Multi-touch uses, gestures, and implementation

• US 9,063,647 B2
• Filed: 05/12/2006
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Zotov, Alexander J., Scott, Bryan D., Townsend, Reed L., Dodge, Steven P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Kumar
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sadio, Insa
• Application Number:
  US11/433,643
• Publication Number:
  US 20070262964A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,329 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-184, 178 1801- 1809, 178 1901- 1904, 178/20.01
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• 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

Abstract

A tablet PC having an interactive display, which is touchscreen enabled, may be enhanced to provide a user with superior usability and efficiency. A touchscreen device may be configured to receive multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts. The attributes of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contracts may be mapped to operations performed on the computing device. As a result, a user can trigger the execution of the toggle accessibility aid operation and the screen rotation operation with greater convenience. Moreover, the tablet PC may be configured to map an operation to a hand gesture or input.

Claims

1. In a computing system comprising a touchscreen device, a computer-implemented method for performing an operation on the computing system in response to input received from a user of the touchscreen device, wherein the touchscreen device includes an interactive display device, the method comprising:

receiving a first input at the touchscreen device, the first input comprising multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts;

identifying one or more attributes of individual ones of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts;

performing an operation on the computing system in response to the first input and the one or more attributes, the operation including toggling visibility of a touch pointer widget adjacent to or surrounding a cursor on the interactive display device;

receiving a second input at the touchscreen device, the second input comprising a touchscreen contact within an area represented by the touch pointer widget on the interactive display device and dragging the touchscreen contact across a screen of the interactive display device; and

in response to the second input, moving the touch pointer widget and the cursor across the screen of the interactive display device in correspondence with the dragging of the touchscreen contact.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more attributes indicate two fingers in contact with the touchscreen device in a tap gesture.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the two fingers are a pointer finger and a middle finger on a hand of a user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing system is preconfigured with a mapping between the operation and the first input corresponding to the one or more attributes.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising rotating a user interface displayed on the interactive display device in response to a gesture received at the touchscreen device, the gesture including multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts that change in position along a predefined pattern.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a third input at the touchscreen device, the third input comprising another touchscreen contact within the area represented by the touch pointer widget on the interactive display device and on a control button of the touch pointer widget; and

in response to the third input, performing a selection operation by the cursor.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more attributes comprises determining a pressure applied to the touchscreen device by the first input, and wherein the performing the operation comprises performing the operation if the first input is performed with a first pressure that is below a threshold pressure.

8. In a computing system comprising a touchscreen device, a computer-implemented method for performing an operation on the computing system in response to a gesture received from a user of the touchscreen device, wherein the touchscreen device includes an interactive display device, the method comprising:

receiving a gesture at the touchscreen device, the gesture comprising multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts;

processing the gesture, wherein the processing includes identifying one or more attributes of individual ones of the multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts;

performing an operation in response to receiving and processing the gesture, the operation including toggling visibility of a touch pointer widget adjacent to or surrounding a pointer element on the interactive display device;

receiving an input at the touchscreen device, the input comprising a touchscreen contact within an area represented by the touch pointer widget on the interactive display device and on a control button of the touch pointer widget; and

in response to the input, performing a selection operation by the pointer element.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more attributes indicate four fingers and a thumb in contact with the touchscreen device.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving a second input at the touchscreen device, the second input comprising another touchscreen contact within the area represented by the touch pointer widget on the interactive display device and dragging the touchscreen contact across a screen of the interactive display device; and

in response to the second input, moving the touch pointer widget and the pointer element across the screen of the interactive display device in correspondence with the dragging of the touchscreen contact.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein identifying the one or more attributes comprises determining a pressure applied to the touchscreen device by the gesture, and wherein the performing the operation comprises performing the operation if the gesture is performed with a first pressure that is below a threshold pressure.

12. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, upon execution in a computing system including a touchscreen device having an interactive display device, perform acts comprising:

receiving a gesture at a touchscreen device, the gesture comprising multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts;

determining a pressure applied to the touchscreen device by the received gesture;

performing a first operation if the gesture is performed with a first pressure, the first operation including toggling visibility of a touch pointer widget on the interactive display device; and

performing a second operation if the gesture is performed with a second pressure, the second operation including toggling visibility of a soft keyboard widget on the interactive display device.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the gesture includes at least one finger and a thumb in contact with the touchscreen device.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the gesture includes two fingers in contact with the touchscreen device.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein each gesture is processed through an application programming interface (API) at the operating system level.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the second pressure is greater than the first pressure.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the first operation is performed and the touch pointer widget is displayed adjacent to or surrounding a cursor on the interactive display device as part of the first operation, the acts further comprising:

receiving an input at the touchscreen device, the input comprising a touchscreen contact within an area represented by the touch pointer widget on the interactive display device and dragging the touchscreen contact across a screen of the interactive display device; and

in response to the input, moving the touch pointer widget and the cursor across the screen of the interactive display device in correspondence with the dragging of the touchscreen contact.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the first operation is performed and the touch pointer widget is displayed adjacent to or surrounding a cursor on the interactive display device as part of the first operation, the acts further comprising:

receiving an input at the touchscreen device, the input comprising a touchscreen contact within an area represented by the touch pointer widget on the interactive display device and on a control button of the touch pointer widget; and

in response to the input, performing a selection operation by the cursor.

19. In a computing system comprising a touchscreen device, a computer-implemented method for performing an operation on the computing system in response to a gesture received from a user of the touchscreen device, wherein the touchscreen device includes an interactive display device, the method comprising:

receiving a gesture at the touchscreen device, the gesture comprising multiple concurrent touchscreen contacts;

determining a pressure applied to the touchscreen device by the received gesture;

performing a first operation if the gesture is performed with a first pressure, the first operation including toggling visibility of a touch pointer widget on the interactive display device; and

performing a second operation if the gesture is performed with a second pressure, the second operation including toggling visibility of a soft keyboard widget on the interactive display device.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first operation is performed and the touch pointer widget is displayed adjacent to or surrounding a pointer element on the interactive display device as part of the first operation, the method further comprising:

receiving an input at the touchscreen device, the input comprising a touchscreen contact within an area represented by the touch pointer widget on the interactive display device and dragging the touchscreen contact across a screen of the interactive display device; and

in response to the input, moving the touch pointer widget and the pointer element across the screen of the interactive display device in correspondence with the dragging of the touchscreen contact.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the first operation is performed and the touch pointer widget is displayed adjacent to or surrounding a pointer element on the interactive display device as part of the first operation, the method further comprising:

receiving an input at the touchscreen device, the input comprising a touchscreen contact within an area represented by the touch pointer widget on the interactive display device and on a control button of the touch pointer widget; and

in response to the input, performing a selection operation by the pointer element.