OBJECT-AWARE TRANSITIONS

• US 20100223554A1
• Filed: 05/10/2010
• Published: 09/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Tilton, James Eric
• Granted Patent: US 8,694,889 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/732
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/01 Input arrangements or combined input and output arrangements for interaction between user and computer G06F3/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/80 2D [Two Dimensional] animation, e.g. using sprites
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 345/949 Animation processing method

Abstract

Techniques for accomplishing slide transitions in a presentation are disclosed. In accordance with these techniques, objects within the slides are identified, automatically or by a user, and each object is individually manipulable during slide transitions. The individual manipulation applied to each object during a transition may also be automatically determined or specified by a user. In certain embodiments, the persistence of an object between slides may be taken into account in the manipulation of the object during slide transition.

Claims

1. A method for animating transitions between slides in a computer-implemented slide show presentation, comprising:

providing first computer-executable code which, when executed by a processor, identifies objects on an outgoing slide and of incoming slide, wherein the objects are editable components that have been added to the respective incoming slide or outgoing slide and that can be removed from the respective incoming slide or outgoing slide;

providing second computer-executable code which, when executed by the processor, performs a comparison of the objects to determine corresponding objects on both the incoming slide and the outgoing slide;

providing third computer-executable code which, when executed by the processor, determines a respective animation for each of the corresponding objects that transitions each respective corresponding object from how it appears on the outgoing slide to how it appears on the incoming slide; and

providing fourth computer-executable code which, when executed by the processor, displays the respective animations when the outgoing slide transitions to the incoming slide.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising providing fifth computer-executable code which, when executed by the processor, determines a respective introduction animation for each of the objects present on only the incoming slide and determines a respective removal animation for each of the objects present on only the outgoing slide.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the respective introduction animations each comprise one or more of increasing the opacity of the respective object, increasing the scale of the respective object, decreasing the scale of the respective object;

or sliding the respective object inward from an edge of a screen.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the respective removal animations each comprise one or more of decreasing the opacity of the respective object, decreasing the scale of the respective object, increasing the scale of the respective object;

or sliding the respective object outward toward an edge of a screen.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the fourth computer-executable code, when executed by the processor, displays the introduction animations and the removal animations when the outgoing slide transitions to the incoming slide.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparison comprises comparing metadata associated with each identified object.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparison comprises a pairwise comparison of the identified objects.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the respective animations for the corresponding objects comprise one or more of translations, rotations, changes in scale, or changes in opacity.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the respective animations for the corresponding objects do not cause the corresponding objects to appear or disappear from view.

10. Computer-readable media comprising a computer program product, the computer program product comprising routines which, when executed on a processor, perform the following:

automatically determining whether an object is present on a first slide and whether a corresponding object is present on a second slide, wherein the object and the corresponding object are capable of being placed on or removed from either or both of the first slide and the second slide;

generating an animation that transitions the object from how the object appears on the first slide to how the corresponding object appears on the second slide; and

displaying the animation when transitioning from the first slide to the second slide.

11. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the animation comprises one or more of moving, rotating, resizing, or changing the opacity of the object to resolve differences between the object as presented on the first slide and the corresponding object as presented on the second slide.

12. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein automatically determining whether the corresponding object is present on the second slide comprises comparing at least a name of a file associated with the object.

13. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein displaying the animation comprises drawing the object along an animation path based on an animation run time.

14. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the object comprises one or more of a graphic, an image, a photo, a line drawing, a clip-art, a chart, a table, a character or string of characters, or an embedded video clip.

15. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the object and the corresponding object are placed or manipulated on the respective first slide and second slide using one or more editing features of a presentation application.

16. Computer-readable media comprising a computer program product, the computer program product comprising routines which, when executed on a processor, perform the following:

identifying an object that has been placed on a first slide and a corresponding object that has been placed on a second slide of a slideshow presentation;

generating an animation for transitioning from how the object appears on the first slide to how the corresponding object appears on the second slide, wherein the animation comprises a number of sequential steps that are determined based upon a run time associated with the animation; and

displaying the animation when the first slide transitions to the second slide.

17. The computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein the run time generally corresponds to a transition time allotted for transitioning between the first slide and the second slide.

18. The computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein identifying the corresponding object comprises comparing metadata for the corresponding object to metadata for the object.

19. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the sequential steps of the animation depict incremental changes in the position, orientation, opacity or size of the object.

20. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the animation is generated based at least in part on a refresh rate associated with the transition between the first slide and the second slide.