn by the user. In an alternative embodiment, if only the unlock icon and one icon associated to a function of the electronic device are fully contained within the closed area delimited by the closed line drawn by the user, the electronic device transitions to an unlocked state and additionally invokes the function of the electronic device of the electronic device to which said at least one icon is associated.

In another embodiment, the electronic device transitions to an unlocked state without invoking any function of the electronic device if more than one icon (associated to functions of the electronic device) different from the unlock icon are fully contained within the closed line drawn.

In an embodiment, the gesture of drawing a closed line on the screen is performed without losing contact with the screen and in another embodiment, the line drawn on the screen by the user moving a point of contact with the screen is displayed on the screen.

Optionally, if a predefined time passes from the moment where the user starts the gesture without detecting that a closed line has been drawn (that is, the user does not draw a closed line during a certain period of time), said gesture is discarded by the electronic device and the unlock gesture is required to be started again (the user must start again a new gesture to unlock the device).

A visual guidance may be displayed on the screen when in locked state to indicate to the user how to unlock the device. For example, said visual guidance may be one or both of a textual explanation and a set of at least one arrow around at least one of the icons on the screen and, optionally, said at least one arrow can be animated providing hints as to how the closed line needs to be drawn to unlock the screen. The functions of the electronic device to which an icon is associated may be at least one of the following: e-mail, making a call, photo camera, video camera, games applications or any other known electronic device application.

In another aspect, it is provided an electronic device comprising:

- A touch sensitive screen which displays a set of at least one icon, being one of that set of at least one icon an unlock icon

- Detection means, which are prepared to detect contact with the screen by an user of the electronic device while the device is in a locked state and track the path followed by that contact (said path followed will be the gesture made by the user); that is, the screen is capable of detecting contact with the screen while the device is in a locked state and tracking the path followed by that contact

- Means for transitioning from the locked state to an unlocked state in case said path comprises a closed line delimiting an area in which at least one of said icons of the set of icons is fully contained, and for, if the at least one icon fully contained in the closed line is an icon associated to a function of the electronic device, invoking the function of the electronic device to which said at least one icon is associated.

According to another aspect of the invention, a computer program product is provided, comprising computer-executable instructions for performing any of the method previously disclosed, when the program is run on a computer and a digital data storage medium is also provided encoding a machine-executable program with instructions to perform any of the methods disclosed. Consequently, according to the invention, a method, device and computer program according to the independent claims are provided. Favorable embodiments are defined in the dependent claims.

These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Some embodiments of the method and device in accordance with embodiments of the present invention are now described, by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a flow diagram describing the process to unlock an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 shows the graphical user interface of an electronic device with a touch screen, in which an unlock icon is displayed, with which the user can interact to unlock the device, according to the embodiments of the present invention.

Figure 3 shows the graphical user interface of an electronic device with a touch screen, in which three icons are displayed (one unlock icon, an icon associated to the photo camera and another icon associated with the email client application), with any of which the user can interact to unlock the device according to the embodiments of the present invention and eventually invoke any of the associated device's functions.

Figure 4 schematically shows how to perform the unlock method proposed on the present invention on the unlock icon on the touch screen of an electronic device.

Figure 5a schematically shows how to perform the unlock method proposed on the present invention selecting the email application icon on the touch screen of an electronic device.

Figure 5b schematically shows the transition to a e-mail application screen of an electronic device once the electronic device is unlocked and the e-mail application has been selected by performing the unlock method proposed on the present invention.

Figure 6 schematically shows the performance of the unlock method of this invention on the unlock icon, drawing a closed line with an appearance similar to a square on the touch screen. Figure 7 schematically shows the performance of the unlock method of this invention on the unlock icon, drawing an irregular closed line on the touch screen.

Figure 8 shows the graphical user interface of an electronic device with a touch screen in a locked state, in which an unlock icon is displayed, as well as visual hints

(explanatory text and arrows) to help the user to learn the way to unlock the device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The present invention may be embodied in other specific devices, systems and/or methods. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects as only illustrative and not restrictive. In particular, the scope of the invention is indicated by the appended claims rather than by the description and figures herein. All changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.

The present invention deals with the unlocking of electronic devices with a touch screen (touch sensitive screen or display). Said electronic devices can be mobile phones, personal computers, portable computers, electronic games devices, smart phones, laptops or any other type of electronic devices with touch-sensitive screen.

The methods and devices shown in the following embodiments solve some of the problems found in the prior art unlocking techniques.

Figure 2 shows the graphical user interface of an electronic (200) device with a touch screen (201 ), in which an unlock icon is displayed. In order to allow the use of the unlock method described by present invention the electronic device may display an unlock icon 202 in said screen as can be seen in figure 2. The icon 202 depicted in figure 2 is a circle with a drawing inside representing a padlock. This invention is not restricted to the type of unlock icon displayed in figure 2, but it applies to any other representation of the unlock icon. As it is evident to a person skilled in the subject, the unlock icon may present a variety of different forms that make evident to the user that this icon is related to the unlock action. In addition to the unlock icon, other icons may be displayed in the touch screen being each of such icons, images associated to a function (an application) of the electronic device, for instance the email application, the photo camera, access to internet, games or any other electronic devices applications. As in the case of the unlock icon different representations are possible for these function-related icons, as long as it is clear to the user what the function associated to each image is. For instance a circle with a drawing inside representing an envelope (303), as the one depicted in figure 3 is a possible valid representation of the icon related to the email client or a circle with a drawing inside representing a photo camera (304), as also depicted in figure 3 is a possible valid representation of the icon related to the device's photo camera.

Figure 1 is a flow diagram describing the process to unlock an electronic device which is in a locked state according to an embodiment of the present invention and figure 4 schematically shows how to perform the unlock method proposed on the present invention on the unlock icon on the touch screen of an electronic device.

The electronic device (400) will be in the locked state (101 ) (an state where the user interface is blocked to prevent accidental access). The electronic device will have a touch screen (401 ) showing a graphical user interface with an unlock icon (402) (for example a padlock or any other image representing or associated to an unlock action). As stated before, optionally, one or more additional icons associated to different functions of the electronic device can appear as well on the screen.

In order to unlock the electronic device, the end user needs to interact with the touch screen as follows, according to an embodiment of the invention.

The user touches the screen (102) with the finger or other appropriate object (for example, a stick) at an initial point (405) of the screen. This initial point is not pre-set or predefined but otherwise can be freely selected by the user as he/she considers appropriate in order to perform the unlock method. The initial point where the user must start the unlock gesture (the movement of the point of contact across the screen to unlock the device) is not limited to a point or a zone of the screen, in order for the unlock method to work properly. In other words, the unlock method will correctly work independently of the initial point selected by the user. Following the initial contact with the screen the user moves the point of contact drawing a line (406) around one of the icons (402) in the screen. In an embodiment, said line drawn by the user will be displayed on the screen. This contact with the screen is tracked by the device (103) until the point of contact crosses with the line being drawn (in other words, a closed line is drawn), defining an area (407) enclosed within the resulting closed line. Note that the point of crossing (408) does not need to be the initial point of contact (405) with the screen but on the contrary may be any point in the line being drawn (406).

In an embodiment, if a predefined time passes (104) since the line started to be drawn and the line has not been crossed defining a closed area, then the device returns to the initial locked state (101 ). In other words, the device tracks the contact of the user on the screen (the line being drawn) till the path followed (the gesture) is a closed line or until a certain period of time expires.

When the point of contact crosses with the line being drawn (the path followed by the contact with screen includes a closed area), the electronic device then checks

(105) if the icon around which the line has been drawn is fully contained in the previously mentioned closed area within the crossed line (as shown in figure 4). If not, then returns to the initial state (101 ). If yes the device further checks whether said icon is the unlock icon (106).

In case, the icon around which the closed line has been drawn is the unlock icon then the device is unlocked (that is, the user interface is not blocked any longer) and a default screen is shown to the user (108), like a home screen with a grid of applications. Of course, other types of default screens can be shown when the device is unlocked, for example, in an embodiment, said screen which is shown when the device is unlocked is an screen showing an application that was active before the device was locked.

If on the contrary the icon around which the closed line has been drawn is not the unlock icon, but an icon associated to a function of the electronic device, then in addition to unlocking the device the corresponding function is invoked (107). For instance, as shown in figure 5, if the icon around which a closed line (506) has been drawn is not the unlock icon (502) but the icon associated to the email client application (503), then upon the device being unlocked the email client application (510) is launched and is shown to the user without the user having to perform any other command on the device. That is, in this case, after unlocking the device, the application associated to the selected icon (the icon inside the drawn line) will be launched and the screen corresponding to the launched application will be shown for interaction with the user. Note that the closed line that needs to be drawn by the user around an icon in order to unlock the device does not need to start at any specific point or have any specific shape. It may for instance be a roundish line as the one shown in figure 4, it may be a squared line as the one 606 depicted in figure 6, it may have an irregular shape as the one 706 depicted in figure 7, or it may have any other shape as long as it complies with the requirements stated above, that is, it is a closed line and it fully contains one of the icons shown in the screen.

This liberty on the starting point and the shape of the line provides much flexibility to the user in the process of drawing it. On the other hand the requirement that the line needs to be a closed line, and at the same time needs to be drawn around one of the icons and fully containing it minimizes the chances of the device being accidentally unlocked. This optimized balance between usability and security makes this invention much more advantageous than other methods in the prior art. It should be noted that the area enclosed within the closed line drawn by the user may contain not just one but two or more of the icons shown in the screen in the locked state. In an embodiment, the device will not be unlocked in case that the closed line drawn by the user contains more than one icon, but just in case a single icon is fully enclosed within the closed line. Another embodiment of this invention may alternatively unlock the device but without invoking any function in case two or more of the icons are contained within the closed line. In another embodiment of this invention, a specific function is invoked in case the unlock icon plus just the one additional icon associated to said function (that is, the result will be the same as when only the function-icon is inside the closed line).

In order to facilitate the discovery by the user of the unlock procedure that he must follow to unlock the electronic device, in an embodiment visual guidance will be provided to the user in the screen when the device is in a locked state. As shown in figure 8, this visual guidance may consist on one or more, preferably animated, arrows (81 1 ) around an icon (802), which invite the user to draw the unlocking line around such icon. An alternative or complementary guidance may consist on a textual explanation (812) like the following "Please draw a line around the unlock icon to unlock the device". Note that other types of visual guidance are possible, as it is evident to a person skilled in the subject, and this invention is not limited to the mentioned examples.

Summarizing, the present invention describes an innovative and intuitive method and device to unlock an electronic device with a touch screen that on one hand provides an intuitive and attractive usability and on the other hand presents an optimum balance between the flexibility offered to the user to deviate from the unlock interaction and the security against an undesired unlock. Moreover it fulfills the increasing demand from end-users of fresh and innovative ways to interact with their electronic devices provided with a touch screen.

A person of skill in the art would readily recognize that steps of various above- described methods can be performed by programmed computers. Herein, some embodiments are also intended to cover program storage devices, e.g., digital data storage media, which are machine or computer readable and encode machine- executable or computer-executable programs of instructions, wherein said instructions perform some or all of the steps of said above-described methods. The program storage devices may be, e.g., digital memories, magnetic storage media such as a magnetic disks and magnetic tapes, hard drives, or optically readable digital data storage media. The embodiments are also intended to cover computers or any type of processors programmed to perform said steps of the above-described methods.

The description and drawings merely illustrate the principles of the invention. Although the present invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing and various other changes, omissions and additions in the form and detail thereof may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.

Furthermore, all examples recited herein are principally intended expressly to be only for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventor(s) to furthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions. Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, and embodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass equivalents thereof.

It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any block diagrams herein represent conceptual views of illustrative circuitry embodying the principles of the invention. Similarly, it will be appreciated that any flow charts, flow diagrams, state transition diagrams, pseudo code, and the like represent various processes which may be substantially represented in computer readable medium and so executed by a computer or processor, whether or not such computer or processor is explicitly shown.

Claims

1 . A method for unlocking an electronic device with a touch sensitive screen, wherein a set of at least one icon is displayed on said screen, being one icon of said set of icons an unlock icon, said method comprising:

- detecting a gesture on the screen performed by an user of the electronic device, while the device is in a locked state

the method being characterized in that it also comprises:

- the electronic device transitioning from the locked state to an unlocked state if said detected gesture comprises drawing a closed line by moving a point of contact across the screen, delimiting said closed line an area in which at least one icon of said set of icons is fully contained,

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the electronic device transitions to an unlocked state if only a single icon is fully contained within the closed area delimited by the closed line drawn by the user.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein, if only the unlock icon and one icon associated to a function of the electronic device are fully contained within the closed area delimited by the closed line drawn by the user, the electronic device transitions to an unlocked state and additionally invokes the function of the electronic device of the electronic device to which said at least one icon is associated.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electronic device transitions to an unlocked state without invoking any function of the electronic device if more than one icon different from the unlock icon are fully contained within the closed line drawn.

5. A method according to any of the previous claims where the gesture of drawing a closed line on the screen is performed without losing contact with the screen.

6. A method according to any of the previous claims, wherein the line drawn on the screen by the user moving a point of contact with the screen is displayed on the screen.

7. A method according to any of the previous claims, wherein if a predefined time passes from the moment where the user starts the gesture without detecting that a closed line has been drawn, said gesture is discarded by the electronic device and the unlock gesture is required to be started again.

8. A method according to any of the previous claims, wherein a visual guidance is shown in the screen when the electronic device is in the locked state to indicate to the user how to unlock the device.

9. An electronic device comprising:

- Detection means for detecting contact with the screen while the device is in a locked state and for tracking the path followed by said contact characterized in that the device also comprises:

10. An electronic device according to claim 9, wherein the electronic device transitions to an unlocked state if just a single icon is fully contained within the area delimited by the closed line.

1 1 . An electronic device according to claim 9, wherein if only the unlock icon and one icon associated to a function of the electronic device are fully contained within the area delimited by the closed line, the electronic device transitions to an unlocked state and additionally invokes the function of the electronic device of the electronic device to which said one icon is associated.

12. An electronic device according to claim 9, wherein the electronic device transitions to an unlocked state without invoking any function of the electronic device if more than one icon different from the unlock icon are fully contained within the closed line.

13. An electronic device according to any of the previous claims 9-12 where the device transitions to an unlocked state if the path on the screen comprising a closed line is performed without losing contact with the screen.

14. An electronic device according to any of the previous claims 9-13, wherein if a predefined time passes from the moment where the contact with the screen is started, without detecting that a closed line has been drawn, said path is discarded by the electronic device.

15. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions for performing the method according to any of the claims 1 -8, when the program is run on a computer.