USER INTERFACE FOR MANIPULATING USER INTERFACE OBJECTS WITH MAGNETIC PROPERTIES

• US 20160170625A1
• Filed: 02/20/2016
• Published: 06/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: ZAMBETTI, Nicholas, CHAUDHRI, Imran, DASCOLA, Jonathan R., DYE, Alan C., FOSS, Christopher Patrick, GUZMAN, Aurelio, KARUNAMUNI, Chanaka G., KERR, Duncan Robert, WILSON, Christopher, WILSON, Eric Lance, YANG, Lawrence Y., BUTCHER, Gary Ian, DE VRIES, Nathan, IVE, Jonathan P.
• Granted Patent: US 9,823,828 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 21/00 Input or output devices integrated in time-pieces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• 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 3/0362 with detection of 1D translations or rotations of an operating part of the device, e.g. scroll wheels, sliders, knobs, rollers or belts
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to user interfaces for manipulating user interface objects. A device, including a display and a rotatable input mechanism, is described in relation to manipulating user interface objects. In some examples, the manipulation of the object is a scroll, zoom, or rotate of the object. In other examples, objects are selected in accordance with simulated magnetic properties.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions for execution by one or more processors of an electronic device with a display and a rotatable input mechanism, the instructions for:

displaying, on the display, an object in accordance with a value of a characteristic of the object, the value being within a range of values of the characteristic;

receiving a user input request, the user input request representing rotation of the rotatable input mechanism;

in response to receiving the user input request, determining whether the user input request causes the value of the characteristic of the object to transition into range of a zone of an anchor, the anchor having a start value, an intermediate value, and an end value within the range of values of the characteristic, and the zone of the anchor being between the start value and the end value; and

in accordance with a determination that the user input request causes the value of the characteristic of the object to transition into range of the zone of the anchor;

updating the value of the characteristic of the object based on the intermediate value of the anchor; and

updating display of the object in accordance with the updated value of the characteristic of the object.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein updating display of the object in accordance with the updated value of the characteristic of the object comprises animating the object to reflect the updated value of the characteristic of the object.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the intermediate value is not equal to the start value or the end value.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the intermediate value is equal to the start value or the end value.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein updating the value of the characteristic of the object based on the intermediate value of the anchor comprises updating the value of the characteristic of the object to be equal to the intermediate value of the anchor.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the start value and the end value are different.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the intermediate value is not the average of the start value and the end value.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, farther comprising instructions for:

in accordance with a determination that the user input request causes the value of the characteristic of the object to transition into range of the zone of the anchor, initiating a duration during which received user input requests to manipulate the characteristic of the object do not affect the displayed characteristic of the object.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the duration is based on the rate of change of the value of the characteristic of the object when the value of the characteristic of the object transitions into range of the zone of the anchor.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for:

in accordance with a determination that the user input request does not cause the value of the characteristic of the object to transition into range of the zone of the anchor or into range of a zone of a second anchor, the second anchor having a second start value, a second intermediate value, and a second end value, and the second anchor having a zone between the second start value and the second end value;

updating the value of the characteristic of the object in accordance with the user input;

updating display of the object in accordance with the updated value of the characteristic of the object;

identifying a closest anchor, from among at least the anchor and the second anchor, based on the updated value of the characteristic of the object in accordance with the user input;

subsequently updating the value of the characteristic of the object based on the corresponding intermediate value of the identified closest anchor; and

updating display of the object in accordance with the subsequently updated value of the characteristic of the object.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein:

identifying the closest anchor comprises;

calculating a difference between the updated value of the characteristic of the object in accordance with the user input request and the intermediate value of the anchor; and

calculating a difference between the updated value of the characteristic of the object in accordance with the user input request and the intermediate value of the second anchor.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein:

identifying the closest anchor comprises identifying the nearest of the start value and end value of the anchor and the second anchor.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for:

in accordance with a determination that the user input request causes the value of the characteristic of the object to transition into range of the zone of the anchor, performing a haptic alert at the electronic device.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the object is a document and the characteristic of the object is scroll position, and further comprising instructions for:

analyzing at least a portion of the document, wherein analyzing at least the portion of the document comprises identifying locations within the document.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the locations the document include one or more of:

one or more page boundaries of at least the portion of the document;

one or more paragraph boundaries of at least the portion of the document; and

one or more keyword locations of at least the portion of the document; and

further comprising instructions for;

assigning anchors to some or all of the identified page boundaries, paragraph boundaries, and keyword locations of the document.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for:

accessing a first set of anchor points;

assigning respective anchors to the first set of anchor points;

detecting a change in value of the characteristic of the object;

in response to detecting the change in the value of the characteristic of the object, accessing a second set of anchor points; and

assigning respective anchors to the second set of anchor points, wherein the first set of anchor points and the second set of anchor points are different.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein:

determining whether the user input causes the value of the characteristic of the object to transition into range of the zone of the anchor comprises;

determining whether the value of the characteristic of the object is within a predetermined subset of the range of values of the characteristic;

in accordance with a determination that the value of the characteristic of the object is within the predetermined subset of the range of values of the characteristic, calculating the value of the characteristic of the object within the range of values of the characteristic based on the user input request and in accordance with a first function; and

in accordance with a determination that the value of the characteristic of the object is not within the predetermined subset of the range of values of the characteristic, calculating the value of the characteristic of the object within the range of values of the characteristic based on the user input request and in accordance with a second function, wherein the first function and the second function are different functions.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the object is selected from a group consisting of a document and an image.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the characteristic of the object is selected from the group consisting of scroll position, zoom size, and degree of rotation.

20. A method, comprising:

at an electronic device with a display and a rotatable input mechanism;

displaying, on the display, an object in accordance with a value of a characteristic of the object, the value being within a range of values of the characteristic;

receiving a user input request, the user input request representing rotation of the rotatable input mechanism;

in response to receiving the user input request, determining whether the user input request causes the value of the characteristic of the object to transition into range of a zone of an anchor, the anchor having a start value, an intermediate value, and an end value within the range of values of the characteristic, and the zone of the anchor being between the start value and the end value; and

in accordance with a determination that the user input request causes the value of the characteristic of the object to transition into range of the zone of the anchor;

updating the value of the characteristic of the object based on the intermediate value of the anchor; and

updating display of the object in accordance with the updated value of the characteristic of the object.

21. An electronic device, comprising:

a rotatable input mechanism;

a display; and

one or more processors coupled to the rotatable input mechanism and the display, the one or more processors configured to;

display, on the display, an object in accordance with a value of a characteristic of the object, the value being within a range of values of the characteristic;

receive a user input request, the user input request representing rotation of the rotatable input mechanism;

in response to receiving the user input request, determine whether the user input request causes the value of the characteristic of the object to transition into range of a zone of an anchor, the anchor having a start value, an intermediate value, and an end value within the range of values of the characteristic, and the zone of the anchor being between the start value and the end value; and

in accordance with a determination that the user input request causes the value of the characteristic of the object to transition into range of the zone of the anchor;

update the value of the characteristic of the object based on the intermediate value of the anchor; and

update display of the object in accordance with the updated value of the characteristic of the object.