Floating Swipe Ability Menu for Fast Touchscreen Game Input
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing game user interfaces on touchscreen devices face challenges with speed and accuracy in selecting character abilities due to small screen sizes, obscured buttons, lack of haptic feedback, and limited display space, especially in games like first-person shooters.
Innovation Solution
A swipe input mechanism on touchscreen devices allows for the selection of different menu options through swipe gestures in various directions using a dedicated abilities widget, which includes a heads-up display (HUD) with radially arranged ability elements, dynamic positioning, and visual indicators for readiness and charging states.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional soft buttons are used for ability selection on touchscreen devices, then the interface is simple to implement, but the selection speed and accuracy deteriorate due to small screen size and obscured buttons
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from traditional 2D button layouts to a radial arrangement where ability elements are positioned around the periphery of the touchscreen, utilizing the circular dimension. This allows multiple ability buttons to be distributed evenly around the screen edge, increasing the effective selection area without occupying central gameplay space, thereby improving both selection accuracy and speed while maintaining adequate screen real estate.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic positioning of the radial ability widget, allowing it to be repositioned or resized based on gameplay context and user preferences. The widget can dynamically adjust its radial extent and button positions to optimize accessibility while maintaining the peripheral arrangement, enabling faster ability selection without permanently reducing gameplay visible area.
2Adaptability or versatility
If more ability buttons are displayed to provide more character abilities, then the versatility improves, but the screen space for each button decreases and buttons become more obscured
Solution Approach 1:
By arranging ability elements radially around the screen periphery rather than in a compact 2D grid, the patent distributes multiple ability buttons across a larger circumferential space. This radial dimensionality allows 6 or more ability buttons to be positioned with adequate angular separation, maintaining selection accuracy while increasing the total number of simultaneously accessible abilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The radial arrangement naturally segments the touchscreen into distinct angular zones, with each ability button occupying its own sector. This segmentation reduces visual clutter and finger coverage issues by spacing buttons apart along the circular periphery, allowing players to accurately select among multiple abilities without buttons overlapping or being obscured by the hand.
3Volume of moving object
If the touchscreen is made smaller to improve portability, then the device compactness improves, but the button selection speed and accuracy deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The radial peripheral arrangement maximizes the use of touchscreen real estate by distributing ability buttons along the circular edge rather than concentrating them in the center. This allows smaller touchscreens to accommodate multiple large, easily selectable ability buttons by utilizing the perimeter space, maintaining fast input speed despite reduced device size.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines the movement control stick functionality with the radial ability selection widget, integrating both controls into a unified peripheral interface. This merging allows the touchscreen to provide both analog movement control and discrete ability selection without requiring separate button areas, maintaining input speed on compact devices by consolidating controls efficiently.
Data Source
AI summary
A swipe input mechanism for a computer-implemented game presented on a touchscreen allows for user-selection of different menu options by swipe gestures in different directions via a swipe menu dedicated to receiving such swipe input. In a third person shooter game or a first-person shooter game user-selection of different character abilities are enabled via the swipe menu. The swipe menu is a floating user interface element that auto-adjusts its on-screen position to register with the position of user touch.