METHOD FOR CONTROLLING A USER INTERFACE, INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM

• US 20090307589A1
• Filed: 05/20/2009
• Published: 12/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Inose, Tsutomu, Nagai, Hiroyuki
• Granted Patent: US 9,081,493 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/702
• 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 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

In a user interface that can identify concurrent pointing at a plurality of given positions on a screen, after detecting that a plurality of pointed positions are concurrently present in a display range of one object on a screen, whether or not an operation of moving the other pointed positions is performed, while keeping at least one pointed position among the plurality of pointed positions, is determined. Then, if it is determined that this operation is performed, the processing that is to be executed is decided based on the number of kept pointed positions and the number of moved pointed positions, and the decided process is executed on the object.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a user interface that can concurrently detect a plurality of pointed positions on a screen, comprising:

detecting that a plurality of pointed positions are concurrently present in a display range of one object on the screen, using the user interface;

determining whether or not an operation of, while keeping at least one pointed position among the plurality of pointed positions, moving the other pointed positions is performed after the presence of the plurality of pointed positions is detected;

deciding processing that is to be executed in a case where at least one of the number of kept pointed positions and the number of moved pointed positions is plural, if it is determined that the operation is performed; and

executing the decided processing.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, in deciding the processing, copy processing of data corresponding to the object is decided as the processing that is to be executed.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein, in deciding the processing, deletion processing of data corresponding to the object is decided as the processing that is to be executed.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the user interface detects a pointed position pointed by a user on a touch panel, or a pointed position pointed with a pointing device.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein, in executing the decided processing, the copy processing of the object is repeated according to the number of moved pointed positions.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising displaying a copy of the object on the screen following the moved pointed position,

wherein, in executing the decided processing, a number of repetitions of a copy operation being performed on the object are added, according to addition of a pointed position into a display area of a copy of the object.

7. An information processing apparatus having a user interface that can concurrently detect a plurality of pointed positions on a screen, comprising:

a detecting unit configured to detect that a plurality of pointed positions are concurrently present in a display range of one object on the screen, using the user interface;

a determination unit configured to determine whether or not an operation of, while keeping at least one pointed position among the plurality of pointed positions, moving the other pointed positions is performed after the presence of the plurality of pointed positions is detected by the detecting unit;

a decision unit configured to decide processing that is to be executed in a case where at least one of the number of kept pointed positions and the number of moved pointed positions is plural, if it is determined that the operation is performed by the determination unit; and

an execution unit configured to execute the processing decided by the decision unit on the object.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the decision unit decides copy processing of data corresponding to the object as the processing that is to be executed.

9. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the decision unit decides deletion processing of data corresponding to the object as the processing that is to be executed.

10. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the user interface detects a pointed position pointed by a user on a touch panel, or a pointed position pointed with a pointing device.

11. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the execution unit repeats the copy processing of the object according to the number of moved pointed positions.

12. The apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a display unit configured to display a copy of the object on the screen following the moved pointed position,

wherein the execution unit adds a number of repetitions of a copy operation being performed on the object, according to addition of a pointed position into a display area of a copy of the object.

13. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program used for causing a computer to execute a method for controlling a user interface that can concurrently detect a plurality of pointed positions on a screen, said method comprising:

detecting that a plurality of pointed positions are concurrently present in a display range of one object on the screen, using the user interface;

determining whether or not an operation of, while keeping at least one pointed position among the plurality of pointed positions, moving the other pointed positions is performed after the presence of the plurality of pointed positions is detected;

deciding processing that is to be executed in a case where at least one of the number of kept pointed positions and the number of moved pointed positions is plural, if it is determined that the operation is performed; and

executing the decided processing.