DRAG-BASED CONTENT SELECTION TECHNIQUE FOR TOUCH SCREEN UI

• US 20140173483A1
• Filed: 12/14/2012
• Published: 06/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Barnes & Noble College Booksellers LLC (Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nook Digital, LLC (f/k/a Barnesandnoble.com LLC) (Bahwan CyberTek Pvt Ltd.)
• Inventors: Hicks, Kourtny M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,134,892 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/769
• 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 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for providing a content selecting mode in electronic touch screen devices. The content may be, for instance, text, graphics, images, files, and/or other consumable content. The user can engage the mode with a combination of gestures and touch points on the touch screen. The combination may include, for example, one or two initial touch points at a desired starting location of the target content, followed by a dragging gesture with two or more touch points moving from that location to the desired end location of the target content, wherein content between the starting and end locations is highlighted or otherwise selected. In one example case, if the initial touch includes multiple touch points then selecting of the target content may commence immediately, while a single initial touch point causes selecting to commence after a brief hold or the addition of another touch point at the starting location.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a touch screen display for displaying content to a user and allowing user input; and

a user interface including a content selecting mode that can be activated in response to user contact via the touch screen display, the user contact including an initial touch point targeting a first piece of displayed content and that transitions into multiple dragging touch points targeting a second piece of displayed content, wherein the content selecting mode is configured to cause all content between the first and second pieces of content to be selected.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the content selecting mode is configured to treat the multiple dragging touch points as a navigation gesture in response to those dragging touch points encountering a page break in the content.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein the content selecting mode is further configured to provide a selection action user interface feature to be displayed to the user, the selection action user interface feature being executable on the selected content.

4. The device of claim 1 wherein the first and second pieces of content are included in the selected content.

5. The device of claim 1 wherein at least one of the initial touch point and/or the multiple dragging touch points are user-configurable with respect to number of touch points.

6. The device of claim 1 wherein the content selecting mode is further configured to cause a selection page count to be displayed on each selected page of the content when multiple pages are selected, the selection page count corresponding to the number of pages included in the selected content and starting at page one.

7. The device of claim 1 wherein the content selecting mode is further configured to cause the first piece of displayed content to be selected after a brief delay from application of the initial touch point, or once the multiple dragging touch points are applied, or once the multiple dragging touch points begin to move.

8. The device of claim 1 wherein the selected content remains selected until the content selecting mode is affirmatively terminated.

9. The device of claim 1 wherein the initial touch point includes a press-and-hold gesture, a diagonal gesture, and/or a circular gesture.

10. The device of claim 1 wherein the initial touch point includes multiple touch points, and the number of initial touch points is the same as the number of dragging touch points.

11. The device of claim 1 wherein the device is an eReader device or a tablet computer or a smartphone.

12. A mobile electronic device, comprising:

a touch screen display for displaying content to a user and allowing user input; and

a user interface including a content selecting mode that can be activated in response to user contact via the touch screen display, the user contact including an initial touch point targeting a first piece of displayed content and that transitions into multiple dragging touch points targeting a second piece of displayed content, wherein the content selecting mode is configured to cause all content between the first and second pieces of content to be selected, and the selected content may traverse one or more page breaks;

wherein the content selecting mode is further configured to cause the first piece of displayed content to be selected after a brief delay from application of the initial touch point, or once the multiple dragging touch points are applied, or once the multiple dragging touch points begin to move.

13. The device of claim 12 wherein the content selecting mode is further configured to provide a selection action user interface feature to be displayed to the user, the selection action user interface feature being executable on the selected content.

14. The device of claim 12 wherein at least one of the initial touch point and/or the multiple dragging touch points are user-configurable with respect to number of touch points.

15. The device of claim 12 wherein the content selecting mode is further configured to cause a selection page count to be displayed on each selected page of the content when multiple pages are selected, the selection page count corresponding to the number of pages included in the selected content and starting at page one.

16. The device of claim 12 wherein the initial touch point includes a press-and-hold gesture, a diagonal gesture, and/or a circular gesture.

17. A computer readable medium encoded with instructions that when executed by one or more processors, cause a content selecting process to be carried out, the process comprising:

in response to user contact via a touch sensitive display device, activating a content selecting mode in the device, the user contact including an initial touch point targeting a first piece of displayed content and that transitions into multiple dragging touch points targeting a second piece of displayed content; and

selecting all content between the first and second pieces of content.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17 wherein the selected content may traverse one or more page breaks, and wherein the content selecting process further includes treating the multiple dragging touch points as a navigation gesture in response to those dragging touch points encountering a page break in the content.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 17 wherein the content selecting process further includes causing a selection page count to be displayed on each selected page of the content when multiple pages are selected, the selection page count corresponding to the number of pages included in the selected content and starting at page one.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 17 wherein the content selecting process further includes causing the first piece of displayed content to be selected after a brief delay from application of the initial touch point, or once the multiple dragging touch points are applied, or once the multiple dragging touch points begin to move.