User interface and method therefor

• US 20070220442A1
• Filed: 03/17/2006
• Published: 09/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola Mobility, Inc. (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Cranfill, David, Ning, Xiaohua, Bohan, Michael, Phipps, Chad, Tuttle, Susan
• Granted Patent: US 7,683,918 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/786
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0339 Touch strips, e.g. orthogonal touch strips to control cursor movement or scrolling; single touch strip to adjust parameter or to implement a row of soft keys
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0338 with detection of limited linear or angular displacement of an operating part of the device from a neutral position, e.g. isotonic or isometric joysticks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus

Abstract

A scrolling user interface comprises proportional scrolling responsive to contact in a proportional zone of a scrolling strip and multi-mode scrolling in response to contact in a multi-mode zone of the scrolling strip. Multi-mode scrolling can include proportional scrolling, continuous scrolling, or stepped scrolling.

Claims

1. A scrolling user interface, comprising:

proportional scrolling responsive to contact in a proportional zone of a scrolling strip;

multi-mode scrolling in response to contact in a multi-mode zone of the scrolling strip.

2. The interface as defined in claim 1, wherein the multi-mode zone includes proportional scrolling and continuous scrolling.

3. The interface as defined in claim 2, wherein the rate of continuous scrolling is derived from the speed of digit movement prior to the speed of a contacting digit dropping below a threshold speed.

4. The interface as defined in claim 2, wherein the region of the scrolling strip associated with continuous scrolling is dynamic.

5. The interface as defined in claim 2, wherein continuous scrolling is variable rate continuous scrolling, and wherein the maximum rate of continuous scrolling is associated with a speed measurement taken prior to a contacting digit movement speed dropping below a threshold speed.

6. The interface as defined in claim 5, wherein the size of a variable rate continuous scrolling region is a function of the maximum speed of digit movement prior to the speed of a contacting digit dropping below the threshold speed.

7. The interface as defined in claim 5, wherein the minimum speed of the variable rate continuous scrolling region is a transition point for proportional scrolling, and wherein the transition point can be positioned in the proportional zone or the multi-mode zone, and the transition point will be a function of the maximum rate of continuous scrolling and a location on the scrolling strip associated with the maximum rate of continuous scrolling.

8. The interface as defined in claim 1, further including multi-mode scrolling in a second multi-mode zone of the scrolling input.

9. The interface as defined in claim 2, further including stepped scrolling responsive to a digit tapping scrolling strip.

10. The interface as defined in claim 2, further including stepped scrolling responsive to a digit tapping the multi-mode zone of the scrolling strip.

11. A portable device comprising:

a housing

a display;

a menu system to be presented on the display;

a scrolling strip positioned on the housing having a proportional scrolling zone associated with proportional scrolling mode and a multi-mode scrolling zone associated continuous scrolling, the scrolling strip enabling scrolling through the menu system at a proportional and continuous rate.

12. The interface as defined in claim 11, wherein the multi-mode zone includes proportional scrolling and continuous scrolling.

13. The interface as defined in claim 12, wherein the rate of continuous scrolling is derived from the speed of digit movement prior to the speed of a contacting digit dropping below a threshold speed.

14. The interface as defined in claim 12, wherein the region of the scrolling strip associated with continuous scrolling is dynamic.

15. The interface as defined in claim 12, wherein continuous scrolling is variable rate continuous scrolling, and wherein the maximum rate of continuous scrolling is associated with a speed measurement taken prior to a contacting digit movement speed dropping below a threshold speed.

16. A method of scrolling for a user interface having a scrolling strip, comprising:

scrolling in a proportional mode responsive to movement in a proportional zone of the scrolling strip;

scrolling in a continuous mode responsive to contact in a multi-mode zone of the scrolling strip.

17. The method as defined in claim 16, further including the step of detecting the speed of digit movement on the scrolling strip.

18. The method as defined in claim 17, further including the step of detecting when the speed of digit movement drops below a threshold speed in the multi-mode zone.

19. The method as defined in claim 17, further including the step of detecting the direction of digit movement on the scrolling strip.

20. The method as defined in claim 17, further including the step of setting a rate of continuous scrolling as a function of a speed measurement taken prior to detecting digit movement speed dropping below a threshold speed.

21. The method as defined in claim 17, further including the step of setting a maximum rate of variable continuous scrolling as a function of a speed measurement taken prior to detecting the digit movement speed dropping below a threshold speed.

22. The method as defined in claim 20, further including the step of setting the size of the variable rate continuous scrolling region dependent upon the maximum speed of digit movement prior to the digit movement speed dropping below the threshold speed.

23. The method as defined in claim 22, further including the step of setting a transition point for proportional scrolling at an opposite end of the variable rate continuous scrolling region from the maximum scrolling rate, the transition point dependent upon the maximum rate of continuous scrolling.

24. The method as defined in claim 18, further including the step of detecting if the digit movement direction in the multi-mode zone is away from the proportional zone, and detecting when the speed of digit movement drops below a threshold speed in the multi-mode zone results in continuous scrolling if the digit is in the rate zone traveling in a direction away from the proportional zone.

25. The method as defined in claim 16, further including the step of detecting digit tapping of the scrolling strip, and activating stepped scrolling in response to detecting tapping.

26. The interface as defined in claim 16, further including the step of detecting digit tapping in the multi-mode zone of the scrolling strip, and providing stepped scrolling in response to detecting tapping.