Viewable frame identification

• US 9,489,104 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2013
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Circlaeys, Eric, Bronder, Kjell, Weber, Ralf
• Primary Examiner(s): Bhargava, Anil
• Application Number:
  US14/080,591
• Publication Number:
  US 20150135134A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,090 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning

Abstract

A set of media items may be matched with a media arrangement that displays the media items in the set in a group of frames. The media arrangement may extend across an area larger than a viewable area of a display device. In order to determine the media items that appear within a viewable area, a list of media items may be divided into two portions, one on either side of a middle item in the list. If any part of a frame with which the middle item is associated is within an extended spatial area that extends beyond the viewable area, the middle item may be eliminated from the list, when no part of the frame with which the middle item is associated is within the extended area. The process may be repeated until it is determined that a part of a frame with which the middle item is associated is within the extended area.

Claims

1. A non-transitory program storage device, readable by a processor and comprising instructions stored thereon to cause one or more processors to:

associate each media item in a set of media items with a frame in a media arrangement;

divide a group of media items from the set of media items into two portions, one portion on either side of a middle item in the group;

determine whether any part of a frame with which the middle item is associated is within a first spatial area of the media arrangement;

modify the group of media items to include only the one of the two portions that includes one or more media items that are associated with frames within the first spatial area when it is determined that no part of the frame with which the middle item is associated is within the first spatial area;

continue performing the instructions to divide, determine, and modify until it is determined that a part of a frame with which the middle item is associated is within the first spatial area; and

identify one or more media items on either side of the middle item that are associated with frames that are at least partially within a second spatial area of the media arrangement.

2. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the second spatial area is a viewable area of the media arrangement.

3. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 2, further comprising instructions to cause the one or more processors to identify a user adjustment of the viewable area of the media arrangement.

4. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 3, wherein the instructions to cause the one or more processors to divide, determine, modify, continue, and identify are performed in response to an identification of a user adjustment of the viewable area of the media arrangement.

5. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the first spatial area extends outside of the second spatial area in each direction in an adjustment dimension of the media arrangement.

6. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 5, further comprising instructions to identify a maximum positional difference in the adjustment dimension between consecutive media items in the set of media items.

7. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 6, wherein the first spatial area extends outside of the second spatial area in each direction in the adjustment dimension by an amount equal to the identified maximum positional difference.

8. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 6, wherein the maximum positional difference is equal to the largest adjustment dimension size of a frame in the media arrangement.

9. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 6, wherein the maximum positional difference is equal to the adjustment dimension size of a largest sub-media arrangement in the media arrangement.

10. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to cause the one or more processors to determine whether any part of a frame with which the middle item is associated is within a first spatial area of the media arrangement comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to:

identify an offset of the second spatial area from a reference point;

determine the coordinates of the second spatial area at the identified offset;

determine the coordinates of the first spatial area based, at least in part, on the coordinates of the second spatial area; and

determine whether the frame with which the middle item is associated intersects with the first spatial area based, at least in part, on the coordinates of the first spatial area.

11. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to cause the one or more processors identify one or more media items on either side of the middle item that are associated with frames that are at least partially within a second spatial area of the media arrangement comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to:

identify a second set of media items that are associated with frames that are at least partially within the first spatial area; and

identify, from the second set of media items, one or more media items that are associated with frames that are at least partially within the second spatial area.

12. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 11, wherein the instructions to cause the one or more processors to identify a second set of media items that are associated with frames that are at least partially within the first spatial area comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to:

sequentially evaluate the media items in the group in a first direction from the middle item until a first media item that is associated with a frame that does not intersect with the first spatial area is identified;

sequentially evaluate the media items in the group in a second direction from the middle item until a second media item that is associated with a frame that does not intersect with the first spatial area is identified;

identify the media items between the first and second media items in the group as the second set of media items that are associated with frames that are at least partially within the first spatial area.

13. A method comprising:

associating each media item in a set of media items with a frame in a media arrangement; and

identifying one or more media items that are within a viewable area of the media arrangement by;

dividing a list of media items from the set of media items into two portions, one portion on either side of a middle item in the list;

determining whether any part of a frame with which the middle item is associated is within an extended spatial area that extends beyond the viewable area of the media arrangement;

eliminating from the list the middle item and the portion that does not include any media items that are associated with frames that are within the extended area when it is determined that no part of the frame with which the middle item is associated is within the extended area;

repeating the dividing, determining, and eliminating until it is determined that a part of a frame with which the middle item is associated is within the extended area; and

identifying one or more media items on either side of the middle item in the list that are associated with frames that are at least partially within the viewable area of the media arrangement.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising identifying a user adjustment of the viewable area of the media arrangement.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the acts of dividing, determining, eliminating, and repeating are performed in response to an identification of a user adjustment of the viewable area of the media arrangement.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the act of determining whether any part of a frame with which the middle item is associated is within the extended area comprises:

identifying a positional offset between the viewable area and a reference point;

determining coordinates of the viewable area and the extended area based, at least in part, on the identified positional offset; and

comparing coordinates of the frame with which the middle item is associated with the coordinates of the extended area.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the act of identifying one or more media items on either side of the middle item in the list that are associated with frames that are at least partially within the viewable area of the media arrangement comprises:

identifying the first media item in the list on each side of the middle item that is associated with a frame that does not intersect with the extended area;

defining a second set of media items that includes the media items in the list between the identified first media items on each side of the middle item; and

identifying the one or more media items that are associated with frames that are at least partially within the viewable area of the media arrangement from within the second set of media items.

18. A system, comprising:

a memory;

a display device; and

a processor operatively coupled to the memory and the display device and adapted to execute program code stored in the memory to;

associate each media item in a set of media items with a frame in a media arrangement;

divide a list of media items from the set of media items into two portions, one portion on either side of a middle item in the list;

determine whether any part of a frame with which the middle item is associated is within an extended spatial area of the media arrangement that extends beyond an area of the media arrangement that is viewable on the display device;

eliminate from the list the middle item and the portion that does not include any media items that are associated with frames that are within the extended area when it is determined that no part of the frame with which the middle item is associated is within the extended area;

continue to execute the program code to divide, determine, and eliminate until it is determined that a part of a frame with which the middle item is associated is within the extended area; and

identify one or more media items on either side of the middle item in the list that are associated with frames that are at least partially within the area of the media arrangement that is viewable on the display device.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the program code to cause the one or more processors to identify the one or more media items comprises program code to cause the one or more processors to:

sequentially evaluate each media item in the list in a first direction from the middle item until a media item associated with a frame that does not intersect with the extended area is identified;

sequentially evaluate each media item in the list in a second direction from the middle item until a media item associated with a frame that does not intersect with the extended area is identified;

assign the media items between the identified media items that are not assigned to frames that intersect with the extended area to a second set of media items; and

identify the one or more media items that are at least partially within the area of the media arrangement that is viewable on the display device from the second set of media items.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the extended area extends beyond the area of the media arrangement that is viewable on the display device in each direction in an adjustment dimension of the media arrangement by an amount that is greater than or equal to a maximum positional difference in the adjustment dimension between two consecutive media items in the set of media items.