Two-dimensional slider control

• US 9,495,087 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2013
• Issued: 11/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Warner, Peter, Bryant, Andrew, Arndt, James Clinton, Fedkiw, Olivier, Gallagher, Ryan Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): HO, RUAY L
• Application Number:
  US13/912,121
• Publication Number:
  US 20130346897A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,258 Days
• Field of Search: 715/765, 715/833, 715/723, 725/37, 345/689, 348/80
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a computer program that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for controlling an application. The GUI includes a contiguous two-dimensional sliding region for defining several values. The GUI also includes several sliders for moving within the sliding region. Each slider selects one or more values from the several values based on a position of the slider within the sliding region. The selected values are parameters for controlling one or more operations of the application.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program which when executed by at least one processor provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for controlling an application, the GUI comprising:

a contiguous two-dimensional sliding region defined along two axes;

a plurality of separate sliders, each for moving to a plurality of positions within the two dimensional sliding region that have non-zero values along the two axes, wherein each slider is associated with a parameter for controlling one or more operations of the application, wherein a plurality of different positions in the two-dimensional sliding region for each slider specifies a plurality of different values for the parameter associated with the slider; and

a plurality of selectable user interface (UI) items, wherein when one of the selectable UI items is selected and dragged into the contiguous two-dimensional sliding region, a slider is added to the contiguous two-dimensional sliding region.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of sliders is added to the two-dimensional sliding region by selecting and dragging a different selectable UI item in the plurality of UI items into the two-dimensional sliding region.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the GUI further comprises a display area for displaying the two-dimensional sliding region.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the plurality of selectable UI items is displayed within the display area.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the display area is a first display area, wherein the plurality of selectable UI items are displayed in a second display area adjacent to the first display area.

6. A method of providing a graphical user interface (GUI) for a media editing application to apply image processing operations to an image, the method comprising:

providing a contiguous two-dimensional sliding region;

providing a plurality of separate sliders for movably positioning independently with respect to each other within the two-dimensional sliding region, wherein movably positioning a slider causes a corresponding application of an image processing operation to be applied to the image based on a position of the slider within the two-dimensional sliding region; and

providing a plurality of selectable user interface (UI) items, wherein, when one of the selectable UI items is selected and dragged into the contiguous two-dimensional sliding region, a slider is added to the contiguous two-dimensional sliding region.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising providing a set of selectable UI items for specifying a set of pixels in the image to which the image processing operation of the slider is to be applied, the set of pixels having luminance values that fall within a particular range of luminance values.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the set of selectable UI items is included in a menu that is displayed in the GUI.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein each of the plurality of sliders is added to the two-dimensional sliding region when a different selectable UI item of the plurality of selectable UI items is selected and dragged into the two-dimensional sliding region.

10. The method of claim 6 further comprising providing a display area for displaying the image and displaying effects of image processing operations that are applied to the image.

11. A method of applying color correction operations to an image using a slider control, the slider control comprising a two-dimensional sliding region and a plurality of sliders that each controls a color correction operation, the method comprising:

adding a slider in the plurality of sliders to the two-dimensional sliding region by identifying a corresponding item of a plurality of items and moving the corresponding item into the two-dimensional sliding region;

movably positioning the slider in the plurality of sliders within the two-dimensional sliding region;

in response to the positioning of the slider, determining the color correction operation of the slider based on the position of the slider within the two-dimensional sliding region; and

applying to the image the determined color correction operation.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of sliders is added to the two-dimensional sliding region by identifying a different corresponding item of a plurality of items and moving the different corresponding item into the two-dimensional sliding region.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein movably positioning the slider in the plurality of sliders comprises presenting the plurality of sliders within the two-dimensional sliding region before and after the slider is movably positioned to the position within the two-dimensional sliding region.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the color correction operation of at least one slider is a saturation operation.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the color correction operation of at least one slider is a contrast operation.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the color correction operation of at least one slider is a brightness operation.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the color correction operation of at least one slider is a color cast operation.

18. A method of applying color correction operations to an image using a slider control, the slider control comprising a two-dimensional sliding region and a plurality of sliders that each controls a color correction operation, the method comprising:

creating a particular slider that represents the positions of a subset of the plurality of sliders within the two-dimensional sliding region;

movably positioning the particular slider within the two-dimensional sliding region;

in response to the positioning of the particular slider, determining the color correction operation of the particular slider based on the position of the particular slider within the two-dimensional sliding region; and

applying to the image the determined color correction operation.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein determining the color correction operation of the particular slider comprises determining color correction operations for each of the sliders in the subset of sliders based on the position of the particular slider within the two-dimensional sliding region.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein applying the determined color correction operation comprises applying each of the determined color correction operations for the subset of sliders to the image.

21. The method of claim 18 further comprising adding each particular slider in the plurality of sliders to the two-dimensional sliding region by identifying a corresponding item of a plurality of items and moving the corresponding item into the two-dimensional sliding region.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein creating a particular slider that represents the positions of a subset of the plurality of sliders comprises replacing the subset of the plurality of sliders within the two-dimensional sliding region with the particular slider within the two-dimensional sliding region.