Tilt-based pointing for hand-held devices
14 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods of pointing in hand-held devices are described. In accordance with this scheme, a user may control the position where a pointer is displayed on a display screen simply by changing the orientation of the hand-held device relative to a currently preferred device orientation, which is tracked automatically. In addition, unintentional device orientation changes, such as periodic device orientation changes that might be caused by carrying the hand-held device while walking or driving, are filtered out dynamically. In this way, the pointer may be positioned accurately and reliably at any one of a plurality of pointer screen locations based upon changes in device orientation under a wide variety of different usage conditions.
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Citations
44 Claims
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1-26. -26. (Canceled)
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27. A hand-held device, comprising:
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a display screen;
an orientation sensor configured to provide an indication of orientation of the hand-held device; and
a controller configured to compute a relative reference position based on multiple device orientation indications provided by the orientation sensor over time and to compute a pointer screen location based on device orientation indications provided by the orientation sensor, relative to the relative reference position. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A method of pointing in a hand-held device, comprising:
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providing indications of orientation of the hand-held device over time;
computing a relative reference position based on multiple device orientation indications provided by the orientation sensor over time; and
computing a pointer screen location based on the provided device orientation indications, relative to the relative reference position, and displaying a pointer on a display screen at the pointer screen location. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. A hand-held device, comprising:
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a display screen;
an orientation sensor configured to provide an indication of orientation of the hand-held device; and
a controller configured to compute a pointer screen location based on device orientation indications provided by the orientation sensor and to display a pointer at the computed pointer screen location on the display screen, wherein the controller is configured to display the pointer in a default pointer screen area after a period of lack of change in orientation by the hand-held device;
wherein the controller is configured to have an incremental bias toward the default pointer screen area for each of multiple pointer screen locations computed, wherein the pointer gravitates to the default pointer screen area in multiple steps after a period of lack of change in orientation by the hand-held device.
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42. A method of pointing in a hand-held device, comprising:
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providing indications of orientation of the hand-held device over time;
computing a pointer screen location where a pointer is to be displayed on a display screen based on the provided device orientation indications, including computing the pointer screen location to be within a default pointer screen area after a period of remaining stationary by the hand-held device; and
displaying the pointer based on the computed pointer screen location;
wherein the step of computing a pointer screen location comprises biasing a computed pointer screen location by an incremental amount toward the default pointer screen area, for each of multiple times that a pointer screen location is computed, wherein the pointer gravitates to the default pointer screen area in multiple steps after a period of non-movement of the hand-held device.
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43. A hand-held device, comprising:
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a display screen;
an orientation sensor configured to provide an indication of orientation of the hand-held device; and
a controller configured to compute a pointer screen location based on device orientation indications provided by the orientation sensor and to display a pointer at the computed pointer screen location on the display screen, wherein the controller is configured to automatically display the pointer in a default pointer screen area after a period of lack of change in orientation by the hand-held device;
wherein the display screen includes a center, and the default pointer screen area is a center region of the display screen.
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44. A method of pointing in a hand-held device, comprising:
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providing indications of orientation of the hand-held device over time;
computing a pointer screen location where a pointer is to be displayed on a display screen based on the provided device orientation indications, including automatically computing the pointer screen location to be within a default pointer screen area after a period of remaining stationary by the hand-held device; and
displaying the pointer based on the computed pointer screen location;
wherein the default pointer screen area is a center region of the display screen.
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Specification