Techniques And Systems For Enhancing Touch Screen Device Accessibility Through Virtual Containers And Virtually Enlarged Boundaries

• US 20110179388A1
• Filed: 01/15/2010
• Published: 07/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Fleizach, Christopher B., Seymour, Eric Taylor
• Granted Patent: US 8,386,965 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/840
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus

Abstract

Techniques for increasing accessibility of touch-screen devices are disclosed. In one aspect, container regions on a touch-sensitive user interface of a touch screen device are defined. A touch event corresponding to a location on the user interface is received, and it is determined that the location corresponds to a particular container region. When another touch event is received, content is determined according to a context of the particular container region. The content is then presented. In another aspect, data specifying locations of user interface items on a user interface is received. The data is modified to enlarge an area for a particular item. A touch input event corresponding to a particular location on the user interface is received. It is determined that the location is within the enlarged area for the item, and input is provided to an application indicating that the item was selected.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

defining a plurality of container regions, each container region corresponding to a physical region on a touch-sensitive user interface of a device, the physical region defined so that one or more similar user interface items are displayed in the physical region on the touch-sensitive user interface;

receiving a first touch input at a first location on the user interface;

determining that the first location corresponds to the physical region of a first container region in the plurality of container regions;

receiving a second touch input at a second location on the user interface; and

determining content to present to a user according to a context of the first container region and independent of the second location.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting the content using a haptic or an aural presentation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first container region includes one or more first user interface items having an order;

the second input identifies a desired location of an item relative to the order; and

determining content to present includes identifying a particular first user interface item at the desired location relative to the order and obtaining content describing the particular first user interface item.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the container regions have an associated order;

the second input identifies a desired location of a container region relative to the order; and

determining content to present includes identifying a second container region at the desired location and obtaining content describing the second container region.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second input corresponds to a request for one of:

a last container region in the order, a first container region in the order, a next container region in the order, or a previous container region in the order.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

storing data identifying the first container region as a current container in response to the first input; and

updating the stored data to identify the second container region as the current container in response to the second input.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the content describing the second container region is content for an item included in the second container region.

8. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

defining a plurality of container regions corresponding to physical locations on a touch screen user interface of a device, each region corresponding to one or more user interface items, wherein the plurality of container regions have an order and the one or more user interface items in each container region have an order;

storing data identifying a current container region;

receiving a first gesture input;

determining that the first gesture input corresponds to a request to update the current container region to a new container region identified according to a position in the order for the container regions, and then updating the current container region to be the new container region;

receiving a second gesture input;

determining that the second gesture input corresponds to a request to present content corresponding to a particular user interface item in the current container region identified according to a position in the order for the one or more user interface items in the current container region; and

presenting content corresponding to the particular user interface item in response to the second gesture input.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first gesture input requests one of a first item in the order for the container regions or a last item in the order for the container regions.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising storing data indicating a current item in the current container region, wherein:

the current item in the current container region is a first item in an order of items for the current container region;

the first gesture input corresponds to a request to present either the first item in the order of items for the current container region or a previous item in the order of items for the current container region; and

the new container region is a previous container region in the order for the container regions.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising storing data indicating a current item in the current container region, wherein:

the current item in the current container region is a last item in an order of items for the current container region;

the first gesture input corresponds to a request to present either the last item in the order of items for the current container region or a next item in the order of items for the current container region; and

the new container region is a next container region in the order for the container regions.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving a third gesture input;

determining that the third gesture input corresponds to a request to present content corresponding to another user interface item in the updated current container region; and

presenting content corresponding to the other user interface item in response to the third gesture input.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising storing data identifying the particular user interface item as a current user interface item for the current region, wherein the third gesture input corresponds to a request for a previous or next user interface item relative to the current user interface item in the order for the updated current container region.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the third gesture input corresponds to a request for a first or last user interface item in the order for the updated current container region.

15. The method of claim 8, further comprising presenting content describing the new container region in response to updating the current container region.

16. The method of claim 8, wherein presenting the content includes presenting the item according to one or more preferences of a user.

17. The method of claim 8, wherein presenting the content includes presenting content using a haptic or an aural presentation.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the aural presentation includes synthetic speech.

19. An apparatus comprising:

a touch-sensitive user interface;

a processor; and

a computer storage medium storing instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

defining a plurality of container regions, each container region corresponding to a physical region on the touch-sensitive user interface, the physical region defined so that one or more similar user interface items are displayed in the physical region on the touch-sensitive user interface;

storing data identifying a current container region;

receiving a gesture input;

determining that the gesture input corresponds to a request to present content corresponding to either a first or a last user interface item in the current container region according to an order for the one or more user interface items displayed in the current container region; and

presenting content corresponding to the particular user interface item in response to the gesture input.

20. A computer storage medium encoded with program instructions that, when executed by data processing apparatus, cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

defining a plurality of container regions corresponding to a physical location on a user interface, wherein the plurality of container regions have an order;

storing data identifying a current container region;

receiving a gesture input;

determining that the gesture input corresponds to a request to update the current container region to either a first container region or a last container region in the order for the container regions, and then updating the current container region accordingly;

presenting content corresponding to the updated current container region.

21. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving location data specifying a location of a plurality of user interface items displayed on a user interface of a device;

modifying the received location data to enlarge an area associated with a first user interface item of the one or more user interface items, wherein the enlarged area for the first user interface item does not overlap with a respective area associated with each of the other user interface items;

receiving a touch input at a particular location on the user interface, and determining that the particular location is within the enlarged area for the first user interface item; and

providing input to an application executing on the device indicating that the first user interface item was selected.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein modifying the received location data to enlarge the area associated with the first user interface item comprises:

analyzing the received data to identify the first user interface item according to an amount of empty space around the first user interface item on the user interface;

determining an amount to enlarge the area associated with the first user interface according to the amount of empty space; and

enlarging the area associated with the first user interface item according to the determined amount.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the user interface of the device is a touch screen user interface and the user input is a first touch input.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

receiving a second touch input inside a container region on the user interface, the container region including a plurality of user interface items; and

in response to the second touch input, modifying the location data for each user interface item included in the container region.