Seamlessly combined freely moving cursor and jumping highlights navigation

• US 20030016249A1
• Filed: 07/23/2001
• Published: 01/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Van Ee, Jan, Cuijpers, Maurice, Foppema, Roel
• Granted Patent: US 6,947,062 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/810
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance

Abstract

A remote control, operating an on screen STB menu, has a FSR for coarse or free navigation and a key-pad, placed around the FSR, for fine navigation. A user gets feedback by means of a highlighted item or an on screen cursor when operating the FSR and by means of the highlighted item for close by navigation. Pushing the FSR that doubles as an OK- or select-key, can result in the highlighted option selection.

Claims

1. A CE-system comprising:

a user feedback device for rendering user-selectable options;

a user input device for selection of a specific one of the options rendered, the device comprising;

coarse positioning user input means for enabling a user to navigate towards a neighborhood of the specific option in a coarse positioning mode; and

fine positioning user input means for enabling the user to navigate within the neighborhood of the specific option in a fine positioning mode.

2. The CE-system of claim 1, wherein the fine positioning user input means comprises four or more directional inputs keys.

3. The CE-system of claim 1, wherein the fine positioning user input means is placed around the coarse positioning user input means in such a way that the fine positioning user input means and the coarse positioning user input means are controllable by a user'"'"'s thumb.

4. The CE-system of claim 3, wherein the coarse input means is physically combined with an option selection means for selecting the specific option.

5. The CE-system of claim 3, wherein the coarse input means comprises at least of one of the following:

a touch-pad;

an FSR button;

a trackerball.

6. The CE-system of claim 1, wherein the user feedback device comprises a GUI that comprises:

an on-screen cursor in order to provide visual feedback to a user of a current navigation position when using the coarse positioning user input means

a highlighted option to provide visual feedback to the user of the current navigation position when using the fine positioning user input means.

7. The CE-system of claim 6, wherein the coarse positioning input means is physically combined with an option selection means for selection of the highlighted option.

8. The CE-system of claim 2, wherein the coarse positioning input and the fine positioning input means are physically combined into one device, and wherein the device uses contact time discrimination in order to be able to distinguish between a coarse navigation input mode and a fine navigation input mode.

9. A software application for enabling a user to interact with a CE-system under feedback of a rendering of user selectable options, wherein:

the application comprises;

an input for receipt of input data representative of a user input associated with user navigation among the options; and

an output for supplying output data representative of a current navigation position relative to the options rendered;

the application having a coarse positioning mode to enable coarse navigation towards a neighborhood of a specific one of the option, and a fine positioning mode to enable navigation within the neighborhood.

10. The application of claim 9, wherein the input data in the fine positioning mode is representative of a signal from a fine positioning user input means that comprises four or more directional inputs keys.

11. The application of claim 9, for rendering a GUI, and for enabling to generate an on screen cursor for visual feedback to a user of a current navigation position in the coarse positioning mode, and a jumping highlight for visual feedback to the user of the current navigation position in the fine positioning mode.

12. The application of claim 9, wherein operation in the coarse positioning mode or in the fine positioning mode is determined by discrimination between respective time intervals representative of respective temporal patterns of the data at the input.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the method accepts input data from the fine positioning user input means that comprises four or more directional inputs keys.

15. The method of claim 13, for use with a GUI and wherein the first indicium comprises an on screen cursor and the second indicium comprises a highlight.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the method is usable for an input device whereby the coarse and the fine input means are combined whereby using contact time discrimination detection is applied in order to be able to distinguish between the user'"'"'s coarse and fine navigation input.

18. The controller of claim 17, wherein the coarse and the fine positioning user input means are physically integrated with each other in a component, and wherein the controller comprises a sensor for measuring contact time of the user uninterruptedly operating the component to distinguish between the coarse positioning mode and the fine positioning mode.

19. The controller of claim 17, comprising option selection user input means for enabling the user to select a specific option associated with a current position of the indicium and wherein the coarse positioning user input means is spatially located between the fine positioning user input means and the option selection user input means.

20. The controller of claim 17, wherein the fine position user input means is centered around the coarse position user input means.

13. A method of enabling a user to navigate among user selectable options rendered on a display monitor, the method comprising:

enabling the user to provide coarse input data for navigation towards a neighborhood of a specific one of the options in coarse navigation mode; and

enabling the user to provide fine input data for navigation within the neighborhood of the specific option in a fine navigation mode; and

providing on the display monitor a first indicium representative of a current position while navigating in the fine navigation mode and a second indicium representative of the current position while navigating in the coarse navigation mode.

17. A remote controller for control of an indicium rendered on a display monitor for navigating in a menu of user selectable options rendered on the display monitor, wherein the controller comprises:

coarse positioning user input means for enabling a user to navigate towards a neighborhood of the specific option in a coarse positioning mode; and

fine positioning user input means for enabling the user to navigate within the neighborhood of the specific option in a fine positioning mode; and

wherein the coarse positioning user input means and the fine positioning user input means are positioned on the controller for being conveniently operated by a user'"'"'s thumb.