Flick Gesture

• US 20100251116A1
• Filed: 06/11/2010
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Lerner, Matthew Rubin, Duncan, Rick, Rimas-Ribikauskas, Emily K., Jarrett, Robert J., Pettiross, Jeffrey W., Keely, Leroy B., Viji, Sriram
• Granted Patent: US 9,417,701 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/702
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04807 Pen manipulated menu
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A system and method for determining whether a flick gesture has occurred is described. A flick gesture is a simple gesture that may be easily detected and is characterized by minimal interference with other applications or gestures.

Claims

1. A method for recognizing a gesture created by a pointing device, comprising:

determining from a stroke of the pointing device that a flick gesture has occurred;

determining, from the flick gesture, an action to be performed;

sending a message, based on the action, about the flick gesture to an operating system or a computing application; and

providing animated feedback indicating recognition of the flick gesture and a direction or flick regions associated with the flick gesture, an interpretation of the flick gesture being context-sensitive and customizable to perform a specified function.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the pointing device includes a mouse and the determining from a stroke of the pointing device includes determining whether movement of the pointing device has occurred after a contact, the contact including operation of a mouse button.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the flick gesture is distinct from other gestures and occurs in at least one of a plurality of flick regions, each flick region being associated with an action to be fired and a section of a circle, a center of the circle being a starting point of the flick gesture.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining is based on:

hardware of the operating system;

a first set of actions associated with a first pointing device and a second set of actions associated with a second pointing device, the first set of actions and the second set of actions being customizable for the first pointing device and the second pointing device; and

a characterization of the stroke to identify one of the plurality of flick regions, the characterization of the stroke being based on a direction of the stroke, a movement of the stroke, and a timing of the stroke.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that a velocity has decreased by a predetermined threshold over a predetermined time interval, the predetermined time interval being greater than an interval, and the interval being set so as to avoid false positives or miss-fired actions.

6. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

determining that a stroke of a pointing device occurs beyond a first threshold after contact with a computer-generated display;

determining that a velocity of the stroke has decreased by a predetermined threshold over a predetermined time interval;

determining a characteristic of the stroke of the pointing device, the characteristic being at least one of a direction of the stroke, a movement of the stroke, and a timing of the stroke;

calculating a derived value for determining a flick gesture, the derived value being calculated from the characteristic of the stroke; and

providing animated feedback, indicating a recognition of the flick gesture, a direction of the flick gesture, or a region associated with the flick gesture.

7. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, wherein the derived value includes the determined velocity of the stroke, an acceleration of the stroke, a curvature of the stroke, or a lift of the stroke.

8. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, wherein an interpretation of the flick gesture is context-sensitive and customizable to perform a specified function, the context-sensitivity including a first operation performed when the flick gesture is performed in a context of a first application and the context-sensitivity including a second operation different from the first operation that is performed when the flick gesture is performed in a context of a second application different from the first application.

9. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, wherein the pointing device comprises a mouse and the contact includes operation of a mouse button.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, wherein the pointing device includes a stylus and the contact includes contact on, or immediately above, a surface of the computer-generated display.

11. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, wherein the pointing device includes a user'"'"'s finger and the contact includes contact on, or immediately above, a surface of the computer-generated display.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, wherein the operations further comprise determining a straightness of a path of the flick gesture, the flick gesture being determined to have occurred based on the straightness determination.

13. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, the operations further comprising determining if a beginning of the flick gesture occurs in an inkable region, the flick gesture being determined to have occurred when the flick gesture does not occur in the inkable region.

14. A computing system, comprising:

memory;

a processor, coupled to the memory, that is configured to perform operations comprising;

recognizing a flick gesture from a plurality of gestures by;

determining that a stroke having movement exceeds a movement threshold; and

determining, when the stroke exceeds the movement threshold, that a velocity of the stroke has decreased by a predetermined threshold of an initial velocity over a predetermined time interval; and

providing, when the velocity of the stroke has decreased by the predetermined threshold, animated feedback indicating the flick gesture, the flick gesture being context-sensitive and user customizable.

15. The computing system of claim 14, wherein the predetermined time interval is greater than a brief interval and the brief interval is set to avoid false positives or miss-fired actions.

16. The computing system of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to identify a characterization of the stroke to determine a flick region, the characterization of the stroke being based on at least one of a direction of the stroke, a movement of the stroke, and a timing of the stroke

17. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the flick region is determined by connecting a starting contact point of the stroke and an ending contact point of the stroke.

18. The computing system of claim 14, wherein the stroke is determined to be a gesture other than a flick gesture when the stroke does not exceed the movement threshold.

19. The computing system of claim 14, wherein the stroke is determined to be a gesture other than a flick gesture when the velocity of the stroke has not decreased by the predetermined threshold.

20. The computing system of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to determine if a path of the stroke is relatively straight by determining whether all points of the stroke lie within a predefined angle from an initial contact point of the stroke.