Touch Interface Widget Configuration via Gesture Recognition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Portable electronic devices face challenges in designing user interfaces that allow easy interaction with multifunction devices due to limited screen space, leading to complex key sequences and inflexible menu systems, which frustrate users and complicate widget configuration and display.
Innovation Solution
A portable multifunction device with a touch-sensitive display and graphical user interface that allows users to interact through gestures, enabling configuration and display of widgets by detecting gestures on settings icons, changing settings, and switching between widgets using finger gestures on a touch screen.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If more pushbuttons are added to portable devices, then the number of accessible functions increases, but the device complexity and ease of operation deteriorate due to complicated key sequences and menu hierarchies
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical pushbutton system with a touch-sensitive display that responds to finger gestures. This substitution eliminates the need for physical buttons while providing access to multiple functions through intuitive touch interactions, thereby reducing device complexity while maintaining versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a two-dimensional array of physical buttons to a full-screen touch interface that utilizes the entire display area. This dimensional expansion allows numerous functions to be accessed simultaneously through visual icons and gestures, reducing the complexity associated with navigating hierarchical menu structures.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the density of pushbuttons is increased, then more functions can be accessed, but the ease of operation deteriorates due to difficulty in activating desired pushbuttons
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces dense arrays of small physical buttons with a touch-sensitive display where the entire screen surface is interactive. This allows users to easily activate functions by touching large visual icons anywhere on the screen, eliminating the difficulty of locating and pressing small, densely packed buttons.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a dynamic interface where the display content and interaction options adapt based on user context and selections. This dynamic behavior allows the interface to present only relevant options at each step, making operation easier while providing access to numerous functions through contextual navigation rather than static dense button layouts.
3Adaptability or versatility
If complex menu systems are used, then more functions can be organized, but the ease of operation deteriorates due to complicated key sequences that must be memorized
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces hierarchical menu systems accessed through sequential key presses with a visual touch interface. Users navigate functions by touching visual icons and receiving immediate visual feedback, eliminating the need to memorize complex key sequences while maintaining comprehensive function access through intuitive graphical navigation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a self-guiding interface that presents relevant options and instructions directly on the display based on user actions. The system automatically adapts to user needs, presenting only necessary configuration options and guidance, thereby eliminating the need for users to memorize complex menu hierarchies while providing access to numerous functions through contextual, self-explanatory interfaces.
4Ease of manufacture
If conventional user interfaces are made inflexible to simplify design, then manufacturing becomes easier, but adaptability deteriorates preventing configuration by applications or users
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic user interface that can be configured and adapted by both users and applications. The touch-sensitive display with graphical user interface allows runtime reconfiguration of widgets, icons, and interaction patterns, providing high adaptability while maintaining a unified design approach that simplifies manufacturing compared to multiple fixed interface designs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal touch interface framework that serves multiple functions: displaying information, accepting input, providing feedback, and allowing configuration. This single multi-functional interface design simplifies manufacturing compared to implementing separate fixed interfaces for each function, while simultaneously providing high adaptability through programmable widget behavior and user customization capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
A portable multifunction device displays a first widget on a touch screen and detects a first gesture on a settings icon on the first widget. In response to the first gesture, the device displays user-adjustable settings for a plurality of widgets, including settings for the first widget. The device detects one or more additional gestures to change one or more settings for one or more widgets in the plurality of widgets. In response to the additional gestures, the device changes one or more settings for other widgets, including changing one or more settings for a respective widget other than the first widget. Upon detecting a widget selection gesture and a finishing gesture on the touch screen, the device displays a second widget in the plurality of widgets other than the first widget.