User interface selection through intercept points

• US 10,248,248 B2
• Filed: 11/04/2016
• Issued: 04/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bostick, James E., Ganci, Jr., John M., Keen, Martin G., Rakshit, Sarbajit K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shankar, Vijay
• Application Number:
  US15/343,771
• Publication Number:
  US 20180129334A1
• Time in Patent Office: 879 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• 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 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

Approaches presented herein provide for user interface selection through an intercept point defined by a touch sensitive bezel. More specifically, a touch sensitive bezel, in a device having a display at least partially surrounded by the touch sensitive bezel, senses a horizontal position and a vertical position on the display from two locations on the bezel touched by a user. An intersection on the display where the horizontal position and the vertical position cross is determined and can be marked on the display. A user may slide his/her fingers along the touch sensitive bezel to move the intersection around the display. A user may perform an additional action to confirm a selection of an item located at the intersection. The touch sensitive bezel can also be used to control interface selection on a display of a second device by mapping the horizontal and vertical positions to the second device display.

Claims

1. A computer system for user interface (UI) selection through an intercept point defined by a touch sensitive bezel, the computer system comprising:

a display;

a touch sensitive bezel at least partially surrounding the display, the touch sensitive bezel having a set of sensors that detect a presence and a location of one or more fingers of a user on the touch sensitive bezel;

a memory medium comprising program instructions;

a bus coupled to the memory medium; and

a processor, for executing the program instructions, coupled to a bezel sensor tool via the bus that when executing the program instructions causes the system to;

sense a horizontal position on the display from a first user finger touch of the bezel and a vertical position on the display from a second user finger touch of the bezel;

determine an intersection on the display of the horizontal position and the vertical position;

sense a confirming action by the user; and

register a selection of an item at the intersection on the display in response to sensing the confirming action.

2. The computer system of claim 1, the instructions further causing the system to mark the intersection on the display with a vertical line showing the horizontal position and a horizontal line showing the vertical position across at least a portion of the display.

3. The computer system of claim 2, the instructions further causing the system to:

sense a second horizontal position on the display from a third touch of the bezel and a second vertical position on the display from a fourth touch of the bezel;

determine a second intersection on the display of the second horizontal position and the second vertical position; and

move the marked intersection on the display to the second intersection.

4. The computer system of claim 1, the instructions further causing the system to generate feedback in response to sensing the confirming action by the user, the feedback being selected from the group consisting of:

a haptic feedback, an auditory feedback, and a visual feedback.

5. The computer system of claim 1, the instructions further causing the system to:

connect, through a network, to a device having a display;

convert the horizontal position to a horizontal ratio relative to a horizontal side of the touch sensitive bezel and the vertical position to a vertical ratio relative to a vertical side of the touch sensitive bezel; and

transmit the horizontal ratio and the vertical ratio to the device, wherein the horizontal ratio and the vertical ratio are used to map the intersection of the horizontal position and the vertical position onto the display of the device.

6. The computer system of claim 1, the instructions further causing the system to control a user interaction with unilinear content on the display using only one of the horizontal position and the vertical position.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the touch sensitive bezel comprises a set of touch sensors and a set of press sensors and wherein the computer system is a smart watch.

8. A computer program product for user interface (UI) selection through an intercept point defined by a touch sensitive bezel, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage device, and program instructions stored on the computer readable storage device, to:

sense a horizontal position on a display, the display having a touch sensitive bezel at least partially surrounding the display, from a first user finger touch of the bezel and a vertical position on the display from a second user finger touch of the bezel, wherein the touch sensitive bezel senses the first user finger touch and the second user finger touch essentially concurrently;

determine an intersection on the display of the horizontal position and the vertical position;

sense a confirming action by the user; and

register a selection of an item at the intersection on the display in response to sensing the confirming action.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, the computer readable storage device further comprising instructions to mark the intersection on the display with a vertical line showing the horizontal position and a horizontal line showing the vertical position across at least a portion of the display.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, the computer readable storage device further comprising instructions to:

sense a second horizontal position on the display from a third touch of the bezel and a second vertical position on the display from a fourth touch of the bezel;

determine a second intersection on the display of the second horizontal position and the second vertical position; and

move the marked intersection on the display to the second intersection.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, the computer readable storage device further comprising instructions to:

connect, through a network, to a device having a display;

convert the horizontal position to a horizontal ratio relative to a horizontal side of the touch sensitive bezel and the vertical position to a vertical ratio relative to a vertical side of the touch sensitive bezel; and

transmit the horizontal ratio and the vertical ratio to the device, wherein the horizontal ratio and the vertical ratio are used to map the intersection of the horizontal position and the vertical position onto the display of the device.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, the computer readable storage device further comprising instructions to control a user interaction with unilinear content on the display using only one of the horizontal position and the vertical position.

13. A computer-implemented method for user interface (UI) selection through an intercept point defined by a touch sensitive bezel, the computer-implemented method comprising:

providing a display having a touch sensitive bezel at least partially surrounding the display, the touch sensitive bezel having a set of sensors that detect a presence and a location of one or more fingers of a user on the touch sensitive bezel;

sensing a horizontal position on the display from a first user finger touch of the bezel and a vertical position on the display from a second user finger touch of the bezel, wherein the touch sensitive bezel senses the first user finger touch and the second user finger touch essentially concurrently;

determining an intersection on the display of the horizontal position and the vertical position;

sensing a confirming action by the user; and

registering a selection of an item at the intersection on the display in response to sensing the confirming action.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, the method further comprising marking the intersection on the display with a vertical line showing the horizontal position and a horizontal line showing the vertical position across at least a portion of the display.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, the method further comprising:

sensing a second horizontal position on the display from a third touch of the bezel and a second vertical position on the display from a fourth touch of the bezel;

determining a second intersection on the display of the second horizontal position and the second vertical position; and

moving the marked intersection on the display to the second intersection.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, the method further comprising generating feedback in response to sensing the confirming action by the user, the feedback being selected from the group consisting of:

a haptic feedback, an auditory feedback, and a visual feedback.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, the method further comprising:

connecting, through a network, to a device having a display;

converting the horizontal position to a horizontal ratio relative to a horizontal side of the touch sensitive bezel and the vertical position to a vertical ratio relative to a vertical side of the touch sensitive bezel; and

transmitting the horizontal ratio and the vertical ratio to the device, wherein the horizontal ratio and the vertical ratio are used to map the intersection of the horizontal position and the vertical position onto the display of the device.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, the method further comprising controlling a user interaction with unilinear content on the display using only one of the horizontal position and the vertical position.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the touch sensitive bezel comprises a set of touch sensors and a set of press sensors.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the display having a touch sensitive bezel is a smart watch display.