Computer-implemented system and method for defining graphics primitives

• US 20050275622A1
• Filed: 06/14/2004
• Published: 12/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAS Institute Incorporated
• Original Assignee: SAS Institute Incorporated
• Inventors: Nisbet, Stuart A., Kocherlakota, Sarat M., Patel, Himesh G., Dere, Vikram, Collins, Keith V.
• Granted Patent: US 7,788,606 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

Systems and methods for generating graphic primitives. Data is received that is indicative of a gesture provided by a user. It is determined whether the received gesture data is indicative of a graphic primitive. A graphic primitive is generated for use on a user display based upon said determining step.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for generating at least a graphic primitive, comprising the steps of:

receiving data indicative of a gesture provided by a user;

determining whether the received gesture data is indicative of a graphic primitive;

generating a graphic primitive for use on a user display based upon said determining step.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the gesture is provided by a user through a pen-based device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the gesture is provided by a user through use of a pen-based device on an interactive screen of a tablet personal computer (PC) device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the gesture is provided by a user through a mouse or keyboard device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the gesture provided by the user is a rough approximation of a geometric shape;

wherein the generated graphic primitive is a formal business presentation quality version of the input rough approximation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein graphic primitives include line charts, bar charts, or pie charts.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated graphic primitive is used in a business graph.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically generating a graph for use on a user display based upon said determining step.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving second data indicative of a second gesture provided by the user;

editing the generated graph based upon the received data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the received second data provides information to edit a title of an axis of the generated graph.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the received second data provides information to edit content of an axis of the generated graph.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein data is retrieved from a database for use as content of the axis;

wherein the data is retrieved from the database based upon the received second data.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the data is retrieved over a network from the database.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the received second data indicates that candidate values are to be displayed to the user for selection of a data value to be used with the generated graph.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein a pull-down box provides the candidate values to the user for selection.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein a user filters the candidate values by providing a gesture indicative of a character, wherein the character indicates which candidate values are to be displayed to the user.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving second data indicative of a second gesture provided by the user;

deleting a portion of the generated graph based upon the received second data.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving second data indicative of a second gesture provided by the user;

editing the generated graph based upon the received second data such that different graph axis values are to be used in displaying the graph to the user.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing options of different types of graphic primitives based upon a gesture received from a user.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using associations between gesture input and graphic actions to determine how to edit a graphic.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using associations between gesture inputs and types of graphic primitives in order to determine what type of graphic primitive to display to a user.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein an associated gesture input is intuitive in that the associated gesture input corresponds at least approximately to its associated type of graphic primitive.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

entering into a mode based upon a gesture received from a user;

wherein the mode comprises an input mode, bar chart mode, a pie chart mode, an edit mode, and a system mode for handling graphics.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated graph is for use with a software application.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the software application is a word processing application, a spreadsheet program, presentation program, or an e-mail program.

26. Computer-readable medium capable of causing a computing device to perform the method of claim 1.

27. A computer-implemented apparatus for generating at least a graphic primitive, comprising:

means for receiving data indicative of a gesture provided by a user;

means for determining whether the received gesture data is indicative of a graphic primitive;

means for generating a graphic primitive for use on a user display based upon whether the received gesture data is indicative of a graphic primitive.

28. A computer-implemented apparatus for generating graphs, comprising:

a data store that stores associations between gesture data and predetermined graph types;

graph recognition instructions having a data connection to the data store;

wherein the graph recognition instructions are configured to determine whether the received gesture data is indicative of a graph based upon the stored associations;

wherein a graph is generated for use on a user display based upon said determination.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the graph recognition instructions comprise instructions for execution upon a computing device.