Apple Patent Introduces User Reconfiguration Mode for iPhone Widgets
Earlier this month, the World Intellectual Property Organization published Apple’s patent application WO2007094894 titled Portable Electronic Device with Interface Reconfiguration Mode . Apple’s patent relates to user interfaces, and in particular, to user interfaces that use touch-sensitive displays and include an interface reconfiguration mode. Apple’s patent basically relates to future iPhone (and perhaps next generation iPod) models allowing users the ability to reconfigure their on-screen widgets and/or application icons permanently in the order in which they see fit.
Back in early July, the following question was posted on a Mac Rumors Forum by AudiA4: “Can you rearrange application icons? I swear I saw this on one of the Apple videos, but I cannot find it there or in the pdf User’s Guide. I’d like to replace the “iPod” button on the bottom with “iCal” which I reference much more often.” That set off a healthy flurry of likeminded questions and comments. Today’s patent fully addresses this issue by introducing a “Reconfiguring Mode” for future iPhone models.
Reconfiguration Mode
In patent FIG. 2A, Apple quickly gets to the heart of the matter concerning reconfiguring widgets or application icons. The illustration is clearly representative of an iPhone.
Apple’s patent states that “the portable electronic device 200 includes a touch-sensitive display with a GUI 210. The display surface is transparent to allow various graphical objects to be displayed to the user (e.g., widgets). In some embodiments, the GUI 210 is divided into multiple sections or windows. For example, a region 212 of GUI 210 may include a tray 216 for holding icons or graphical objects 222 representing functions that are frequently used by the user (e.g., video, weather, schedule, game, music, etc.) and a tray 214 for holding icons or graphical objects 220 representing functions that are used less frequently by the user (e.g., mail, address book, browser, etc.). The GUI may also include graphical objects corresponding to high-level functions of the portable electronic device. For example, various objects and/or images may be presented and changed in GUI 210 by pressing a menu button 240. In embodiments that include a mobile phone, dedicated graphical objects can be presented in GUI 210 representing traditional voice and data service operations (e.g., hold, clear, etc.). ”
“The user may interact with the portable communications device by making contact with the display surface with GUI using a stylus, a finger (not drawn to scale in FIG. 2) or more than one finger. For example, the user may make contact with the display surface at a position of one of the icons (direct contact), thereby activating the function or application program corresponding to that icon. In some embodiments, the icon is activated when the user makes contact at the position of the icon and then breaks contact (for example, a tapping gesture). In some embodiments, the contact with the display surface used to activate the icon may not be at the position of the icon. Instead, contact may be proximate to the icon (indirect contact). The latter technique is similar to “hot spots” used with Web pages and other computer user interfaces.
FIGS. 2B-D shows the portable electronic device during the interface reconfiguration mode. After the interface reconfiguration mode is initiated, the display of one or more of the icons in the tray is modified from the previous stationary positions to time-varying positions. As noted previously, the display may include animating one or more of the icons to simulate floating of one or more of the icons on a surface corresponding to the display surface. For example, the animated varying of the positions of one or more of the icons during the interface reconfiguration mode may resemble that of a hockey puck in an air hockey game. The displayed position(s) of a respective icon in the icons may be varied in a region 224 centered on the average position of the respective icon.
While FIG. 2B-2D illustrates movement of one or more of the icons in the tray, in other embodiments positions of one or more of the icons in another region of GUI, such as tray, may be varied separately or in addition to those of one or more of the icons in tray 216.
The time-varying position(s) of one or more of the icons intuitively indicate to the user that the positions of one or more of the icons may be modified. This is illustrated in FIGS. 2C-D, which shows the portable electronic device during the interface reconfiguration mode. The user makes contact, either direct or indirect, with one of the icons that is moving at a position 226 and moves the point of contact across the display surface with GUI 210. The contact and the motion are detected by the portable electronic device 200. As a consequence, the displayed icon, in this example corresponding to a game, is moved accordingly.
As shown in FIG. 2D, the user moves the game icon to position 228 and breaks contact with the display surface. The game icon is now displayed at the position 228. While the displayed position of the game icon is shown as stationary in FIG. 2D, in some embodiments the position of the game icon may be varied once the user breaks contact with the display surface. In some embodiments, only icons displayed in one or more subsections of the GUI 210 are displayed with a varying position during the interface reconfiguration mode. Thus, if the game icon had been dragged to another position in the tray 222, it may be displayed with a varying position after the user breaks contact with the display. In some embodiments, the device may provide audio and/or tactile feedback when an icon is moved to a new position, such as an audible chime and/or a vibration.
FIG. 2D also illustrates the optional displacement of the browser icon to position 230. The browser icon was displaced from its initial position 228 to its new position 230 due to at least partial overlap with the game icon, i.e., when the portable electronic device 200 determined that the user positioned the game icon over the browser icon, the displayed position of the browser icon was changed.
In some embodiments, the position of the respective icon may be varied during the interface reconfiguration mode in such a way that the respective icon rotates about the respective average position of the respective icon while maintaining a fixed orientation with respect to the GUI 210 and the portable electronic device 200.
This is illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B (below), which show the portable electronic device 200 during the interface reconfiguration mode. In this example, the position of the video icon 222 in tray 216 is varied in such a way that it maintains a fixed orientation in region 224. This may make it easier for the user to determine the function of the respective icon during the interface reconfiguration mode.”
Apple’s European patent application filling claims priority with U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/755,368, filed Dec. 30, 2005. Apple lists Marcel Van Os, Freddy A. Anzures, Scott Forstall, Greg Christie, Bas Ording, Imran Chaudhri and Stephen Lemay as the inventors of this patent.
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Written and researched by Neo.
