Mapping application with interactive dynamic scale and smart zoom

• US 10,635,287 B2
• Filed: 05/05/2017
• Issued: 04/28/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Moore, Bradford A., Carlhian, Alexandre, Godfrey, Edouard D., Borios, Guillaume, Dul, Albert P., van Os, Marcel, Lee, Woo-Ram
• Primary Examiner(s): Trapanese, William C
• Application Number:
  US15/588,261
• Publication Number:
  US 20170371512A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,089 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3664 Details of the user input interface, e.g. buttons, knobs or sliders, including those provided on a touch screen; remote controllers; input using gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/367 Details, e.g. road map scale, orientation, zooming, illumination, level of detail, scrolling of road map or positioning of current position marker
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• 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 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a mapping application that includes a novel dynamic scale that can be used to perform different zoom operations. In some embodiments, the scale also serves as a distance measurement indicator for a corresponding zoom level. The application continuously adjusts several different attributes of the scale, including the scale size, the number of segments on the scale and the representative distance of a segment on the scale. In some embodiments, the mapping application provides a smart zoom feature that guides a user during a zoom to a location. In particular, the smart zoom detects that a location of a zoom is near a pin on the map, and if so, zooms to the pin on the map. Otherwise, if the location is near a cloud of pins, the application zooms to the cloud of pins. Otherwise the zoom is directed towards the user'"'"'s selected location.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a mapping application for execution by at least one processing unit, the mapping application comprising sets of instructions for:

defining, by the mapping application, a persistent scale mode during which a graphical scale representing a scale of a map presentation is persistently displayed on the map presentation of the mapping application;

defining, by the mapping application, a temporary scale mode during which the graphical scale is presented while receiving user input to change the scale of the map presentation and hidden when the user input is terminated;

presenting a scale mode control that includes selectable elements for switching between the persistent scale mode and the temporary scale mode;

displaying the map presentation;

receiving a user selection of a particular scale mode from the scale mode control;

in response to the selection, presenting the graphical scale on the map presentation according to the selected scale mode, the graphical scale comprising a number of segments with a representative distance for each segment;

upon detection of a map adjustment input on the map presentation, adjusting the graphical scale.

2. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the mapping application further comprises a set of instructions for computing a number of segments of the graphical scale.

3. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2, the size of the segments is computed based on the representative distance of each segment and a maximum scale display size of the graphical scale.

4. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein a size of the graphical scale is adjusted from a first size for the first zoom level and a second size for the second zoom level.

5. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the graphical scale comprises a first representative distance for the first zoom level and a second different representative distance for the second zoom level.

6. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the representative distance comprises a number and a unit, wherein the unit is different for a metric system and a U.S. customary system and wherein the unit is one of either feet or miles for the U.S. customary system and one of either meters or kilometers for the metric system.

7. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the mapping application further comprises a set of instructions for displaying the graphical scale on the map only after receiving a predetermined input.

8. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the mapping application further comprises sets of instructions for:

receiving an input comprising the zoom operation; and

zooming to a different zoom level based on the received input.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising:

recalculating the at least one attribute of the plurality of attributes a plurality of times between a start time and an end time of the input.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the input, rescaling the map; and

while rescaling the map, dynamically recalculating the at least one attribute to represent, by the scale indicator, a starting scale and an ending scale for the map.

11. A computer implemented method comprising:

defining, by the mapping application, a persistent scale mode during which a graphical scale representing a scale of a map presentation is persistently displayed on the map presentation of the mapping application;

defining, by the mapping application, a temporary scale mode during which the graphical scale is presented while receiving user input to change the scale of the map presentation and hidden when the user input is terminated;

presenting a scale mode control that includes selectable elements for switching between the persistent scale mode and the temporary scale mode;

displaying the map presentation;

receiving a user selection of a particular scale mode from the scale mode control;

in response to the selection, presenting the graphical scale on the map presentation according to the selected scale mode, the graphical scale comprising a number of segments with a representative distance for each segment;

upon detection of a map adjustment input on the map presentation, adjusting the graphical scale.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising computing a number of segments of the graphical scale.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the size of the segments is computed based on the representative distance of each segment and a maximum scale display size of the graphical scale.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein a size of the scale is adjusted from a first size for the first zoom level and a second size for the second zoom level.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the graphical scale comprises a first representative distance for the first zoom level and a second different representative distance for the second zoom level.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the representative distance comprises a number and a unit, wherein the unit is different for a metric system and a U.S. customary system and wherein the unit is one of either feet or miles for the U.S. customary system and one of either meters or kilometers for the metric system.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the mapping application further comprises a set of instructions for displaying the graphical scale on the map only after receiving a predetermined input.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving an input comprising the zoom operation; and

zooming to a different zoom level based on the received input.

19. A system comprising:

a display device;

one or more processing units; and

a non-transitory machine readable medium storing a mapping application for execution by at least one processing unit, the mapping application comprising sets of instructions for;

defining, by the mapping application, a persistent scale mode during which a graphical scale representing a scale of a map presentation is persistently displayed on the map presentation of the mapping application;

defining, by the mapping application, a temporary scale mode during which the graphical scale is presented while receiving user input to change the scale of the map presentation and hidden when the user input is terminated;

presenting a scale mode control that includes selectable elements for switching between the persistent scale mode and the temporary scale mode;

displaying the map presentation;

receiving a user selection of a particular scale mode from the scale mode control;

in response to the selection, presenting the graphical scale on the map presentation according to the selected scale mode, the graphical scale comprising a number of segments with a representative distance for each segment;

upon detection of a map adjustment input on the map presentation, adjusting the graphical scale.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the mapping application further comprises a set of instructions for computing a number of segments of the graphical scale.

21. The system of claim 19, the size of the segments is computed based on the representative distance of each segment and a maximum scale display size of the graphical scale.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein a size of the graphical scale is adjusted from a first size for the first zoom level and a second size for the second zoom level.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the graphical scale comprises a first representative distance for the first zoom level and a second different representative distance for the second zoom level.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the representative distance comprises a number and a unit, wherein the unit is different for a metric system and a U.S. customary system and wherein the unit is one of either feet or miles for the U.S. customary system and one of either meters or kilometers for the metric system.

25. The system of claim 19, wherein the mapping application further comprises a set of instructions for displaying the graphical scale on the map only after receiving a predetermined input.

26. The system of claim 19, wherein the mapping application further comprises sets of instructions for:

receiving an input comprising the zoom operation; and

zooming to a different zoom level based on the received input.

27. A device comprising:

one or more processing units; and

a non-transitory machine readable medium storing a mapping application for execution by at least one processing unit of the one or more processing units, the mapping application comprising sets of instructions for;

defining, by the mapping application, a persistent scale mode during which a graphical scale representing a scale of a map presentation is persistently displayed on the map presentation of the mapping application;

defining, by the mapping application, a temporary scale mode during which the graphical scale is presented while receiving user input to change the scale of the map presentation and hidden when the user input is terminated;

presenting a scale mode control that includes selectable elements for switching between the persistent scale mode and the temporary scale mode;

displaying the map presentation;

receiving a user selection of a particular scale mode from the scale mode control;

in response to the selection, presenting the graphical scale on the map presentation according to the selected scale mode, the graphical scale comprising a number of segments with a representative distance for each segment;

upon detection of a map adjustment input on the map presentation, adjusting the graphical scale.

28. The device of claim 27, wherein the mapping application further comprises a set of instructions for computing a number of segments of the graphical scale.

29. The device of claim 27, the size of the segments is computed based on the representative distance of each segment and a maximum scale display size of the graphical scale.

30. The device of claim 27, wherein a size of the graphical scale is adjusted from a first size for the first zoom level and a second size for the second zoom level.

31. The device of claim 27, wherein the graphical scale comprises a first representative distance for the first zoom level and a second different representative distance for the second zoom level.

32. The device of claim 27, wherein the representative distance comprises a number and a unit, wherein the unit is different for a metric system and a U.S. customary system and wherein the unit is one of either feet or miles for the U.S. customary system and one of either meters or kilometers for the metric system.

33. The device of claim 27, wherein the mapping application further comprises a set of instructions for displaying the graphical scale on the map only after receiving a predetermined input.

34. The device of claim 27, wherein the mapping application further comprises sets of instructions for:

receiving an input comprising the zoom operation; and

zooming to a different zoom level based on the received input.