System and Methods for Touch Pattern Detection and User Interface Adaptation

• US 20160162276A1
• Filed: 12/04/2014
• Published: 06/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Peng, Long, GUAN, XIN, Meirhaeghe, Olivier D, Wang, Xin Jin
• Granted Patent: US 10,235,150 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management

Abstract

A communication system includes client devices that detect erroneous interactions with touch screen Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) of software apps and transmit information about the erroneous interactions to servers which aggregate the information to identify erroneous interactions that occur at a significant rate across a population of devices. The software apps are updated to reduce the likelihood of the identified erroneous interactions and the updated versions of the apps are deployed to the client devices.

Claims

1. A method for revising a software application that is loaded on a population of computing devices, the method comprising:

deploying a first version of a software application on the population of computing devices;

in each computing device of the population of computing devices;

detecting a predefined sequence of user Graphical User Interface (GUI) action indicative of erroneous interactions;

communicating information about the erroneous interactions to a server;

receiving a second version of the software application that is modified relative to the first version to reduce the erroneous interactions.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein detecting sequences of user GUI action indicative of erroneous interactions comprises:

detecting at least a predetermined number of occurrences of a sequence of events including;

a first touch of a passive region followed by, within a predetermined time limit, a second touch of an active region that is adjacent to the passive region.

3. The method according to claim 2 further comprising:

in response to the detecting at least a predetermined number of occurrences, adjusting a size of the active region to include at least a portion of the passive region.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein detecting a predefined sequence of user GUI action comprises:

detecting at least a predetermined number of occurrences of a sequence of events including;

a touch of a first active region followed by, within a predetermined time, a back button press, followed by a touch of a second active region.

5. The method according to claim 4 further comprising:

in response to the detecting at least a predetermined number of occurrences, increasing a size of the second active region.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein receiving the second version of the software application comprises:

receiving a version of the software application that has an active region associated with at least one GUI element that has at least one attribute selected from the list consisting of size, shape and position changed compared to the first version of the software application.

7. A method for revising a software application that is loaded on a population of computing devices, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server, information about erroneous user interactions with a graphical user interface (GUI) of a first version of a software application deployed on a population of computing devices;

aggregating, at the server, the information about the erroneous user interactions received from the population of computing devices to obtain aggregated information;

based on the aggregated information, suggestion a modification to the first version of the software application to change a size or position attribute of a GUI element involved in the erroneous user interactions to obtain a second version of the software application.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

receiving a second version of the software application for deployment to at least a subset of the population of computing devices.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

deploying the first version of the software application on the population of computing devices.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the communicating information includes:

providing context information identifying the first version of a software application and the type of the device.

and wherein the notifying includes;

providing statistics on erroneous interactions grouped by context information.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving a second version of the software application for deployment to at least a subset of the population of computing devices.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the second version has a changed size or position attribute of a GUI element involved in the erroneous interactions

14. The method according to claim 9 wherein detecting sequences of user GUI action indicative of erroneous interactions comprises:

detecting at least a predetermined number of occurrences of a sequence of events including;

a first touch of a passive region followed by, within a predetermined time limit, a second touch of an active region that is adjacent to the passive region.

15. The method according to claim 9 wherein detecting sequences of user GUI action indicative of erroneous interactions comprises:

detecting at least a predetermined number of occurrences of a sequence of events including;

a touch of a first active region followed by, within a predetermined time, a back button press, followed by a touch of a second active region.

10. A method for revising a software application that is loaded on a population of computing devices, the method comprising:

deploying a first version of a software application on the population of computing devices;

in each computing device of the population of computing devices,

detecting sequences of user Graphical User Interface (GUI) action indicative of erroneous interactions;

communicating information about the erroneous interactions to a server;

at the server,

aggregating the information about the erroneous interactions received from the population of computing devices, to obtain aggregated information about erroneous interactions;

based on the aggregated information, notifying a developer of the software application about the aggregated information.