Animating display motion

• US 20030179239A1
• Filed: 12/02/2002
• Published: 09/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL LLC (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lira, Luigi
• Granted Patent: US 7,296,243 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/776
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 1/00 Control arrangements or circuits, of interest only in connection with cathode-ray tube indicators; General aspects or details, e.g. selection emphasis on particular characters, dashed line or dotted line generation; Preprocessing of datacathode-ray oscilloscopes G01R13/20; radar display arrangements G01S7/04; display of digital non-picture data in television systems H04N7/0255

Abstract

Navigating on a display includes providing a navigation control operable to change a viewable portion of a page of information on a display from a first view to a second view. In response to operation of the navigation control, the display is animated to create an appearance of motion as the viewable portion of the page of information changes from the first view to the second view in response to operation of the navigation control.

Claims

1. A method of navigating on a display, the method comprising:

providing a navigation control operable to change a viewable portion of a page of information on a display from a first view to a second view; and

in response to operation of the navigation control, animating the display to create an appearance of motion as the viewable portion of the page of information changes from the first view to the second view in response to operation of the navigation control.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the navigation control includes a screen icon and operation of the navigation control includes actuation of the screen icon to change the display from the first view to the second view.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein:

the screen icon includes a first screen icon corresponding to the first view and a second screen icon corresponding to the second view; and

actuation of the first screen icon positions the viewable portion of the page of information at the first view and actuation of the second screen icon positions the viewable portion of the page of information at the second view.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the first view includes a first discrete area of the page of information and the second view includes a second discrete area of the page of information such that actuation of the first screen icon positions the viewable portion of the page of information to view the first discrete area and actuation of the second screen icon positions the viewable portion of the page of information to view the second discrete area.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein:

the page of information includes more than one column of information;

the screen icon includes a column icon corresponding to each column of information; and

actuating a column icon positions the corresponding column of information on the display.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein animating the display includes shifting the viewable portion of the page of information on the display in a horizontal direction.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising reformatting the page of information into more than one logical column with each logical column having a corresponding screen icon such that operation of the navigation control includes actuating the screen icon to view the corresponding logical column.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein operation of the navigation control includes clicking a mouse.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein operation of the navigation control includes touching a stylus to a touchscreen.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein animating the display includes slowly scrolling the display to give the display an appearance of slow motion.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein animating the display includes illustrating a visible portion of the page of information moving continuously on the display from the first view to the second view.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein animating the display includes drawing a line from the first view to the second view.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising opening a window on the display that shows a reference marker moving from the first view to the second view.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising operating the navigation control in response to enunciation of a voice command.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the page of information includes a Web page coded in HTML such that operating the navigation control changes the viewable portion of the Web page on the display from the first view to the second view.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein animating the display includes gradually shifting content on the page of information from the first view to the second view.

17. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a user defined control such that animating the display further includes controlling the animation with the user defined control.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein controlling animation with the user-defined control includes selecting a time interval to change the viewable portion of the page of information from the first view to the second view.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein controlling animation with the user-defined control includes selecting a velocity to change the viewable portion of the page of information from the first view to the second view.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein selecting the velocity includes selecting a constant velocity during the change in the viewable portion of the page from the first view to the second view.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein selecting the velocity includes selecting a variable velocity during the change in the viewable portion of the page from the first view to the second view.

22. The method of claim 17 wherein controlling animation with the user-defined control includes selecting an acceleration to change the viewable portion of the page of information from the first view to the second view.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein selecting the acceleration includes selecting a constant acceleration during the change in the viewable portion of the page from the first view to the second view.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein selecting the acceleration includes selecting a variable acceleration during the change in the viewable portion of the page from the first view to the second view.

25. A computer-readable medium on which are stored executable instructions for causing a computer system to:

provide a navigation control operable to change a viewable portion of a page of information on a display from a first view to a second view; and

animate the display when the navigation control is operated to create an appearance of motion as the viewable portion of the page of information changes from the first view to the second view.

26. The medium of claim 25 wherein the navigation control includes a screen icon and further comprising instructions for operating the navigation control in response to actuation of the screen icon.

27. The medium of claim 26 wherein the screen icon includes a first screen icon corresponding to the first view and a second screen icon corresponding to the second view and further comprising instructions for positioning the viewable portion of the page of information at the first view in response to actuation of the first screen icon and at the second view in response to actuation of the second screen icon.

28. The medium of claim 27 wherein the first view includes a first discrete area on the page of information and the second view includes a second discrete area on the page of information and further comprising instructions for positioning the viewable portion of the page of information to view the first discrete area in response to actuation of the first screen icon and to view the second discrete area in response to actuation of the second screen icon.

29. The medium of claim 26 wherein the page of information includes more than one column of information and the screen icon includes a column icon corresponding to each column of information and further comprising instructions for positioning the column of information on the display when the corresponding column icon is actuated.

30. The article of claim 26 further comprising instructions to shift the viewable portion of the page of information on the display in a horizontal direction from the first view to the second view when the navigation control is operated.

31. The medium of claim 26 further comprising instructions for reformatting the page of information into more than one logical column, with each column having a corresponding screen icon, and instructions for positioning the logical column on the display when the corresponding screen icon is actuated.

32. The medium of claim 25 further comprising instructions for operating the navigation control in response to clicking of a mouse on a defined area of the display.

33. The medium of claim 25 further comprising instructions for operating the navigation control in response to touching of a stylus to a reference icon on a touchscreen.

34. The medium of claim 25 wherein the instructions to animate the display include instructions to illustrate a visible portion of the page of information moving continuously on the display from the first view to the second view.

35. The medium of claim 25 further comprising instruction for opening on the display a window that shows a reference marker moving from the first view to the second view.

36. The medium of claim 25 wherein the page of information includes a Web page coded in hyper text markup link language such that operating the navigation control changes the viewable portion of the Web page on the display from the first view to the second view.

37. The medium of claim 25 wherein instructions for animating the display include instructions for gradually shifting content on the page of information from the first view to the second view.

38. The medium of claim 25 further comprising instructions for providing a user defined control such that animating the display further includes controlling the animation with the user defined control.

39. The medium of claim 38 wherein instructions for controlling animation with the user-defined control include instructions for selecting a velocity at which to change the viewable portion of the page of information from the first view to the second view.

40. A system for navigating on a display, the system comprising:

a display surface;

a navigation control on the display; and

a processor operable to;

change the viewable portion of a page of information on the display from a first view to a second view when the navigation control is operated; and

animate the display to create an appearance of motion as the page of information changes from the first view to the second view.

41. The system of claim 40 wherein:

the navigation control includes a screen icon; and

the processor is operable to change the viewable portion of the display by actuating the screen icon.

42. The system of claim 41 wherein:

the screen icon includes a first screen icon corresponding to the first view and a second screen icon corresponding to the second view; and

the processor is operable to position the visible portion of the page of information on the display at the first view when the first screen icon is actuated and at the second view when the second screen icon is actuated.

43. The system of claim 40 wherein:

the page of information includes more than one column of information, and

the screen icon includes a column icon corresponding to each column of information; and

the processor is operable to position the column of information on the display when the corresponding column icon is actuated.

44. The system of claim 40 wherein the processor is operable to move the visible portion of the page of information in a horizontal direction on the display to change from the first view to the second view when the navigation control is operated.

45. The system of claim 40 wherein the processor is operable to:

reformat the page of information into more than one logical column each having a corresponding screen icon, the logical column having a width not exceeding a width of the display; and

position the logical column for viewing on the display when the screen icon corresponding to the logical column is actuated.

46. The system of claim 40 wherein the processor is operable to animate the display by illustrating the visible portion of the page of information moving continuously on the display from the first view to the second view

47. The system of claim 40 wherein the system further includes a personal digital assistant including the processor and the display.

48. The system of claim 40 wherein the system further includes a hand-held computer including the processor and the display.