Window control method

• US 20050060658A1
• Filed: 08/26/2004
• Published: 03/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Mitsuharu Tsukiori
• Original Assignee: Mitsuharu Tsukiori
• Inventors: Tsukiori, Mitsuharu
• Application Number:
  US10/925,912
• Publication Number:
  US 20050060658A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/765
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• 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 method allows a window to be enlarged, reduced in size, or moved easily by designating an operated object without performing an operation of accurately positioning a point position at a frame line or vertex as the operated object. The method comprises a step of sequentially acquiring the position of a pointer of said pointer device as said pointer is moved after the movement trajectory of said pointer intersects itself following the start of a pointer moving operation, until said pointer moving operation is completed, and storing the thus acquired positions in a table; a step in which it is determined if a part of the movement trajectory of said pointer that is obtained by connecting the information about the movement positions of said pointer stored in said table intersects any of the frame lines of the window as a controlled object, and if it does, the following factors: a. the number of intersected frame lines of the window; and b. the number of end-point coordinates of the intersected frame lines, in order to determine the movement trajectory of said pointer corresponds to which of the instructions of the enlargement/reduction and movement of the window frame, and the window frame or a vertex is determined as the object of operation; and a step of enlarging, reducing, or moving the window frame or vertex as the object of operation in accordance with the thus recognized instruction, in a positional direction in which the movement operation of said pointer has ended after the movement trajectory of said pointer intersected itself, until the completion of the movement operation, by moving the window frame or vertex in accordance with the amount of movement of said pointer.

Claims

1. A method of controlling the size of a window and the position thereof on a screen in a window system, using a pointer device capable of designating a desired position on the screen, said method comprising:

a first step of sequentially acquiring the position of a pointer of said pointer device as said pointer is moved after the movement trajectory of said pointer intersects itself following the start of a pointer moving operation, until said pointer moving operation is completed, and storing the thus acquired positions in a table;

a second step in which it is determined if a part of the movement trajectory of said pointer, which is obtained by putting together the information about the movement positions of said pointer that are stored in said table, intersects any of the frame lines of the window as a controlled object, and in which, if it does, the following factors;

a. the number of frame lines of the window that are intersected; and

b. the number of end-point coordinates of the intersected frame lines, are checked in order to recognize to which of the instructions of the enlargement/reduction and movement of a window frame the movement trajectory of said pointer corresponds, and to determine a window frame or a vertex as the operated object; and

a third step of enlarging, reducing, or moving the window frame or vertex determined as the operated object in accordance with the thus recognized instruction, in a positional direction in which the movement operation of said pointer has ended after the movement trajectory of said pointer had intersected itself, by an amount corresponding to the amount of movement of said pointer executed before the completion of the movement operation.

2. The method of controlling a window according to claim 1, said second step comprises further recognizing, based on a combination of said factors, if the movement trajectory of said pointer corresponds to an instruction for maximization or minimization of the window frame, and, if it corresponds to an instruction for maximization or minimization, the entire window frame is maximized or minimized to a preset size, instead of said third step.