1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a method and means for reinterpreting user input in a mobile device. In particular, the invention relates to a method and means for reinterpreting user input given during scrolling or browsing of data in a mobile device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The variety of data that mobile devices are used to access is growing rapidly. This sets new demands for mobile devices, and thus bigger screens and more ergonomic controls are appearing in mobile stations everyday. When a mobile station is used to browse large amounts of data, the ease and speed of scrolling are essential attributes of a mobile station.
For the sake of clarity, the following definitions are used in this application and defined explicitly here:
“Intended user selection”, “intended selection” this is the selection that the user intended to make and then embarked upon giving the input to the device.
“Perceived user selection”, “perceived selection” this is the selection that would get chosen by the moving cursor at the time the user input reaches the device.
“User input detection software”, a software used to detect the actual physical user input given by the user “as is”, i.e. the perceived selection.
“User input deduction software”, a software used to deduce the intended user selection from the perceived selection and other data, obtainable from for example browsing history.
The state of the art features several publications that highlight technologies that are used to make data browsing more user-friendly and faster.
The known methods have significant deficiencies. When the user is browsing data at a high speed, it is very difficult for him to select data items during scrolling. Speed and ease of scrolling or making the user aware of the scrolling speed do not remove the fact that it is very difficult for the user to resolve and select data items when they are moving fast on the display.
The present invention is directed towards a system and a method for effectively and intuitively selecting data items from data that is being scrolled even at a high speed. A further object of the invention is to present a system and a method for effectively allowing the user to make manipulation operations on these selected data items.
According to one aspect of the invention, the user browses data on mobile device and the browsing history of the user, device or session is stored to the memory of the device. During scrolling a data item is selected upon a user input, such as a press of button or turn of a switch. However, as the browsing speed effectively causes a discrepancy between the intended user selection and the real location of the cursor at the time of detection of the user input, i.e. the perceived selection, the data item selected by the user is determined based on the browsing history. In some preferable cases the determination is based on the extrapolated location of the cursor back in time when the user initiated the selection, user latency being accounted for. This way the intended user selection may be derived.
According to another aspect of the invention, the user browses data on the mobile device by motion guidance, i.e. the data is scrolled on the display by the user turning the device around some axis or by moving it back and forth. When the user presses e.g. a button to make a data item selection, the press of the button and related motion by the user typically alters the state of motion of the device and thus the position of the cursor as well. This will result in a discrepancy between the perceived and intended user selection that the invention can advantageously account for by considering the browsing history of the cursor and the device.
The invention allows the intended user selections to be resolved from selections that are made at high scrolling speeds and typically contain error, and therefore allows the user to both scroll data fast and manipulate it easily and intuitively during scrolling.
Some or all of the aforementioned advantages of the invention are accrued by determining the real user selection on the basis of browsing history and also other criteria, such as location of the cursor in immediate browsing history, inherent latency of the user, browsing speed, history of browsing speed and/or history of user latency.
A method for associating a user selection with a data item while browsing data is characterised by the following steps,
user browses data,
browsing history is stored,
at least one data item is selected upon user input by a cursor, the perceived selection,
the intended selection of a data item or a group of data items by the user is determined based on the browsing history and the said perceived selection.
A wireless device for displaying data in accordance with the invention comprising a memory and arranged to associate a user selection with a data item while browsing data is characterized in that,
user is arranged with the opportunity to browse data,
browsing history is arranged to be stored to the memory of the device,
at least one data item is selected upon user input by a cursor, the perceived selection,
the intended selection of a data item or a group of data items by the user is determined based on the browsing history and the said perceived selection.
A memory unit in accordance with the invention, comprising at least one software program product, arranged to associate a user selection with a data item while browsing data is characterized in that,
browsing history is arranged to be recorded by the browsing history software,
at least one data item selected upon user input by a cursor in arranged to be detected by the input detection software, the perceived selection,
the intended selection of a data item or a group of data items by the user is determined based on the browsing history and the said perceived selection by the input deduction software.
In addition and with reference to the aforementioned advantage accruing embodiments, the best mode of the invention is considered to be a method and a device executing the same where the position of the cursor that is used both for scrolling and data item selection is extrapolated to the location where the user first intended the selection of a data item with the cursor back in time, and this data item is determined as selected. This best mode is especially applicable in motion controlled mobile devices.
Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.
In the drawings:
In phase 320 a data item from the display that may be scrolled is selected by the cursor upon user input, which may be a press of a button, turn of a switch, an audible and recognised command, or any other form of user input. In some embodiments the data item may be text, characters, an image, a hyperlink, Internet-address, directory information, telephone number, page in an electronic document and/or a file shortcut or a file.
In phase 330 the data item selection of the user is determined, i.e. the real intended choice of the user is determined based on the browsing history of the device, user, or session. In order for this determination to be successful, there typically needs to be an extensive enough browsing history. The data that is collected must typically be statistically significant and it must be fresh enough to be applicable at the time the determination is made out. In a way, the user teaches the device to take into account his individual browsing characteristics while making determinations of intended selections from the perceived selections. Browsing history itself typically comprises a log of the data that has been browsed before, such as: type of data, access time of data, access mode of data, cursor path along browsed data, cursor speed, user's reaction time, and/or latency of the user or the device or applications used in the device to respond to inputs.
In
In
It is clear that any data item defining any command or further action may either be the perceived or intended data item to be selected. In addition to opening a file, dialling a phone number or connecting to a web page, the further action may also be, for example, the sending of an electronic message, such as a cookie, email or SMS, or any other function.
The mobile station 600 is also equipped with a button for making the data item selection 620. Quite clearly it is also possible to arrange the data item selections to be made by other means, such as a joystick, touch pad or the like. The pressing of button 620, or data selection by other means, also typically causes a change in the state of motion or position of the mobile station 600, however small, and thus the selection process itself can interfere with the position of the cursor in this motion guided device.
The mobile station may be a GSM, H323, HTTP, GSM data, IP-RAN, UMTS, WAP, Teldesic, Inmarsat, Iridium, GPRS, CDMA data, WCDMA data, HTTP, SMS, MMS, email LAN, TCP/IP, imode, Globalstar and/or WLAN compliant mobile station in some embodiments.
In some preferable embodiments, there is also a ‘freeze’ option for stalling the cursor to a fixed location upon a dedicated user input for a predefined time or a pixel count.
The browsing history software 820 is arranged to collect and manage the browsing history data which may include a log of the data that has been browsed before, such as: type of data, access time of data, access mode of data, cursor path along browsed data, cursor speed, user's reaction time, and/or latency of the user or the device or applications used in the device to respond to inputs. In some embodiments the browsing history software 820 stores the browsing history data to a dedicated file system or a database.
Both the browsing history software 820 and the user input detection software 810 are connected to the user input deduction software 830. Based on the perceived user input provided by the input detection software 810 and the data provided by the browsing history software 820 the user input deduction software 830 is arranged to deduce the intended user input.
The user input deduction software 830 may accept other input data 850 for deducing the intended user input from elsewhere in the device or memory unit system, or from the operating system 840 of the device. Other input data that may originate outside the browsing history software and its data may include in some embodiments: the cursor location, latency of the user or device or software run on the device, speed of browsing and/or speed and latency history that are extracted elsewhere from the device or the user, by similar statistical analysis to the collection of browsing history or as direct user input, that may extracted from user settings, for example. Likewise general statistical data applicable to larger populations may be used as an external input 850 to the user input deduction software 830. In some embodiments the input deduction software 830 is aware of the state of motion of the device, or its position and can use this data to resolve between perceived and intended user selections.
The user input deduction software 830 is typically connected to the operating system 840 of the device, as in some embodiments are also the user input detection software 810 and the browsing history software 820. The operating system 840 typically obtains the intended user input from the user input deduction software 830 and may then initiate further actions related to the choice of this (intended) data item. The operating system may, for example, initiate a dialling of a phone number, a connection to an URL, web page, IP-address, FTP site or the like. Likewise the operating system may initiate an opening of a file or sending of an electronic message, such as a cookie, email, SMS or the like based on further action defined for the choice of the intended user input provided by the user input deduction software.
The invention has been explained above with reference to the aforementioned embodiments and several commercial and industrial advantages have been demonstrated. The methods and arrangements of the invention allow the intended user selections to be resolved from selections that are made at high scrolling speeds and typically contain error, and therefore allows the user to both scroll data fast and manipulate it easily and intuitively during scrolling or browsing. The invention is especially advantageous when applied to a new breed of mobile devices, motion guided mobile devices, where the data item selections cause an inherent disturbance in the state of motion or the position of the mobile device.
Thus, while there have shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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20045168 | May 2004 | FI | national |
This is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/FI2005/050141 filed May 2, 2005.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/FI05/50141 | May 2005 | US |
Child | 11593653 | Nov 2006 | US |