Continuous Stroke Menu Selection for Touch Input
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for inputting data entries on portable electronic devices with touch screens are inefficient and uncomfortable due to the need for complex menu navigation and multiple user strokes.
Innovation Solution
A method that detects continuous strokes on the touch screen to select menu items across multiple levels, allowing for sequential menu display and efficient data entry completion, with options for multiple selections, correction, and handling of menus spanning multiple pages.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional menu navigation methods are used, then data entries can be inputted into services, but the process requires a large quantity of complex user strokes and leads to an uncomfortable user experience
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple menu selection operations into a single continuous stroke gesture. Instead of requiring separate strokes for each menu level and data field, the system allows users to input multiple data entries across different menu levels in one continuous motion, merging what would traditionally be multiple discrete operations into a single unified action.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements continuous stroke input where the user's gesture flows uninterrupted through multiple menu levels and data fields. The system detects and processes the continuous stroke to sequentially select menu items and populate data entries without requiring the user to lift their finger or restart the gesture, maintaining continuous useful action throughout the data entry process.
2Adaptability or versatility
If complex menu structures are used to provide multiple levels of service options, then comprehensive service functionality is available, but the menu navigation becomes more complex and requires more user strokes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the menu structure adaptive to the user's continuous stroke gesture. As the user's stroke progresses through different regions of the screen, the menu structure dynamically reveals or hides different levels of options based on the stroke's trajectory and position. This allows comprehensive service functionality to be accessed through a single dynamic gesture rather than navigating through static, multi-level menus.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a temporal and spatial dimension to menu navigation by using continuous stroke gestures that move across the screen surface. Instead of navigating through nested menu levels in a hierarchical manner, the system maps menu structure exploration to the two-dimensional space of the touch screen, allowing users to access different menu levels by moving their stroke to different spatial regions, effectively flattening the hierarchical structure into a spatial navigation model.
3Productivity
If multiple data entry fields are displayed on multiple screen areas, then all service parameters can be accessed, but each field requires separate stroking actions making the process inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the selection of multiple data entry fields and the input of data into a single continuous stroke operation. Instead of requiring users to separately stroke each field to activate it and then input data, the system processes the continuous stroke to automatically identify which fields should be populated and fills them sequentially based on the stroke's path, combining field selection and data input into one unified action.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-configuring the data entry fields and their associated menu options before the user begins the continuous stroke. When the user initiates the gesture, the system has already prepared the appropriate menus and fields along the anticipated stroke path, allowing the continuous stroke to simply traverse and select options without requiring additional setup or activation steps for each field.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method for inputting data entries of a service for use with a portable electronic device having a touch screen. By detecting a continuous stroke moving on the touch screen to select desired items among multiple levels of menus which are displayed in a sequence for an object targeting to a service, the data entries according to the selected items are committed for the object when the continuous stroke ends. In addition, multiple items can be selected in one level of menu by using a pre-defined stroke indication in the continuous stroke. Furthermore, the selected items can be corrected by re-stroking back to the corresponding levels of menus.