Method and apparatus for choosing an intended target element from an imprecise touch on a touch screen display

An apparatus for choosing the intended target element from an imprecise touch on a touch screen display, comprising:

• a touch screen;
• at least one processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions, that when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform a method comprising:
• determining a location of a touch on the touch screen;
• determining that the touch is not within any bounding boxes of a plurality of elements displayed on the touch screen, wherein a bounding box is defined for each of the plurality of elements displayed on the touch screen and each bounding box surrounds a corresponding one of the plurality of elements but does not form part of the corresponding element;
• expanding the bounding boxes of the elements in the plurality of elements based on the determination that the touch is not within any of the bounding boxes of the plurality of elements, wherein expanding the bounding boxes of the elements comprises causing expanded bounding boxes to overlap;
• and
• determining that the touch is within two overlapping expanded bounding boxes of two elements in the plurality of elements;
• calculating a distance between the touch and a center of each of the two overlapping expanded bounding boxes of the two elements in the plurality of elements;
• and
• determining a target element from the two elements based on which expanded bounding box of the two overlapping expanded bounding boxes has the shortest calculated distance between the touch and the center of the expanded bounding box of the two elements in the plurality of elements.

A non transitory computer readable medium for storing computer instructions that, when executed by at least one processor cause the at least one processor to perform a method for choosing an intended target element from an imprecise touch comprising:

• defining a respective bounding box for each of a plurality of elements displayed on a touch screen display, each respective bounding box surrounding a corresponding one of the plurality of elements but not forming part of the corresponding element;
• determining that a touch point is not within any of the bounding boxes of the plurality of elements on the touch screen display;
• expanding the bounding boxes of the elements in the plurality of elements to obtain a plurality of uniformly expanded bounding boxes based on the determination that the touch point is not within any of the bounding boxes of the plurality of elements, wherein expanding the bounding boxes of the elements comprises causing expanded bounding boxes to overlap;
• determining that the touch point is within two overlapping expanded bounding boxes of two elements in the plurality of elements;
• calculating a distance between the touch point and a center of each of the two overlapping expanded bounding boxes of the two elements in the plurality of elements;
• and
• choosing a target element from the two elements based on which expanded bounding box of the two overlapping expanded bounding boxes has the shortest calculated distance between the touch point and the center of the expanded bounding box.