Touch gesture with visible point of interaction on a touch screen

• US 8,842,088 B2
• Filed: 07/27/2012
• Issued: 09/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.), Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Dinh, Richard H., Myers, Scott A., Kwong, Kelvin, Jarvis, Daniel W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tzeng, Fred
• Application Number:
  US13/560,984
• Publication Number:
  US 20140028578A1
• Time in Patent Office: 788 Days
• Field of Search: 345/173, 345/169, 345/174
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A computer-implemented method is disclosed. The method includes: detecting at least two touches on a touch screen; determining a touch area corresponding to at least two of the touches; determining a location on the touch screen in proximity to, but at least partially outside of the touch areas; and displaying a point of interaction at the determined location on the touch screen.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

detecting at least two touches on a touch screen;

determining touch areas each corresponding to one of the at least two touches;

determining a location on the touch screen in proximity to, but at least partially outside of the touch areas; and

displaying a point of interaction at the determined location on the touch screen.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining movement of the at least two touches on the touch screen; and

displaying one or more points of interaction along a path determined by the movement of the at least two touches.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising continuing to display the movement of at least one of the touches after detecting a lift-off of one of the touches from the touch screen.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein displaying the movement of the touches further comprises displaying a line comprising the one or more points of interaction.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a location on the touch screen further comprises:

determining a center of each touch area;

determining a first line between each touch area;

determining a second line perpendicular to the first line; and

selecting a point on the second line as the location.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the location is determined based on one or more of a size, location, and shape of the touch areas.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the size of the point of interaction determines a thickness of a line displayed on the touch screen in response to subsequent movement of the touches.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting a size of the point of interaction on the touch screen in response to detecting the at least two touches moving apart or closer with respect to each other.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the two touches are in a pinched configuration; and

if the touches are in a pinched configuration, displaying the point of interaction at the determined location.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the displayed point of interaction is one of a dot, cursor, pointer, and marker.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising switching to a drawing mode that simulates drawing with a particular drawing implement in response to the detected rotation.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising changing a color of the point of interaction in response to the detected rotation.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein an angle of the rotation determines an angle a simulated drawing implement is contacting the touch screen.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting a rotation with respect to a line between the at least two touches.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein instructions, which when executed by a device with a touch screen, cause the device to perform a method comprising:

detecting at least two touches on the touch screen;

determining touch areas each corresponding to one of the at least two touches;

determining a location on the touch screen in proximity to, but at least partially outside of the touch areas; and

displaying a point of interaction at the determined location on the touch screen.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

determining movement of the at least two touches on the touch screen; and

displaying one or more points of interaction along a path determined by the movement of the at least two touches.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises continuing to display the movement of at least one of the touches after detecting a lift-off of one of the touches from the touch screen.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein displaying the movement of the touches further comprises displaying a line comprising the one or more points of interactions.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein determining a location on the touch screen further comprises:

determining a center of each touch area;

determining a first line between each touch area;

determining a second line perpendicular to the first line; and

selecting a point on the second line as the location.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether the two touches are in a pinched configuration; and

if the touches are in a pinched configuration, displaying the point of interaction at the determined location.

21. An electronic device, comprising:

a touch screen for receiving touch input;

a processor to execute instructions; and

a memory coupled with the processor to store instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations to generate an application programming interface (API) that allows an API-calling component to perform the following operations;

detecting at least two touches on the touch screen;

determining touch areas each corresponding to one of the at least two touches;

determining a location on the touch screen in proximity of, but at least partially outside of the touch areas; and

displaying a point of interaction at the determined location on the touch screen.

22. The electronic device of claim 21, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining movement of the at least two touches on the touch screen; and

displaying one or more points of interactions along a path determined by the movement of the at least two touches.

23. The electronic device of claim 22, wherein the operations further comprise:

continuing to display the movement of one of the two touches after detecting a lift-off of the other touch from the touch screen.

24. The electronic device of claim 22, wherein displaying the movement of the touches further comprises displaying a line comprising the one or more points of interactions.

25. The electronic device of claim 22, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a center of each of the touch area;

determining a first line between each touch area;

determining a second line perpendicular to the first line; and

selecting a point on the second line as the location.