Gesture-Based Chemical Structure Editing Interface
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for drawing and editing chemical structures on computers are manually intensive and non-intuitive, lacking efficient and intuitive user interfaces for touch screens or touch pads.
Innovation Solution
Systems, methods, and apparatus that allow users to draw and edit chemical structures using intuitive gestures on a touch pad or touch screen, utilizing a processor and memory to receive and process gestures for creating and editing chemical structure representations, including press and tap gestures for atom labeling, tap gestures for bond changes, drag gestures for molecular chain lengthening, and rotation gestures for structural manipulation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If mouse-driven or touch pad commands are used for drawing chemical structures, then the system can be operated on traditional computers, but the operation becomes manually intensive and non-intuitive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical input devices (mouse, touch pad) with a touch screen interface that directly responds to finger gestures. This substitution allows users to draw chemical structures by directly touching and gesturing on the display surface, making the operation more intuitive and reducing manual intensity while maintaining compatibility with portable computing devices.
2Adaptability or versatility
If menu-driven interfaces are used on tablet computers, then the system can be operated on portable devices, but the operation remains non-intuitive and manually intensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional menu-driven approach by allowing users to directly draw and manipulate chemical structures on the touch screen without navigating through menus. Instead of selecting options from menus to draw structures, users draw structures directly and then access editing functions through contextual interactions with the drawn elements, making the interface more intuitive while maintaining portability.
3Productivity
If traditional input methods are used, then the system works on conventional computers, but the user interface lacks efficiency and intuitiveness for touch screens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal interface that works across both traditional computers and portable touch-enabled devices. The system detects the input device type and adapts its interaction model accordingly, providing gesture-based control on touch screens while maintaining compatibility with mouse and keyboard input on conventional computers, thereby improving efficiency and intuitiveness without sacrificing broad device compatibility.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, and apparatus are provided that allow a user to draw and edit a chemical structure using one or more gestures performed on an input interface. For example, the user may assign an atom label to a chemical structure representation by performing a press and tap gesture, change a chemical bond characteristic in the chemical structure representation by performing a tap gesture, and/or lengthen a molecular chain in the chemical structure representation by performing a drag gesture. The user may also rotate the chemical structure representation in the graphical display by performing one or more rotation gestures.