Single-handed approach for navigation of application tiles using panning and zooming

• US 20060190833A1
• Filed: 02/18/2005
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Robbins, Daniel C., SanGiovanni, John
• Granted Patent: US 8,819,569 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/767
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• 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: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/80 2D [Two Dimensional] animation, e.g. using sprites

Abstract

The subject invention provides a unique interactive system and method that facilitate single-handed navigation and interaction with applications within a display space on any type of mobile computing device. The system and method include or employ scalable application tiles corresponding to applications, whereby the application tiles can provide or indicate the current state of the corresponding application. The state information provided in each tile can vary as well depending on the current size of the tile. The tiles can be arranged into a plurality of zones such that a user can view one particular zone at a time and obtain more context and information from the application tiles in that zone rather than working with all tiles and all zones at the same time. The view of the display space can be of the world or all application tiles, zone, or application. Panning and zooming among the zones, application tiles and/or views can be performed single-handedly using designated on or off screen controls.

Claims

1. A single-handed navigation system for mobile computing devices comprising:

a display space comprising a plurality of application tiles corresponding to a plurality of applications;

a navigation component that receives user input and moves about the display space based at least in part on the user input; and

a display component that displays a view of the display space.

2. The system of claim 1, the display space is divided into a plurality of zones.

3. The system of claim 2, each zone comprises a plurality of application tiles.

4. The system of claim 1, the display space comprises a plurality of views.

5. The system of claim 4, the views comprise a zone view, a world view, and an application view.

6. The system of claim 5, the world view shows the plurality of zones.

7. The system of claim 5, the zone view shows a single zone.

8. The system of claim 1, the application tiles are a scalable miniature visualization of the corresponding applications and indicate a current state of each application.

9. The system of claim 1, the navigation component comprises a zoom component that zooms to one or more depths within the display space.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a zoom depth gauge that indicates a current zoom level within the display space.

11. The system of claim 1, the navigation component comprises a pan component that allows direct manipulation along at least one of an x-axis and a y-axis to facilitate a single-handed drag gesture through the plurality of application tiles.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising position indicator controls located in the display space that readily indicate a location of a current view within the display space.

13. The system of claim 2, each zone further comprises a central action control that provides a consistent visual reference within each zone and that is operational to facilitate panning between zones and zooming between views within the display space.

14. A single-handed navigation method for interacting with applications on mobile computing devices comprising:

providing a display space comprising a plurality of application tiles corresponding to a plurality of applications;

receiving user input;

navigating through the display space based at least in part on the user input; and

displaying a view of the display space.

15. The method of claim 14, providing the display space comprises receiving the plurality of application tiles and arranging them into a plurality of zones.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising mapping the plurality of zones to a standard keypad to facilitate single-handed interaction and navigation on devices without touch-sensitive screens.

17. The method of claim 14, navigating through the display space comprises at least one of the following:

zooming between different zoom depths of the display space to display a different view from a previous view; and

panning through the plurality of application tiles to highlight or examine at least one application tile.

18. The method of claim 14, the view comprises at least one of a zone view, a world view, and an application view.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising employing at least one of the following to facilitate determining a current position within the display space relative to other application tiles in the display space:

a zoom depth gauge that indicates a current zoom depth within the display space; and

a plurality of position indicator controls that provide visualization indication of other application tiles or zones not in a user'"'"'s current view.

20. A single-handed navigation method for interacting with applications on mobile computing devices comprising:

uploading a plurality of applications as corresponding scalable application tiles into a display space and arranging them into a plurality of zones, whereby each zone comprises at least one application tile; and

tapping at least one of the following to navigate and display at least one view;

a desired application or zone via a touch-screen; and

a designated control corresponding to the desired application, zone or desired view, whereby the view is any one of an application view, a zone view, a home view, and a world view.