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Apple Tablet- visual expander
Apple Tablet and iPod? User interface ideas
Apple has come up with some interesting ways to over come the big hands/small widgets problem. Instead of the whole interface looking silly the regions that are clicked upon expand and the widgets (buttons etc) expand as well- enabling easy clicking with fat fingers- I have no doubt what Apple can make such effects look (like the dock resizing etc)
- Features the evil APPLE HAND!
I’ve come up with a bad animated gif to give you some idea of what they are suggesting (might try and make it not so damn ugly):- click to see it in its own window
(From the VISUAL EXPANDER patent)
In one embodiment, the expanded portion of the graphical information is raised relative to the non expanded portion of the graphical information. For example, the expanded portion may appear to protrude away from the non expanded portions. This is typically done graphically as both the expanded and non expanded portions are typically produced in the same plane. By way of example, shading principals may be used to make the expanded portion appear to protrude away from the non expanded portions.
In some cases, the expanded portion includes a substantially planar plateau region and a substantially sloped transition region. The planar plateau region provides a planar surface for displaying the targeted graphical information and the transition region provides a gradient of growth between the plateau region and the non expanded portion of the graphical information. The transition region, which is the edge of the plateau compacts or compresses the graphical information located between the plateau and the non expanded portion of the graphical information. For example, the graphical information contained in the transition region have compacted or compressed magnification levels (this may distort the graphical information contained therein) In alternative implementations, the plateau may be rounded rather than being planar or the expanded portion may be one large transition region without having a plateau. In either case, the expanded portion may look like a rounded pimple or bump.
The expanded portion may also be linked to a particular object of the graphical information. For example, a particular window, field, dialog box, menu, icon, button, tool bar, user interface element (e.g., scroll bar, scroll wheel, slider bar, dial), control box, footnote and the like. In some case, the entire object is expanded. For example, when the finger is placed over a window, the entire window is expanded. In other cases, only a portion of the object is expanded. For example, when the finger is placed over a tool bar, only the selectable items are expanded. As should be appreciated, these objects may need to be expanded so that they can be easily used by a human hand.
[0042] The time when expansion takes place can be widely varied. In one embodiment, expansion is activated immediately after the touch is detected. In another embodiment, expansion is activated after the touch is detected for a predetermined amount of time. In cases such as this, the user may have to hover their finger over the area desired to be expanded for the predetermined amount of time in order to initiate the expansion. By way of example, the dwell time may be between about 0.5 to about 5 seconds, and more particularly about 1 second. This embodiment may be employed to prevent inadvertent expansion. That is, the time delay may be used to avoid implementing expansion with casual contact not intended for expansion.
[0043] Once expansion is activated, the speed or rate at which the expanded area expands may be widely varied. The growth can happen quickly or slowly. In one embodiment, the expanded area grows from its normal state to the expanded state almost instantaneously. In another embodiment, the expanded area grows over some predetermined amount of time, i.e., the area expands gradually over time. The rate may be preset or it may be based on some external factor. For example, the rate of growth may be based on the touch pressure, i.e., the greater the touch pressure, the greater the rate of change
[...] Additionally Apple invented some interesting ideas to over come the big hands/small widgets problem and come up with the new Gestures for touch sensitive input devices patent. These new patents including methods for retrieving and interpreting the data from a multipoint enabled touchscreen to allow things like e.g. moving or zooming images. [...]