Adaptive and Dynamic Text Filtering

• US 20080316211A1
• Filed: 06/28/2007
• Published: 12/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Sheikh, Haroon, Clegg, Derek B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,944,447 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/467
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0457 Improvement of perceived resolution by subpixel rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/144 the light being ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/28 for enhancement of character form, e.g. smoothing

Abstract

A device sensor determines an external state of a device. Text to be displayed on a display screen of the device is dynamically filtered based on the external state of the device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving an indication of an external state of a device; and

dynamically filtering text to be displayed on a display screen of the device based on the external state of the device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the external state of the device is based on one or more external conditions.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more external conditions are selected from the group consisting of device orientation and external light.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an indication of an external state of the device further comprises receiving a signal from one or more sensors indicating the external state of the device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more sensors are selected from the group consisting of an orientation sensor and a light sensor.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically filtering text based on the external state of the device comprises:

retrieving outline points for one or more characters;

generating an outline from the outline points;

filtering the outline based on the external state of the device;

rasterizing the outline into a bitmapped image;

filtering the bitmapped image based on the external state of the device; and

generating a glyph from the filtered bitmapped image to be displayed as text on the display screen of the device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein filtering the outline comprises dilating the outline.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein filtering the bitmapped image comprises smoothing the bitmapped image.

9. A device, comprising:

a sensor to determine an external state of the device;

a processor to dynamically filter text to be displayed based on the external state of the device; and

a display screen to display the dynamically filtered text.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the display screen is a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen.

11. The device of claim 9, wherein the device is one or more of a cell phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable game console, and a media player.

12. The device of claim 9, wherein the external state of the device is a physical orientation of the device.

13. The device of claim 9, wherein the external state of the device is based on an amount of external light shining on the device.

14. The device of claim 10, the processor further to dynamically filter text such that the text is maintained at a constant orientation on the display screen relative to a fixed point external to the device while the device transitions from a first physical orientation to a second physical orientation.

15. A method, comprising:

receiving an indication of a first orientation of a device from an orientation sensor;

filtering a character to be displayed as text on a display screen of the device according to the first orientation;

dynamically re-filtering the character to maintain the orientation of the text on the display screen relative to a fixed point that is external to the device during a transition from the first device orientation to a second device orientation.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first orientation is one of a landscape orientation and a portrait orientation and the second orientation is the other one of the landscape orientation and the portrait orientation.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein filtering a character according to the portrait orientation comprises:

retrieving outline points for the character;

generating an outline from the outline points;

rasterizing the outline into a bitmapped image; and

generating a glyph from the bitmapped image to be displayed as text on the display screen of the device.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein filtering a character according to the landscape orientation comprises:

retrieving outline points for the character;

generating an outline from the outline points;

dilating the outline;

rasterizing the outline into a bitmapped image;

filtering the bitmapped image; and

generating a glyph from the filtered bitmapped image to be displayed as text on the display screen of the device.

19. An article of manufacture comprising a computer-readable medium having content stored thereon to provide instructions to result in an electronic device performing operations including:

receiving an indication of an external state of a device; and

dynamically filtering text to be displayed on a display screen of the device based on the external state of the device.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 19, wherein receiving an indication of the external state of the device further comprises receiving a signal from one or more sensors indicating the external state of the device.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein the one or more sensors are selected from the group consisting of an orientation sensor and a light sensor.

22. The article of manufacture of claim 19, wherein the instruction to cause the electronic device to dynamically filter text based on the external state of the device comprises further instructions including:

retrieving outline points for one or more characters;

generating an outline from the outline points;

dilating the outline based on the external state of the device;

rasterizing the outline into a bitmapped image;

smoothing the bitmapped image based on the external state of the device; and

generating a glyph from the filtered bitmapped image to be displayed as text on the display screen of the device.