Currently, large-screen touch mobile phones are increasingly common. In order to avoid misoperations when users do not use the mobile phones, these mobile phones usually adopt various screen locking/unlocking technologies, and the users cannot operate touch screens in case of locking.
There are many methods for locking the mobile phones, such as a common key unlocking method, a slide unlocking method and a pattern unlocking method. In most of these unlocking solutions, the users need to operate physical keys or touch screens, thereby causing accelerated wear of the physical keys or the touch screens.
A distance sensor is a common sensor in a current mobile terminal, which is arranged on a front surface of a mobile phone and is able to detect a distance between an object and the mobile terminal so as to judge whether there is an object, within a short distance, staying close to the mobile terminal. A common usage scenario refers to that: when a user makes a call or answers a call, the mobile phone stays close to a face, and the distance sensor will inform the mobile terminal to automatically close a screen, thereby avoiding misoperations caused by a contact between the skin of the face and a touch screen.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds