DISTANCE-TIME BASED HIT-TESTING

• US 20120056819A1
• Filed: 09/03/2010
• Published: 03/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Peterson, Andrew Douglas, Badger, Eric Norman, Stall, Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 9,639,265 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0414 using force sensing means to determine a position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• 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

The described embodiments allow for the association of an interaction with a target in a display. One embodiment includes detecting an interaction with an area associated with a graphical element in a display, detecting a later interaction displaced from the area, and associating the later interaction with a target in the display based at least on the time between the interaction with the area and the later interaction. User interactions with one or more displayed hit targets are based on corresponding time-varying hit zones. In response to unlimited user interaction with a hit target, subsequent user selections are validated based on a time-varying hit zone that is typically extended with respect to the previously selected hit target. The extended selection zone can overlap one or more other hit targets to favor re-selection of the individually selected hit target. The extended selection zone generally decreases as a function of time from prior selections of a hit zone.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

detecting an initial interaction within an area associated with a displayed target graphical element;

detecting a subsequent interaction at a location displaced from the area associated with the displayed target; and

associating the subsequent interaction with a displayed target based on an elapsed time between the initial interaction and the subsequent interaction.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the associating comprises validating the location of the subsequent interaction with an inflated selection zone associated with the displayed target.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein an area of the inflated selection zone is as a function of the elapsed time.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the validating comprises determining if the location of the subsequent interaction is within the inflated selection zone.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the inflated selection zone area decreases as a function of elapsed time.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the inflated selection zone decreases in size to the area of the displayed graphical element.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining if a flag is set indicating that at least one inflated selection zone is activated and validating the location of the subsequent interaction with an inflated selection zone associated with the displayed target if the flag is set.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the validating the location of the subsequent interaction with the inflated selection zone is based on the mass of the subsequent interaction.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the displayed target graphical element comprises an on screen keyboard.

10. A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed cause a computing device coupled to a display to perform the method of claim 1.

11. A method, comprising:

detecting a user selection of a displayed target;

defining at least one time-varying selection zone in response to detection of the selection of the displayed target; and

detecting a subsequent user selection of the displayed target based on the at least one time-varying selection zone.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the subsequent user selection is based on a time-varying selection zone extent associated with the selected displayed target.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the time-varying selection zone is larger than an initial selection zone associated with the displayed target.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the initial selection zone corresponds to the area of the displayed target.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the subsequent user selection is based on a time-varying selection zone extent associated with at least one unselected displayed target.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein an extent of the time-varying selection zone of the at least one unselected displayed target is less than that of an initial time varying selection zone for the at least one unselected target.

17. A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed cause a computing device coupled to a display to perform the method of claim 11.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the time-varying selection zone decreases as a function of elapsed time from the detected user selection of the displayed target.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the time varying selection zone is defined based on at least of a display screen size, a user interaction location, and an interaction mass.

20. A computing device comprising:

a touch screen; and

at least one or more processors configured to;

recognize a first contact with a graphical image displayed on the touch screen;

recognize a second contact with the touch screen displaced from the graphical image; and

associate the second contact with a target displayed in the touch screen based at least on the time between the first contact and the second contact at least by validating the location of the second contact with a time-varying boundary related to the graphical image, wherein the validating comprises checking if the location of the second contact is within the boundary;

wherein the boundary is evaluated at least as a function of time between the first and second contacts; and

wherein, based on the checking, if the location of the second contact is within the boundary, then the target is the graphical image.