System and method for emulating wheel-style, rocker-style, or wheel-and-rocker style navigation with an analog pointing device
AssigneeAvago Technologies ECBU IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
InventorsTimothy J. Orsley, Jonah Harley
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A pointing device includes a position determining mechanism and a control mechanism that has a field of motion associated therewith. The control mechanism can be an object a user moves with his or her finger or it can be the user's finger that he or she moves over a surface. The pointing device is used to control a selection box shown on a display screen. The pointing device can operate in one or more different modes when emulating wheel-style navigation, rocker-style navigation, or both wheel and rocker-style navigation.
Claims19
An analog pointing device for emulating at least one of wheel-style navigation, rocker-style navigation, and wheel-and-rocker style navigation with a selection box shown on a display, the pointing device comprising:
- a control mechanism controllable by a user, wherein a field of motion is associated with the control mechanism;
- and
- a position determining mechanism operable to determine whether the control mechanism has moved outside a step radius, wherein the step radius is defined within the field of motion and to determine a position of the control mechanism within the field of motion if the control mechanism has moved outside the step radius, the position determining mechanism being further operable to output at least one step motion when the control mechanism has moved outside the step radius to emulate at least one of the wheel-style navigation, the rocker-style navigation, and the wheel-and-rocker style navigation, wherein the at least one step motion causes the selection box to move from a current position to a position adjacent the current position.
A method for display screen navigation using an analog pointing device, the method comprising:
- determining a position of a control mechanism within the field of motion;
- determining whether to implement cursor-style navigation, and if so, implementing cursor style navigation;
- and
- if not implementing cursor-style navigation, emulating at least one of wheel-style navigation, rocker-style navigation, and wheel-and-rocker style navigation,
- wherein emulating at least one of wheel-style navigation, rocker-style navigation, and wheel-and-rocker style navigation comprises:
- determining whether to enter a step mode and if so, outputting a step motion based on the position of the control mechanism within the field of motion, wherein the step motion causes a selection box to move one adjacent position on the display screen;
- determining whether to enter a scroll mode and if so, repeatedly outputting a step motion based on the position of the control mechanism within the field of motion, wherein repeatedly outputting a step motion causes the selection box to repeatedly move one adjacent position on the display screen in a direction that is based on a direction of movement of the control mechanism;
- and
- determining whether to output a step motion based on an initial position of the control mechanism within the field of motion and then repeatedly outputting a step motion based on subsequent positions of the control mechanism within the field of motion, wherein repeatedly outputting a step motion causes the selection box to repeatedly move one adjacent position on the display screen in a direction that is based on a direction of movement of the control mechanism.
A method for emulating at least one of wheel-style navigation, rocker-style navigation, and wheel-and-rocker style navigation with an analog pointing device, wherein the analog pointing device is associated with a display screen and comprises a control mechanism having a field of motion, the method comprising:
- determining whether the control mechanism has moved outside a step radius, wherein the step radius is defined within the field of motion;
- if the control mechanism has moved outside the step radius, determining a position of the control mechanism within the field of motion;
- and
- outputting one or more step motions when the control mechanism has moved outside the step radius to emulate at least one of wheel-style navigation, rocker-style navigation, and wheel-and-rocker style navigation for a selection box shown on the display screen.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.