Tilt-scrolling on the sunpad

• US 6,624,824 B1
• Filed: 04/30/1996
• Issued: 09/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Glass, Bob, Tognazzini, Bruce, Nielsen, Jakob
• Primary Examiner(s): Lao, Lun-Yi
• Application Number:
  US08/642,224
• Time in Patent Office: 2,702 Days
• Field of Search: 345/156, 345/123, 345/157, 345/145, 345/160, 345/163, 345/168, 345/169, 345/173, 345/341, 345/684, 345/784, 345/785, 345/786, 345/787, 382/293, 382/295, 463/37, 463/39, 463/40, 463/42, 341/32, 341/34, 348/39, 348/734
• US Class Current: 345/684
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• 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 2200/1614 Image rotation following screen orientation, e.g. switching from landscape to portrait mode
• 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 3/0485 Scrolling or panning

Abstract

Scrolling techniques for computing devices are disclosed which respond to the amount of tilt, measured against a reference, experienced by a control unit. The user set the reference by activating a switch while the control unit is in an orientation selected by the user. Once the reference is set, the direction and rate of scrolling is determined by the direction and amount of tilt. The control unit may be built into a hand held computing device such as the Sun Pad.

Claims

1. A method for displaying information on a display of a computing device, comprising the step of:

a. providing an element for performing the step of scrolling said information as a function of tilt of a control element with respect to a reference in which the step of scrolling includes scrolling at a rate which is a function of the amount of tilt in which said rate is a function of an angle squared, said angle being the angle between said reference and a current value of tilt.

2. A method for displaying information on a display of a computing device, comprising:

providing an element for scrolling the information as a function of a tilt of a separate control element with respect to a reference in which the control element is mounted on an item of wearing apparel, wherein a tilt of the control element in one direction controls scrolling of text and a tilt of the control element in an orthogonal direction controls a page change.

3. An apparatus for displaying information on a display, comprising:

a tilt detector;

a scroll mode selector;

a reference store configured to save a value of tilt detected by the tilt detector when the scroll mode selector is activated; and

a control device connected to the tilt detector and the reference store and configured to scroll the information on the display at a rate which is a function of the difference between the output of the tilt detector and the value of tilt stored in the reference store, wherein the control device is a controller for a time piece worn on a person and the information is menu information for selecting and activating timepiece functions, and wherein at least said tilt detector and scroll mode selector are mounted on an item of user wearable apparel and linked to said display over an electromagnetic communications link.

4. A method for displaying information on a display of a computing device, comprising the step of:

a. providing an element for performing the steps of scrolling the information as a function of a tilt of a separate control element with respect to a reference in which the control element is a watch.