Providing customization of context based menus

• US 9,116,602 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2012
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Kotler, Matthew, Gil, Erez Kikin, Hockman, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shrewsbury, Nathan
• Application Number:
  US13/549,397
• Publication Number:
  US 20130019203A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,138 Days
• Field of Search: 715/811
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04812 Interaction techniques based on cursor appearance or behaviour, e.g. being affected by the presence of displayed objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04895 Guidance during keyboard input operation, e.g. prompting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

Context based menus are customizable to extend features to meet user demand. An application providing the context based menu reads a custom configuration from an XML file or receives input through a user interface to construct a context based menu. The custom configuration hosts attribute information for placement of controls, visualization or controls, and/or behavior of controls in the menu. Custom configuration is editable and provides features to add and remove controls from a default context based menu.

Claims

1. A method executed in a computing device for providing customization of context based menus, the method comprising:

receiving a custom configuration from one of a structured file and a user input through a user interface for a context based menu defining layout attributes and a behavior for a first set of controls and a second set of controls in the context based menu, wherein the context based menu is a radial menu;

constructing the context based menu according to the custom configuration, wherein the custom configuration is editable by a user;

positioning the first set of controls in the context based menu according to custom position information retrieved from the custom configuration;

retrieving a default schema from the custom configuration defining default position information about the second set of controls in the context based menu;

positioning the second set of controls in the context based menu according to the default schema retrieved from the custom configuration;

adjusting one or more from a set of;

a number of the first set of controls and a number of the second set of controls to be displayed in the context based menu dynamically according to a use pattern of one or more from a set of;

the first set of controls and the second set of controls by the user;

in response to the user input including a tap, a swipe, a mouse, a keyboard, a pen, a voice, a visual, and a gesture action, presenting the context based menu on the user interface to manage content; and

displaying an indicator to show a last activated control of the context based menu.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the custom configuration from an extensible markup language (XML) file.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving custom position information about the first set of controls from the custom configuration; and

positioning the first set of controls in the context based menu using location and rotation information retrieved from the custom position information.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding a control to the context based menu in response to detecting inserted control information in the custom configuration.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deleting a control from the context based menu in response to detecting removed control information from the custom configuration.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying the behavior defined by the custom configuration to one or more controls, wherein the behavior includes at least one from a set of;

how to respond to the user input, animation associated with activation, animation associated with one or more controls, limits on execution of functionality, whether the context based menu closes upon execution of a selected command, and, whether a sub-menu is to act as a most recently used type context based menu.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting one or more controls to be displayed on the context based menu based on predicting a user behavior extrapolated from interactions of one or more users with one of the context based menu and other user interfaces.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a frequency of user interaction with a control in the context based menu; and

one of;

moving the control to another location in the context based menu to ease access to the control based on the determined frequency matching a predefined threshold; and

removing the control from the context based menu based on the determined frequency falling below the predefined threshold

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling a developer to define one or more of a layout, the behavior, and an appearance of controls on the context based menu by mapping coordinates on the context based menu to user actions and allowing the developer to specify the user actions.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a frequency of user interaction with a control in another user interface; and

moving the control from the other user interface into the context based menu based on the determined frequency matching a predefined threshold.

11. A computing device for providing customization of context based menus, the computing device comprising:

an input device configured to detect at least one of a tap action and a swipe action;

a memory;

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing an application and causing a user interface associated with the application to be displayed on a screen, wherein the processor is configured to;

receive a custom configuration from one of a structured file and a user input through the user interface for a context based menu defining layout attributes and a behavior for a first set of controls and a second set of controls in the context based menu, wherein the context based menu is a radial menu;

construct the context based menu according to the custom configuration, wherein the custom configuration is editable by a user;

position the first set of controls in the context based menu according to custom position information retrieved from the custom configuration;

retrieve a default schema from the custom configuration defining default position information about the second set of controls in the context based menu;

position the second set of controls in the context based menu according to the default schema retrieved from the custom configuration;

adjust one or more from a set of;

a number of the first set of controls and a number of the second set of controls to be displayed in the context based menu dynamically according to a use pattern of one or more from a set of;

the first set of controls and the second set of controls by the user;

in response to the user input including a tap, a swipe, a mouse, a keyboard, a pen, a voice, a visual, and a gesture action, present the context based menu on the user interface to manage content; and

display an indicator to show a last activated control of the context based menu.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine platform settings for a platform type presenting the context based menu; and

position the first set of controls and the second set of controls according to the platform settings enforced on the context based menu by the platform type.

13. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive user authentication information for the user associated with the custom configuration from another device; and

transmit instructions to construct the context based menu at the other device according to the custom configuration.

14. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to:

adjust sizes of each of the first and second set of controls to encompass the context based menu according to the displayed number of controls.

15. A computer-readable memory device including a processor and instructions working in conjunction with said processor for providing customization of context based menus, the instructions comprising:

receiving a custom configuration from one of a structured file and a user input through a predefined user interface for a context based menu defining layout attributes and a behavior for a first set of controls and a second set of controls one or more controls in the context based menu, wherein the context based menu is a radial menu;

constructing the context based menu according to the custom configuration, wherein the custom configuration is editable by a user;

positioning the first set of controls in the context based menu according to custom position information retrieved from the custom configuration;

retrieving a default schema from the custom configuration defining default position information about the second set of controls in the context based menu;

positioning the second set of controls in the context based menu according to the default schema retrieved from the custom configuration;

adjusting one or more from a set of;

a number of the first set of controls and a number of the second set of controls to be displaced in the context based menu dynamically according to a use pattern of one or more from a set of;

the first set of controls and the second set of controls by the user;

in response to the user input including a tap, a swipe, a mouse, a keyboard, a pen, a voice, a visual, and a gesture action, presenting the context based menu on the user interface to manage content; and

displaying an indicator to show a last activated control of the context based menu.

16. The computer-readable memory device of claim 15, wherein the instructions further comprise:

preventing customization of anchor controls from the set of controls; and

positioning the anchor controls according to the default schema.

17. The computer-readable memory device of claim 15, wherein the instructions further comprise:

reducing a size of context based menu in response to a determination of the number of the set of controls falling below a predefined threshold provided by the custom configuration.

18. The computer-readable memory device of claim 15, wherein the instructions further comprise:

adjusting a shape of the context based menu in response to a determination of the number of the set of controls to populate the context based menu.