Touch Interface Dragging Control Object Activation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for performing display operations on electronic devices with touch-sensitive surfaces are cumbersome and inefficient, requiring multiple steps and consuming additional time, especially when interacting with user interface objects like files and calendar entries.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a method that allows users to interact with control objects while dragging draggable objects on a touch-sensitive surface, eliminating the need for extra steps by activating control objects during the dragging process, and utilizing intensity thresholds to determine the nature of user inputs for performing specific operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If users follow existing methods to change view while dragging objects, then the view can be changed, but the process requires multiple steps and additional time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the view-changing operation with the dragging operation into a single continuous action. While the user is dragging an object, they can simultaneously activate control objects to change the view, eliminating the need to release and re-grab the object. This combines two previously separate operations (dragging and view-changing) into one unified workflow, directly improving productivity and reducing time loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The system prepares control objects in advance during the dragging operation, allowing users to activate view-changing functions before completing the drag. This preliminary preparation of control interfaces enables users to initiate view changes while maintaining grip on the dragged object, rather than waiting until after the drag is complete, thus reducing overall operation time.
2Ease of operation
If users interact with control objects during dragging, then operation efficiency improves, but the interface complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The touch-sensitive surface serves multiple functions simultaneously: it detects both the dragging motion of objects and the activation of control objects for view-changing. This multi-functionality allows the same interface element to handle different types of interactions (dragging and control activation) without adding separate physical controls, thereby improving ease of operation while managing interface complexity through versatile use of existing components.
Solution Approach 2:
The interface dynamically adapts during the dragging operation by presenting control objects that become active only in the context of dragging. Control objects appear and become interactive during the drag action, and disappear or become inactive when dragging stops. This dynamic behavior allows the interface to provide enhanced functionality when needed without permanently increasing complexity, as controls are context-dependent rather than always-present.
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic device with a display, a touch-sensitive surface, and one or more sensors that detect intensities of contacts on the touch-sensitive surface displays, on the display, a user interface. While displaying the user interface, the electronic device detects an input that includes a contact on the touch-sensitive surface. In response to detecting the input while displaying the user interface, and while continuing to detect the input on the touch-sensitive surface: If an intensity of the contact satisfies an activation intensity threshold, the electronic device performs a first operation associated with the activation intensity threshold. The activation intensity threshold is determined based on whether or not prior inputs by the user on the touch-sensitive surface exceed a respective intensity threshold. If an intensity of the contact does not satisfy an activation intensity threshold, the electronic device forgoes performing the first operation associated with the activation intensity threshold.