Cross swipe gestures for selection and rearrangement

Abstract

Cross-swipe gestures for touch displays are described. In at least some embodiments, a cross-swipe gesture can be used on content that is panned or scrolled in one direction to allow additional actions, such as content selection, drag-and-drop operations, and the like. In one or more embodiments, a cross-swipe gesture may be performed by dragging an item or object in a direction other than the scrolling direction. This different direction of dragging can be mapped to additional actions or functions. In one or more embodiments, one or more thresholds, such as a distance threshold, may be utilized in conjunction with the drag in different directions to map to additional actions or functions.

Description

Background technique [0001] One of the challenges that designers of devices with user-engageable displays, such as touch displays, continue to face involves providing users with enhanced functionality through gestures that can be employed with the device. This is the case not only for devices with larger or multiple screens, but also in the context of devices with smaller footprints such as tablet PCs, handheld devices, smaller multi-screen devices, and so on. [0002] One challenge of gesture-based input is the challenge of providing assistive actions. For example, with current touch interfaces, it is common to tap on an item to launch the item. This makes it difficult to provide accessibility features such as the ability to select items. Furthermore, so-called pannable surfaces, ie surfaces that can be panned and have their contents moved, present certain challenges. For example, pannable surfaces typically react to finger dragging and move content in the direction of the...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

If the surface contains objects that the user might want to rearrange, it will be difficult to tell when the user wants to pan the surface, or rearrange the content

Images