Adaptive Open Pie Menu for Hand Occlusion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing collaboration systems face challenges in maintaining user focus and efficient interaction with large digital surfaces, particularly due to occlusions caused by the user's hand, which hinder menu interaction performance and adaptability to handedness and posture.
Innovation Solution
A collaboration system employing an ergonomic open-shaped pie menu system that adapts to the user's handedness and posture, with occluded areas used for gesture input and point-and-click regions optimized to avoid hand occlusions, allowing for intuitive and efficient interaction on large digital surfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a traditional full pie menu system is used on large digital surfaces, then comprehensive menu options are available, but hand occlusion prevents users from seeing and accessing certain menu areas
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the occluded portion of the pie menu from the interactive area, creating an 'open pie menu' where the menu arc is interrupted in the direction of hand occlusion. This removes the harmful interaction between hand occlusion and menu visibility, allowing users to access all menu options without their hand blocking the display.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces asymmetry by creating different open pie menu configurations for left-handed and right-handed users. The menu opening direction and occluded area are asymmetrically positioned based on user handedness, optimizing visibility and accessibility for each user type while maintaining comprehensive menu functionality.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a static menu design is used, then implementation is simple, but it cannot adapt to different user handedness and postures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic menu system that automatically adjusts the open pie menu configuration based on detected user handedness and posture. The system dynamically determines the occluded area and positions menu openings accordingly, providing adaptability without requiring manual configuration or complex user setup procedures.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-adjustment by automatically detecting user characteristics and configuring the appropriate menu layout. Users simply interact with the system naturally, and the menu adapts to their handedness and posture without requiring explicit input or configuration, reducing the perceived complexity for end users.
3Productivity
If all areas of the pie menu are used for direct input, then maximum interaction areas are available, but occluded areas cannot be accessed by users
Solution Approach 1:
The patent converts the harmful effect of hand occlusion into a beneficial design feature by intentionally creating an opening in the pie menu at the occluded area. This allows the system to maintain high interaction efficiency in visible areas while improving ease of operation by ensuring all menu options are accessible, transforming the occlusion problem into an optimized menu structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A collaboration system provides enhanced user interface to enable users to interact with electronic devices. In one embodiment, users can add content to a digital system by using a pen that streams coordinates so that input to the digital system may be based on conventional pen and paper handwriting. In another embodiment, a pie-based menu system is used for input to large display area digital devices in which an occluded portion of the pie-based menu system is not used for direct input by the user. The selection of which areas of the pie-based menu system should be omitted from use is adaptive and responsive to whether the user is left-handed or right-handed, and the wrist angle defined by the user's posture. In still another embodiment, an ergonomic open-shaped pie menu system is provided to facilitate selection of options on a digital surface.