Multi-touch uses, gestures, and implementation

• US 20070262964A1
• Filed: 05/12/2006
• Published: 11/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zotov, Alexander, Townsend, Reed, Scott, Bryan, Dodge, Steven
• Granted Patent: US 9,063,647 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• 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 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A tablet PC having an interactive display, which is touchscreen enabled, may be enhanced to provide a user with superior usability and efficiency. A touchscreen device may be configured to receive multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts. The attributes of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contracts may be mapped to operations performed on the computing device. As a result, a user can trigger the execution of the toggle accessibility aid operation and the screen rotation operation with greater convenience. Moreover, the tablet PC may be configured to map an operation to a hand gesture or input.

Claims

1. In a computing system comprising a touchscreen device, a computer-implemented method for performing an operation on the computing system in response to input received from a user of the touchscreen device, wherein the touchscreen device includes an interactive display device, the method comprising:

receiving input from a user of a touchscreen device, the input comprising multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts;

processing the input, wherein processing includes identifying the attributes of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts and identifying an operation to perform in response to the input; and

in response to the input, performing a toggle accessibility aid operation on a computing system if the input is preconfigured to correspond to the operation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein visibility of a touch pointer widget on an interactive display device is toggled in response to the toggle accessibility aid operation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the attributes of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts indicate two fingers in contact with the touchscreen device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the two fingers are a pointer finger and a middle finger on a hand of a user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing system is preconfigured with a mapping between the toggle touch pointer widget operation and the input corresponding to the attributes of multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts indicating two fingers in contact with the touchscreen device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing system is a tablet.

7. In a computing system comprising a touchscreen device, a computer-implemented method for performing an operation on the computing system in response to a gesture received from a user of the touchscreen device, wherein the touchscreen device includes an interactive display device, the method comprising:

receiving a gesture from a user of a touchscreen device, the gesture comprising multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts that change along a generally predefined pattern;

processing the gesture, wherein processing includes identifying attributes of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts and identifying an operation to perform in response to the gesture; and

in response to the gesture, performing a screen rotation operation on a computing system if the gesture is preconfigured to correspond to the operation.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the attributes of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts indicate at least one finger and a thumb in contact with the touchscreen device.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the attributes of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts indicate four fingers and a thumb in contact with the touchscreen device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the generally predefined pattern is a change in positions of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts in a generally semi-circular path along a surface of the touchscreen device.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the generally predefined pattern is a change in positions of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts in a generally semi-circular path along a surface of the touchscreen device.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein all viewable objects displayed on the interactive display device are rotated by a predetermined angle in response to the screen rotation operation.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the computing system is a tablet.

14. For use in a computing system comprising a computer-readable medium and a touchscreen device including an interactive display device, a computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

receiving a gesture from a user of a touchscreen device, the gesture comprising multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts that change along a generally predefined pattern;

processing the gesture, wherein processing includes identifying attributes of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts and identifying an operation to perform in response to the gesture; and

in response to the gesture,.performing a screen rotation operation on a computing system if the gesture is preconfigured to correspond to the operation.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the attributes of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts indicate at least one finger and a thumb in contact with the touchscreen device.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the attributes of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts indicate four fingers and a thumb in contact with the touchscreen device.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the generally predefined pattern is a change in positions of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts in a generally semi-circular path among a surface of the touchscreen device.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the generally predefined pattern is a change in positions of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts in a generally semi-circular path along a surface of the touchscreen device.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein all viewable objects displayed on the interactive display device are rotated by a predetermined angle in response to the screen rotation operation.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the computing system is a tablet.