SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR GESTURE-BASED FORMATTING

• US 20170038959A1
• Filed: 08/06/2015
• Published: 02/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WeTransfer B.V. (Bending Spoons SpA)
• Original Assignee: FiftyThree, Inc. (Bending Spoons SpA)
• Inventors: Walker, Julian, Curry, Ian
• Granted Patent: US 9,965,445 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• 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: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191

Abstract

The present disclosure provides systems and methods displaying and formatting text on an electronic display. A gesture input may be received via a gesture input device associated with the electronic display. For instance, a touchscreen may receive a touch gesture input. Each of a plurality of gesture inputs may be associated with a formatting rule and/or a text-component for selecting a portion of displayed text. Selected text may be formatted according to the formatting rule associated with the received gesture input. The formatted text may be displayed on the electronic display. A data store may associate each of the plurality of gesture inputs with a formatting rule that can be applied to selected text. Alternatively, a data store may associate each of the plurality of gesture inputs with a formatting rule and a text-component that defines to which component of text the formatting rule should be applied.

Claims

1. An electronic input and display device for editing text, comprising:

an electronic display for displaying text;

a gesture input device for receiving each of a plurality of gesture inputs, wherein each of a plurality of gesture inputs is associated with a text-component for selection and at least one of a plurality of formatting rules;

a processor in communication with the electronic display and the gesture input device; and

a computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations for formatting text displayed on the electronic display, the operations comprising;

displaying text via the electronic display;

receiving a gesture input via the gesture input device;

identifying at least one formatting rule associated with the received gesture input;

identifying a text-component for selection associated with the received gesture input for application of the identified formatting rule;

applying the at least one identified formatting rule to the selected text-component; and

displaying the text via the electronic display with the formatting rule applied to the selected text of the text-component.

2. The input and display device of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of gesture inputs is associated with a text-component comprising one of a phrase selection, a clause selection, a sentence selection, a paragraph selection, a bulleted list item selection, a numbered list item selection, and an ordered list item selection.

3. The input and display device of claim 1, wherein the electronic display comprises a touchscreen display, and

wherein the gesture input device comprises a touchscreen digitizer associated with the touchscreen display.

4. The input and display device of claim 3, wherein the plurality of gesture inputs includes one or more of a two-finger pinch/spread gesture input, a two-finger tap gesture input, a two-finger twist gesture input, a single-finger diagonal swipe gesture input, a multi-finger diagonal swipe gesture input, a single-finger horizontal swipe gesture input, a multi-finger horizontal swipe gesture input, and a press and hold gesture input.

5. The input and display device of claim 4, wherein each of the plurality of gesture inputs is associated with a single, unique formatting rule such that each of the plurality of gesture inputs is associated with one of a plurality of formatting rules.

6. The input and display device of claim 5, wherein the plurality of formatting rules includes one or more of a bold formatting rule, a quotation formatting rule, an italics formatting rule, a strikethrough formatting rule, a bulleted list formatting rule, a numbered list formatting rule, a checkbox formatting rule, a bullet point formatting rule, and a justification formatting rule.

8. The input and display device of claim 1, wherein the gesture input device comprises a touch input device incorporating at least one of an active digitizer, a resistive digitizer, a capacitive digitizer, a pressure-sensitive digitizer, an acoustic digitizer, and an infrared digitizer.

9. The input and display device of claim 8, wherein one of the plurality of gesture inputs comprises a pinch/spread gesture input that is associated with a bold formatting rule.

11. The input and display device of claim 8, wherein one of the plurality of gesture inputs comprises a two-finger twist gesture input that is associated with an italics formatting rule.

13. The input and display device of claim 8, wherein one of the plurality of gesture inputs comprises a one-finger horizontal swipe gesture input that is associated with adding a bulleted list formatting rule.

14. The input and display device of claim 8, wherein one of the plurality of gesture inputs comprises a reverse, right-to-left, one-finger horizontal swipe gesture input that is associated with removing a bulleted list formatting rule.

19. The input and display device of claim 8, wherein one of the plurality of gesture inputs comprises a three-finger horizontal drag gesture input that is associated with a modify justification formatting rule.

7. (canceled)

10. (canceled)

12. (canceled)

15. (canceled)

16. The input and display device of claim 8, wherein one of the plurality of gesture inputs comprises a one-finger press and hold gesture input that is associated with a convert bullet point to checkbox formatting rule. 17-18. (canceled)

20. An electronic input and display device for editing text, comprising:

an electronic display for displaying text;

a gesture input device for receiving each of a plurality of gesture inputs, wherein each of the plurality of gesture inputs is associated with at least one of a plurality of formatting rules that can be selectively applied to text;

a processor in communication with the electronic display and the gesture input device; and

a computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations for formatting text displayed on the electronic display, the operations comprising;

displaying text via the electronic display;

receiving a selection of at least a portion of the displayed text;

receiving a gesture input via the gesture input device;

identifying at least one formatting rule associated with the received gesture input;

applying the at least one identified formatting rule to the selected portion of the displayed text; and

displaying the text via the electronic display with the formatting rule applied to the selected portion of the displayed text.

21-65. -65. (canceled)

66. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations for formatting text, the operations comprising:

displaying text via an electronic display;

accessing a data record that associates each of a plurality of gesture inputs with a text-component for selection and at least one of a plurality of formatting rules;

receiving a gesture input via a gesture input device associated with the electronic display;

identifying at least one formatting rule associated with the received gesture input;

identifying a text-component for selection associated with the received gesture input for application of the identified formatting rule;

applying the at least one identified formatting rule to the selected text-component; and

displaying the text via the electronic display with the formatting rule applied to the selected text of the text-component.

67. The computer-readable medium of claim 66, wherein each of the plurality of gesture inputs is associated with a text-component comprising one of a phrase selection, a clause selection, a sentence selection, a paragraph selection, a bulleted list item selection, a numbered list item selection, and an ordered list item selection.

68. The computer-readable medium of claim 66, wherein the electronic display comprises a touchscreen display, and

wherein the gesture input device comprises a touchscreen digitizer associated with the touchscreen display.

69. The computer-readable medium of claim 68, wherein the plurality of gesture inputs includes one or more of a two-finger pinch/spread gesture input, a two-finger tap gesture input, a two-finger twist gesture input, a single-finger diagonal swipe gesture input, a multi-finger diagonal swipe gesture input, a single-finger horizontal swipe gesture input, a multi-finger horizontal swipe gesture input, and a press and hold gesture input.

70. The computer-readable medium of claim 69, wherein each of the plurality of gesture inputs is associated with a single, unique formatting rule such that each of the plurality of gesture inputs is associated with one of a plurality of formatting rules.

71. The computer-readable medium of claim 70, wherein the plurality of formatting rules includes one or more of a bold formatting rule, a quotation formatting rule, an italics formatting rule, a strikethrough formatting rule, a bulleted list formatting rule, a numbered list formatting rule, a checkbox formatting rule, a bullet point formatting rule, and a justification formatting rule.

72. The computer-readable medium of claim 66, wherein the gesture input device comprises at least one of a touch input device, an optical recognition device, a radio frequency (RF) recognition device, and an acoustic recognition device.

73. The computer-readable medium of claim 66, wherein receiving a gesture input via a gesture input device comprises receiving a gesture input from a touch input device incorporating at least one of an active digitizer, a resistive digitizer, a capacitive digitizer, a pressure-sensitive digitizer, an acoustic digitizer, and an infrared digitizer.

75. The computer-readable medium of claim 73, wherein one of the plurality of gesture inputs comprises a two-finger tap gesture input that is associated with a quotation formatting rule.

76. The computer-readable medium of claim 73, wherein one of the plurality of gesture inputs comprises a two-finger twist gesture input that is associated with an italics formatting rule.

77. The computer-readable medium of claim 73, wherein one of the plurality of gesture inputs comprises a one-finger diagonal swipe gesture input that is associated with a strikethrough formatting rule.

78. The computer-readable medium of claim 73, wherein one of the plurality of gesture inputs comprises a one-finger horizontal swipe gesture input that is associated with adding a bulleted list formatting rule.

79. The computer-readable medium of claim 73, wherein one of the plurality of gesture inputs comprises a reverse, right-to-left, one-finger horizontal swipe gesture input that is associated with removing a bulleted list formatting rule.

80. The computer-readable medium of claim 73, wherein one of the plurality of gesture inputs comprises a reverse, right-to-left, one-finger horizontal swipe gesture input that is associated with a delete text formatting rule.

82. The computer-readable medium of claim 73, wherein one of the plurality of gesture inputs comprises a hold and drag gesture input that is associated with a move selected text formatting rule.

83. The computer-readable medium of claim 73, wherein one of the plurality of gesture inputs comprises a flick to edge gesture input that is associated with a delete text formatting rule.

74. (canceled)

81. (canceled)

84-107. -107. (canceled)