APPROACHES FOR HIGHLIGHTING ACTIVE INTERFACE ELEMENTS

• US 20130246954A1
• Filed: 03/13/2012
• Published: 09/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gray, Timothy T., Privett, Mark R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,378,581 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/767
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• 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 3/04895 Guidance during keyboard input operation, e.g. prompting
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/20 Perspective computation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2215/16 Using real world measurements to influence rendering

Abstract

A graphical user interface can provide a three-dimensional appearance that is consistent for changes in a current location or point of view of a user. The user'"'"'s point of view can be determined by analyzing images showing a current relative location of the user with respect to the device, and motion sensors operable to provide information about changes in orientation or position of the device. In addition to point of view updates, the interface can render active elements such that the elements appear to be closer to an outer surface of the display element. Such rendering can enable the user to easily determine which elements are active, such as may be used to provide text input to the device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of rendering an interface, comprising:

capturing an image of a user using a camera of a computing device;

analyzing, using at least one processor of the computing device, the captured image to determine a relative position of the user with respect to the computing device;

rendering a plurality of interface elements for display on a display screen of the computing device;

receiving a selection of one of the interface elements;

adjusting an appearance of the selected interface element to cause the selected interface element to appear, from the determined relative position of the user, to be positioned closer to a surface of the display screen than unselected interface elements, the computing device enabling the selected interface element to receive input from the user; and

updating the rendering of the plurality of interface elements in response to a new determined relative position of the user.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the new determined relative position of the user is determined based at least in part upon analyzing additional images captured by the camera at subsequent points in time.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the new determined relative position of the user is determined based at least in part upon a change in an orientation of the computing device as determined by at least one sensor.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein adjusting an appearance of the selected interface element includes adjusting at least one of a size, shape, color, shading, or blur of the selected interface element.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

rendering an icon for the selected interface element indicating to the user that the computing device is configured to accept audio input associated with the selected interface element.

6. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

under control of one or more computing systems configured with executable instructions,

determining a graphical interface to be displayed on a display element of a computing device, the graphical interface having an active layer and at least one other layer, the active layer rendered to appear to be positioned over the at least one other layer in the graphical interface;

displaying a plurality of interface elements on the display element as part of the graphical interface, each of the plurality of interface elements being associated with one of the rendering layers; and

in response to selection of an interface element associated with the at least one other layer, associating the selected interface element with the active layer and adjusting an appearance of the selected interface element to correspond to the active layer, the selected interface element capable of receiving input from the user when associated with the active layer.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:

in response to selection of one of the interface elements, causing a previously active interface element that was previously associated with the active layer to be associated with the at least one other layer and adjusting an appearance of the previously active interface element to correspond to the at least one other layer.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein adjusting the appearance of the previously active interface element includes adjusting at least one of a size, shape, color, shading, or blur of the interface element.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein interface elements having a first priority level are associated with the active layer and interface elements having a second priority level are associated with the at least one other layer, the second priority level being lower than the first priority level.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining a relative position of a user of the computing device; and

rendering an interface element of the active layer and the at least one other layer of the graphical interface with an appearance based at least in part upon the determined relative position of the user.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein an interface element of the active layer is rendered to appear, from the determined relative position of the user, to be a distance above the interface elements of the at least one other layer.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein determining the relative position of the user includes capturing image information using at least one camera of the computing device and analyzing the captured image information to determine the relative position of the user.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising:

capturing additional image information during display of the graphical interface;

analyzing the additional image information to determine a change in the relative position of the user; and

adjusting the rendering of at least one of the active layer or the at least one other layer such that the interface element of the active layer appears to remain a distance above the interface elements of the at least one other layer from a current relative position of the user.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising:

detecting a change in at least one of an orientation or position of the computing device using at least one sensor of the computing device;

determining a current relative position of the user based at least in part upon the detected change; and

adjusting the rendering of at least one of the active layer or the at least one other layer such that the interface elements of the active layer appear to remain a distance above the interface elements of the at least one other layer from the current relative position of the user.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the detected change from the at least one sensor is used to provide updates in the relative position of the user between updates obtained from the captured image information.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein determining the relative position of a user includes determining the relative position of at least one facial feature of the user.

17. A computing device, comprising:

a processor;

a display screen; and

memory including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to;

render a graphical interface for display on the display screen, the graphical interface including a plurality of interface elements;

receive a selection of one of the interface elements from a user of the computing device;

determine a current relative position of the user with respect to the computing device; and

in response to the selection, adjust a rendering of the selected interface element to appear as if the selected interface element is a distance closer to the user than at least one other displayed interface element based at least in part upon the current relative position of the user.

18. The computing device of claim 17, further comprising:

a camera positioned to capture an image of at least a portion of the user, the current relative position being determined at least in part by analyzing the captured image using the processor of the computing device.

19. The computing device of claim 17, further comprising:

a sensor configured to detect changes in at least one of orientation or position of the computing device, the current relative position being determined at least in part by analyzing the detected changes using the processor of the computing device.

20. The computing device of claim 17, further comprising:

a microphone configured to accept voice input from the user, the selected interface element capable of including a graphical element indicating that audio input is able to be provided for the selected interface element.

21. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the display screen is touch sensitive and the selection of one of the interface elements is capable of being received through contact with the display screen.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

render a graphical interface for display on a display screen of the computing device, the graphical interface including a plurality of interface elements;

receive a selection of one of the interface elements from a user of the computing device;

determine a current relative position of the user with respect to the computing device; and

in response to receiving the selection, adjust a rendering of the selected interface element to appear as if the selected interface element is a closer to a surface of the display screen than at least one non-selected interface element based at least in part upon the current relative position of the user.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein adjusting the rendering includes animating a change in at least one of a size, shape, coloring, or blur level of the selected interface element.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing device to:

adjust an appearance of one or more virtual sidewalls of the computing device in the graphical interface based at least in part upon the current relative position of the user.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing device to:

capture image information of the user using a camera of the computing device; and

analyze the image information to recognize a facial feature of the user in the captured image,

wherein determining the current relative position of the user with respect to the computing device includes determining the current relative position of the recognized facial feature.