CONTROL OF A DEVICE USING GESTURES

• US 20120293421A1
• Filed: 05/18/2011
• Published: 11/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Santoro, David T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,793,624 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/033 Pointing devices displaced or positioned by the user , e.g. mice, trackballs, pens or joysticks; Accessories therefor digitisers characterised by the transducing means G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

In an operating system running on a processing device, detecting a gesture input via a user interface; identifying an operating system operation that corresponds to the gesture; performing the operating system operation; identifying an application running on the operating system that has subscribed to gesture input; and passing data corresponding to the gesture to the application for use by the application.

Claims

1. A method performed on a processing device, comprising:

in an operating system running on the processing device;

detecting a gesture input via a user interface;

identifying an operating system operation that corresponds to the gesture;

performing the operating system operation;

identifying an application running on the operating system that has subscribed to gesture input; and

passing data corresponding to the gesture to the application for use by the application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data corresponding to the gesture is used by the application to perform an application operation that is different from the operating system operation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the operating system operation comprises at least one of opening the application, copying data, pasting data to the application, deleting data, and moving data;

and

wherein the application operation comprises at least one of opening a note, opening a message, and adding a recipient to an existing message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the application running on the operating system that has subscribed to gesture input comprises referencing a database associated with the operating system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is passed via an application programming interface (API) for the operating system.

6. A method performed on a processing device, comprising:

in an operating system running on the processing device;

receiving an input via a user interface;

identifying data corresponding to one or more gestures based on the input;

sending the data, via an application programming interface (API), to an application running on the operating system;

determining that the data corresponds to one or more operating system operations; and

performing the one or more operating system operations; and

in the application;

receiving the data;

determining that the data corresponds to one or more application operations; and

performing the one or more application operations.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the data corresponds to plural operating system operations, and wherein the operating system performs the plural operating system operations in response to the data.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the data corresponds to plural application operations, and wherein the application performs the plural application operations in response to the data.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the operating system performs an operation that corresponds to the data;

and

wherein the application performs another operation that corresponds to the data and that is different from the operation performed by the operating system.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more operating system operations performed by the operating system comprise activating the application;

and

wherein the one or more application operations performed by the application comprise activating a function of the application.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the application is a first application;

and

wherein the one or more operating system operations performed by the operating system comprise;

copying data from a second application running on the operating system;

activating the first application; and

pasting the data from the second application into the first application.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the user interface comprises a touch screen, the input comprises coordinates on the touch screen, and the operating system identifies the input as corresponding to the one or more gestures by correlating the coordinates to data corresponding to the gesture.

13. A method performed on a device comprising a touch screen, the device running an operating system and one or more computer program on the operating system, the method comprising:

receiving an input via the touch screen;

interpreting the input as one or more gestures;

controlling one or more functions of the operating system using at least one of the one or more gestures; and

controlling one or more functions of the one or more computer programs using at least one of the one or more gestures.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein a same one of the one or more gestures controls both the one or more functions of the operating system and the one or more functions of the one or more computer programs.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein different gestures of the one or more gestures control the one or more functions of the operating system and the one or more functions of the one or more computer programs.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein interpreting comprises:

converting the input to data; and

comparing the data against data for predefined gestures to identify the one or more gestures;

wherein the method further comprises passing the data from the operating system to the one or more computer programs via an application programming interface.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein controlling one or more functions of the operating system comprises copying data from a first one of the one or more computer programs and pasting the copied data into a second one of the one or more computer programs;

and

controlling one or more functions of the one or more computer programs comprises activating a function of the second one of the one or more computer programs into which the copied data is pasted.

18. One or more non-transitory machine-readable media storing instructions that are executable by one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:

detecting a gesture input via a user interface;

identifying an operating system operation that corresponds to the gesture;

performing the operating system operation;

identifying an application running on the operating system that has subscribed to gesture input; and

passing data corresponding to the gesture to the application for use by the application.

19. One or more non-transitory machine-readable media storing instructions that are executable by one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:

in an operating system running on the one or more processing devices;

receiving an input via a user interface;

identifying data corresponding to one or more gestures based on the input;

sending the data, via an application programming interface (API), to an application running on the operating system;

determining that the data corresponds to one or more operating system operations; and

performing the one or more operating system operations; and

in the application;

receiving the data;

determining that the data corresponds to one or more application operations; and

performing the one or more application operations.

20. One or more non-transitory machine-readable media storing instructions that are executable on a device, the device comprising a touch screen and running an operating system and one or more computer program, the instructions for performing operations comprising:

receiving an input via the touch screen;

interpreting the input as one or more gestures;

controlling one or more functions of the operating system using at least one of the one or more gestures; and

controlling one or more functions of the one or more computer programs using at least one of the one or more gestures.

21. A system comprising:

memory for storing an operating system and an application; and

one or more processing devices for executing the operating system and the application, the operating system for performing operations comprising;

detecting a gesture input via a user interface;

identifying an operating system operation that corresponds to the gesture;

performing the operating system operation;

identifying the application running on the operating system that has subscribed to gesture input; and

passing data corresponding to the gesture to the application for use by the application.

22. A system comprising:

an operating system running on a processing device, the operating system for performing operations comprising;

receiving an input via a user interface;

identifying data corresponding to one or more gestures based on the input;

sending the data, via an application programming interface (API), to an application running on the operating system;

determining that the data corresponds to one or more operating system operations; and

performing the one or more operating system operations; and

the application for performing operations comprising;

receiving the data;

determining that the data corresponds to one or more application operations; and

performing the one or more application operations.

23. A system comprising:

a touch screen for receiving input;

memory for storing instructions that are executable; and

one or more processing devices for executing an operating system and for executing the instructions to perform operations comprising;

receiving an input via the touch screen;

interpreting the input as one or more gestures;

controlling one or more functions of the operating system using at least one of the one or more gestures; and

controlling one or more functions of the one or more computer programs using at least one of the one or more gestures.