TOUCH PREDICTION FOR VISUAL DISPLAYS

• US 20150355772A1
• Filed: 06/04/2014
• Published: 12/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hewitt, Trudy L., Wetli, Christina L., McKinney, Debra J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,406,025 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

Touch events can be predicted relative to a visual display by maintaining a database of aggregated touch event history data relative to the visual display and from a plurality of touch screen devices. The database can be queried according to a set of input parameters defining an environment for use of the visual display. The results from the querying of the database can be analyzed to predict a set of touch events within the environment and based upon inferences obtained from the results. A representation of the set of touch events can be displayed along with the visual display.

Claims

1. A method for predicting touch events relating to a visual display, the method comprising:

maintaining a database of aggregated touch event history data relative to the visual display and from a plurality of touch screen devices;

querying the database according to a set of input parameters defining an environment for use of the visual display;

analyzing results from the querying of the database to predict a set of touch events within the environment and based upon inferences obtained from the results; and

displaying a representation of the set of touch events with the visual display.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

filtering the results based upon a filter request;

analyzing the filtered results to predict another set of touch events based upon inferences obtained from the filtered results; and

displaying a representation of the another set of touch events with the visual display.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the inferences include correlations between data associated with touch patterns identified from the results and the set of input parameters.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the touch event history data includes touch coordinates defined relative to the visual display and timing data for the touch events.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising training a machine learning algorithm using data in the database of aggregated touch event history data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein analyzing results from the querying of the database to predict a set of touch events within the environment and based upon inferences obtained from the results includes applying the machine learning algorithm to the results from the querying of the database.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual display includes medical information and the set of touch events indicate locations at which individuals would be expected to focus reviews of the medical information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual display is a website and the set of touch events indicate how individuals would be expected to use the website.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying a representation of the set of touch events with the visual display further includes displaying a probability percentage for the set of touch events.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the touch event history data includes touch coordinates defined relative to the visual display and timing data for the touch events.

10. A method for tracking touch events relating to a visual display, the method comprising:

accessing a plurality of touch event data sets for the visual display, each data set associated with a corresponding electronic device;

identifying touch patterns from the touch event data sets;

monitoring subsequent touch events by users of the visual display;

detecting a match between the touch patterns and subsequent touch events of a particular user of the users;

predicting, in response to detecting the match, a possible touch event for the particular user; and

modifying, in response to the possible touch event, the visual display for the particular user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the touch event data sets specify sequences of touch events, touch coordinates relative to the visual display and different types of touch events.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein modifying the visual display includes increasing the visual display size for an area of the visual display that corresponds to the possible touch event.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein modifying the visual display includes highlighting the visual display size for an area of the visual display that corresponds to the possible touch event.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising prefetching data for a task associated with the possible touch event.

15. A system comprising:

one or more computer processor circuits; and

a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by the one or more computer processor circuits to cause the system to;

maintain a database of aggregated touch event history data relative to a visual display and from a plurality of touch screen devices;

query the database according to a set of input parameters defining an environment for use of the visual display;

analyze results from querying of the database to predict a set of touch events within the environment and based upon inferences obtained from the results; and

display a representation of the set of touch events with the visual display.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the program instructions are further executable to cause the system to:

filter the results based upon a filter request;

analyze the filtered results to predict another set of touch events based upon inferences obtained from the filtered results; and

display a representation of the another set of touch events with the visual display.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the inferences include correlations between data associated with touch patterns identified from the results and the set of input parameters.