GESTURE-BASED NAVIGATION AMONG CONTENT ITEMS

• US 20130205244A1
• Filed: 01/25/2013
• Published: 08/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Decker, Kevin W., Zambetti, Nicholas, Bernstein, Jeffrey Traer, Sepulveda, Raymond, Kerr, Duncan R., Missig, Julian, Melton, Donald
• Granted Patent: US 9,477,642 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/777
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• 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 3/017 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 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40

Abstract

In any context where a user can view multiple different content items, switching among content items is provided using an array mode. In a full-frame mode, one content item is visible and active, but other content items may also be open. In response to user input the display can be switched to an array mode, in which all of the content items are visible in a scrollable array. Selecting a content item in array mode can result in the display returning to the full-frame mode, with the selected content item becoming visible and active. Smoothly animated transitions between the full-frame and array modes and a gesture-based interface for controlling the transitions can also be provided.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at a computing device with a touch-sensitive surface and a display;

displaying a first user interface region at a first scale factor on the display;

concurrently detecting a plurality of contacts on the touch-sensitive surface; and

,

while continuing to detect at least one respective contact of the plurality of contacts on the touch-sensitive surface;

detecting a first gesture based on movement of the plurality of contacts relative to each other on the touch-sensitive surface;

in response to detecting the first gesture, displaying the first user interface region at a second scale factor lower than the first scale factor;

detecting a second gesture based on movement of the at least one respective contact on the touch-sensitive surface; and

in response to detecting the second gesture, displaying a respective portion of a second user interface region on the display, wherein the second user interface region is different from the first user interface region and the respective portion of the second user interface region was not displayed prior to detecting the second gesture.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first gesture and the second gesture are detected concurrently.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first gesture is detected before the second gesture is detected.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first gesture and the second gesture are part of a continuous gesture sequence.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the first gesture is a multi-contact pinch gesture; and

the second gesture is a translation gesture.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein:

the first gesture is performed with a first number of contacts; and

the second gesture is performed with a second number of contacts less than the first number of contacts.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the first user interface region and the second user interface region are user interface regions selected from the set consisting of:

windows in a multiple document interface of an application;

windows in a tabbed document interface of an application; and

application windows in an operating system.

8. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium encoded with program instructions that, when executed by a processor of a computing device with a touch-sensitive surface and a display device, cause the processor to execute a method comprising:

displaying, on the display device, a first user interface region for an application program at a first scale factor within a display area of the application program, wherein the first user interface region fills the display area;

concurrently detecting a plurality of contacts on the touch-sensitive surface; and

,

while continuing to detect at least one respective contact of the plurality of contacts on the touch-sensitive surface;

detecting a first gesture based on movement of the plurality of contacts relative to each other on the touch-sensitive surface;

in response to detecting the first gesture, displaying the first user interface region at a second scale factor lower than the first scale factor such that the first user interface region does not fill the display area, and displaying at least a portion of a second user interface region at the second scale factor within the display area;

detecting a second gesture based on movement of the at least one respective contact on the touch-sensitive surface; and

in response to detecting the second gesture, displaying the second user interface region at the first scale factor such that the second user interface region fills the display area.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the method further includes displaying an animation of the first user interface region transitioning from the first scale factor to the second scale factor, wherein the animation is displayed in real-time in accordance with a progression of the first gesture.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein one or more of the user interface regions include dynamic content that is updated while being displayed at the second scale factor.

11. A method comprising:

at a computing device with a touch-sensitive surface and a display;

displaying a first user interface region at a first scale factor on the display;

concurrently detecting a plurality of contacts on the touch-sensitive surface; and

,

while continuing to detect at least one respective contact of the plurality of contacts on the touch-sensitive surface;

detecting a first gesture based on movement of the plurality of contacts relative to each other on the touch-sensitive surface;

in response to detecting the first gesture, displaying the first user interface region at a second scale factor lower than the first scale factor, wherein the first user interface region is displayed as one region in a single row of user interface regions displayed at the second scale factor;

detecting a second gesture based on movement of the at least one respective contact on the touch-sensitive surface; and

in response to detecting the second gesture, scrolling the single row of user interface regions displayed at the second scale factor such that a second user interface region becomes visible, wherein the second user interface region is different from the first user interface region.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein scrolling the single row of user interface regions displayed at the second scale factor includes displaying the entire second user interface region at the second scale factor.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein scrolling the single row of user interface regions displayed at the second scale factor includes ceasing to display a portion of the first user interface region that was displayed prior to detecting the second gesture.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

ceasing to detect the at least one respective contact on the touch sensitive surface; and

in response to ceasing to detect the at least one respective contact on the touch-sensitive surface;

selecting a user interface region from the single row of user interface regions to display at the first scale factor; and

displaying the selected user interface region at the first scale factor.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the selected user interface region is the first user interface region.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the selected user interface region is the second user interface region.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the selected user interface region is selected in accordance with the second gesture.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the selected user interface region is selected based at least in part on a direction of movement of the at least one respective contact at a predefined time relative to an end of the second gesture.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the selected user interface region is selected based at least in part on a location of a representation of the selected user interface region on the display at a predefined time relative to an end of the second gesture.

20. A computer system comprising:

a display;

a touch-sensitive surface;

a processor coupled to the touch-sensitive surface; and

a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the processor, the computer readable storage medium being encoded with program instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

display a first user interface region in a first user interface mode;

detect a first gesture on the touch-sensitive surface;

in response to detecting the first gesture, switch from the first user interface mode to a second user interface mode;

while in the second user interface mode, detect a second gesture that includes movement of a respective contact on the touch-sensitive surface;

in response to detecting the second gesture, perform an operation within a user interface displayed in the second user interface mode; and

in response to detecting an end of the second gesture;

exit the second user interface mode in the event that the respective contact is a contact that was used to perform the first gesture and the respective contact was continuously detected on the touch-sensitive surface throughout the first gesture and the second gesture, and

remain in the second user interface mode after detecting the end of the second gesture in the event that the respective contact is not a contact that was continuously detected on the touch-sensitive surface throughout the first gesture and the second gesture.

21. The computer system of claim 20, wherein the first gesture and the second gesture are part of a continuous gesture sequence.

22. The computer system of claim 20, wherein:

the first gesture is a multi-contact pinch gesture performed with a first number of contacts; and

the second gesture is a translation gesture performed with a second number of contacts less than or equal to the first number of contacts.

23. The computer system of claim 20, wherein the first user interface region is a user interface regions selected from the set consisting of:

a window in a multiple document interface of an application;

a window in a tabbed document interface of an application; and

an application window in an operating system.

24. The computer system of claim 20, wherein detecting the end of the second gesture includes detecting liftoff of the respective contact from the touch-sensitive surface.

25. The computer system of claim 20, wherein detecting the end of the second gesture includes ceasing to detect movement of one or more contacts used to perform the second gesture on the touch-sensitive surface for more than a predefined duration.

26. The computer system of claim 20, wherein:

the first user interface mode is a normal operation mode for performing operations within a single user interface region; and

the second user interface mode is a user-interface-region navigation mode for navigating between different user interface regions, wherein reduced-scale representations of the different user interface regions are presented in the second user interface mode.

27. The computer system of claim 26 wherein:

the reduced-scale representations are arranged in a row; and

the operation performed in response to detecting the second gesture includes scrolling the row of reduced-scale representations of user interface regions.