UNIFIED SLIDER CONTROL FOR MODIFYING MULTIPLE IMAGE PROPERTIES

• US 20130239057A1
• Filed: 09/27/2012
• Published: 09/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Ubillos, Randy, Johnson, Garrett M., Webb, Russell Y., Cherna, Timothy D., Roberts, Samuel M., Warner, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 9,131,192 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/833
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04855 Interaction with scrollbars
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/6027 Correction or control of colour gradation or colour contrast H04N1/6058 takes precedence

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a novel user interface (UI) tool that is a unified slider control, which includes multiple sliders that slide along a region. The region is a straight line in some embodiments, while it is an angular arc in other embodiments. In some embodiments, the unified slider control is used in a media editing application to allow a user to modify several different properties of the image by moving several different sliders along the region. Each slider is associated with a property of the image. A position of the slider in the region corresponds to a value of the property associated with the slider.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit of a device provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for controlling an application, the GUI comprising:

a slider track for specifying different values of different properties of an image; and

a plurality of slider icons for moving along the slider track, each slider icon associated with a different property of the image, different positions along the slider track specifying different values of the property associated with each slider icon, wherein each slider icon is movably related to at least one other slider icon such that a movement of the slider icon along the slider track causes at least the other slider icon to move along the slider track.

2. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the GUI further comprises an image display area for displaying the image, wherein the different values of the different properties specify different appearances of the image displayed in the image display area.

3. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2, wherein the appearance of the image displayed in the display area changes in a first way as a first slider icon moves along the slider track and in a second way as a second slider icon moves along the slider track.

4. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the movement of a first slider icon in a particular direction along the slider track causes a second slider icon to move in the same particular direction along the slider track.

5. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the movement of a first slider icon is over a first distance of the track and the movement of a second slider icon is over a second distance of the track.

6. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the movement of a first slider icon in a particular direction along the track causes a second slider icon to move in the opposite direction along the track.

7. A method of editing an image using a slider track and a plurality of slider icons, each slider icon associated with an image property of the image and movably positioned on the slider track, the method comprising:

detecting a movement of a particular slider icon along the slider track;

in response to the detection of the movement, moving two or more other slider icons along the slider track; and

modifying the image properties associated with the particular slider icon and the two or more other slider icons based on the movements of the particular slider icon and the two or more other slider icons.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising identifying the image properties associated with the particular slider icon and two or more other slider icons.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein moving the two or more other slider icons comprises:

identifying a direction of the detected movement of the particular slider icon along the slider track; and

moving at least one of the two or more slider icons in the same direction along the slider track.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein after the movement of the particular slider icon, the position of the particular slider icon on the slider track specifies a first value, and after movement of the two or more other slider icons, each position of the two or more other slider icons specifies a different value, wherein modifying the image properties comprises changing the value of the image property associated with the particular slider icon to the first value and the value of the image property associated with each of the two or more other slider icons to the specified different value.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein moving at least one of the two or more other slider icons along the slider track comprises automatically moving another, different slider icon along the slider track, wherein the other, different slider icon automatically moves in an opposite direction along the track.

12. A computer-implemented system for controlling a plurality of sliders on a single slider track for modifying properties of an image, the system comprising:

a slider processor for receiving a user input to adjust a position of a particular slider on the track;

a slider adjustment module for identifying positions of the particular slider and one or more other sliders based on the user input; and

an image processing module for adjusting the image based on the identified positions.

13. The computer-implemented system of claim 12, wherein the slider processor is further for receiving a user input to display a unified slider tool comprising the plurality of sliders and the single slider track, wherein the system further comprises a positioning module for identifying initial positions of the plurality of sliders on the single slider track, wherein the unified slider tool is displayed based on the initial positions of the sliders on the slider track.

14. The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the positioning module identifies the initial positions of the sliders by (i) analyzing the image properties and (ii) determining values of the properties.

15. The computer-implemented system of claim 12, wherein the user input to adjust the position of the particular slider is a directional movement, wherein the slider adjustment module is further for converting the directional movement into a positional movement of the particular slider, wherein the slider adjustment module identifies the position of the particular slider based on the positional movement.

16. The computer-implemented system of claim 12, wherein the slider adjustment module is further for identifying the other sliders, wherein the identified position of the particular slider is different from the identified positions of the other sliders.

17. The computer-implemented system of claim 16, wherein the slider adjustment module identifies the positions of the other sliders based on a set of rules for repositioning the other sliders.

18. The computer-implemented system of claim 12, wherein the image processing module adjusts the image using a transform that specifies a mapping of a set of image values of the image to a set of adjusted image values based on the identified positions.

19. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a media editing application which when executed by at least one processing unit performs tonal adjustments of images, said application comprises sets of instructions for:

displaying a first image comprising a first tonal range;

displaying a slider track and a plurality of slider icons positioned along the slider track based on the first tonal range;

displaying a second image comprising a different second tonal range; and

repositioning the slider icons displayed along the slider track based on the second tonal range.

20. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 19, said application further comprising sets of instructions for:

analyzing a first set of image pixel values of the first image;

identifying the first tonal range of the first image based on the first set of analyzed image pixel values;

analyzing a second set of image pixel values of the second image; and

identifying the second tonal range of the second image based on the second set of analyzed image pixel values.

21. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 19, wherein each tonal range specifies a spectrum of image pixel values from a darkest image pixel value to a lightest image pixel value, wherein a first slider icon represents the darkest image pixel value and a second slider icon represents the lightest image pixel value.

22. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 21, wherein the position along the slider track of the first slider icon for the first image is different from the position along the slider track of the first slider icon for the second image.

23. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a media editing application which when executed by at least one processing unit performs tonal adjustments of an image displayed in the media editing application using a slider track and a plurality of slider icons movably positioned along the slider track, said application comprises sets of instructions for:

detecting a first movement of a slider icon in a first direction along the slider track;

linearly modifying image pixel values of a first set of pixels of the displayed image based on the first movement;

detecting a second movement of the slider icon in a second opposite direction along the slider track; and

modifying image pixel values for a second set of pixels of the displayed image based on the second movement, wherein the second set of pixels are modified non-linearly.

24. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 23, wherein the first movement of the slider icon expands a tonal range of the image.

25. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 23, wherein the particular set of pixels are within a shadow region of the image, wherein the second movement of the slider icon increases brightness of the particular set of pixels.

26. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 23, wherein the particular set of pixels are within a highlight region of the image, wherein the second movement of the slider icon reduces brightness of the particular set of pixels.

27. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a media editing application which when executed by at least one processing unit performs tonal adjustments of an image displayed in an image display area of the media editing application using a slider track and a plurality of slider icons movably positioned along the slider track, said application comprises sets of instructions for:

displaying the slider track and plurality of slider icons positioned along the slider track according to an exposed tonal range of the displayed image, the slider track specifying a permissible tonal range;

detecting a movement of a slider icon along the slider track beyond the permissible tonal range; and

displaying a visual indication upon detecting the movement of the slider icon beyond the permissible tonal range.

28. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 27, wherein the permissible tonal range is a spectrum of image pixel values from a darkest pixel value to a lightest pixel value.

29. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 27, wherein the image displayed in the image display area appears distorted when the slider icon is moved beyond the permissible tonal range.