Mobile Device Interfaces

• US 20140337791A1
• Filed: 05/09/2014
• Published: 11/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Agnetta, Bryan Todd, Donsbach, Aaron Michael, Hendricks, Catherine Ann, Kralyevich, Brian Peter, Mains, Richard Leigh, Park, Jae Pum, Rooney, Sean Anthony, Salazar, Marc Anthony, Yuniardi, Nino, Silvis, Jason Glenn
• Granted Patent: US 10,394,410 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/784
• 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 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• 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 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• 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 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality

Abstract

Electronic devices, interfaces for electronic devices, and techniques for interacting with such interfaces and electronic devices are described. For instance, this disclosure describes an example electronic device that includes sensors, such as multiple front-facing cameras to detect orientation and/or location of the electronic device relative to an object and one or more inertial sensors. Users of the device may perform gestures on the device by moving the device in-air and/or by moving their head, face, or eyes relative to the device. In response to these gestures, the device may perform operations.

Claims

1. A mobile electronic device comprising:

one or more processors;

memory;

a touch-sensitive display; and

a user-interface module, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors to present, on the touch-sensitive display, a screen comprising;

an upper portion that includes a first list of icons representing applications available to the mobile electronic device, the first list being scrollable horizontally by touch gestures on the touch-sensitive display to alter which of the icons has user-interface focus in the first list; and

a lower portion that includes one or more icons representing one or more content items associated with an application corresponding to the icon having the user-interface focus.

2. A mobile electronic device as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a housing defining four corners of the mobile electronic device; and

four cameras, each located proximate to a respective corner of the mobile electronic device;

and wherein the user-interface module is further executable to;

(i) determine a position of at least a portion of a user relative to the mobile electronic device based at least in part on information captured by the four cameras, and (ii) modify, at least partly in response, at least one of the icon having the user-interface focus in the first list or an icon in the lower portion.

3. A mobile electronic device as recited in claim 1, further comprising a gyroscope, and wherein the user user-interface module is further executable to:

(i) present a left-panel screen on the touch-sensitive display in response to a first input detected by the gyroscope, and (ii) present a right-panel screen on the touch-sensitive display in response to a second input detected by the gyroscope.

4. A mobile electronic device as recited in claim 3, wherein:

the left-panel screen includes icons associated with content-item libraries, each content-item library including content items accessible to the mobile electronic device; and

the right-panel screen includes a grid of icons corresponding to applications accessible to the mobile electronic device.

5. A mobile electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the user-interface module is further executable to:

receive a first touch gesture on the touch-sensitive display, the first touch gesture generally upwards from a bottom of the screen towards a top of the screen;

alter, at least partly in response to the first touch gesture, display of the lower portion to present additional information regarding at least one of the one or more content items represented by the one or more icons;

receive a second touch gesture on the touch-sensitive display, the second touch gesture generally downwards from the top of the screen towards the bottom of the screen; and

alter, at least partly in response to the second touch gesture, display of the lower portion to remove the additional information regarding the at least one of the one or more content items represented by the one or more icons.

6. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

presenting, on a display of an electronic device, a graphical user interface comprising;

a first portion including an icon representing an application available to the electronic device, the icon being selectable to open the application; and

a second portion that includes one or more icons representing one or more content items associated with the application corresponding to the icon in the first portion.

7. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, wherein the one or more content items comprise one or more of emails, text messages, audio albums, songs, videos, weather forecasts, or calendar appointments.

8. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, wherein the first portion comprises a carousel comprising the icon representing the application and one or more other icons representing other applications.

9. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, wherein the one or more icons representing the one or more content items present information of the one or more content items without opening the application.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, the operations further comprising:

receiving input from one or more optical sensors of the electronic device;

determining a change in position of the electronic device relative to at least a portion of a user based at least in part on the input received from the one or more optical sensors; and

modifying the graphical user interface at least partly in response to determining the change in position of the electronic device relative to the portion of the user.

11. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the one or more optical sensors comprise cameras, each disposed proximate to a respective corner of the electronic device.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the determining the change in position of the electronic device relative to at least the portion of the user comprises determining a rotational motion of the electronic device about an axis parallel to the display of the electronic device.

13. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving input from one or more inertial sensors;

presenting a second graphical user interface on the display of the electronic device in response to the input from the one or more inertial sensors.

14. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the second graphical user interface comprises icons associated with content-item libraries, each content-item library including content items accessible to the electronic device.

15. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the second graphical user interface comprises a grid of icons corresponding to applications accessible to the electronic device.

16. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the second graphical user interface comprises at least one of current or upcoming appointments, weather information, recent call information, recent email information, recent messaging information, order status information, or content availability information.

17. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving user input; and

altering, at least partly in response to the user input, display of the second portion to present additional information regarding at least one of the one or more content items represented by the one or more icons without opening the application.

18. A method comprising:

presenting a collection of application icons in a carousel, each application icon usable to open a respective application;

receiving user input to move an application icon of the collection of application icons to a front of the carousel; and

presenting information of one or more content items associated with an application corresponding to the application icon moved to the front of the carousel.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving user selection of the application icon at the front of the carousel; and

opening the application associated with the icon at the front of the carousel responsive to receiving the user selection.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

user input to move another application icon of the collection of application icons to the front of the carousel; and

presenting information of one or more content items associated with an application corresponding to the other application icon moved to the front of the carousel.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the presenting information of the one or more content items associated with the application corresponding to the application icon moved to the front of the carousel is performed without opening the application.

22. The method of claim 18, the operations further comprising:

receiving input from one or more optical sensors of the electronic device;

determining a change in position of the electronic device relative to at least a portion of a user based at least in part on the input received from the one or more optical sensors; and

presenting additional or alternative information on the display at least partly in response to determining the change in position of the electronic device relative to the portion of the user.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the one or more optical sensors comprise cameras, each disposed proximate to a respective corner of the electronic device.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the determining the change in position of the electronic device relative to at least the portion of the user comprises determining a rotational motion of the electronic device about an axis parallel to the display of the electronic device.

25. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving input from one or more inertial sensors;

presenting a user interface panel on the display of the electronic device in response to the input from the one or more inertial sensors.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the user interface panel comprises icons associated with content-item libraries, each content-item library including content items accessible to the electronic device.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the second graphical user interface comprises a grid of icons corresponding to applications accessible to the electronic device.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the second graphical user interface comprises at least one of current or upcoming appointments, weather information, recent call information, recent email information, recent messaging information, order status information, or content availability information.