AUTOMATIC MAPPING OF POINTING DEVICES TO MULTIPLE DISPLAYS

• US 20100333041A1
• Filed: 07/12/2010
• Published: 12/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Fabrick, Richard W. II
• Granted Patent: US 8,359,551 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/862
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry

Abstract

An automatic pointing device mapping method (400, 420) and associated apparatus for automatically remapping the active area (12) of a graphics tablet (10) to a plurality of displays (122, 124), such as might be used in conjunction with a graphics program (130), a CAD program, or the like. Proximity zones (230, 232) are established along the edge of the active area (12). When a stylus (146) is moved into one of the proximity zones (230, 232), the graphics tablet (10) is switched to control the display (122, 124) in the corresponding direction, provided such a display (122, 124) exists in that direction. In one embodiment data regarding an elapsed time data (220), which is the time the stylus (146) has remained in the proximity zone (230, 232) is monitored, such that the multi-display system (110) is not remapped until the stylus (146) has remained in the proximity zone (230, 232) until a preset time (218) has elapsed.

Claims

1. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions for processing a data structure comprising:

a first position field containing data representing a position for triggering a process for remapping an input device to another display; and

a second position field containing data representing a current position of the input device.

2. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first position field contains data representing the width of an area near an edge.

3. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 2, wherein:

the input device includes a graphics tablet and a stylus; and

the edge is an edge of the graphics tablet.

4. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 1, further including a preset time field containing data representing an activation time period.

5. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 1, further including an elapsed time field containing data representing an elapsed time.

6. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 5, wherein the elapsed time is a time during which an input device has remained in a designated zone.

7. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 1, further including an adjacent monitor field containing data representing presence of a display adjacent to an active monitor.

8. A computer readable non-transitory storage medium storing executable instructions to cause a method comprising:

configuring adjacency relationships among a plurality of display devices;

determining at least one of the display devices as active via a position of an input on an input device and the adjacency relationships; and

controlling the active display devices via the input device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the input device includes a tablet, the method further comprising:

mapping the active display devices to the tablet.

10. The medium of claim 9, wherein the tablet has an available resolution and wherein the mapping devotes the available resolution for the active display devices.

11. The medium of claim 9, wherein the input device includes a stylus and wherein the position indicates where the stylus is located relative to the tablet.

12. The medium of claim 8, wherein each adjacency relationship includes at least a boundary location and identifiers identifying at least two of the display devices adjacent to each other over the boundary location.

13. The medium of claim 12, wherein the boundary location includes a vertical line and wherein the at least two of the display devices are horizontally adjacent to each other.

14. The medium of claim 12, wherein the input device includes at least one proximity zone, and wherein the determination comprises:

detecting if the position falls within the proximity zones; and

identifying whether the at least one of the display devices are adjacent according to the adjacency relationships near the position, if the position is within the proximity zones.

15. The medium of claim 14, further comprises:

monitoring an elapsed period since the position falls within the proximity zones, wherein the position is held within the proximity zones during the elapsed period.

16. The medium of claim 15, further comprises:

comparing the elapsed period with a threshold period, wherein the active display devices are controlled by the input device if the elapsed period is no less than the threshold period.

17. The medium of claim 14, wherein the proximity zones are defined along edges of the input device.

18. The medium of claim 14, wherein the at least one of the display devices are adjacent corresponding to a direction the position moves into the proximity zones.

19. A method comprising:

configuring adjacency relationships among a plurality of display devices;

determining at least one of the display devices as active via a position of an input on an input device and the adjacency relationships; and

controlling the active display devices via the input device.

20. A display system, comprising:

a plurality of display devices;

a input device;

a memory storing executable instructions;

a processor coupled to the plurality of display devices, the input device and the memory to execute the executable instructions from the memory for mapping the input devices for the display devices, the processor being configured to;

configure adjacency relationships among a plurality of display devices, determine at least one of the display devices as active via a position of an input on the input device and the adjacency relationships; and

control the active display devices via the input device.