System and method for developing and classifying touch gestures

A tangible computer-readable storage medium, excluding signal per se, storing program instructions executable on a computer to implement a gesture development tool configured to:

• perform a definition process for defining a touch gesture based on a user's repeatedly physically executing the same touch gesture on a touch-enabled device, wherein each iteration of said repeatedly physically executing the same touch gesture comprises:
• capturing a plurality of parameters of the touch gesture based on user input physically applied by the user to a touch-sensitive surface of the touch-enabled device to define the touch gesture, wherein each captured parameter of the plurality of captured parameters represents a characteristic of the touch gesture and includes values captured at particular points in time during the iteration;
• generate a descriptor for the touch gesture, wherein the descriptor is a representation of the pluralities of parameters captured from the received user input during the iterations of said repeatedly physically executing the same touch gesture;
• store the descriptor;
• associate the descriptor for the touch gesture with a command to be executed in response to receiving the touch gesture;
• and
• store the descriptor and an association of the touch gesture with the command.

A tangible computer-readable storage medium, excluding signal per se, storing program instructions executable on a computer to implement a gesture classification module configured to:

• receive a plurality of parameters applied to a touch-sensitive surface of a touch-enabled device, wherein the plurality of parameters represent a touch gesture, and wherein the touch gesture indicates a command for a software application executing on the touch-enabled device;
• analyze the plurality of parameters to create a gesture descriptor corresponding to the touch gesture, wherein the gesture descriptor is a representation of the plurality of parameters of the touch gesture;
• compare the gesture descriptor to a set of existing gesture descriptors;
• determine one or more existing gesture descriptors that match the gesture descriptor;
• and
• return one or more identifiers of the one or more existing gesture descriptors determined to match the gesture descriptor, wherein the one or more identifiers are used in the software application to determine the command.