Text Selection Area Placement for Touch Screen Visibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face difficulties in accurately selecting text on touch screens due to obscuration by their fingers or nails, especially when the text is small or positioned near the tapping point.
Innovation Solution
An information processing apparatus and method that extracts selection candidate text from a display screen and places selectable areas larger and distinct from the text, allowing users to easily select text by tapping within these areas, which are positioned in a way to avoid obscuration by the user's finger or nail.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If selectable areas are placed directly on the text display area, then text selection is enabled, but the text becomes obscured by the user's finger or nail making accurate selection difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent relocates selectable areas from the horizontal text display area to a vertical arrangement along one edge of the display screen. This dimensional change separates the selection interface from the text content, allowing users to select text without obscuring it with their finger, thus resolving the contradiction between selection ease and text visibility.
2Quantity of substance
If text display size is reduced to fit more content, then information density increases, but accurate text selection becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the text selection function into separate, discrete selectable areas arranged vertically along the screen edge. Each selectable area corresponds to a specific text element, providing clear visual boundaries and distinct tap targets. This segmentation maintains high text content density while improving selection accuracy by making each selection target easily distinguishable and accessible.
3Ease of operation
If selectable areas are made larger to improve selection ease, then selection accuracy improves, but the display area for text is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent resolves this contradiction by moving selectable areas to a vertical dimension along the screen edge, separate from the horizontal text display area. This allows selectable areas to be made sufficiently large for accurate selection while preserving maximum text display space, as the two elements occupy different spatial dimensions and do not compete for the same display real estate.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided an information processing apparatus including a text extraction unit that extracts selection candidate text from a text string displayed on a display screen, and a selection area placement unit that places selectable areas for the selection candidate text on the display screen in a manner that the selectable areas differ from a display area of the selection candidate text.