Motion-based interface control on computing device

• US 9,075,436 B1
• Filed: 09/29/2011
• Issued: 07/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Korn, Jeffrey, Held, David
• Primary Examiner(s): PITARO, RYAN F
• Application Number:
  US13/249,217
• Time in Patent Office: 1,377 Days
• Field of Search: 715/864, 715/802, 715/829, 715/831, 715/863, 715/702
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

A computer-implemented user interface method include displaying an image on a graphical user interface of a mobile computing device, receiving a first user input indicating an intent to perform a zooming operation on the graphical user interface, transitioning the mobile computing device into a zooming mode in response to the user input, sensing motion of the mobile computing device in one or more of a plurality of directions, correlating the sensed motion in one or more of a plurality of directions with either a zooming in or a zooming out zooming direction, and changing a zoom level of the display of the image on the graphical user interface to correspond to the correlated zooming direction.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented user interface method, comprising:

displaying content on a graphical user interface of a mobile computing device, wherein the content comprises a list of information;

receiving a first user input on a touchscreen of the mobile computing device indicating an intent to perform one or more motion-based display operations on the graphical user interface;

sensing a tilting motion of the mobile computing device, wherein the sensed tilting motion comprises a sensed tilting of the mobile computing device;

determining a tilt angle of the mobile computing device in response to sensing the tilting motion;

identifying the tilt angle as being within a particular tilt angle range from among a plurality of tilt angle ranges, wherein each respective tilt angle range from among the plurality of tilt angle ranges is associated with at least one of (i) a respective enlarging factor from among a plurality of enlarging factors, and (ii) a respective shrinking factor from among a plurality of the shrinking factors;

correlating the sensed tilting motion to a particular direction of a plurality of directions;

identifying, based on the particular direction of the sensed tilting motion, an operation to perform in association with the content, the operation being one of a scrolling operation and a zooming operation, wherein;

the scrolling operation is identified when the correlated direction of the sensed tilting motion is aligned with the list and, when performed, the scrolling operation causes the list to scroll, and

the zooming operation is identified when the correlated direction of the sensed tilting motion is not aligned with the list and, when performed, the zooming operation causes the list to be visually magnified by (i) a particular enlarging factor of the plurality of enlarging factors that is associated with the particular tilt angle range, or (ii) a particular shrinking factor of the plurality of shrinking factors that is associated with the particular tilt angle range; and

in response to the determining, performing the identified operation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the motion is sensed by using an accelerometer in the mobile computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a second user input indicating an intent to perform a panning operation on the graphical user interface, transitioning the mobile device into a panning mode in response to the second user input, correlating motion of the device with one or more panning directions, and panning the content in a direction of the one or more correlated panning directions.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising providing on the touchscreen a panning icon and a zooming icon that is separate from the panning icon, and wherein receiving a first user input indicating an intent to perform one or more motion-based display operations comprises receiving a user selection of the zooming icon to transition the mobile device into a zooming mode and receiving a second user input indicating an intent to perform a panning operation comprises receiving a user selection of the panning icon.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the panning mode is maintained only while the user presses on the panning icon, and the zooming mode is maintained only while the user presses on the zooming icon.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the content comprises a rendered web page.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the content comprises a digital image displayed in an image viewing application executing on the mobile computing device.

8. An article comprising a non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium storing program code that is operable to cause one or more machines to perform operations, the operations comprising:

displaying content on a graphical user interface of a mobile computing device;

receiving a first user input on a touchscreen of the mobile computing device indicating an intent to perform a zooming operation on the graphical user interface;

sensing a tilting motion of the mobile computing device in one or more of a plurality of directions, wherein the sensed tilting motion comprises tilting of the mobile computing device;

determining a tilt angle of the mobile computing device in response to sensing the tilting motion;

identifying the tilt angle as being within a particular tilt angle range from among a plurality of tilt angle ranges, wherein each respective tilt angle range from among the plurality of tilt angle ranges is associated with at least one of (i) a respective enlarging factor from among a plurality of enlarging factors, and (ii) a respective shrinking factor from among a plurality of the shrinking factors;

correlating the sensed tilting motion in one or more of a plurality of directions with either a zooming in or a zooming out zooming direction; and

changing a zoom level of the display of the content on the graphical user interface to correspond to the correlated zooming direction, wherein the zoom level comprises visual magnification of the display of the content on the graphical user interface by (i) a particular enlarging factor of the plurality the plurality of enlarging factors that is associated with the particular tilt angle range or (ii) a particular shrinking factor of the plurality of shrinking factors that is associated with the particular tilt angle range;

wherein the content comprises a list of information, sensed tilting motion of the device in a direction that is aligned with the list causes the list to scroll, and sensed tilting motion of the device in a direction that is not aligned with the list causes the list to zoom.

9. The article of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise receiving a user input indicating an intent to perform a panning operation on the mobile device, transitioning the mobile device into a panning mode in response to the user input, correlating motion of the device with one or more panning directions, and panning the content in a direction of the one or more correlated panning directions.

10. The article of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise providing a panning icon and a zooming icon on the touchscreen, and wherein receiving a user input indicating an intent to perform a zooming function comprises receiving a user selection of the zooming icon and receiving an input of a user intent to perform a panning operation comprises receiving a user selection of the panning icon.

11. The article of claim 10, wherein the panning mode is maintained only while the user presses on the panning icon, and the zooming mode is maintained only while the user presses on the zooming icon.

12. A mobile computing device, comprising:

a touch input manager to receive and interpret user inputs on a touch input device of a computing device;

one or more computing applications stored on the mobile computing device; and

an input method editor programmed to;

receive information from motion sensors on the device, to identify, based on the received information, an operation from among a scrolling operation and a zooming operation to perform in association with a list of information displayed on the touchscreen, and to provide information that indicates the identified operation to a plurality of different applications that include the one or more applications,

wherein the scrolling operation is identified by the input method editor when the received information indicates that the mobile computing device was moved in a direction that is aligned with the list and, when performed, the scrolling operation causes the list to scroll, and

wherein the zooming operation is identified by the input method editor when the received information indicates that the mobile computing device was moved in a direction that is not aligned with the list and, when performed, the zooming operation causes the list to be visually magnified by an enlarging factor or a shrinking factor, wherein the enlarging factor or the shrinking factor is selected by (i) determining a tilt angle of the mobile computing device, (ii) identifying the tilt angle as being within a particular tilt angle range from among a plurality of tilt angle ranges, wherein each respective tilt angle range from among the plurality of tilt angle ranges is associated with at least one of a respective enlarging factor of a plurality of enlarging factors and a respective shrinking factor of a plurality of the shrinking factors a plurality of zoom levels, and (iii) identifying the enlarging factor or the shrinking factor as being associated with the particular tilt angle range.

13. The device of claim 12, further comprising an application programmed to obtain one or more applications from an in-line application store, wherein the obtained applications include interfaces for interacting with the input method editor.