Method and system for performing drag and drop operation

• US 8,607,148 B2
• Filed: 08/26/2008
• Issued: 12/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Singh, Gurpreet, Rajasekaran, Vinoth
• Primary Examiner(s): ITURRALDE, ENRIQUE W
• Application Number:
  US12/198,247
• Publication Number:
  US 20100058214A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,932 Days
• Field of Search: 715/764, 715/769, 715798-802, 715/815, 715/860, 715/861
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop

Abstract

A method and system for performing drag and drop operation on a graphical user interface is disclosed herein. The method comprises: enlarging a drop region in a graphical user interface upon focusing on a part of the drop region, the drop region being enlarged in a direction based on the location of the focused part of drop region. In an embodiment the direction of enlargement is in the mirror direction of focused part of the drop region.

Claims

1. A method of dropping an object in a graphical user interface comprising:

distributing a drop region as various parts based on a reference associated with the drop region, wherein the drop region distribution in relation to the reference is configurable;

focusing the graphical user interface on a part of the drop region based on the object being dragged into the drop region via the graphical user interface; and

enlarging the drop region in the graphical user interface in response to focusing on the part of the drop region, the drop region being enlarged in a mirror direction of the location of the focused part of drop region with respect to the reference and the drop region being enlarged such that the drop region obscures at least a portion of the drop region different than the focused part.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the reference includes an axis.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein method further comprises:

distributing the drop region as various parts based on location of a user interface on the drop region.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method comprises:

enlarging the drop region in the mirror direction of the focused part of drop region.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the method further comprises:

keeping the drop region enlarged for a configurable time.

6. A method as claimed in claim 4 further comprising:

enlarging at least a portion of the drop region for a configurable period of time.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising dropping an object to the enlarged drop region.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein enlarging the drop region comprises maintaining at least a portion of a boundary of the focused region in the same position.

9. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the drop region is enlarged only in the mirror direction of the location of the focused part of drop region with respect to the reference.

10. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising determining the mirror direction of the location of the focused part of drop region based on the reference and the location of the focused part of the drop region.

11. A method of modifying an object displayed in a display comprises:

defining a drag component and a drop region in an object;

identifying at least one sub region of the drop region, said identifying comprising;

dividing the drop region into a plurality of sub regions based on a reference; and

focusing a graphical user interface on a sub region based on the object being dragged into the sub region via the graphical user interface;

identifying a location of the focused sub region in relation to the reference; and

zooming in the drop region in a mirror direction from the focused sub region with respect to the reference, said zooming comprising;

zooming in the drop region in a direction, the direction being decided based on the location of the focused sub region, and the drop region being zoomed in such that the zoomed in drop region obscures at least a portion of a non-focused sub region.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising:

zooming in the drop region in mirror direction of the focused sub region.

13. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the object includes:

files, tables, chart objects, picture objects, drawings, tree object, grids, list in a graphic user interface, a panel, image, text document and custom user interface components.

14. A method as claimed in claim 11 further comprising:

zooming in at least one sub region of more than one drop regions for a configurable period of time.

15. A method as claimed in claim 11 further comprising

dropping the drag component to the drop region.

16. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the dividing comprises:

dividing the drop region into four equal regions.

17. A method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the object includes table and grids.

18. A method as defined in claim 11, wherein the reference is at least one of a location or a plane at least partially within the drop region.

19. A method as defined in claim 11, wherein zooming in the drop region comprises maintaining at least a portion of a boundary of the focused sub region in the same position.

20. A display system comprising:

a display for displaying the graphical user interface;

an interface configured to facilitate interaction between a user and the graphical user interface and to focus on a part of a drop region when a component represented on the display is dragged into the drop region; and

a controller configured to enlarge the drop region in the graphical user interface in response to the interface focusing on the part of the drop region, the drop region being enlarged in a mirror direction from the location of the focused part of the drop region with respect to a reference and the drop region being enlarged such that the enlarged drop region obscures at least a portion of the drop region different than the focused part, wherein the controller is configured to distribute the drop region into parts based on at least one of the location of the focused part of the drop region and location of the user interface on the graphical user interface.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having one or more computer readable media for displaying an object comprising:

a routine for distributing a drop region in a graphical interface as various parts based on a reference associated with the drop region, wherein the drop region distribution in relation to the reference is configurable;

a routine for focusing the graphical user interface on a part of the drop region based on the object being dragged into the drop region via the graphical user interface; and

a routine for enlarging the drop region in response to focusing on the part of the drop region, the drop region being enlarged in a mirror direction from the location of the focused part of the drop region with respect to the reference and the drop region being enlarged such that the enlarged drop region obscures at least a portion of the drop region different than the focused part.

22. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 21, wherein the reference is at least one of a location or a plane at least partially within the drop region.