| Patent application number | Description | Published |
| 20090193364 | DISPLAYING THUMBNAIL COPIES OF RUNNING ITEMS - Methods, user interfaces, and computer-readable media for displaying thumbnail copies of running items for a particular running application on a display are provided. The displayed thumbnail copies are interactive, and provide the user with an easy and efficient way to identify and manage multiple items, such as windows, that are concurrently running. The thumbnail copies are either snapshots or real-time displays of the corresponding running items, depending on whether the running item is minimized or maximized at the time the thumbnail copies are displayed. The user interacts with the thumbnail copies by choosing to either close a particular running item by selecting the closing icon on the corresponding thumbnail copy, or view a particular running item on the display by selecting the corresponding thumbnail in any location other than the closing icon. | 07-30-2009 |
| 20100122205 | SCROLLING WEB PAGES USING DIRECT INTERACTION - Aspects of the present invention provide a system and method for scrolling or dragging information on a display. A panning tool is provided that may scroll information, such as a web page, on a display in tandem with movement of a cursor. If interactive elements are present on the page or document, an interactive element may be activated as desired. Scrolling may be accomplished with the panning tool either on non-interactive elements or interactive elements that are not required to be activated. Furthermore, inertia of movement of the information on a display is optimized and autoscrolling is provided in which a page or document may be scrolled without dragging. | 05-13-2010 |
| 20100207904 | TARGETING IN A STYLUS-BASED USER INTERFACE - Aspects of the invention provide virtual hover zones. When a user lowers a hovering stylus while remaining within a hover zone, cursor control is modified to be more easily controllable by the user. If the user pauses the stylus in mid-air before lowering the stylus, and if the stylus remains within the hover zone, then upon touchdown the cursor may be moved to the projection of the location where the stylus was paused. Any action that may be taken in response to the touch down may be sent to the projection location as well. Also provided are cursor control zones. A dampening zone may be used to provide dampened cursor movement feedback in response to movement input provided by a pointing device. Also, a dead zone may be used to prohibit cursor movement in response to movement input provided by the pointing device. | 08-19-2010 |
| 20100251116 | Flick Gesture - A system and method for determining whether a flick gesture has occurred is described. A flick gesture is a simple gesture that may be easily detected and is characterized by minimal interference with other applications or gestures. | 09-30-2010 |
| 20110096077 | CONTROLLING ANIMATION FRAME RATE OF APPLICATIONS - Many computer applications incorporate and support animation (e.g., interactive user interfaces). Unfortunately, it may be challenging for computer applications and rendering systems to render animation frames at a smooth and consistent rate while conserving system resources. Accordingly, a technique for controlling animation rendering frame rate of an application is disclosed herein. An animation rendering update interval of an animation timer may be adjusted based upon a rendering system state (e.g., a rate of compositing visual layouts from animation frames) of a rendering system and/or an application state (e.g., a rate at which an application renders frames) of an application. Adjusting the animation rendering update interval allows the animation timer to adjust the frequency of performing rendering callback notifications (work requests to an application to render animation frames) to an application based upon rendering system performance and application performance. | 04-28-2011 |
| Patent application number | Description | Published |
| 20090199127 | PREVIEWING TARGET DISPLAY AREAS - Systems, methods, computer-readable media, and graphical user interfaces for previewing target display areas are provided. A preview indication that indicates a desire to preview a target display area is detected. Upon detecting a preview indication, events are associated with display areas. The preview events associated with the respective display areas are applied to the display areas such that a preview of the target display area is temporarily presented in an inactive state. In one embodiment, the preview events include changing relative opacity and/or transparency such that the target display area is visibly presented. | 08-06-2009 |
| 20100060605 | PRESSURE SENSITIVE CONTROLS - The use of pressure-sensitive controls is disclosed in which controls respond differently to different pressure applied by a stylus on a digitizer. Users interacting with displayed controls may modify the speed, increment, or other property of the control by pressing harder or softer. Devices that allow for the input of location and pressure information may use embodiments of the invention, including computers with pressure sensitive mice or digitizer tablets, PDAs, or tablet computers. Controls that may use pressure to augment their behavior include scrollbars, spinner controls, resize handles, buttons, drop down menus and so forth. | 03-11-2010 |
| 20100153879 | PRESSURE BASED SELECTION - The use of pressure-sensitive selection tools in a graphical user interface is disclosed in which the amount of pressure during a selection operation may modify selection behavior. Upon receiving a selection input, the pressure applied is determined and the selection behavior modified. In some embodiments, the number of objects selected is increased when more pressure is applied and decreased when less pressure is applied. | 06-17-2010 |