SYSTEM HAVING USER INTERFACE USING OBJECT SELECTION AND GESTURES

• US 20090102806A1
• Filed: 02/28/2008
• Published: 04/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: QNX Software Systems Limited (Canada) (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Tomkins, Steve
• Granted Patent: US 8,334,847 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A system includes a touchscreen display and an interface application. The interface application may control the touchscreen display to provide a container and a selectable user interface control. The user interface control may be selected through manipulation of the touchscreen display in an area of the container proximate the user interface control. The user interface application may identify a gesture function in response to manipulation of the touchscreen display in an area of the container when the manipulation has a motion magnitude in a plane of the touchscreen display exceeding a threshold value.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor;

a touchscreen display interacting with the processor;

an interface application executable by the processor to control the touchscreen display, the interface application controlling the touchscreen display to provide a container and a user interface control, where the user interface control is selectable by a user through manipulation of the touchscreen display in an area of the container proximate the user interface control, and where the user interface application identifies a gesture function in response to manipulation of the touchscreen display in an area of the container when the manipulation has a motion magnitude in a plane of the touchscreen display exceeding a threshold value.

2. The system of claim 1, where the container is a movie-based clip.

3. The system of claim 2, where the user interface control is a movie-based clip.

4. The system of claim 1, and further comprising a user application executable by the processor, where the user application is responsive to selection of the user interface control as identified by the interface application to execute a function corresponding to selection of the user interface control, and where the user application is responsive to gesture identification as determined by the interface application to execute a function corresponding to the identified gesture.

5. The system of claim 1, and further comprising an operating system executable by the processor, where the operating system is responsive to selection of the user interface control as identified by the interface application to execute a function corresponding to selection of the user interface control, and where the operating system is responsive to gesture identification by the interface application to execute a function corresponding to the identified gesture.

6. The system of claim 1, where the container is disposed on a first layer of a multilayer display arrangement and a plurality of user interface controls disposed on further layers of the multilayer display arrangement.

7. The system of claim 6, where the interface application executes a hierarchical search of the multiple layers to determine which of the plurality of the plurality of user controls is selected in a given area of the container.

8. A system comprising:

a processor;

a touchscreen display communicating with the processor;

an interface application executable by the processor to control the touchscreen display, the interface application providing a container on a first layer of a multilayer display arrangement and a user interface control on a second layer of the multilayer display arrangement, where the user interface control is selectable by a user through manipulation of the touchscreen display in an area of the container proximate the user interface control, and where the user interface application identifies a gesture function in response to manipulation of the touchscreen display in an area of the container when the manipulation has a motion magnitude in a plane of the touchscreen display exceeding a threshold value.

9. The system of claim 8, where the container is a movie-based clip.

10. The system of claim 8, where the user interface control is a movie-based clip.

11. The system of claim 8, further comprising a user application executable by the processor, where the user application is responsive to selection of the user interface control as identified by the interface application to execute a function corresponding to selection of the user interface control, and where the user application is responsive to gesture identification by the interface application to execute a function corresponding to the identified gesture.

12. The system of claim 8, where the container comprises a plurality of user controls disposed on multiple display layers of the multilayer display arrangement.

13. The system of claim 12, where the interface application executes a hierarchical search of the multiple layers to determine which of the plurality of user controls is selected through manipulation of the touchscreen display in a given area of the container.

14. A system comprising:

an interface application executable to control a touchscreen display to provide a container and a user interface control, where the interface application detects selection of the user interface control when the touchscreen display is manipulated in an area of the container proximate the user interface control, and where the user interface application identifies a gesture function in response to manipulation of the touchscreen display in an area of the container when the manipulation has a motion magnitude in a plane of the touchscreen display exceeding a threshold value;

a first application responsive to selection of the user interface control as identified by the interface application to execute a function corresponding to selection of the user interface control; and

a second application responsive to gesture identification by the interface application to execute a function corresponding to the identified gesture.

15. The system of claim 14, where the container is a movie-based clip.

16. The system of claim 14, where the user interface control is a movie-based clip.

17. The system of claim 14, where the first and second application are part of an operating system.

18. The system of claim 14, where the first and second application comprise one or more user applications.

19. The system of claim 14, where the container is disposed on a layer of a multilayer display arrangement and further comprising a plurality of user controls disposed on further layers of the multilayer display arrangement.

20. The system of claim 19, where the interface application executes a hierarchical search of multiple layers of the multilayer display arrangement to determine which of the plurality of user controls is selected in a given area of the container.

21. A method of providing a user interface comprising:

detecting manipulation on a display in a container area having one or more selectable objects;

determining whether a magnitude of the movement of the manipulation extends beyond a threshold value;

executing a function associated with the movement if the manipulation extends beyond a threshold value;

determining whether the manipulation is in an active area of at least one of the one or more selectable objects if the movement of the manipulation is below the threshold value; and

executing a function associated with the selection of the at least one of the one or more selectable objects if the manipulation is in the area of the at least one of the one or more selectable objects.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising generating the container area on a layer of a multilayer display arrangement.

23. The method of claim 22, where the generation of the container area comprises generating the container as a movie-clip using a movie-clip based application.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising generating the one or more selectable objects on a further layer of the multilayer display arrangement.

25. The method of claim 24, where the generation of the one or more selectable objects comprises generating the one or more selectable objects as movie-clips using a movie-clip based application.