Peep-hole Display for Edge Region Secondary Content Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional user interfaces for portable electronic devices restrict users to interacting with one application at a time, lacking the ability to access secondary content data without navigating away from the foreground view.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a 'peep-hole' feature that allows users to create a temporary and partial view of secondary content data by detecting user inputs on the device's edge regions, enabling access to additional information without leaving the foreground application, with options for predefined or dynamic positioning and size based on user inputs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If users navigate away from the foreground application to access secondary content, then they can view additional information, but they lose their place in the foreground application and experience increased navigation time
Solution Approach 1:
The display is segmented into multiple regions: the foreground application occupies the main area while secondary content is displayed in a separate edge region. This segmentation allows users to access secondary content without leaving the foreground application, eliminating navigation time while maintaining information access.
Solution Approach 2:
Secondary content is displayed in an additional spatial dimension (edge region) rather than requiring full-screen navigation. This dimensional approach allows simultaneous viewing of foreground and secondary content, resolving the contradiction between accessing information and maintaining workflow.
2Ease of operation
If the display shows only one application at a time, then the interface remains simple and focused, but users cannot access secondary content without switching applications
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple content types (foreground application and secondary content) are merged into a single unified display interface. The edge region integrates secondary content alongside the main application, providing both interface simplicity and multi-content access simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The display interface becomes multi-functional by accommodating both foreground application display and secondary content viewing within the same screen real estate. This universal interface design eliminates the need for separate navigation while maintaining operational simplicity.
3Productivity
If a peep-hole is created to show secondary content, then users can quickly glimpse additional information, but the foreground view is modified
Solution Approach 1:
Secondary content is extracted and displayed in the edge region separate from the main foreground application. This extraction allows quick information access without modifying or obscuring the primary display content, maintaining foreground integrity while enabling rapid productivity gains.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus is configured to detect one or more particular user inputs from respective one or more positions, each position associated with a respective edge region of a display; and upon detection of the one or more particular user inputs, modify at least a portion of a foreground view on the display to create a peep-hole within the foreground view in the portion, the foreground view comprising first content data associated with a foreground application and the peep-hole comprising second content data. In this way, the peep-hole may be considered to replace parts of the foreground view with second content data. Corresponding methods and computer programs are also described.