Touch Device Concentration Mode Reading Guide
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Electronic devices such as tablets and smartphones lack a user-friendly interface feature that allows users to intuitively engage and disengage a reading guide for enhanced content consumption, particularly for textual content, which is not available in existing touch screen devices.
Innovation Solution
A concentration mode is introduced in electronic touch sensitive devices, allowing users to engage and disengage a reading guide via specific gestures, such as touch or press-and-hold on the screen or trackpad, which includes a reading pane that highlights one to three lines of text and can be manually or automatically advanced, with options for fading background content and customizable settings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a reading guide feature is added to enhance content consumption, then readability and focus are improved, but device complexity and interface complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The reading guide feature automatically adjusts its position and highlights text lines based on the user's scrolling behavior and reading progress, eliminating the need for manual positioning controls. The system serves itself by detecting user interaction patterns and autonomously managing the reading guide display.
Solution Approach 2:
The reading guide functionality is extracted as a separate, optional overlay layer that can be independently enabled or disabled without affecting core device operations. This modular approach allows the feature to be added without fundamentally redesigning the entire interface architecture.
2Ease of operation
If multiple gesture controls are implemented for engaging and disengaging concentration mode, then ease of operation is improved, but difficulty of detecting and measuring user input increases
Solution Approach 1:
Different gesture types are segmented into distinct detection routines with unique characteristics (tap duration, finger count, motion trajectory). Each gesture type has clearly defined parameters that simplify detection logic, allowing the system to differentiate between concentration mode activation, deactivation, and other user interactions.
3Ease of operation
If background content is faded to enhance focus, then readability is improved, but loss of information occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The fading effect is applied locally only to specific background regions that would distract from the current reading focus, while maintaining full visibility of navigation elements, toolbars, and other functional UI components. This selective application preserves necessary information while enhancing reading concentration.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed for providing a concentration mode in electronic touch sensitive devices. The concentration mode can be used to highlight given textual content on a line by line basis, or other consumable content. The user can engage the mode with a particular gesture. Once engaged, a UI feature is displayed that assists the user in viewing the given content. In some cases, the UI feature includes a reading pane that encompasses one to three complete lines of displayed text or other content. Background content outside the reading pane can be faded or otherwise softened. In some cases, the UI feature also includes, or alternatively includes, a straight-edged reading guide. The initial placement of the UI feature can be set, for instance, based on the initial contact point touched by the user. As the contact point moves, the UI feature moves accordingly. Concentration mode disengages when user releases contact point.