2/22A 2/225 2/22C ZZZD
Contents
1. can by used by processor 12 to identify a scrolling distance or a destination to scroll to Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein for purposes of description of the preferred embodiment it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that a wide variety of alternate and or equivalent implementations may be substituted for the specific embodi ments shown and described without departing from the scope of the present invention Those with skill in the chemical mechanical electro mechanical electrical and computer arts will readily appreciate that the present inven tion may be implemented in a very wide variety of embodi ments This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the preferred embodiments discussed herein Therefore it is manifestly intended that this invention be limited only by the claims and the equivalents thereof What is claimed is 1 A method of scrolling through information displayed on a display screen of an electronic device the display screen including a screen pointer controllable by a user with a screen pointing device the method comprising providing a first plurality of user selectable scrolling zones on the display screen each scrolling zone in the first plurality of scrolling zones associated with a scrolling technique and corresponding to scrolling in a first direction each of the scrolling zones in the first plurality being position2. scrolling zone 302 processor 12 causes the information displayed on display screen 200 to scroll using the scrolling technique corresponding to the selected scrolling zone 302 In one embodiment scrolling zone 302A corresponds to upward line scrolling scrolling zone 302B corresponds to upward half page scrolling scrolling zone 302C corre sponds to upward page scrolling scrolling zone 302D cor responds to leftward half page scrolling scrolling zone 302E corresponds to a document jump action scrolling zone US 6 972 776 B2 7 302F corresponds to rightward half page scrolling scrolling zone 302G corresponds to downward line scrolling scroll ing zone 302H corresponds to downward half page scroll ing and scrolling zone 3021 corresponds to downward page scrolling Each time a user selects one of scrolling zones 302 processor 12 causes the information displayed on display screen 300 to scroll in the direction and granularity corresponding to the selected scrolling zone 302 Scrolling granularities other than the three described above are used in alternative embodiments In an embodiment where scrolling zones 302 correspond to scrolling speeds processor 12 causes the information displayed on display screen 300 to scroll based on a direc tion and a scrolling speed corresponding to a selected scrolling zone The scrolling may occur a line at a time two lines at a time a paragraph at a time or other suitable granularity Scrolling
3. electronic device includes providing a 345 787 first plurality of user selectable scrolling zones on the display screen Each scrolling zone in the first plurality of 56 References Cited scrolling zones is associated with a scrolling technique The displ includ int trollable b U S PATENT DOCUMENTS oe Sil wcceeerh fainne device Zane e EAO an 5 495 566 A 2 1996 Kwatinetz cee 345 785 tion identifying a first one of the scrolling zones selected by 5 506 951 A 4 1996 Ishikawa oo eee 345 786 a user with the screen pointing device is received The 5 510 808 A 4 1996 Cina et al see 345 684 displayed information is scrolled through based on the 5 568 603 A 10 1996 Chen etal 1 345 784 scrolling technique associated with the selected scrolling 5 726 687 A 3 1998 Belfiore et al 00 345 785 zone 5 805 161 A 9 1998 Tiphane cecscesseeese 345 786 6 057 840 A 5 2000 Durrani et al 0 000000 345 786 6 069 626 A 5 2000 Cline et al we 345 786 23 Claims 4 Drawing Sheets 222A 222B 222C 222D YUE SY SIMLI NIIR 220 224A 224B R 206 SS A 224C 224D U S Patent Dec 6 2005 Sheet 1 of 4 US 6 972 776 B2 PROCESSOR 14 VIDEO MONITOR ADAPTER OPERATING SYSTEM 30 SCREEN POINTING DEVICE Fig 1 U S Patent Dec 6 2005 Sheet 2 of 4 US 6 972 776 B2 202A 202B 202C 202D 204A 204B 204C 204D Fig 2A 222A 222B 222C 222D 220 R 206 224A
4. fabric as the mouse is moved Interior to the mouse are rollers or wheels that contact the ball at its equator and convert its rotation into electrical signals representing orthogonal com ponents of mouse motion These electrical signals are coupled to a computer where software responds to the signals to change by a AX and a AY the displayed position of a pointer cursor in accordance with movement of the mouse The user moves the mouse as necessary to get the displayed pointer to a desired location or position Once the pointer on the screen points at an object or location of interest a button on the mouse is activated with the fingers of the hand holding the mouse The activation serves as an instruction to take some action the nature of which is defined by software in the computer In addition to a mouse other types of screen pointing devices are available including trackballs optical pointing devices joysticks arrow buttons and keys and others One action that may be taken using a screen pointing device is to scroll through information displayed on a display screen Typically scrolling is performed by moving the screen pointer to a scroll bar that is displayed on the display screen and clicking on the scroll bar Scroll bars may be provided for both horizontal and vertical scrolling Other scrolling techniques have also been used including the automatic scrolling that occurs in Microsoft Word when a portion of text is selected
5. 224B 224C 224D Fig 2B U S Patent Dec 6 2005 Sheet 3 of 4 US 6 972 776 B2 302A 302B 302C 302F U S Patent Dec 6 2005 Sheet 4 of 4 US 6 972 776 B2 400 N SELECT SCROLLING 402 MODE RECEIVE SCROLLING 404 MODE INDICATION MOVE MOUSE 406 RECEIVE MOTION 408 INFORMATION COMPARE VELOCITY TO VELOCITY 410 RANGES IDENTIFY VELOCITY 412 RANGE SCROLL 414 Fig 4 US 6 972 776 B2 1 SCROLLING METHOD USING SCREEN POINTING DEVICE THE FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to devices for controlling a cursor on a display screen also known as screen pointing devices This invention relates more particularly to methods for scrolling through information displayed on a display screen using a screen pointing device BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The use of a hand operated pointing device for use with a computer and its display has become almost universal By far the most popular of the various devices is the conven tional mechanical mouse used in conjunction with a cooperating mouse pad Centrally located within the bottom surface of the mouse is a hole through which a portion of the underside of a rubber surfaced steel ball extends The mouse pad is typically a closed cell foam rubber pad covered with a suitable fabric Low friction pads on the bottom surface of the mouse slide easily over the fabric but the rubber ball does not skid Rather the rubber ball rolls over the
6. 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 ticular scrolling zone Thus a user need only move screen pointer 206 close to a desired scrolling zone 322 and screen pointer 206 is automatically positioned over that scrolling zone By providing this snap to functionality accuracy of placement of screen pointer 206 is not critical and a user can select scrolling techniques more efficiently and quickly scroll through displayed information as desired It will be understood that display screens 200 220 300 and 320 need not cover the entire display area of monitor 16 but may cover only a subset of the display area such as a window displayed on a portion of the display area In one form of the present invention the scrolling techniques corresponding to scrolling zones including scrolling speeds and scrolling granularities are user definable In one form of the present invention processor 12 causes scrolling of information on a display screen such as display screen 200 220 300 or 320 in an amount corresponding to a velocity of movement of mouse 30 FIG 4 is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of a process 400 for scrolling based on velocity of a movement of a pointing device such as mouse 30 In step 402 a user selects scrolling mode In one embodi ment the scrolling mode is selected by pressing and holding a button on mouse 30 In step 404 processor 12 receives a signal from mouse 30 indicating that the user is pressing an
7. a United States Patent US006972776B2 10 Patent No US 6 972 776 B2 Davis et al 45 Date of Patent Dec 6 2005 54 SCROLLING METHOD USING SCREEN 6 154 194 A 11 2000 Singh eesse 345 661 POINTING DEVICE 6 208 343 B1 3 2001 Roth 345 786 6 313 849 B1 11 2001 Takase et al 345 684 75 Inventors Jeffery Davis Mountain View CA ee ny one Melet et w een A M 337 ecker et al a age John Brosnan Fremont 6 384 845 B1 5 2002 Takaike lt 345 786 6 570 594 B1 5 2003 Wagner ou 345 786 73 Assignee Agilent Technologies Inc Palo Alto OTHER PUBLICATIONS CA US US Vince Lee TEx Tennison and Amanda Epume TealDoc Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this User s Manual Program Version 3 03 Nov 15 1999 patent is extended or adjusted under 35 Adobe Systems Incorporated Adobe Acrobat Reader 4 0 U S C 154 b by 620 days Guide 1999 LandWare Inc TakeNote DOC and Memo Text Processor 21 Appl No 09 812 754 for Palm Connected Organizers 2000 sds 22 Filed Mar 20 2001 SAG DUNC RACING i ont Primary Examiner Sumati Lefkowitz 65 Prior Publication Data Assistant Examiner Motilewa Good Johnson US 2002 0135602 A1 Sep 26 2002 57 ABSTRACT Si Inte CE vivre eth ine G na G09G 5 00 52 US CL gerri nrar r EAE 345 684 A method of scrolling through information displayed on a 58 Field of Search 00 0 0 345 684 784 786 display screen of an
8. and then dragged past a boundary of a displayed window Similarly in Adobe Acrobat Reader a user may double click on a displayed page and drag the page up or down Some software programs for Palm per sonal digital assistants PDAs including TealDoc by TealPoint Software and TakeNote by LandWare allow a user to scroll up down through documents by pressing the stylus against the screen A document may be scrolled upward by pressing a stylus near the top of the displayed document A document may be scrolled downward by press ing the stylus near the bottom of the displayed document There exists a need for new scrolling techniques that allow a user to use a screen pointing device to quickly and efficiently navigate through displayed information SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One form of the present invention provides a method of scrolling through information displayed on a display screen of an electronic device A first plurality of user selectable scrolling zones is provided on the display screen Each 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 60 65 2 scrolling zone in the first plurality of scrolling zones is associated with a scrolling technique The display screen includes a screen pointer controllable by a user with a screen pointing device Zone selection information identifying a first one of the scrolling zones selected by a user with the screen pointing device is received The displayed informa tion is scrolled th
9. ayed information on the display screen is scrolled in a direction corresponding to the first movement direction and in an amount based on the first movement velocity The scrolling amount is greater than the amount of movement of the screen pointer BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 is an electrical block diagram illustrating major components of a typical computer system which may be used to implement embodiments of the present invention FIG 2A is a diagram of a display screen illustrating one embodiment of a scrolling method according to the present invention FIG 2B is a diagram of an alternative embodiment of the display screen shown in FIG 2A FIG 3A is a diagram of a display screen illustrating another embodiment of a scrolling method according to the present invention FIG 3B is a diagram of an alternative embodiment of the display screen shown in FIG 3A FIG 4 is a flow diagram illustrating another embodiment of a scrolling method according to the present invention DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments reference is made to the accompanying draw ings which form a part hereof and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the inven tion may be practiced It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural or logical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present inv
10. be used In an embodiment where scrolling zones 222 and 224 correspond to scrolling speeds an indicator may be provided in each one of scrolling zones 222 and 224 to indicate a scrolling speed corresponding to the scrolling zone In one embodiment scrolling zones 222A 222D include the text slow medium slow medium fast and fast respec tively Likewise scrolling zones 224A 224D also include the text slow medium slow medium fast and fast respectively In an alternative embodiment scrolling zones 222 and 224 include arrows with increasing size to indicate increasing scrolling speed It will be understood that other text or indicators may be used to indicate scrolling speed and that other numbers of scrolling speeds may be provided rather than four Processor 12 causes the information dis played on display screen 220 to scroll based on a direction and scrolling speed corresponding to a selected scrolling zone The scrolling may occur a line at a time two lines at a time a paragraph at a time or other suitable granularity 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 Scrolling continues as long as a user continues to select a particular scrolling zone or until a boundary in a document is reached FIG 3A is a diagram of a display screen illustrating another embodiment of a scrolling method according to the present invention Display screen 300 includes a
11. continues as long as a user continues to select a particular scrolling zone or until a boundary in a document is reached FIG 3B is a diagram of an alternative embodiment of the display screen shown in FIG 3A Display screen 320 includes a plurality of scrolling zones 322A 322I collec tively referred to as scrolling zones 322 and a screen pointer 206 Display screen 320 is substantially similar to display screen 300 but scrolling zones 322 are explicitly displayed on screen 320 as opposed to being implicitly present but not displayed as in display screen 300 Scrolling zones 322 operate in the same manner as scrolling zones 302 In FIG 3B each one of the scrolling zones 322 is represented by a square indicating the boundaries of the scrolling zone with text within the square indicating a scrolling technique associated with the scrolling zone In one embodiment alternative representations of scrolling zones 322 are used such as shaded or colored squares or other shapes with no text text only with no boundary indicators and graphical icons It will be understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art that any suitable repre sentations of scrolling zones 322 may be displayed In one form of the present invention one or more of scrolling zones 322 such as scrolling zone 322E are associated with non scrolling actions In one embodiment the displayed representations of scrolling zones 322 vary depending upon what is currently bein
12. cted scrolling zone processor 12 causes the information displayed on display screen 200 to scroll using the scrolling technique corresponding to the selected scroll ing zone In one embodiment scrolling zone 202A corresponds to upward line scrolling scrolling zone 202B corresponds to upward paragraph scrolling scrolling zone 202C corre sponds to upward page scrolling and scrolling zone 202D corresponds to upward document scrolling Similarly in one embodiment scrolling zone 204A corresponds to downward line scrolling scrolling zone 204B corresponds to down ward paragraph scrolling scrolling zone 204C corresponds to downward page scrolling and scrolling zone 204D cor responds to downward document scrolling Each time a user selects scrolling zone 202A processor 12 causes the information displayed on display screen 200 to scroll up one line Likewise each time a user selects scrolling zone 202B 202C or 202D processor 12 causes the information displayed on display screen 200 to scroll up one paragraph up one page and scroll up to the top of the file respectively Similarly each time a user selects scrolling zone 204A 204B 204C or 204D processor 12 causes the information displayed on display screen 200 to scroll down one line down one paragraph down one page and scroll down to the bottom of the file respectively Scrolling granularities other than the four described above are used in alternative embodiments In an embo
13. d holding a button on mouse 30 indicating that the scrolling mode has been selected In step 406 while in scrolling mode a user moves mouse 30 in a direction corresponding to a desired direction that the user wants to scroll and with a speed corresponding to an amount that the user wants to scroll In step 408 processor 12 receives motion information from mouse 30 indicating direction and velocity of movement of mouse 30 In step 410 processor 12 compares the velocity of move ment of mouse 30 with a plurality of velocity ranges Each velocity range corresponds to a scrolling amount e g one line one paragraph one page five pages etc with increas ing velocity ranges corresponding to larger scrolling amounts In step 412 processor 12 identifies the velocity range that the current velocity of mouse 30 falls within In step 414 processor 12 causes the displayed information to scroll an amount corresponding to the identified velocity range For example relatively small velocities correspond to scrolling a few lines and relatively large velocities corre spond to scrolling several pages or an entire document The scrolling method described above with reference to FIG 4 differs from scrolling methods like that used by Adobe Acrobat Reader In Adobe Acrobat Reader a user can double click on a displayed document and cause the docu ment to scroll by moving the screen pointer The document scrolls in an amount corresponding to the a
14. d of claim 8 wherein each of the zone representations indicates a boundary of a user selectable scrolling zone 11 The method of claim 1 wherein the scrolling tech niques associated with the scrolling zones are user definable 12 The method of claim 1 wherein the first plurality of user selectable scrolling zones are positioned directly adja cent to one another and spread across substantially an entire width of the display screen 13 The method of claim 1 wherein the first plurality of user selectable scrolling zones are spaced apart from each other and spread across substantially an entire width of the display screen 14 The method of claim 1 and further comprising providing a third plurality of user selectable scrolling zones on the display screen each scrolling zone in the third plurality of scrolling zones associated with a scrolling technique and corresponding to scrolling in a direction that is different from the first and the second directions and wherein the first the second and the third plurality of user selectable scrolling zones collectively include nine scrolling zones organized into three columns and three rows 15 The method of claim 14 and further comprising sensing a current position of the screen pointer identifying a scrolling zone that is positioned near the current position of the screen pointer and automatically positioning the screen pointer over the identified scrolling zone 16 The method of c
15. diment where scrolling zones 202 and 204 correspond to scrolling speeds processor 12 causes the information displayed on display screen 200 to scroll based on a direction and scrolling speed corresponding to a selected scrolling zone The scrolling may occur a line at a US 6 972 776 B2 5 time two lines at a time a paragraph at a time or other suitable granularity Scrolling continues as long as a user continues to select a particular scrolling zone or until a boundary in a document is reached In one form of the present invention rather than posi tioning scrolling zones 202 and 204 adjacent a top portion and a bottom portion respectively of display screen 200 scrolling zones 202 and 204 are positioned adjacent a left portion and a right portion respectively of display screen 200 to provide leftward and rightward scrolling In another form of the present invention four sets of scrolling zones are provided one set near a top bottom left and right portion of display screen 200 to provide scrolling in four directions Other numbers of scrolling zones and positioning may be used based on the desired implementation including scroll ing zones that provide diagonal scrolling FIG 2B is a diagram of an alternative embodiment of the display screen shown in FIG 2A Display screen 220 includes a first plurality of scrolling zones 222A 222D collectively referred to as scrolling zones 222 a second plurality of scrolling zon
16. ed substantially adjacent to a first edge of the display screen providing a second plurality of user selectable scrolling zones on the display screen each scrolling zone in the second plurality of scrolling zones associated with a scrolling technique and corresponding to scrolling in a second direction that is different from the first direction each of the scrolling zones in the second plurality of being positioned substantially adjacent to a second edge of the display screen wherein the first edge is opposite to the second edge receiving zone selection information identifying a first one of the scrolling zones selected by a user with the screen pointing device and scrolling through the displayed information based on the scrolling technique associated with the selected scroll ing zone 2 The method of claim 1 wherein the scrolling tech niques associated with the scrolling zones in the first plu rality correspond to different scrolling speeds 3 The method of claim 1 wherein the scrolling tech niques associated with the scrolling zones in the first plu rality correspond to different scrolling granulanties 4 The method of claim 3 wherein the scrolling granu larities include line scrolling paragraph scrolling and page scrolling 5 The method of claim 1 wherein the first plurality of scrolling zones is positioned substantially adjacent to a top of the display screen and corresponds to upward scrolling and wherein the
17. ention The following detailed description US 6 972 776 B2 3 therefore is not to be taken in a limiting sense and the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims FIG 1 is an electrical block diagram illustrating major components of a typical computer system which may be used to implement embodiments of the present invention Computer system 10 includes processor 12 video adapter 14 monitor 16 system bus 18 memory 20 serial port interface 28 screen pointing device 30 and keyboard 32 In one embodiment screen pointing device 30 is a mouse In another embodiment an alternative pointing device is used such as a track ball optical pointing device stylus or other pointing device Processor 12 communicates with various components of computer system 10 including video adapter 14 serial port interface 28 and memory 20 via system bus 18 Video adapter 14 is coupled to monitor 16 and drives monitor 16 under the control of processor 12 Monitor 16 may be any type of display device including a flat panel display a touch screen display or other display device Mouse 30 is coupled to computer system 10 via serial port interface 28 Motion data received from mouse 30 is passed from serial port interface 28 to processor 12 for processing Memory 20 includes operating system 22 and one or more application programs 26 Operating system 22 includes mouse driver 24 which is used by processor 12 in processing motio
18. es 224A 224D collectively referred to as scrolling zones 224 and a screen pointer 206 Display screen 220 is substantially similar to display screen 200 but scrolling zones 222 and 224 are explicitly displayed on screen 220 as opposed to being implicitly present but not displayed as in display screen 200 Scrolling zones 222 and 224 operate in the same manner as scrolling zones 202 and 204 In FIG 2B each one of the scrolling zones in scrolling zones 222 and 224 is represented by a shaded rectangle indicating the boundaries of the scrolling zone with text within the rectangle indicating a scrolling technique asso ciated with the scrolling zone In one embodiment alterna tive representations of scrolling zones 222 and 224 are used such as shaded or colored rectangles or other shapes with no text text only with no boundary indicators and graphical icons It will be understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art that any suitable representations of scrolling zones 222 and 224 may be displayed As shown in FIG 2B scrolling zone 222A corresponds to upward line scrolling And scrolling zones 222B 222C and 222D correspond to upward paragraph scrolling page scrolling and document scrolling respectively Similarly scrolling zones 224A 224B 224C and 224D correspond to downward line scrolling paragraph scrolling page scroll ing and document scrolling respectively Alternative or additional scrolling granularities may
19. g displayed on display screen 320 In an embodiment where scrolling zones 322 correspond to scrolling speeds an indicator may be provided in each one of scrolling zones 322 to indicate a scrolling speed corre sponding to the scrolling zone In one embodiment scrolling zones 322 include descriptive text indicating a scrolling speed such as slow medium and fast along with text indicating a scrolling direction such as left right up and down In an alternative embodiment scrolling zones 322 include arrows with increasing size to indicate increas ing scrolling speed with the arrows pointing in a corre sponding scrolling direction It will be understood that other text or indicators may be used to indicate scrolling speed and that any number of scrolling speeds may be provided Processor 12 causes the information displayed on display screen 320 to scroll based on a scrolling speed and direction corresponding to a selected scrolling zone 322 The scrolling may occur a line at a time two lines at a time a paragraph at a time or other suitable granularity Scrolling continues as long as a user continues to select a particular scrolling zone or until a boundary in a document is reached In one embodiment processor 12 senses when the posi tion of screen pointer 206 is close to one of scrolling zones 322 and causes screen pointer 206 to snap to that par 10 15 20 25 30 35
20. is It is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby corrected as shown below Col 9 Line 58 In Claim 3 delete granulanties and insert granularities therefor Col 10 Line 46 In Claim 15 delete 14 and insert 13 therefor Signed and Sealed this Third Day of March 2009 An Ok JOHN DOLL Acting Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
21. laim 1 and further comprising providing at least one user selectable action zone on the display screen the at least one action zone associated with a display modifying action 17 The method of claim 16 and further comprising varying the display modifying action associated with the at least one action zone based upon the content cur rently displayed on the display screen 18 An electronic device comprising a display screen for displaying information the display screen including a screen pointer controllable by a user with a screen pointing device the display screen including a first plurality of user selectable scrolling zones each user selectable scrolling zone in the first plurality of scrolling zones associated with a scrolling technique that is different than scrolling techniques US 6 972 776 B2 11 associated with the other scrolling zones in the first plurality having a user selectable area defined by hidden boundaries and corresponding to scrolling in a first direction and a controller for receiving zone selection information iden tifying a first one of the scrolling zones selected by a user with the screen pointing device the controller configured to cause information displayed on the dis play screen to scroll based on the scrolling technique associated with the selected scrolling zone 19 The device of claim 18 wherein each scrolling technique corresponds to a scrolling speed 20 The device of claim 18
22. mount of move ment of the screen pointer In contrast in one embodiment of the scrolling method of the present invention documents and other files can be scrolled beyond the amount of movement of the screen pointer The amount of scrolling is based on the velocity of movement of the screen pointer in one form of the invention Relatively small and quick mouse movements can be used to scroll through large quantities of displayed information A single flick of the mouse can cause scrolling through multiple pages of information In one embodiment scrolling is based on the sensed velocity of mouse 30 when the displayed pointer 206 reaches a screen boundary such as a boundary of a displayed window or a boundary of the display area on monitor 16 A scrolling direction is determined based on the particular screen boundary reached For example if pointer 206 is moved to a top screen boundary the displayed information US 6 972 776 B2 9 scrolls upward in an amount based on the sensed velocity of mouse 30 when the top screen boundary is reached In one embodiment such scrolling occurs only when a user selects a scrolling mode such as by activating and holding a button on mouse 30 In one form of the present invention accel eration of mouse 30 is used by processor 12 in determining an amount to scroll Either velocity or acceleration or both of either the screen pointer itself or of the pointing device used to move the screen pointer
23. n data received by mouse 30 Although the present invention is described in the context of a computer system the techniques described herein are applicable to any type of electronic device with a display screen and a movable screen pointer including but not limited to a cellular telephone personal digital assistant PDA portable music player e g MP3 player pager portable game device or other device Mouse 30 generates electrical signals indicative of move ment of mouse 30 against a work surface such as a mouse pad The electrical signals generated by mouse 30 are provided through serial port interface 28 to processor 12 Processor 12 responds to the signals received from mouse 30 to change by a AX and a AY the displayed position of a pointer cursor on monitor 16 A user moves mouse 30 as necessary to get the displayed pointer to a desired location or position on monitor 16 Once the pointer on the screen points at an object or location of interest a button on mouse 30 is activated with the fingers of the hand holding mouse 30 The activation serves as an instruction to processor 12 to take some action the nature of which is defined by software stored in memory 20 such as driver 24 or application program 26 Processor 12 monitors the current position of the screen pointer displayed on monitor 16 to take appro priate action based on the position of the screen pointer when a user activates a mouse button In one embodiment acti
24. n one embodiment scrolling zones 202 and 204 are not displayed on display screen 200 and are therefore represented in FIG 2A by dashed lines In an alternative embodiment shown in FIG 2B the scrolling zones are displayed on the display screen In one embodiment each one of the scrolling zones in scrolling zones 202 and 204 corresponds to a scrolling technique In one form of the present invention the scrolling technique corresponding to a scrolling zone defines a scroll ing granularity such as line scrolling paragraph scrolling page scrolling or document scrolling In another form of the present invention the scrolling technique corresponding to a scrolling zone defines a scrolling speed such as slow medium slow medium fast and fast Although four scrolling zones are shown for each of scrolling zones 202 and 204 in FIG 2A other numbers of scrolling zones are used in alternative embodiments A user moves screen pointer 206 around display screen 200 using mouse 30 In one embodiment a user selects one of the scrolling zones in scrolling zones 202 and 204 by positioning screen pointer 206 over the desired scrolling zone and activating a button on mouse 30 The activation may be a single click of a mouse button a double click or some other activation indication Processor 12 identifies the scrolling zone selected by the user based on the position of screen pointer 206 when the user activates the mouse button Based on the sele
25. plurality of scrolling zones 302A 302I collectively referred to as scrolling zones 302 and a screen pointer 206 In one embodiment scrolling zones 302 are not displayed on display screen 300 and are therefore represented in FIG 3A by dashed lines In an alternative embodiment shown in FIG 3B the scrolling zones are displayed on the display screen In one embodiment each one of the scrolling zones 302 corresponds to a scrolling technique In one form of the present invention the scrolling technique corresponding to a scrolling zone defines a scrolling granularity such as line scrolling half page scrolling and page scrolling In another form of the present invention the scrolling technique cor responding to a scrolling zone defines a scrolling speed such as slow medium and fast In another form of the present invention one or more of scrolling zones 302 correspond to a non scrolling action that is taken by computer system 10 For example in the embodiment shown in FIG 3A scroll ing zone 302E corresponds to a Document Jump action When a user selects scrolling zone 302E processor 12 causes a different document to be displayed on display screen 300 Other non scrolling actions are associated with particular ones of scrolling zones 302 in alternative embodiments For example one of scrolling zones 302 may be used to jump to highlighted hypertext or jump to an address book or other application In one embodiment the ac
26. rough based on the scrolling technique associated with the selected scrolling zone Another form of the present invention provides an elec tronic device including a display screen for displaying information The display screen includes a screen pointer controllable by a user with a screen pointing device The display screen includes a first plurality of user selectable scrolling zones Each scrolling zone in the first plurality of scrolling zones is associated with a scrolling technique A controller receives zone selection information identifying a first one of the scrolling zones selected by a user with the screen pointing device The controller is configured to cause information displayed on the display screen to scroll based on the scrolling technique associated with the selected scrolling zone Another form of the present invention provides a method of scrolling through information displayed on a display screen of an electronic device The display screen includes a screen pointer controllable by a user with a screen pointing device Mode selection information is received from a user The mode selection information indicates that a user has selected a scroll mode Movement information provided by a user with the screen pointing device is received A first movement direction and a first movement velocity are determined based on the received movement information The screen pointer is moved based on the received move ment information The displ
27. second plurality of scrolling zones is positioned substantially adjacent to a bottom of the display screen and corresponds to downward scrolling 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 6 The method of claim 1 wherein the first plurality of scrolling zones is positioned substantially adjacent to a left edge of the display screen and corresponds to leftward scrolling and wherein the second plurality of scrolling zones is positioned substantially adjacent to a right edge of the display screen and corresponds to rightward scrolling 7 The method of claim 1 and further comprising providing a third and a fourth plurality of user selectable scrolling zones on the display screen each scrolling zone in the third plurality of scrolling zones associated with a scrolling technique and corresponding to scroll ing in a third direction that is different from the first and the second directions each scrolling zone in the fourth plurality of scrolling zones associated with a scrolling technique and corresponding to scrolling in a fourth direction that is different from the first second and third directions 8 The method of claim 1 and further comprising displaying a first plurality of zone representations on the display screen representing the first plurality of user selectable scrolling zones 9 The method of claim 8 wherein each of the zone representations indicates a scrolling technique 10 The metho
28. tions associated with one or more of scrolling zones 302 vary depending upon what is currently being viewed on display screen 300 In one form of the invention the actions associated with scrolling zones 302A 302C and 302G 302I1 remain static while the actions associated with scrolling zones 302D 302F vary depending upon the content currently being displayed For example assuming that an email message is displayed on display screen 300 scrolling zone 302E could correspond to a jump to highlighted hypertext action while the user is scrolling through the email message and then change to a jump to next email action when the user reaches the end of the email message By associating scrolling and non scrolling actions with scrolling zones 302 a user may smartly interact with the page in view Although nine scrolling zones 302 are shown in FIG 3A other numbers of scrolling zones 302 are used in alternative embodiments A user moves screen pointer 206 around display screen 300 using mouse 30 In one embodiment a user selects one of the scrolling zones 302 by positioning screen pointer 206 over the desired scrolling zone and activating a button on mouse 30 The activation may be a single click of a mouse button a double click or some other activation indication Processor 12 identifies the scrolling zone selected by the user based on the position of screen pointer 206 when the user activates the mouse button Based on the selected
29. vation of a button on mouse 30 causes computer 10 to enter into a scrolling mode It will be understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art that functions performed by computer system 10 may be implemented in hardware software firmware or any com bination thereof The implementation may be via a micro processor programmable logic device or state machine Components of the present invention may reside in software on one or more computer readable mediums The term computer readable medium as used herein is defined to include any kind of memory volatile or non volatile such as floppy disks hard disks CD ROMs flash memory read only memory ROM and random access memory Monitor 16 includes a display screen for displaying text graphics or other information In one embodiment mouse 30 is used to scroll through information displayed on the 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 display screen FIGS 2A 2B 3A and 3B illustrate embodi ments of display screens displayed on monitor 16 according to the present invention FIG 2A is a diagram of a display screen illustrating one embodiment of a scrolling method according to the present invention Display screen 200 includes a first plurality of scrolling zones 202A 202D collectively referred to as scrolling zones 202 a second plurality of scrolling zones 204A 204D collectively referred to as scrolling zones 204 and a screen pointer 206 I
30. wherein each scrolling technique corresponds to a scrolling granularity 21 The device of claim 20 wherein the scrolling granu larities include line scrolling paragraph scrolling and page scrolling 22 A method of scrolling through information displayed on a display screen of an electronic device the display screen including a screen pointer controllable by a user with a screen pointing device the method comprising 10 15 20 12 receiving mode selection information from a user the mode selection information indicating that a user has selected a scroll mode receiving movement information provided by a user with the screen pointing device determining a first movement direction and a first move ment velocity based on the received movement infor mation moving the screen pointer based on the received move ment information and scrolling the displayed informa tion on the display screen in a direction corresponding to the first movement direction and in an amount based on the first movement velocity the scrolling amount greater than the amount of movement of the screen pointer 23 The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the scrolling zones is defined by hidden boundaries that are invisible to a user of the electronic device UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO 6 972 776 B2 Page of 1 APPLICATION NO 09 812754 DATED December 6 2005 INVENTOR S Jeffery Dav
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