A computer system comprising:
- a keyboard with a plurality of touchbands, each of which is a narrow multi-touch touchpad;
- a display device;
- a computer touchband device application program executable on the computer processor configured to:
- manage a multi-level context-dependent cascading menu interface wherein each menu item includes a plurality of drag-control functions driven by independent control-drag operations on the touchbands, a plurality of tap commands triggered by independent command-tap operations on the touchbands and a plurality of submenu items;
- display two-layer horizontal menu with the active menu layer on top and the content of the highlighted menu item under the active menu layer.
- create a control variable menu_Display with two possible values:
- {off=0, on=1};
- display the context-dependent menu when menu_Display=on;
- hide the context-dependent menu when menu_Display=off;
- specify five menu-tap operations:
- a menu-down operation, a menu-up operation, a menu-right operation, a menu-left operation and a menu-on/off operation from the tap gestures and mini-drag gestures on the touchband 1;
- specify a menu-drag operation from the main drag gestures on the touchband 1 wherein the main drag gesture is the drag gesture along the long side of the touchband;
- move the highlight to the first submenu item layer when detected menu-down operation;
- move the highlight back to the parent menu item when detected menu-up operation;
- move the highlight to the adjacent menu item on the right in the active menu layer when detected menu-right operation;
- move the highlight to the adjacent menu item on the left in the active menu layer when detected menu-left operation;
- move the highlight to both sides in the same menu layer when detected menu-drag operation;
- specify a plurality of control-drag operations from available main drag gestures on all touchbands;
- specify a plurality of command-tap operations from available tap gestures and mini-drag gestures on all touchbands;
- change the value of the k-th drag-control function listed for the highlighted menu item when detected the control-drag operation with index k;
- trigger the m-th tap command listed for the highlighted menu item when detected the command-tap operation with index m;
- specify a tap command for a menu item as a menu switching command that changes the highlight to a specified menu item in the context-dependent menu structure.
- toggle the menu_Display value whenever detected menu-on/off operation;
- set menu_Display=off when no-operation exceeds the specified time limit;
- set menu_Display=on when detected any operation on the touchbands during the context-dependent menu is hided;