Variable orientation user interface

• US 20070220444A1
• Filed: 03/20/2006
• Published: 09/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Coddington, Nicole, Boler, Sabrina, Whytock, Chris, Sunday, Derek, Storrusten, Dane
• Granted Patent: US 8,930,834 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/788
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

A graphical user interface system is described in which users can be located at any angle. Different application interfaces can be generated on the display to appear in different orientations, such that different users sitting at different positions around the periphery of a display surface may each have an interface that is readable and accessible. The location and orientation of a new interface may be specified by user request, or may be automatically determined based on a characteristic of the request, such as the location of a tap or the direction of a swipe gesture. Interfaces may be radial in nature, and may have a central origin on the display, or at corners of the display.

Claims

1. A method for implementing a graphical user interface, comprising the steps of:

displaying a first application user interface in a first orientation for a first application on a display of a computing device;

receiving a user request to open a second application user interface on said display; and

in response to said request, displaying a second application user interface on said display while said first application user interface is displayed, said second application user interface being displayed at a second orientation different from said first orientation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said user request is entered as a touch input on a portion of said display, said method further comprising a step of determining said second orientation based on said touch input.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said touch input is a gesture, and said step of determining is based on a direction of said gesture.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising a step of determining said second orientation based on a location of said touch input.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said second graphical user interface is a point origin interface.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said point origin interface is a corner interface and includes elements oriented with a corner of said display.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of defining two or more corner regions corresponding to corners of said display, wherein a user input made in one of said corner regions results in said corner interface being oriented with the corresponding corner of said one of said corner regions.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein said point origin interface is a circular radial interface and includes elements oriented with a center origin.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of relocating one or more of said elements around said circular radial interface in response to user input, and automatically rotating said one or more of said elements to maintain orientation with said center origin.

10. The method of claim 2, further comprising a step of defining two or more regions of said display, and associating a predetermined orientation with each of said regions, wherein said step of automatically determining is based on the region touched.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said two or more regions are edge regions along edges of said display.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a further request to change an orientation of said second interface; and

responsive to said request, changing said orientation of said second interface while maintaining said first interface at said first orientation.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said changing said orientation is performed using a parent-child data structure for said second interface, wherein data values for child elements of said second interface are represented as offsets from a parent element of said second interface.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of resizing or moving said first interface in response to the display of said second interface to avoid overlap between the two interfaces.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said second interface is not a radial interface, and further comprising the step of converting said second interface to a radial interface in response to a user request to move said second interface to a corner of said display.

16. A table computing device, comprising:

a display surface;

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media containing instructions for causing said one or more processors to open an application interface in one of more than two orientations based on a direction or location of a user input on said display surface.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein said one or more computer-readable media further contains instructions to cause said one or more processors to determine an orientation of an application interface based on the placement of a physical object on said display surface.

18. The device of claim 16, wherein said one or more computer-readable media further contains instructions to cause said one or more processors to change an orientation of a first application interface while maintaining an orientation of a second application interface for a different application.

19. A graphical user interface method, comprising the steps of:

displaying a first graphical user interface panel on a display of a computing device, said first interface containing textual data oriented to be read from a first side of said display; and

displaying a second graphical user interface panel on said display, said second interface panel containing textual data oriented to be read from a second side of said display different from said first side, wherein said second user interface panel is further rotatable to be viewed from a different position around a perimeter of said display, and wherein said first and second user interface panels correspond to different applications running on an operating system of said computing device.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising a step of moving said second user interface panel to a corner of said display, and converting said second user interface panel to a radial interface.