User interface selection through intercept points

• US 10,416,809 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2019
• Issued: 09/17/2019
• 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:
  US16/261,966
• Publication Number:
  US 20190163318A1
• Time in Patent Office: 230 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 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 touch of a user finger to the bezel indicating a linear segment of the display. A position on the display associated with the indicated linear segment is determined. A confirming action by the user is sensed and a selection of an item at the position on the display is registered in response to sensing the confirming action.

Claims

1. A computer system for user interface (UI) selection through 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 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 touch of a user finger to the bezel indicating a linear segment of the display;

determine a position on the display associated with the indicated linear segment;

sense a confirming action by the user; and

register a selection of an item at the position 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 position on the display with a line showing the linear segment 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 touch of a user finger to the bezel indicating a second linear segment of the display;

determine a second position on the display associated with the indicated second linear segment; and

move the marked position on the display to the second linear segment.

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

transmit the ratio to the device, wherein the ratio is used to map the position onto the display of the device.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the touch sensitive bezel comprises a set of touch sensors and a set of press sensors.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is a smart watch.

8. A computer program product for user interface (UI) selection through 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 touch of a user finger to the bezel indicating a linear segment of a display, the display having a touch sensitive bezel at least partially surrounding the display;

determine a position on the display associated with the indicated linear segment;

sense a confirming action by the user; and

register a selection of an item at the position 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 position on the display with a line showing the linear segment 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 touch of a user finger to the bezel indicating a second linear segment of the display;

determine a second position on the display associated with the indicated second linear segment; and

move the marked position on the display to the second linear segment.

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

12. 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 position to a ratio relative to a side of the touch sensitive bezel; and

transmit the ratio the device, wherein the ratio is used to map the position onto the display of the device.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the touch sensitive bezel has a set of sensors that detect a presence of one or more fingers of the user on the touch sensitive bezel.

14. A computer-implemented method for user interface (UI) selection through 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 of one or more fingers of a user on the touch sensitive bezel;

sensing a touch of a user finger to the bezel indicating a linear segment of the display;

determining a position on the display associated with the indicated linear segment;

sensing a confirming action by the user; and

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

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, the method further comprising marking the position on the display with a line showing the linear segment across at least a portion of the display.

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

sensing a second touch of a user finger to the bezel indicating a second linear segment of the display;

determining a second position on the display associated with the indicated second linear segment; and

moving the marked position on the display to the second linear segment.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, 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.

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

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

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

transmitting the ratio to the device, wherein the ratio is used to map the position onto the display of the device.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the touch sensitive bezel comprises a set of touch sensors and a set of press sensors.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the display having a touch sensitive bezel is a smart watch display.