METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING AND DISPLAYING CONTENTS IN A USER INTERFACE

• US 20110107272A1
• Filed: 11/04/2009
• Published: 05/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Aguilar, Antonio
• Granted Patent: US 8,677,284 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/853
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04802 3D-info-object: information is displayed on the internal or external surface of a three dimensional manipulable object, e.g. on the faces of a cube that can be rotated by the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

This invention relates to a display method and apparatus, and more particularly, this invention relates to a user interface with multiple applications which can be operated concurrently and/or independently by using simple finger gestures. Furthermore, the user is allowed to intuitively operate and control digital information, functions, applications, etc. to improve operability. In one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the user is able to use finger gesture to navigate the user interface via a virtual spindle metaphor to select different applications. The user can also split the user interface to at least two display segments which may contain different applications. Moreover, each display segment can be moved to a desirable location on the user interface to provide a seamless operation environment. This invention can also be used in vehicle navigation systems to reduce driver distraction when the display segments can be split and each application can be moved around, so that the passenger can operate the navigation system while the user is driving.

Claims

1. A user interface comprises:

means for generating a polygonal column including a plurality of polygonal units;

means for associating an application with each of said polygonal units;

means for displaying each application in the polygonal unit on a display screen; and

means for arranging the display screen to display each application according to a user'"'"'s finger gesture,

wherein the display screen is controlled by the user'"'"'s finger gesture to display one application or split into at least two display segments to simultaneously display at least two applications.

2. The user interface of claim 1, wherein said means for displaying each application in the polygonal unit on a display screen comprises means for grouping said applications hierarchically to display the applications in the same hierarchy simultaneously, wherein the application includes a source, a function, a music title and a medium title.

3. The user interface of claim 1, wherein said means for arranging the display screen to display at each application according to a user'"'"'s finger gesture comprises means for detecting the user'"'"'s finger location on the display screen, means for detecting the user'"'"'s finger gesture, means for determining whether the user is splitting the display screen, and means for splitting the display screen into at least two display segments to display at least two different applications if the user'"'"'s gesture is recognized to split the display screen.

4. The user interface of claim 3, wherein said means for determining whether the user is splitting the display screen comprises means for detecting a first touch location of at least one finger on the display screen, means for detecting a second touch location of at least one finger on the display screen, means for measuring the duration of the user'"'"'s finger(s) touching on the display screen, and means for measuring a split length between the first location and the second location on the display screen.

5. The user interface of claim 4, wherein said means for measuring a split length between the first location and the second location on the display screen comprises means for determining whether the split length is longer than a predetermined reference length and across a center line of the display screen, wherein the screen is spilt if the split length is longer than the predetermined reference length and across the center line of the display screen.

6. The user interface of claim 3, wherein said means for arranging the display screen to display at each application according to a user'"'"'s finger gesture further comprises means for moving at least one application to a desirable position on the display screen.

7. A display method comprising the steps of:

generating a polygonal column including a plurality of polygonal units;

associating an application with each of said polygonal units;

displaying each application in the polygonal unit on a display screen; and

arranging the user interface to display each application according to a user'"'"'s finger gesture,

wherein the display screen is controlled by the user'"'"'s finger gesture to display one application or split into at least two display segments to simultaneously display at least two applications.

8. The display method of claim 7, wherein said step of displaying each application in the polygonal unit on a display screen comprises the step of grouping said applications hierarchically to display the applications in the same hierarchy simultaneously, wherein the application includes a source, a function, a music title and a medium title.

9. The display method of claim 7, wherein said step of arranging the display screen to display each application according to a user'"'"'s gesture comprises the steps of detecting the user'"'"'s finger location on the display screen, detecting the user'"'"'s finger gesture, determining whether the user is splitting the display screen, and splitting the display screen into at least two display segments to display at least two different applications if the user'"'"'s gesture is recognized to split the display screen.

10. The display method of claim 9, wherein said step of determining whether the user is splitting the display screen comprises the steps of detecting a first touch location of at least one finger on the display screen, detecting a second touch location of at least one finger on the display screen, measuring the duration of the user'"'"'s finger(s) touching on the display screen, and measuring a split length between the first location and the second location on the display screen.

11. The display method of claim 10, wherein said step of measuring a split length between the first location and the second location on the display screen comprises the step of determining whether the split length is longer than a predetermined reference length and across a center line of the display screen, wherein the screen is spilt if the split length is longer than the predetermined reference length and the across the center line of the display screen.

12. The display method of claim 9, wherein said step of arranging the display screen to display each application according to a user'"'"'s finger gesture further comprises the step of moving at least one application to a desirable position on the display screen.

13. The display method of claim 8, wherein the display method further comprises the step of searching for a specific application by spinning the polygonal column.

14. A display apparatus, comprise:

a display screen to display at least one application thereon,

a location detecting unit configured to detect at least one finger from a starting point to an ending point on the display screen;

a gesture interpreting unit communicatively coupled with the location detecting unit to recognize and interpret the user'"'"'s finger gesture on the display screen; and

an application managing unit,

wherein if the user'"'"'s finger gesture is interpreted to split the display screen to at least two display segments, the application managing unit is programmed to enable at least one application displayed on one display segment.

15. The display apparatus of claim 14, wherein the gesture interpreting unit comprises a length measuring unit to determine a split length between the starting and ending points of the finger(s) on the display screen and if the split length is longer than a predetermined length, the display screen is split into at least two display segments.

16. The display apparatus of claim 14, further comprises a control unit, which is communicatively connected with the location detecting unit and the gesture interpreting unit and adapted to control the entire screen splitting and displaying process.

17. The display apparatus of claim 16, further comprises a video generating unit which is configured to receive a command from the control unit to generate corresponding video image according to the user'"'"'s finger gesture.

18. The display apparatus of claim 17, wherein the display apparatus is communicatively coupled with a vehicle navigation system to display a route guidance and a vehicle'"'"'s current location on either the display screen or the display segment.

19. The display apparatus of claim 18, wherein a vehicle driver is allowed to move the display segment displaying the route and the vehicle'"'"'s current position on the display screen where a passenger is allowed to operate the navigation system.