Graphical Portal Mechanism for Seamless Cross-Screen Object Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users interacting with multiple display screens face limitations in performing gestures across screens due to physical gaps, which disrupt the gesture when lifting a finger or pen, preventing seamless movement of graphical objects between adjacent screens.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of graphical portals that act as entrances and exits to 'tunnels' or 'wormholes,' allowing graphical objects to be moved across screens without terminating the drag operation, enabling seamless inter-screen gestures by associating the object with multiple destination portals upon entering a source portal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a user performs a gesture across two display screens, then the gesture can be completed seamlessly, but the physical gap between screens disrupts the gesture when the user lifts a finger or pen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces graphical portals as intermediary elements that mediate the transfer of graphical objects across the physical gap between screens. When a user drags an object to a portal on one screen, the system creates a corresponding portal representation on the adjacent screen, allowing the user to complete the gesture by releasing the object at the destination portal without bridging the physical gap directly
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a graphical/visual dimension to overcome the physical spatial limitation. By creating portal representations that exist in the graphical interface layer rather than physical space, the system allows gestures to continue across screens through visual metaphors (portals as entrances/exits) rather than requiring continuous physical contact across the gap
2Productivity
If graphical objects are moved across screens using traditional drag operations, then the object can be transferred between screens, but the drag operation terminates when encountering the physical gap
Solution Approach 1:
Graphical portals serve as intermediary containers that temporarily hold the graphical object during cross-screen transfer. When an object is dragged to a source portal, the system creates corresponding destination portals on adjacent screens, allowing the drag operation to suspend at the portal rather than terminate, and enabling resumption at the destination without breaking continuity
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by creating destination portal representations before the user completes the cross-screen gesture. When the user drags an object to a portal on one screen, the system proactively creates corresponding portals on adjacent screens, preparing the pathway for continuous gesture completion without requiring the user to anticipate or manually create the continuation points
Data Source
AI summary
A technique is described herein for facilitating movement of graphical objects across display screens. In one manner of operation, the method includes: displaying a representation of a first movement as a user moves a graphical object across a source screen; detecting that the user has moved the graphical object into a graphical source portal associated with the source screen; associating the graphical object with two or more graphical destination portals provided by the plural display screens, in addition to the graphical source portal, such that the graphical object is accessible from the graphical source portal and any graphical destination portal; detecting that the user has removed the graphical object from a chosen graphical portal in a chosen screen; displaying the graphical object as having been removed from all graphical portals; and displaying a second movement as the user moves the graphical object across the chosen screen to a final destination.