SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR NAVIGATING A SCENE USING DETERMINISTIC MOVEMENT OF AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE

• US 20100188432A1
• Filed: 01/28/2009
• Published: 07/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Tsai, Richard, Harris, Brandon, Just, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,890,898 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/684
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

Systems and methods are providing for scrolling the display of information based on the displacement of the electronic device. An electronic device can include a motion sensing component operative to detect movement of the electronic device (e.g., an accelerometer). The electronic device can display any suitable information, including information that is too large to display at a single instance on the display (e.g., a multi-page text document, or a large image). To view portions of the information that are not initially displayed (e.g., to scroll displayed information), the user can move the electronic device along the plane of the device. As the motion sensing component detects movement, the electronic device can scroll the displayed information to match the detected movement. In some embodiments, the electronic device can detect tilt movements and adjust the displayed information to reflect the tilted display.

Claims

1. A portable electronic device operative to scroll the display of information, comprising:

a display operative to display information to the user, wherein the amount of information to display exceeds the boundaries of the display;

a motion sensing component operative to detect a movement of the electronic device; and

control circuitry operative to;

enable a movement based scrolling mode;

receive data from the motion sensing component indicative of the electronic device movement;

process the received data to determine the amount and direction of the electronic device movement; and

direct the display to scroll the displayed information in a manner related to the determined amount and direction.

2. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is further operative to:

identify the representation on the display of a particular physical distance; and

direct the display to scroll the displayed information based on the identified representation.

3. The portable electronic device of claim 2, wherein the control circuitry is further operative to:

detect the physical amount by which the portable electronic device was moved;

identify the representation on the display of the detected physical amount; and

direct the display to scroll the displayed information by the identified representation of the detected physical amount.

4. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is further operative to:

determine that the position of the electronic device matches the initial position of the device when the movement based scrolling mode was enabled; and

direct the display to display the information initially displayed when the movement based scrolling mode was enabled.

5. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein:

the portable electronic device further comprises an input mechanism for receiving user inputs; and

the control circuitry is further operative to receive a user input from the input mechanism to enable the movement based scrolling mode.

6. The portable electronic device of claim 5, wherein control circuitry is further operative to:

receive a user input from the input mechanism to disable the movement based scrolling mode;

disable the movement based scrolling mode in response to receiving;

disregard data provided by the motion sensing component; and

direct the display to maintain the portion of information displayed in response to receiving.

7. The portable electronic device of claim 6, wherein the control circuitry is further operative to:

receive a user input from the input mechanism to re-enable the movement based scrolling mode;

receive data provided by the motion sensing component; and

direct the display to scroll the displayed information based on the data provided by the motion sensing component after receiving the input to re-enable the movement based scrolling mode.

8. The portable electronic device of claim 6, wherein:

the input to disable the movement based scrolling mode comprises placing a finger on a touch screen; and

the input to re-enable the movement based scrolling mode comprises removing the finger from the touch screen.

9. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is further operative to:

identify the components of the received data associated with movement in the plane of the display; and

define a vector having an orientation and a length based on the identified components.

10. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the motion detection component comprises at least one of an accelerometer and a gyroscope.

11. A method for scrolling the display of information using a portable electronic device, comprising:

displaying an object on a display, wherein at least a portion of the object extends beyond the periphery of the display;

detecting a movement of the portable electronic device in the plane of the display using a motion sensing component; and

scrolling the displayed object in response to detecting to display at least the portion of the object.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining the movement of the environment of the portable electronic device; and

isolating the detected movement of the portable electronic device from the movement of the environment.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein determining further comprises:

receiving movement information from a sensor embedded in the environment; and

processing the received movement information to correlate the received movement information with the detected output of the motion sensing component.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein processing further comprises at least one of converting the received movement information to a different unit and adjusting the reference frame associated with the received movement information.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein determining further comprises:

receiving an indication from a user of a path followed by the environment; and

predicting movement information associated with the received path.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein predicting further comprises predicting the output of the motion sensing component as the portable electronic device travels the received path.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein determining further comprises:

identifying the current location of the portable electronic device;

recognizing that only one path is available for the movement of the environment of the electronic device over a particular distance; and

predicting movement information associated with the one path over the particular distance in response to receiving.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein recognizing further comprises:

identifying the transportation infrastructure of the identified current location;

determining the orientation of the identified transportation infrastructure; and

determining the direction along the determined orientation of the movement of the environment.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the transportation infrastructure comprises at least one of a road, a path and a railroad track.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

identifying the output of the motion sensing component associated with the determined movement of the environment; and

removing the identified output from the measured output of the motion sensing component.

21. The method of claim 11, wherein the object comprises at least one of a document and an image.

22. An electronic device for displaying information, comprising:

a display operative to display information, wherein at least a portion of the information extends beyond the periphery of the display;

a motion sensing component operative to provide an output reflecting the motion of the device; and

control circuitry operative to;

receive the output of the motion sensing component;

process the received data to determine values of electronic device movement in the plane of the display and out of the plane of the display;

direct the display to scroll the displayed information in a manner related to the value of electronic device movement in the plane of the display; and

change the appearance of the displayed information based on the determined value of electronic device movement out of the plane of the display.

23. The electronic device of claim 22, wherein the control circuitry is further operative to:

determine, from the processed data, that the display was tilted; and

stretch the displayed information based on the processed data.

24. The electronic device of claim 22, wherein the control circuitry is further operative to:

zoom the displayed information based on the determined value of electronic device movement out of the plane of the display.

26. The computer readable media of claim 24, further comprising additional computer-readable instructions for:

determining the movement of the environment of the portable electronic device; and

isolating the detected movement of the portable electronic device from the movement of the environment.

25. Computer readable media for scrolling the display of information using a portable electronic device, comprising a computer-readable instructions for:

displaying an object on a display, wherein at least a portion of the object extends beyond the periphery of the display;

detecting a movement of the portable electronic device in the plane of the display using a motion sensing component; and

scrolling the displayed object in response to detecting to display at least the portion of the object.