METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR VIEWING STACKED SCREEN DISPLAYS USING GESTURES

• US 20120105363A1
• Filed: 09/28/2011
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Z124 LLC (Flexis)
• Original Assignee: IMERJ LLC (Flex, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Sirpal, Sanjiv, Faulk, Brett, Reeves, Paul, de Paz, Alexander, Schrock, Rodney Wayne, Visosky, John Steven, Freedman, Eric, Ficklin, Jared, Burton, Denise, Wygonik, Gregg, Cripps, Misty
• Granted Patent: US 9,213,365 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1616 with folding flat displays, e.g. laptop computers or notebooks having a clamshell configuration, with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1643 the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1649 the additional display being independently orientable, e.g. for presenting information to a second user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1677 for detecting open or closed state or particular intermediate positions assumed by movable parts of the enclosure, e.g. detection of display lid position with respect to main body in a laptop, detection of opening of the cover of battery compartment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• 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 3/044 by capacitive means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

An intuitive technique for inputting user gestures into a handheld computing device is disclosed allowing a user to better manipulate different types of screen display presentations, such as desktops and application windows, when performing tasks thereon, wherein a window stack for application windows and/or desktops can be navigated and sequentially displayed according to the window stack ordering without disturbing or changing this ordering.

Claims

1. A method for configuring a device having at least one display screen for displaying a plurality of display objects, each object being one of a window or desktop, comprising:

receiving a first user finger gesture input to a gesture capture area operatively associated with the at least one screen, but being separate therefrom;

interpreting the user finger gesture input as a request for navigating an ordering of the plurality of display objects, data for the ordering stored in a non-transient data storage;

in response to the step of interpreting, determining a window or desktop to present on the at least one display screen, wherein the window or desktop is identified as immediately preceding or immediately following, in the ordering, a currently displayed one of the display objects;

as result of the step of determining, performing the steps of;

(a-1) ceasing to display the currently displayed display object on the at least one screen display; and

(a-2) displaying the window or desktop on the at least one screen display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the gesture capture area includes a capacitive touch sensitive area for receiving the user gesture input.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the gesture capture area is not capable of displaying any of the display objects.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein after the step of displaying, the ordering is unchanged from before the step of determining.

5. The method of claim 4, comprising:

second receiving a second user finger gesture input to the gesture capture area associated with the at least one screen;

second interpreting the second user finger gesture input as a second request for navigating the ordering of the plurality of display objects;

second determining a second window or desktop to present on the at least one display, wherein the second window or desktop is identified as immediately preceding or immediately following, in the ordering, the window or desktop;

as result of the step of second determining, performing the steps of;

(b-1) second ceasing to display the window or desktop on the at least one screen display; and

(b-2) second displaying the second window or desktop on the at least one screen display.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one display screen includes a plurality of display screens, and the window or desktop displays on a second of the display screens prior to a completion of the step of second displaying.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein each of the user gesture input and the second user gesture input is interpreted as being for a same user gesture.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user gesture input includes one of:

a drag, and a flick.

9. The method of claim 4, further including:

receiving a user finger gesture input to the displayed the window or desktop on the at least one screen display;

changing the ordering as a result of the user finger gesture input;

second receiving a second user finger gesture input to the gesture capture area associated with the at least one screen;

second interpreting the second user finger gesture input as a second request for navigating the changed ordering of the plurality of display objects;

second determining a second window or desktop to present on the at least one display, wherein the second window or desktop is identified as immediately preceding or immediately following the window or desktop in the changed ordering;

as result of the step of second determining, performing the steps of;

(b-1) second ceasing to display the window or desktop on the at least one screen display; and

(b-2) second displaying the second window or desktop on the at least one screen display.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein there is a predetermined collection of a plurality of user finger gesture input descriptions for recognizing user gesture inputs that are interpretable in the step of interpreting.

11. A computer readable medium for configuring a device having at least one display screen for displaying a plurality of display objects, each object being one of a window or desktop, comprising:

machine instructions for performing the following steps;

receiving a first user finger gesture input to a gesture capture area operatively associated with the at least one screen, but being separate therefrom;

interpreting the user finger gesture input as a request for navigating an ordering of the plurality of display objects, data for the ordering stored in a non-transient data storage;

in response to the step of interpreting, determining a window or desktop to present on the at least one display screen, wherein the window or desktop is identified as immediately preceding or immediately following, in the ordering, a currently displayed one of the display objects;

as result of the step of determining, performing the steps of;

(a-1) ceasing to display the currently displayed display object on the at least one screen display; and

(a-2) displaying the window or desktop on the at least one screen display.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the step of interpreting is for navigating a window stack for the plurality of display objects so that the ordering of the display objects remains unchanged.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the machine instructions further perform the following steps:

second receiving a second user finger gesture input to the gesture capture area associated with the at least one screen;

second interpreting the second user finger gesture input as a second request for navigating the ordering of the plurality of display objects;

second determining a second window or desktop to present on the at least one display, wherein when the window or desktop is identified as a top or bottom display object in the ordering, the second window or desktop is identified as, respectively, being a bottom display object in the ordering, or a top display object in the ordering;

as result of the step of second determining, performing the steps of;

(b-1) second ceasing to display the window or desktop on the at least one screen display; and

(b-2) second displaying the second window or desktop on the at least one screen display.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the machine instructions further perform the following steps:

receiving a user finger gesture input to the displayed the second window or desktop on the at least one screen display; and

changing the ordering as a result of the user finger gesture input.

15. A hand-held device, comprising:

at least one display screen for displaying a plurality of display objects, each object being one of a window or desktop;

a gesture capture area associated with the at least one display screen for receiving first user finger gesture input, the gesture capture area being separate from the at least one display screen;

wherein the at least one display screen is responsive to user touch for receiving a second user finger gesture input;

a display manager for determining which of the plurality of display objects is displayed on the at least one screen;

a gesture interpreter for interpreting each of the first and second user finger gesture inputs for determining an action to perform on the at least one screen display, wherein the gesture interpreter compares each of the first and second user finger gesture inputs with a predetermined collection of a plurality of user gesture input descriptions for recognizing user gesture inputs that are interpretable;

a non-transient data storage for storing data indicative of an ordering of the plurality of display objects;

wherein for a currently displayed one of the display objects when the first user gesture input is received, determining a window or desktop to present on the at least one display screen, wherein the window or desktop is identified as immediately preceding or immediately following, in the ordering the one display object;

wherein the display manager replaces the one display object on the at least one display screen with a display of the window or desktop; and

wherein the ordering is unchanged after the replacement of the one display object with the display of the window or desktop.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the gesture capture area is not capable of displaying any of the display objects.

17. The device of claim 15, further including a task manager, wherein when data indicative of the second user finger gesture is input is received by the display manager after the window or desktop is displayed, task manager changes the ordering so that the window or desktop is represented as being at a top of the ordering.

18. The device of claim 15, wherein the at least one display screen includes a plurality of display screens, and when the display manager replaces the one display object on a first of the display screens with a display of the window or desktop, the display manager displays the one display object on a second of the display screens so that the one display object and the window or desktop display concurrently.

19. The device of claim 18, further including:

an attachment configured to foldably connect the first display screen with the second display screen;

a first sensor configured to produce a first signal indicative of a fold position of the first display screens relative to one another; and

a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that include;

a first set of the instructions configured to determine that the device has moved from a first physical orientation to a different second physical orientation, wherein the first and second physical orientations differ by the first physical orientation being one of;

folded or in a landscape orientation;

wherein the ordering does not change as a result of folding the device, and the ordering does not change as a result of unfolding the device.