DYNAMIC MANAGEMENT OF EDGE INPUTS BY USERS ON A TOUCH DEVICE

• US 20140310661A1
• Filed: 04/15/2013
• Published: 10/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Doan, Christopher, Anderson, Bret, Seibert, Michael, Jarrett, Robert, Uzelac, Aleksandar, Frederickson, Steven, Stephenson, Alan, Welch, Steven
• Granted Patent: US 9,626,100 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/863
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

Systems and methods of blocking, ignoring, suspending, or otherwise altering edge-related UI gestures on touch-sensitive computing devices or on non-touch sensitive computing devices having active edge I/O commands in certain situations are disclosed. In one embodiment, a second UI gesture coming from an outside edge may be altered after a first UI gesture from a user using an running application under certain conditions—e.g., if the second UI gesture is made within a certain time period after the first UI gesture, the second UI gesture is made within a certain proximity of the first UI gesture, etc. In another embodiment, a computing device is disclosed that comprises a controller, a display screen and an operating system that alters certain edge-related UI gestures that might be made by an operating system if, e.g., certain conditions are present.

Claims

1. A method for blocking UI gestures on a computing device, said computing device comprising a display screen, the method comprising:

presenting a UI screen upon said display screen to a user, said UI screen associated with an application that the user is running on said computing device;

receiving a first UI gesture from said user, wherein said first UI gesture that starts within the active display area of said display screen and crosses a first edge of said display screen;

blocking a UI event associated with a second UI gesture, wherein said second UI gesture starts outside of said active display area of said display screen and crosses an edge of said display screen; and

wherein said blocking occurs according to set of blocking conditions.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said UI gesture further comprises a swiping gesture, said swiping gesture starting within the active display area of said display screen and crosses a first edge of said display screen.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein further said UI event capable of being executed by said computer device for a routine, said routine different from said application.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said routine is an operating system and said UI event is associated with said operating system in response to said swiping gesture crossing said first edge of said display screen.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said set of blocking conditions comprises one of a group, said group comprising:

timing condition, proximity conditions, panning conditions, application-related conditions, directionality conditions, zooming conditions, adjacency conditions, compatibility conditions and foreground change conditions.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said timing conditions further comprises blocking said second UI gesture within a desired time period from said first UI gesture.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein said proximity conditions further comprises blocking said second UI gesture within a desired distance from said first UI gesture.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein said panning conditions further comprising blocking said second UI gesture when there is inertia movement on said UI screen associated with said application.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said blocking according to said panning condition further comprises passing the second UI gesture to said application.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein said blocking further comprises blocking a UI event that crosses a plurality of edges of said display screen.

11. The method of claim 5 wherein said application-related conditions further comprises providing a set of options upon blocking said second UI gesture according to the application the user is running.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said application the user is running comprises one of a group, said group comprising:

gaming application, applications with special gesturing and applications that use fast gestures.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said set of options comprises one of a group, said group comprising:

passing the second UI gesture to said application, displaying place-holder UI icons, displaying three-dot icons and displaying small representative icons.

14. A computing device, comprising:

a controller;

a display screen, said display screen further comprising an active display screen area and a plurality of active edges;

an operating system, said operating system capable of executing upon said controller and capable of managing input signals from a user inputting into said display screen and capable of managing output signal to said display screen according to signals received from an application running on said computing device; and

further wherein said computing device is capable of;

presenting a UI screen upon said display screen to a user, said UI screen associated with an application that the user is running on said computing device;

receiving a first UI gesture from said user, wherein said first UI gesture that starts within the active display area of said display screen and crosses a first edge of said display screen;

blocking a UI event associated with a second UI gesture, wherein said second UI gesture starts outside of said active display area of said display screen and crosses an edge of said display screen; and

wherein said blocking occurs according to set of blocking conditions.

15. The computing device of claim 14 wherein said set of blocking conditions comprises one of a group, said group comprising:

timing condition, proximity conditions, panning conditions, application-related conditions, directionality conditions, zooming conditions, adjacency conditions, compatibility conditions and foreground change conditions.

16. The computing device of claim 15 wherein said timing conditions further comprises blocking said second UI gesture within a desired time period from said first UI gesture.

17. The computing device of claim 15 wherein said proximity conditions further comprises blocking said second UI gesture within a desired distance from said first UI gesture.

18. The computing device of claim 15 wherein said panning conditions further comprising blocking said second UI gesture when there is inertia movement on said UI screen associated with said application.

19. A computer-readable storage media storing instructions that when executed by a computing device, said computing device comprising a display screen, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

presenting a UI screen upon said display screen to a user, said UI screen associated with an application that the user is running on said computing device;

receiving a first UI gesture from said user, wherein said first UI gesture that starts within the active display area of said display screen and crosses a first edge of said display screen;

blocking a UI event associated with a second UI gesture, wherein said second UI gesture starts outside of said active display area of said display screen and crosses an edge of said display screen; and

wherein said blocking occurs according to set of blocking conditions.

20. The computer-readable storage media of claim 19 wherein said set of blocking conditions comprises one of a group, said group comprising:

timing condition, proximity conditions, panning conditions, application-related conditions, directionality conditions, zooming conditions, adjacency conditions, compatibility conditions and foreground change conditions.