SNAP POINTS INCLUDING RANGES

• US 20160070429A1
• Filed: 08/31/2015
• Published: 03/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Home Box Office Incorporated (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Home Box Office Incorporated (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Inventors: Clark, Brendan Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 10,019,146 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 3/0482 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 3/0485 Scrolling or panning

Abstract

The described technology is directed towards scrollable user interface containers, and allows mixing snap items and smooth items in the same container. Snap point ranges that correspond to container snap items are specified, such as by pixel values or per container item to be rendered. When because of a scroll operation a snap item of the container overlaps a boundary of a viewing port (e.g., if rendered), the scroll position is adjusted based upon a snap point range limit to snap the snap item for rendering based upon the viewing port boundary.

Claims

1. A method performed at least in part on a machine, comprising,

determining whether a scrolling operation has caused or will cause at least one viewing port boundary of at least two viewing port boundaries of a viewing port to correspond to a snap point range of a set of one or more snap point ranges associated with a scrollable container;

if no viewing port boundary corresponds to a snap point range, rendering one or more container items based upon at least one of the viewing port boundaries; and

if at least one viewing port boundary corresponds to a snap point range, snapping at least one viewing port boundary into an adjusted viewing port boundary based upon a corresponding snap point range, and rendering one or more container items based upon each adjusted viewing port boundary.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the scrolling operation includes a horizontal scrolling component, and wherein determining whether a scrolling operation has caused or will cause at least one viewing port boundary to correspond to a snap point range comprises evaluating a left viewing port boundary or right viewing port boundary, or both, against the set of one or more snap point ranges.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the scrolling operation includes a vertical scrolling component, and wherein determining whether a scrolling operation has caused or will cause at least one viewing port boundary to correspond to a snap point range comprises evaluating an upper viewing port boundary or lower viewing port boundary, or both, against the set of one or more snap point ranges.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the scrolling operation includes a horizontal scrolling component and a vertical scrolling component, wherein the set of one or more snap point ranges includes a horizontal subset of one or more horizontal snap point ranges and a vertical subset of one or more vertical snap point ranges, and wherein determining whether a scrolling operation has caused or will cause at least one viewing port boundary to correspond to a snap point range comprises evaluating a left viewing port boundary or right viewing port boundary, or both, against the horizontal subset of one or more snap point ranges and evaluating an upper viewing port boundary or lower viewing port boundary, or both, against the vertical subset of one or more snap point ranges.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein at least one vertical viewing port boundary corresponds to a vertical snap point range and wherein at least one horizontal viewing port boundary corresponds to a horizontal snap point range, and wherein snapping at least one viewing port boundary into an adjusted viewing port boundary comprises snapping the upper or lower viewing port boundary into an adjusted vertical viewing port boundary based upon a corresponding vertical snap point range and snapping the left or right viewing port boundary into an adjusted horizontal viewing port boundary based upon a corresponding horizontal snap point range.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether a scrolling operation has caused or will cause at least one viewing port boundary of at least two viewing port boundaries to correspond to a snap point range comprises computing a stopping point based upon inertial scrolling.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein rendering the one or more container items comprises rendering a container item that corresponds to a snap point range only if that container item fits entirely within the viewing port.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of one or more snap point ranges are associated with the scrollable container by each being defined as a range of snap point values, or by each being values other than those in a range of smooth point values.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one viewing port boundary corresponds to a snap point range, and wherein snapping at least one viewing port boundary into an adjusted viewing port boundary comprises determining whether to snap in one direction so that a container item corresponding to the snap point range is rendered in the viewing port, or to snap in an opposite direction so that the container item is not rendered in the viewing port.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein determining whether to snap in one direction or to snap in an opposite direction is based at least in part on a scrolling direction.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein determining whether to snap in one direction or to snap in an opposite direction is based at least in part on an amount that the viewing port boundary overlaps the corresponding snap point range and an overlap threshold value.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising, obtaining the overlap threshold value from one or more values associated with the range, or computing the overlap threshold value based upon a weight associated with the range.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein determining whether to snap in one direction or to snap in an opposite direction is based at least in part on a scrolling speed or an amount of scroll, or both.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising, obtaining the snap point range based upon one or more item size data and corresponding one or more relative positions within the container, or based on item type, or both.

15. A system comprising:

a scrolling mechanism that scrolls an item container into a scroll position relative to a viewing port;

snapping logic coupled to the scrolling mechanism, the snapping logic configured to determine whether a container snap item spans or will span a viewing port boundary as a result of a scroll operation, and to adjust the scroll position into an adjusted scroll position when a container snap item spans or will span a viewing port boundary; and

rendering logic that renders one or more container items in the viewing port based upon the scroll position if not adjusted, or based upon the adjusted scroll position if adjusted.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the snapping logic determines whether a container snap item spans or will span a viewing port boundary based upon one or more snap point ranges associated with the item container.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the scrolling mechanism, the snapping logic and the rendering logic are incorporated into a set of one or more object-oriented programming objects.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the snapping logic determines whether a container snap item spans or will span a viewing port boundary based upon one or more item size data and corresponding one or more relative item positions within the container.

19. One or more machine-readable storage media having machine-executable instructions, which when executed perform steps, comprising:

maintaining a scrollable container having a snap item set containing one or more snap items and a non-snap item set containing at least one smooth item;

determining whether scrolling to a scroll position causes or will cause a snap item to be in an overlapping state that spans a viewing boundary if rendered from the scroll position,

and if so;

(a) adjusting the scroll position to an adjusted scroll position to snap the snap item into a non-overlapping state, and rendering one or more of the container items based upon the adjusted scroll position,

and if not;

(b) rendering one or more of the container items based upon the scroll position.

20. The one or more machine-readable storage media of claim 19 wherein determining whether scrolling to a scroll position causes or will cause a snap item to be in an overlapping state comprises computing the scroll position based upon inertial scrolling.