RENDERING TEACHING ANIMATIONS ON A USER-INTERFACE DISPLAY

• US 20090319894A1
• Filed: 06/24/2008
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: CLEMENT, MANUEL, GARSIDE, ADRIAN, SILVIS, JASON, KEELY, LEROY B., MARKIEWICZ, JAN-KRISTIAN
• Granted Patent: US 8,566,717 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/702
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

Computer-readable media, computerized methods, and computer systems for intuitively surfacing a teaching animation that demonstrates a manual gesture recognized by a writing-pad tool are provided. Initially, the writing-pad tool is interrogated to determine a context of a computing environment associated with a touchscreen interface. Generally, determining includes recognizing a current condition of the writing-pad tool based on whether text is provided within a content-entry area generated thereby, ascertaining whether a focus of a cursor tool resides within the content-entry area based on whether a portion of the text is selected, and ascertaining which actions are available for invocation at the writing-pad tool based on the current condition and the focus of the cursor. The context of the computing environment is utilized to identify which teaching animations to promote to an active state. Typically the promoted teaching animations are associated with the actions ascertained as available for invocation.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, perform a method for initiating a teaching animation for demonstrating a manual gesture, the method comprising:

monitoring a context of a computing environment of the computing device;

based on the context, determining which teaching animations to promote to an active state, wherein the teaching animations are, at least temporarily stored in a data store consistent with the active state. receiving a user-initiated input in association with a writing-pad tool surfaced on a touchscreen interface of a computing device;

based on the user-initiated input, launching one or more of the teaching animations in the active state; and

rendering at the touchscreen interface an indication of launching the one or more teaching animations.

2. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, the method further comprising:

receiving at the touchscreen interface the manual gesture that emulates the rendered one or more teaching animations; and

invoking an editing action or a managing action at the writing-pad tool based on which action is mapped to the received manual gesture.

3. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 2, wherein monitoring a context of a computing environment comprises:

determining a current condition of the writing-pad tool;

identifying a focus of cursor tool within a content-entry area generated by the writing-pad tool; and

based on the current condition and the focus of the cursor tool, ascertaining which actions are available for invocation.

4. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 3, further comprising presenting a representation of the teaching animations promoted to the active state, wherein the teaching animations in the active state are each mapped to actions ascertained as presently available for invocation.

5. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 4, wherein presenting a representation of the teaching animations promoted to the active state comprises arranging selectable controls for launching the teaching animations on a toolbar that is adjoining the surfaced writing-pad tool.

6. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 4, wherein presenting a representation of the teaching animations promoted to the active state comprises organizing iconic representations of the teaching animations on a translatable gesture panel that is surfaced on the touchscreen interface adjacent to the surfaced writing-pad tool.

7. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, wherein each of the iconic representations comprise a toggle-button that, when actuated, initiates the teaching animation that is represented thereby, and a descriptor inscribed within the toggle-button that visibly reveals the action mapped to the teaching animation.

8. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 7, receiving a user-initiated input in association with a writing-pad tool comprises detecting contact between a physical object and a writing surface of the touchscreen interface;

wherein the contact occurs at the toggle-button.

9. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 3, wherein rendering an indication of launching the one or more teaching animations comprises playing the one or more teaching animations in a separate display area that does not occlude the content-entry area generated by the writing-pad tool, wherein the one more teaching animations comprises a video of a model hand properly executing the manual gesture on nondescript text.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9, the method further comprising:

looping the play of the teaching animation for a predefined number of cycles;

detecting the manual gesture applied to a portion of the display area in which the one or more launched teaching animations are playing; and

incident to detecting the manual gesture, interrupting the looping of the teaching animation and hiding the display area.

11. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9, the method further comprising:

looping the play of the teaching animation for a predefined number of cycles;

detecting the manual gesture applied to the content-entry area generated by the writing-pad tool; and

incident to detecting the manual gesture, interrupting the looping of the teaching animation and hiding the display area.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 11, the method further comprising:

incident to detecting the manual gesture, determining whether the manual gesture is properly performed, thereby accurately emulating the teaching animation;

when the manual gesture is properly performed, invoking the editing action at the writing-pad tool, wherein the editing action is mapped to the manual gesture; and

altering content submitted to the content-entry area.

13. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein determining a current condition of the writing-pad tool comprises:

determining whether content is submitted to the content-entry area of the writing pad application;

when content is submitted to the content-entry area, promoting teaching animations mapped to editing actions to the active state; and

when content is absent from the content-entry area, promoting teaching animations mapped to managing actions to the active state.

14. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13,

wherein the managing actions comprise at least one of the following commands:

insert words, open file, or close tool, and

wherein the editing actions comprise at least one of the following commands;

delete words, join words, split words, or correct words, or add space.

15. A computerized method for determining which teaching animations to promote to an active state, the method comprising:

interrogating a writing-pad tool to determine a context of a computing environment associated with a touchscreen interface, wherein determining comprises;

(a) recognizing a current condition of the writing-pad tool based on whether text is provided within a content-entry area generated by the writing-pad tool;

(b) ascertaining whether a focus of a cursor tool resides within the content-entry area based on whether a portion of the text is indicated; and

(c) ascertaining which actions are available for invocation at the writing-pad tool based on the current condition and the focus of the cursor;

utilizing the context of the computing environment to identify which teaching animations to promote to an active state, wherein identifying comprises selecting the teaching animations associated with the actions available for invocation; and

at least temporarily storing the teaching animations as being in the active state.

16. The computerized method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving a user-initiated command that corresponds to a manual gesture;

identifying which teaching animation is mapped to the manual gesture; and

automatically launching the identified teaching gesture prompting a user to perform the manual gesture in parallel with invoking an action mapped to the user-initiated command.

17. The computerized method of claim 16, further comprising:

providing a toggle control that allows a user to disable or enable automatically launching the identified teaching gesture upon receiving the user-initiated command that is associated therewith.

18. The computerized method of claim 15, further comprising:

surfacing a representation of one or more of the teaching animations stored in the active state;

receiving a user-initiated input indicating the representation of a teaching animation stored in the active state; and

automatically launching the indicated teaching animation.

19. The computerized method of claim 18, wherein launching the indicated teaching gesture comprises:

recognizing a portion of content within a content-entry area of the writing-pad tool, wherein the portion of content is distinguished by the focus of the cursor tool; and

launching the indicated teaching animation within the content-entry area, wherein launching comprises;

(a) applying a manual gesture, replicated by the teaching animation, to the distinguished portion of content; and

(b) looping the application of the replicated manual gesture to the portion of content until a user-initiated indication to cease is received.

20. A computer system embodied on one or more computer storage-media having computer-executable instructions provided thereon for launching a teaching animation, the system comprising:

a monitoring component to monitor a context of a computing environment of a computing device, wherein monitoring comprises retrieving a current condition of a writing-pad tool;

a selection component to determine which teaching animations to promote to an active state based on the context;

an input component to receive a user-initiated input in association with a writing-pad tool surfaced on a touchscreen interface of the computing device;

a launching component to initiate playing one or more of the teaching animations in the active state based on the user-initiated input; and

a rendering component to display within a display area, surfaced at the touchscreen interface, the one or more playing teaching animations, wherein the teaching animations provide a video instruction of a manual gesture used for editing content submitted to the writing-pad tool.