User interface of a small touch sensitive display for an electronic data and communication device

• US 8,677,285 B2
• Filed: 01/26/2009
• Issued: 03/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: WIMM Labs Incorporated (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Tsern, Ely, Mooring, Dave
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo, Weilun
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kujundzic, Dino
• Application Number:
  US12/360,030
• Publication Number:
  US 20090199130A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,877 Days
• Field of Search: 715/863, 715/864, 715/702, 345/173
• US Class Current: 715/864
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 21/08 Touch switches specially adapted for time-pieces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• 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 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A method and apparatus for receiving an input by a user on an interactive touchscreen display based, electronic data and communication device, the input comprising a contact gesture, which further comprises touchscreen single or multiple simultaneous contacts. The contact gestures are classified as primary, secondary, tertiary, universal and non-universal contact gestures. The method further includes performing an operation or entering an operational mode based on the user input.

Claims

1. A method of using a self-configuring communications and display device comprising a processor coupled to a display and memory, comprising:

receiving inputs corresponding to touch screen and non-touchscreen contact gestures on the display device, the display device including an interactive touch screen display area of less than 2″

diagonal, and multiple operational modes, a single or plurality of accelerometers for recognizing non-touchscreen contact gestures, and the self-configuring including recognizing and operating according to a wearable accessory on to which the communications and display device is mounted;

responsive to the display device being removably inserted into a receptacle of an accessory, detecting a shape of the accessory and automatically reconfiguring the interactive touchscreen display to arrange and format the said display according to the shape of the accessory;

automatically adjusting the input touchscreen contact gestures to accommodate the display shape and function;

determining whether the input corresponds to a contact gesture type, wherein the contact gesture type is at least one of a primary contact gesture, a secondary contact gesture, a tertiary contact gesture that invoke a particular function in one operational mode and invoke a completely different function in another operational mode, wherein each primary contact gesture is mapped to a frequently used function of at least one operational mode in a plurality of operational modes;

each secondary contact gesture is mapped to an occasionally used function of at least one operational mode in the plurality of operational modes; and

each tertiary contact gesture is meant to a rarely used function of at least one operational mode in the plurality of operational modes;

determining whether the contact gesture type is a universal gesture that invokes the same function on the device, no matter which operational mode the device is in; and

performing the function corresponding to the contact gesture type in the particular operational mode.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the input contact gestures include a touchscreen single contact gesture, further comprising at least one of a double edge swipe, a diagonal corner to corner swipe, a quadruple edge swipe and a circumferential edge swipe.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein:

the double edge swipe further comprises at least one of a single contact travelling from one corner to the opposite corner along the two perpendicular edges via the corner clockwise from the starting corner and travelling from one corner to the opposite corner along the two perpendicular edges via the corner anti-clockwise from the starting corner;

the diagonal corner to corner swipe further comprises at least one of a single contact starting at the top right corner of the display and moving diagonally down to the bottom left corner of the display and a single contact starting at the top left corner of the display and moving diagonally down to the bottom right corner of the display; and

the circumferential edge swipe further comprises at least one of a single contact starting at the top edge of the display and moving around all four edges, traversing the entire circumference of the edge before release and a single contact starting at the bottom edge of the display and moving around all four edges, traversing the entire circumference of the edge before release.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the primary contact gestures comprise at least two of:

a single tap contact gesture, a double tap contact gesture, a swipe left contact gesture, a swipe right contact gesture, a swipe up contact gesture, a swipe down contact gesture, a hold with one finger contact gesture, and a hold with two fingers contact gesture.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the single tap contact gesture is mapped to at least one of a select operation and a move screen down operation, the double tap contact gesture is mapped to at least one of a zoom operation and a move screen up operation, the swipe left contact gesture is mapped to a move screen selection left operation, the swipe right contact gesture is mapped to a move screen selection right operation, the swipe up contact gesture is mapped to a move screen selection up operation, the swipe down contact gesture is mapped to a move screen selection down operation, the hold with one finger contact gesture is mapped to at least one of a go to icon mode operation and a go to settings operation, and the hold with two fingers contact gesture is mapped to a return to home application operation.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the secondary gestures comprise at least two of:

a hold and drag contact gesture, a two finger single tap contact gesture, a two finger double tap contact gesture, a tap and hold contact gesture, and a diagonal corner to corner contact gesture.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the hold and drag contact gesture is mapped to a move operation, and wherein the two finger single tap contact gesture, two finger double tap contact gesture, the tap and hold contact gesture, and the diagonal corner-to-corner contact gestures are reserved and assigned to a user interface operation.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the said tap and hold gesture is at least one of a single finger tap and hold contact and a multiple fingers tap and hold contact.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the tertiary contact gestures comprise at least two of:

a triple quick tap contact gesture, a double quick tap and hold contact gesture, a top corner-to-corner contact gesture, a bottom corner-to-corner contact gesture, a left side corner-to-corner contact gesture, a right side corner-to-corner contact gesture, a two finger triple tap contact gesture, a two finger “

walk”

-Left down, Right up and swap contact gesture, a two finger “

walk”

-Right down, Left up and swap contact gesture, a circle the border contact gesture, a “

Right angle”

two side border contact gesture, and a triple quick tap and hold contact gesture.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the triple quick tap contact gesture, double quick tap and hold contact gesture, top corner-to-corner contact gesture, bottom corner-to-corner contact gesture, left side corner-to-corner contact gesture, right side corner-to-corner contact gesture, two finger triple tap contact gesture, two finger “

walk”

-Left down, Right up and swap contact gesture, two finger “

walk”

-Right down, Left up and swap contact gesture, and the circle the border contact gesture are mapped to application-specific operations and the triple quick tap and hold contact gesture is mapped to a global reset operation.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the universal contact gestures further comprise at least two of:

a single tap contact gesture, a double tap contact gesture, a triple tap contact gesture, a swipe left contact gesture, a swipe right contact gesture, a swipe up contact gesture, a swipe down contact gesture, a hold with one finger contact gesture, a hold with two fingers contact gesture, a two fingers hold and drag contact gesture, a two finger single tap contact gesture, a two finger double tap contact gesture, a tap and hold contact gesture, a diagonal corner to corner contact gesture and a triple quick tap and hold contact gesture.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the triple quick tap contact gesture is mapped to a return to home application operation.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the contact gestures are user configurable, and assignable to user preferred operations.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the universal contact gestures enable the user to exit from a default mode of operation and enter into another operational mode, and further to exit from an operational mode back to a default mode of operation.

15. In a self-configuring electronic data and communication device comprising a touch screen display, a method comprising:

responsive to the device being removably inserted into a receptacle of an accessory, self-configuring by detecting a shape of the accessory on to which the electronic data and communication device is mounted and automatically reconfiguring the interactive touchscreen display to arrange and format the said display according to the shape of the accessory;

detecting an input corresponding to a contact gesture, the device including a touchscreen display having a diagonal of less than 2.2 inches, and wherein the contact gesture corresponds to a signal received from the touchscreen, the device being in a default display mode;

automatically adjusting the input touchscreen contact gestures to accommodate the display shape and function;

determining the input contact gesture type wherein the said input contact gesture type is at least one of a primary contact gesture, a secondary contact gesture, a tertiary contact gesture, that invoke a particular function in one operational mode and invoke a completely different function in another operational mode, wherein each primary contact gesture is mapped to a frequently used function of at least one operational mode in a plurality of operational modes;

each secondary contact gesture is mapped to an occasionally used function of at least one operational mode in the plurality of operational modes;

each tertiary contact gesture is meant to a rarely used function of at least one operational mode in the plurality of operational modes;

determining whether the contact gesture type is a universal gesture that invokes the same function on the device, no matter which operational mode the device is in; and

performing the function associated with the input contact gesture type in the particular operational mode.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising in the determined operational mode, performing an operation in response to another input contact gesture.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising entering into at least one of an operational mode which is an icon mode displaying individually a plurality of all application icons, and a preferred operational mode displaying individually, icons of a plurality of user preferred applications.

18. The method of claim 15 further comprising, in a home operational mode:

entering a tap contact gesture to get to an icon mode of operation; and

in the said icon mode of operation entering a swipe contact gesture to move from one icon screen to another icon screen.

19. A self configuring, interactive touchscreen display based, electronic data and communication device comprising:

a memory having instructions encoded thereon;

at least one of a single and plurality of accelerometers for detecting motion and for detecting non-touchscreen contact gestures wherein the non-touchscreen contact gestures correspond to a predefined instruction to the electronic data and communication device for entering into a specific operational mode; and

a processor coupled to the memory configured to;

responsive to the device being removably inserted into a receptacle of an accessory, detect a shape of the accessory and automatically reconfigure the interactive touchscreen display to arrange and format the said display according to the shape of the accessory; and

automatically adjust user input touchscreen contact gestures to accommodate the display shape and function;

wherein the interactive touchscreen display causes the electronic data and communication device to perform an operation in response to a user input touchscreen contact gesture, wherein the said user input contact gesture comprises at least one of single and multiple simultaneous contacts recognizable by the device touchscreen, and each contact gesture corresponds to a predefined instruction to the electronic data and communication device for entering into a specific operational mode.

20. The device of claim 19 wherein the encoded instructions further cause the device to map operations to contact gestures, in response to signals received from a web portal.

21. The device of claim 19 wherein the encoded instructions further cause the device to map operations to contact gestures, in response to signals received from a personal computer.

22. The device of claim 19 wherein the encoded instructions further cause the device to map operations to contact gestures, in response to signals received from a mobile phone.

23. The device of claim 19 wherein the device is adapted to be insertable into a wristwatch accessory and self-configure according to the accessory in which it is inserted.

24. In a self-configuring communications and display device comprising a processor coupled to a display and memory, wherein the display comprises an interactive touchscreen display area of less than 2.5″

diagonal, a method comprising;

responsive to the device being removably inserted into a receptacle of an accessory, self-configuring by detecting a shape of the accessory on to which the communications and display device is mounted and automatically reconfiguring the interactive touchscreen display to arrange and format the said display according to the shape of the accessory;

receiving an input corresponding to a contact gesture wherein the said input contact gesture indicates at least one of a single contact and a multiple simultaneous contacts;

automatically adjusting the input touchscreen contact gestures to accommodate the display shape and function;

determining whether the input contact gesture corresponds to a contact gesture type, the contact gesture type being at least one of a first primary contact gesture type, a second secondary contact gesture type, a third tertiary contact gesture type, that invoke a particular function in one operational mode and invoke a completely different function in another operational mode, wherein the first contact gesture type is a primary contact gesture wherein each primary contact gesture is mapped to a frequently used function of the at least one operational mode in a plurality of operational modes;

wherein the second contact gesture type is a secondary contact gesture wherein each secondary contact gesture is mapped to an occasionally used function of the at least one operational mode in a plurality of operational modes;

wherein the third contact gesture type is a tertiary contact gesture wherein each tertiary contact gesture is mapped to a rarely used function of the at least one operational mode in a plurality of operational modes;

determining whether the input corresponds to a fourth contact gesture type, wherein the contact gesture type is a universal gesture that invokes the same function on the device, no matter which operational mode the device is in; and

performing a function in an operational mode corresponding to the contact gesture type.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the input corresponding to the contact gesture is a touchscreen contact gesture, recognizable by the touchscreen display of the device and corresponds to an operation in an operational mode.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein the input corresponding to the contact gesture is a contact gesture recognizable by accelerometers located on the device and correspond to at least one of additional operations and operational modes.