SYSTEM HAVING USER INTERFACE USING MOTION BASED OBJECT SELECTION AND MOUSE MOVEMENT

• US 20090115736A1
• Filed: 02/28/2008
• Published: 05/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: QNX Software Systems Limited (Canada) (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Tang, Xiaodan, Dodge, Dan, Burgess, Colin, van der Veen, Peter, Tomkins, Steve
• Granted Patent: US 8,497,842 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

A system includes a touchscreen display and an interface application. The interface application controls the touchscreen display to provide a container and a 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 identifies a user manipulation as a mouse movement in response to manipulation of the touchscreen display in an area of the container when the manipulation has a motion magnitude 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 user manipulation as a mouse movement in response to manipulation of the touchscreen display in an area of the container when the manipulation has a motion magnitude exceeding a threshold value.

2. The system of claim 1, where the interface application comprises a movie clip based application.

3. The system of claim 2, where the interface application comprises:

a movie clip based application server;

an object selection handler in communication with the movie clip application server; and

a mouse gesture handler in communication with the movie clip application server.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising an operating system executable by the processor, where the operating system comprises:

an operating system application server in communication with movie clip based application server;

an object selection component in communication with the operating system application server and adapted to communicate with the object selection handler of the interface application through communications between the operating system application server and the movie clip application server to handle object selections identified by the object selection handler; and

a mouse gesture component in communication with the operating system application server and adapted to communicate with the mouse handler of the interface application through communications between the operating system application server and the movie clip application server to handle mouse gestures identified by the mouse handler.

5. The system of claim 4, where the movie clip based application server and the operating system application server communicate with one another using an XML communication format.

6. The system of claim 1, 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 mouse movement identification by the interface application to execute a mouse movement.

7. 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 mouse movement identification by the interface application to execute a mouse movement function.

8. The system of claim 1, where the container and user interface control are disposed on different layers of a multilayer display arrangement.

9. The system of claim 8, where the user interface control comprises a plurality of user interface controls including keyboard characters.

10. The system of claim 9, and further comprising an operating system executable by the processor, where the operating system is responsive to selection of the keyboard characters as identified by the interface application to execute text entry functions corresponding to the selection of the keyboard characters, and where the operating system is responsive to mouse movement identification by the interface application to execute a mouse movement function.

11. The system of claim 8, where the user interface control comprises a plurality of user interface controls disposed on different layers of a multilayer display arrangement, and where the interface application executes a hierarchical search of the 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.

12. 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 user manipulation of the touchscreen display in an area of the container as a mouse movement gesture when the manipulation has a motion magnitude 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 a mouse movement gesture as identified by the interface application to execute a mouse motion corresponding to the identified mouse movement gesture.

13. The system of claim 12, where the interface application comprises a movie clip based application.

14. The system of claim 13, where the interface application comprises:

a movie clip based application server;

an object selection handler in communication with the movie clip application server; and

a mouse gesture handler in communication with the movie clip application server.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising an operating system executable by the processor, where the first and second applications are implemented in the operating system and comprise:

an operating system application server in communication with movie clip based application server;

an object selection component in communication with the operating system application server and adapted to communicate with the object selection handler of the interface application through communications between the operating system application server and the movie clip application server to handle object selections identified by the object selection handler; and

a mouse gesture component in communication with the operating system application server and adapted to communicate with the mouse handler of the interface application through communications between the operating system application server and the movie clip application server to handle mouse gestures identified by the mouse handler.

16. The system of claim 15, where the movie clip based application server and the operating system application server communicate with one another using an XML communication format.

17. The system of claim 12, where the first and second applications are included in an operating system.

18. The system of claim 12, where the first and second applications are included in a single user application.

19. The system of claim 12, where the container and user control are disposed on different layers of a multilayer display arrangement.

20. The system of claim 12, where the user control comprises a plurality of user controls, and where the plurality of user controls includes keyboard characters.

21. The system of claim 20, and further comprising an operating system executable by the processor, where the operating system is responsive to selection of the keyboard characters to execute text entry functions corresponding to the selection of the keyboard characters, and where the operating system is responsive to mouse movement identification to execute a mouse movement function corresponding to the gesture.

22. The system of claim 19, where the user control comprises a plurality of user controls disposed on different layers of the multilayer display arrangement, and 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.

23. A method of providing a user interface comprising:

generating a container and one or more selectable objects on a touchscreen display;

detecting manipulation on the touchscreen display;

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

executing a mouse movement on the touchscreen display corresponding to the manipulation if the magnitude of the manipulation extends beyond a threshold value;

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

24. The method of claim 23, where the generating comprises:

generating the container on a first display layer of a multilayer display arrangement; and

generating a selectable object on a second display layer of the multilayer display arrangement.

25. The method of claim 23, where the generating comprises:

generating the container on a display layer of a multilayer display arrangement; and

generating a plurality of selectable objects on one or more further display layers of the multilayer display arrangement, where the plurality of selectable objects includes a plurality of keyboard characters.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

generating a text area on the touchscreen display; and

displaying selected keyboard characters in the text area of the touchscreen display.

27. The method of claim 23, where the generating comprises generating a container and one or more selectable objects on the touchscreen display using a movie clip based application.