AUTOMATIC SCROLLING

• US 20090007006A1
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Liu, Tong, Paulson, Janell L., Zhao, Wen, Mahe, Isabel
• Application Number:
  US11/771,460
• Publication Number:
  US 20090007006A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/784
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning

Abstract

Techniques for scrolling through displayed information are disclosed. For instance, an apparatus includes a scrolling management module to set one or more automatic scrolling preferences, and an application to output a content item in accordance with the one or more automatic scrolling preferences. Examples of such scrolling preferences include scrolling speeds, designated input mechanism(s) to adjust scrolling, and the activation/deactivation of orientation-based scrolling.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a scrolling management module to set one or more automatic scrolling preferences;

an application to output a content item in accordance with the one or more automatic scrolling preferences.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more scrolling preferences includes automatic scrolling through the content item upon an opening of the content item.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more scrolling preferences includes one or more user-selectable scrolling speeds.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, further comprising a user input device for a user to select among the one or more scrolling speeds while the content item is being output by the application.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the user input device includes a button, the button to provide for sequential selection among the one or more scrolling speeds.

6. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the one or more user-selectable scrolling speeds includes a stop speed.

7. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the one or more user-selectable scrolling speeds includes a reverse speed.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is included in a handheld device, and wherein the one or more scrolling preferences includes scrolling based on an orientation of the handheld device.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising an orientation determination module to determine the orientation of the handheld device.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the orientation determination module comprises a compass.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the content item includes a word processing document, an e-mail, a browser document, a spreadsheet, a list, menu selections, folder contents, and/or a text file

12. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a display, wherein the application outputs the content item in accordance with the one or more scrolling preferences to the display.

13. A method, comprising:

storing one or more automatic scrolling preferences; and

displaying a content item in accordance with the one or more automatic scrolling preferences.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving the one or more automatic scrolling preferences from a user.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more automatic scrolling preferences includes one or more user-selectable scrolling speeds.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising receiving a selection from among the one or more scrolling speeds while the content item is being output by the application.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the user input device includes a button, the button to provide for sequential selection among the one or more scrolling speeds.

17. An article comprising a machine-readable storage medium containing instructions that if executed enable a system to:

store one or more automatic scrolling preferences; and

display a content item in accordance with the one or more automatic scrolling preferences.

18. An apparatus, comprising:

an application to output a content item; and

a user input device for a user to select among the one or more scrolling speeds for the content item while the content item is being output by the application.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, further comprising a scrolling management module to set the one or more scrolling speeds.