SCREEN MAGNIFIER PANNING MODEL

• US 20100070912A1
• Filed: 09/15/2008
• Published: 03/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zaman, Nazia, Reid, Paul J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,074,181 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/784
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance

Abstract

A magnifier panning system is described that creates a panning region at the edges of a magnified view. When a user moves the cursor into the panning region, the system pans the magnified view. When the user is not in the panning region, the user can interact with objects in the magnified view without the view shifting around. The objects appear magnified, but they do not behave or move any differently than they would if they were not magnified, providing the user with a familiar and comfortable user experience. Thus, the magnifier panning system provides the user with a much more natural view for interacting with the displayed objects while still allowing an efficient way to pan the view to move the magnified view to a different area of the screen.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for panning a view of a computer screen, the method comprising:

detecting an update event that indicates a time for updating the contents and position of the view;

retrieving a current position of a displayed cursor;

determining whether the current cursor position lies within a panning region located within the view, wherein the panning region encompasses an area of the view in addition to the edges;

if the cursor is in the panning region, updating the view to magnify a different portion of the computer screen, such that movements of the cursor outside of the panning region do not pan the view.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the panning region has a size that is determined at each edge by a relationship between an edge of the view and an edge of the screen.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising, updating the size and location of the panning region based on the updated view.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein updating the view comprises determining a vector of movement of the cursor and moving the view based on the vector of movement.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising initializing focus tracking and panning the view based on one or more user interface elements that have focus.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising setting an update timer and wherein detecting an update event comprises receiving a notification that the timer has fired.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein detecting an update event throttles update events to manage the performance of the system.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein detecting an update comprises detecting a user action that makes the view out of date.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the panning region surrounds the view at each edge.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the view is displayed full screen on a display such that only a portion of the computer screen is visible on the display at a time.

11. A computer system for determining when to move a magnified view produced by a screen magnifier, the system comprising:

an input device configured to receive input from a user and communicate the input to an operating system;

a cursor tracking component configured to track movement of a cursor around the screen;

a panning region detecting component configured to detect when the cursor is within the panning region;

a panning component configured to move the magnified view to a new location;

a rendering component configured to receive input about one or more items on the screen and render a portion of the screen at a larger size in the magnified view;

a display device configured to display the contents of the magnified view.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the input device is selected from the group consisting of a stylus, a digital pen, a mouse, and a touch screen.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the panning component moves the magnified view based on a current and historical location of the cursor.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the panning component moves the magnified view using animation at an accelerated rate initially and decelerates the movement as the magnified view nears the new location.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein the rendering component receives input as a bitmap and uses a stretch blit to produce the magnified view.

16. The system of claim 11 wherein the display device displays the magnified view as a window that appears on a desktop provided by the operating system.

17. The system of claim 11 further comprising a focus tracking component configured to track the focus of a user'"'"'s actions and pan the magnified view to show an item that currently has the focus.

18. The system of claim 11 further comprising a configuration component configured to receive configuration information from the user that modifies the behavior of the system.

19. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions for controlling a computer system to determine the dimensions of a panning region for moving a magnified view of a computer desktop, by a method comprising:

receiving a size of the computer desktop;

receiving a location of a magnified view relative to the computer desktop;

for each edge of the panning region,

receiving a default value for the size of the edge of the panning region;

scaling the received default value by an amount based on the received location of the magnified view, such that the size of the edge of the panning region gets smaller as the magnified view gets closer to the edge of the computer desktop.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 further comprising, receiving a new location of the magnified view and updating the panning region based on the new location of the magnified view.