GUI Cursor Biasing via Virtual Landscape for Click Accuracy
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Solution Overview
Problem
The cluttered graphical user interfaces with numerous clickable areas often lead to accidental mouse movements and incorrect clicks, as users struggle to find the correct icon amidst a crowded screen, especially when icons are hidden or dynamically re-ordered.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that record user actions in a database to determine the highest probability next action based on past sequences and user behavior, biasing the graphical cursor movement towards the most likely next action by creating virtual boundaries or landscapes that guide the cursor towards the intended control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the GUI includes numerous buttons, controls and clickable areas to provide comprehensive functionality, then the system's adaptability and versatility improve, but the user interface becomes cluttered and harder to navigate, increasing the difficulty of detecting and measuring the correct control
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by making different regions of the GUI have different properties - specifically, creating a virtual landscape where certain areas have lower virtual elevation (easier to navigate to) based on user behavior patterns. The system analyzes user sequences and creates localized virtual valleys around frequently accessed controls, making the correct control easier to detect and reach while maintaining all necessary GUI elements.
2Productivity
If the GUI dynamically re-orders or hides icons to optimize space and organization, then the system's productivity improves, but the reliability of user actions decreases due to accidental clicks and difficulty finding controls
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback by continuously monitoring user sequences and using this information to dynamically adjust the virtual landscape. The system records user actions, analyzes patterns, and updates the virtual elevation map in real-time, creating a feedback loop that adapts to individual user behavior and improves click accuracy while maintaining dynamic GUI re-ordering capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-calculating the virtual landscape based on historical user sequences before the user actually interacts with the GUI. The system analyzes past user behaviors and prepares the virtual elevation map in advance, so when the user moves the cursor, the virtual landscape is already optimized to guide them to the correct control, preventing accidental clicks before they occur.
3Ease of operation
If the system records and analyzes user sequences to determine highest probability next actions, then the ease of operation improves by guiding cursor movement, but the device complexity increases due to additional recording and analysis components
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a virtual landscape as an intermediary between the user and the GUI controls. Instead of directly modifying the GUI or adding complex analysis tools, the system creates a virtual elevation map that mediates cursor movement by creating virtual slopes and valleys that naturally guide the cursor to the correct control, simplifying the overall system architecture while improving ease of operation.
Data Source
AI summary
This invention relates to a system, method and computer program product for a graphic user interface (GUI) comprising: a GUI controller for controlling a GUI; a graphical cursor engine for projecting a mouse cursor on to a GUI and responsive to a user moving and controlling a mouse to select the graphical controls; a user action recorder for recording sequences of user actions in the GUI in a database of user sequences for a plurality of GUI user sessions; a next action engine for determining, in a particular GUI user session, a next action with the highest probability for a particular GUI based on one or more recorded sequences for that GUI in the database of user sequences and user past actions in that session; and a biasing engine for biasing graphical cursor movement towards the next action with the highest probability.