Systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for providing a user interface with selection and scrolling

• US 20020180811A1
• Filed: 12/11/2001
• Published: 12/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Chu, Sing Yun
• Application Number:
  US10/011,391
• Publication Number:
  US 20020180811A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/856
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

Methods, system, and articles of manufacture consistent with certain feature related to the present invention allow a computing device including an interactive display device to distinguish between pointer events. The computing device may determine a position displacement associated with a user-controlled pointer interaction with the display device and compare the position displacement with an error threshold value to determine a type of operation to perform on the display device.

Claims

1. A method for distinguishing between user operations for an interactive display device, comprising:

detecting interactions between a user-controlled pointer and the interactive display device to establish pointer events;

measuring a position displacement as a distance between a first pointer event and a second pointer event; and

comparing the position displacement to an error threshold to distinguish between user operation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user operations may be selected from a set comprising a scroll operation and a selection operation.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating a decay time associated with each established pointer event.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

adjusting the error threshold based on the decay time.

5. A method comprising:

detecting interactions between a user-controlled pointer and an interactive display device to form pointer events;

receiving separately a first pointer event and a second pointer event;

calculating a pointer displacement based on a position of the user-controlled pointer upon occurrence of the first pointer event and a position of the user-controlled pointer-upon occurrence of the second pointer event; and

comparing the pointer displacement to an error threshold to determine a desired user operation associated with the first and second pointer events.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

stopping activity associated with a widget displayed on the user interface on receiving the first pointer event.

7. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

determining a decay time based on an elapsed time between occurrence of the first pointer event and occurrence of the second pointer event.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

increasing the error threshold if the decay time is above a predetermined value.

9. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

decreasing the error threshold if the decay time is less than a predetermined value.

10. The method according to claim 5, wherein the desired user operation is one of a scroll operation and a selection operation.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

determining that the desired user operation is a selection operation when the error threshold is less than the pointer displacement.

12. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

determining that the desired user operation is a scroll operation when the error threshold is greater than the pointer displacement.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the desired user operation includes a scroll operation and a selection operation.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining a decay time based on the length of time elapsed between the first and second pointer events.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

adjusting the error threshold based on the decay time.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the user operations may be selected from a set comprising a scroll operation and a selection operation.

21. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

means for calculating a decay time associated with each established pointer event.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

means for adjusting the error threshold based on the decay time.

13. A method for distinguishing between user operations for an interactive display device, comprising:

detecting occurrences involving interactions between a user-controlled pointer and an interactive display device to form pointer events;

calculating a pointer displacement based on a position of the user-controlled pointer upon occurrence of a first pointer event and a position of the user-controlled pointer upon occurrence of a second pointer event;

comparing the pointer displacement to an error threshold;

performing a selection operation if pointer displacement is less than or equal to the error threshold; and

performing a scroll operation if pointer displacement is greater than the error threshold.

14. A method for determining a desired user operation performed by a processor in a personal digital assistant having an input device comprising a pointer and a pressure sensitive surface for receiving user input and a display, the method comprising:

detecting input events associated with the pressure sensitive surface, each input event have a location relative to at least one point of the pressure sensitive surface;

determining a position displacement as a distance between a first location associated with a first input event and a second location associated with a second input event; and

comparing the position displacement to an error threshold to determine the desired user operation.

18. A computer-readable medium including instructions for performing a method, when executed by a processor, the method comprising:

displaying at least one graphical interface object that is responsive to a user operation associated with a pointer;

detecting a first pointer event and a second pointer event;

determining a pointer displacement based on a position of the pointer at the first pointer event and a position of the pointer at the second pointer event;

determining an error threshold based on an elapsed time between the first pointer event and the second pointer event; and

identifying the user operation based on the error threshold and pointer displacement.

19. A system for distinguishing between user operations for an interactive display device, comprising:

means for detecting interactions between a user-controlled pointer and the interactive display device to establish pointer events;

means for measuring a position displacement as a distance between a first pointer event and a second pointer event; and

means for comparing the position displacement to an error threshold to distinguish between user operation.