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User interface for providing consolidation and access

1. so that the target window and target icon are visible and thus acces sible Window shuffling is time consuming confusing and often very tedious for the user If multiple routine icons need to be systematically accessed in sequence then multiple win dow shuffling procedures may be required Another window overlap problem plaguing conventional user interfaces arises when the user requires two icons to complete a task and each icon is within a different window The resulting screen display may contain several open win dows from past tasks that may clutter the screen display with unwanted information This information may obscure the desired windows and icons In many instances the overlap ping windows are not unwanted but hold the first of the desired icons in displayable view In order to access the sec ond desired icon the user may close the overlapping window that holds the first icon then gain access to the second desired icon Since the previously closed window holds the first desired icon it must be opened again so that the present task can be completed Again this process is often time consum ing and confusing for the user especially when the hidden second icon is one that is routinely required In this case the user is engaged in constant window shuffling as described above Not surprisingly these types of problems have received a significant amount of attention in recent years Several user interface products have bee
2. 60 The computer system of claim 36 wherein said cursor is proximate said userbar when said cursor is within a prede termined distance of one of said plurality of tiles 61 The computer system of claim 36 wherein said pro cessor means displays a label associated with said at least one of said plurality of tiles 62 The computer system of claim 61 wherein said pro cessor means displays said label with a first predetermined fade in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of tiles from another of said plurality of tiles 63 The computer system of claim 61 wherein said pro cessor means fades out said label when said cursor moves away from said at least one of said plurality of tiles 64 The computer system of claim 63 wherein said pro cessor means uses a first fade out rate when said cursor moves into another of said at least one of said plurality of tiles 65 computer system comprising a display a cursor for pointing to a position within said display auserbar rendered on said display and having a plurality of tiles associated therewith and a processor for varying a position of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display wherein said proces sor displays a label associated with said at least one of said plurality of tiles with a first predetermined fade in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of sa
3. Loca tion Manager sets can also be placed on the userbar 600 but may only be useful to the user as part of the userbar 600 if selecting one of these tiles would initiate a set change A user jak 5 30 40 45 50 8 may choose to place multiple copies of a document onto the userbar 600 but the userbar 600 will preferably only include a single representation of each object in a particular state For example if a tile representing a folder is disposed on the userbar 600 and the user opens that folder this can result in the file management system e g Finder opening or navi gating to the directory represented by the folder If the user then minimizes that file management system window the originating userbar object is then presented on the userbar 600 as a minimized window e g as a folder icon Likewise if a document is opened from the userbar 600 and its window is subsequently minimized by the user it is preferable that a representation of the minimized window replace the image used for the originating document s tile rather than adding a second tile to the userbar 600 for that object Document windows when minimized by the user are placed on the userbar 600 and remain there until either closed or maximized which process is described in more detail below under the section entitled Userbar Functionality The image appearing on the tile can be for example either 1 a dynamically scaled representation
4. 144454 4 44 9 The computer system of claim 7 wherein said at least one of said plurality of tiles is scaled by a factor of 1 d5 d d5 d US 7 434 177 B1 17 wherein d and d are distances from said cursor to said left edge and right edge respectively of said at least one of said plurality of tiles prior to being moved to said position 10 The computer system of claim 1 wherein said proces sor varies the size of at least some of said others of said plurality of tiles based on a sine function 11 The computer system of claim 1 wherein said bar is rendered at a bottom of said display 12 The computer system of claim 11 wherein there is a gap between said bar and said bottom of said display 13 The computer system of claim 1 further comprising a user selection function for permitting a user to select a value of at least one characteristic of said bar 14 The computer system of claim 13 wherein a maximum size to which said at least one of said plurality of tiles can be enlarged is said at least one characteristic 15 The computer system of claim 13 wherein a default size for said plurality oftiles is said at least one characteristic 16 The computer system of claim 13 wherein an effect width within which said at least one of said plurality of tiles have varied size is said at least one characteristic 17 The computer system of claim 13 wherein a setting for an autohide capability for said bar is
5. initiated on one of the pre selected tiles will affect all selected tiles If a discontiguous selection of tiles is repositioned within the userbar 600 the selection will become contiguous after the drop Items can be removed from the userbar 600 by dragging them to the trash tile 640 or to the desktop The trash tile 640 will provide appropriate drop feedback e g sound and or animation when an item is dragged thereover As mentioned above since the userbar 600 is preferably not a container which holds original source identifiers but instead only aliases i e pointers this operation will only delete the userbar representation of the item and not the source object in the operating system Alternatively as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art the userbar 600 could also be imple mented using real file system objects rather than aliases The userbar 600 can be implemented to permit the user to interact with the items resident thereon through for example a single mouse click According to this exemplary embodi ment single clicking on tiles resident in userbar 600 will produce the following results On application tiles this operation will launch the appli cation On a document tile this operation will open the document with the appropriate application launching the applica tion if necessary On a URL tile this operation will cause the destination to be presented using the appropriate application On acontrol
6. wherein a setting for an autohide capability for said userbar is said at least one characteristic 51 The computer system of claim 46 wherein a status of objects as permanent or nonpermanent on said userbar is said at least one characteristic 52 The computer system of claim 36 wherein said pro cessor removes said userbar from said display when said cursor moves away from said userbar 53 The computer system of claim 52 wherein said pro cessor removes said userbar by invoking an animation routine which makes said userbar appear to slide into an edge of said display 54 The computer system of claim 36 wherein said pro cessor removes said userbar by invoking an animation routine which makes said userbar appear to slide into an edge of said display in response to at least one keystroke 55 The computer system of claim 36 wherein said plural ity of tiles occupy a single row on said display 56 The computer system of claim 36 wherein said plural ity of tiles occupy multiple rows on said display 57 The computer system of claim 36 wherein at least two of said plurality of tiles are permanent residents of said user bar 58 The computer system of claim 57 wherein said at least two of said plurality of tiles establish a left and right end for said userbar 59 The computer system of claim 36 wherein said cursor is proximate said userbar when said cursor is positioned on or within a border of one of said plurality of tiles
7. label at a time those skilled in the art will appreciate that this feature of the present invention may be readily adapted to varying implementations For example the tile labels associated with the current tile over which the cursor is positioned as well as the two tiles to either side of the current tile could be simul taneously displayed Again the number of tile labels being displayed may be user settable According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention in order to assist the user in managing the userbar s contents separator tiles can be provided These colored or translucent separator tiles can be placed between existing tiles to provide a visual distinction between groups of tiles For example the separator tiles may be provided as a half width tiles e g 32 pixels and or quarter width tiles e g 16 pixels Variable Magnification of Userbar Tiles As mentioned above a significant benefit of the present invention may be found in the ability to permit a large number of tiles to reside in a single row of the userbar 600 Of course the number of tiles which can fit in the userbar 600 in a single row is dependent upon the screen size and the size of each individual tile Since screen sizes are fixed the only way to increase the number of tiles in the userbar 600 is to reduce their size However at some relatively small size the images in each tile will not be distinguishable by the user Exemplary embodimen
8. objects The userbar 600 can be implemented as a single horizontal row of items or tiles each of which represent a particular object or process Any state which is supported for each object or process in the operating system should also be supported on the userbar 600 by providing a different appear ance for each state For example a tile disposed in userbar 600 can change its appearance as it moves from one state e g selected to another state e g open or offline This allows the user to quickly recognize the current state of each of the items on the userbar 600 Currently executing applications can be indicated by for example placing an LED like indicator graphic above or below the corresponding application s tile or icon Applications can also supply additional tile images to be substituted for or composited on the running applica tion s tile in the userbar 600 For example an e mail appli cation s tile can present the number of new messages super imposed over the application s icon According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention the default position of the userbar 600 is anchored to the bottom of the main monitor and centered horizontally therein Thus the userbar 600 maintains a position aligned relative to the horizontal center ofthe screen regardless ofthe number of items or tile placed in the userbar 600 Depending upon the desired implementation the user may or may not be permitted to relocate the us
9. of the actual window con tents or 2 an appropriate image provided by for example the application such as the window s proxy icon For example a minimized Finder window might more appropriately be pre sented as a folder icon e g icon 620 in userbar 600 as opposed to providing a scaled image of the Finder window s content on the userbar 600 In addition to applications documents and windows many other types of items may reside on userbar 600 For example any type of system supported uniform resource locator URL file types can be placed on the userbar 600 including but not limited to file types having the extensions http ftp news mailto at afp and file Additionally developer defined preference or setting modules e g a slider control to adjust the computer s speaker volume can be added to the userbar 600 by the user Adding such preference or setting modules to the userbar 600 may be accomplished by for example drag ging pre defined objects from the Finder to the bar According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention two items are permanent fixtures of the userbar 600 These items denoted by reference numerals 630 and 640 act as bookends that contain the contents of the userbar 600 between them Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the selection of specific tiles to act as bookends may vary from implementation to implementation of the present invention However in the purely illustr
10. 0 When launched these applications will place their tiles to the imme diate right of the left bookend tile 630 If the tile is left untouched while the application is running then that tile will disappear from the userbar 600 once the application is quit If the user changes the position of the application tile in the userbar 600 while the application is running then the tile is designated as a permanent resident of the userbar 600 and does not disappear when it has finished running Items can be added to the userbar 600 by dragging them into the userbar s content region During a drag if the cursor 610 enters the region ofthe userbar 600 the userbar 600 will expand e g atthe nearest point between two existing tiles to accommodate the item s being dragged This permits new items to be inserted at any position in the bar While expanded tile images of the items being dragged can be visible in the bar in the positions they would occupy if dropped within the bar These can be displayed as translucent insert target tiles to provide the user with an idea of how the userbar 600 would appear after dropping the items onto the userbar 600 at that position Having entered the userbar 600 during a drag if the cursor 610 continues across the userbar 600 the insert target tile s move following the horizontal position of the cursor 610 The position of the cursor 610 relative to the center point of the underlying tile is used to determine a
11. 45 157 Continued 58 Field of Classification Search 345 765 345 779 810 835 840 856 859 860 861 Primary Examiner X L Bautista 345 862 977 715 765 779 810 835 840 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Buchanan Ingersoll Rooney 715 856 860 861 862 977 See application file for complete search history 57 ABSTRACT 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 984 152 A 1 1991 Muller 345 856 5 021 976 A 6 1991 Wexelblat et al 345 853 5 146 556 A 9 1992 Hullotetal 345 790 5 155 806 A 10 1992 Hoeber et al 345 711 5 276 785 1 1994 Mackinlay et al 345 427 5 295 243 3 1994 Robertson et al 345 848 5 339 390 A 8 1994 Robertson et al 345 782 5 359 703 A 10 1994 Robertson et al 345 419 5 459 488 A 10 1995 Geiser 345 173 Methods and systems for providing graphical user interfaces are described To provide greater access and consolidation to frequently used items in the graphical user interface a userbar is established which includes a plurality of item representa tions To permit a greater number of items to reside in the userbar a magnification function can be provided which mag nifies items within the userbar when they are proximate the cursor associated with the graphical user interface 129 Claims 6 Drawing Sheets LJ File Edit Image L
12. 6 The computer system of claim 105 wherein said another of said plurality of tiles has a left edge and aright edge respectively located at distances d and d from said cursor and wherein said another of said plurality of tiles is moved to a position such that said left edge has a distance d from said cursor and said right edge has a distance from said cursor wherein d Sxsine n 2xd W dj Sxsine zs2xd W 107 The computer system of claim 106 wherein said at least one of said plurality of tiles is scaled by a factor of 1 dz d d2 d1 US 7 434 177 B1 23 wherein d and 4 are distances from said cursor to said left edge and right edge respectively of said another of said plurality of tiles prior to being moved to said position 108 computer system comprising a display a cursor for pointing to a position within said display a bar rendered on said display and having a plurality of tiles associated therewith and a processor for varying a size of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display and displaying a label associated with at least one of said plurality of tiles at a first prede termined fade in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of tiles from another of said plurality of tiles and at a second predetermined fade in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of ti
13. Sxsine n 2xd 4W 40 The computer system of claim 36 wherein said pro cessor also varies a magnification of said at least one of said plurality of tiles 41 The computer system of claim 40 further comprising means for permitting a user to select a magnitude of said magnification 42 The computer system of claim 41 wherein said mag nification of said at least one of said plurality of tiles is varied based on a sine function 43 The computer system of claim 36 wherein said plural ity of tiles have a default size which can be set by said user 44 The computer system of claim 36 wherein said userbar is rendered at an edge of said display 45 The computer system of claim 44 wherein there is a gap between said userbar and said edge of said display 46 The computer system of claim 36 further comprising auser selection means for permitting a user to select a value of at least one characteristic of said userbar US 7 434 177 B1 19 47 The computer system of claim 46 wherein a maximum size to which at least another of said plurality of tiles can be enlarged is said at least one characteristic 48 The computer system of claim 46 wherein a default size for said plurality oftiles is said at least one characteristic 49 The computer system of claim 46 wherein an effect width within which at least another of said plurality of tiles have varied size is said at least one characteristic 50 The computer system of claim 46
14. US007434177B1 a2 United States Patent 10 Patent No US 7 434 177 1 Ording et al 45 Date of Patent Oct 7 2008 54 USERINTERFACE FOR PROVIDING 5 546 529 A 8 1996 Bowers etal 345 848 CONSOLIDATION AND ACCESS 5 564 004 A 10 1996 Grossman et al 5 581 670 A 12 1996 Bier etal 345 856 75 Inventors Bas Ording Sunnyvale CA US ied Dier et al ree e 619 amping et al D Ms LS OS Ba 5 623 588 A 4 1997 Gould 345 787 Y gt 5 640 498 A 6 1997 345 790 US 5 657 049 A 8 1997 Ludolph etal 345 856 5 670 984 A 9 1997 Robertson et al 345 427 73 Assignee Apple Inc Cupertino CA US 5 678 034 A 10 1997 Chew 345 520 5 689 287 11 1997 Mackinlay et al 345 427 5 Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this 5 736 974 A 4 1998 Selker 345 862 patent is extended or adjusted under 35 5 745 096 A 4 1998 Ludolph etal 345 764 U S C 154 b by 1198 days Continued 21 Appl No 09 467 074 FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 22 Filed Dec 20 1999 EP 0727730 8 1996 51 Int CI Continued 3 00 2006 01 OTHER PUBLICATIONS GO6F 3 14 2006 01 G09G 5 08 2006 01 MST Carpendale et al Distortion Viewing Techniques for 3 Dimen 52 US Ch 22224244 715 862 715 779 715 860 sional Data 1996 IEEE 46 53 715 977 3
15. W d Sxsine 1 2xd gt W 74 The method of claim 73 wherein said at least one of said plurality of items is scaled by a factor of 1 dy d do d US 7 434 177 B1 21 75 The method of claim 69 further comprising the step of setting by a user said first level of magnification 76 The method of claim 69 further comprising the step of permitting a user to select a magnitude of said first level of magnification 77 The method of claim 69 wherein said plurality of items have a default size which can be set by a user 78 The method of claim 69 wherein said magnification of said at least one of said plurality of items is varied based on a sine function 79 The method of claim 69 wherein said region is proxi mate a bottom of said graphical user interface 80 The method of claim 79 wherein there is a gap between said region and said bottom of said graphical user interface 81 The method of claim 69 further comprising the step of permitting a user to select a value of at least one character istic of said region 82 The method of claim 81 wherein a maximum size to which at said at least one of said plurality of items can be enlarged is said at least one characteristic 83 The method of claim 81 wherein a default size for said plurality of items is said at least one characteristic 84 The method of claim 81 wherein an effect width within which said at least one of said plurality of items have varied si
16. a given direction or manner of displacement It is to be appre ciated that the cursor also may be directed and or activated via input from the keyboard using special keys and key sequence commands Alternatively the cursor may be directed and or activated via input from a number of specially adapted cursor directing devices including those uniquely developed for the disabled In the discussions regarding cursor movement and or activation within the preferred embodiment it is to be assumed that the input cursor directing device or push button may consist any of those described above and specifically is not limited to the mouse cursor device FIG 5 illustrates an exemplary computer system that in which the present invention can be implemented It will be appreciated that this computer system is one of many com US 7 434 177 B1 7 puter systems that may can include the present invention Therein a keyboard 500 with keys 502 and keypad 504 is attached to the computer 506 along with a mouse device 508 and mouse push button s 510 for controlling the cursor The mouse device 508 and push button 510 make up a cursor control device 407 It will be appreciated that many other devices may be used as the cursor control device 407 for instance the keyboard 500 may be substituted for the mouse device 508 and button s 510 as just discussed above The computer 506 also typically contains a one or more media drives 511 e g floppy disk hard disk o
17. ative exemplary embodiments described herein tile 630 which represents the Finder process and its window list is provided as the left bookend of the userbar 600 This tile 630 represents the running Finder pro cess and according to this exemplary embodiment no other tiles may be placed on the userbar 600 to the left of this object Similarly a tile 640 representing the trash object acts as the right bookend of the userbar 600 in this exemplary embodi ment This tile may replace any other iconic representation of the trash object on the desktop GUI Acting as the right bookend the user will not be able to place any other tiles on the userbar 600 to the right of this object In addition to the two exemplary permanent fixtures on the userbar 600 represented in this example by tiles 630 and 640 other predefined content may be placed on the userbar 600 at either the user s discretion or in a manner which is predefined by the GUI Candidate items for such permanent residency on the userbar 600 include for example application folders favorites address book clock web browser and e mail appli cations US 7 434 177 B1 9 Userbar Appearance Exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide various mechanisms which impact the appearance ofthe user bar 600 in a manner which is intended to aid in achieving the aforementioned objectives of providing a simple consoli dated and easily extensible facility for handling frequently used
18. ayer Select Filter View Window C3 UFO Newsletter wr Atomic Sonic US 7 434 177 B1 Page 2 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 6 496 206 12 2002 Mernyk et al 5 745 110 4 1998 345 764 FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 748 927 A 5 1998 Stein et al 2 345 711 EP 0 869 425 A2 7 1998 5 757 371 A 5 1998 Oran etal 2 345 779 4 10 269022 10 1998 5 786 820 7 1998 Robertson 345 853 5 812 111 A 9 1998 Fuji etal 345 24 CUTER 5 824 033 A 10 1998 Gabriel 84 609 Shneiderman Designing the User Interface Mar 1998 5 825 348 A 10 1998 Ludolph etal 345 672 Addison Wesley Longman Inc Third edition pp 462 465 534 5 825 357 A 10 1998 Malamud et al 345 779 539 TN m 5 914 716 A 6 1999 Rubin etal wee 345 779 Fisheye Menus 1999 University of Mary 3220316 A 5 7 1999 etal Ray Smith et al Relating Distortion to Performance in Distortion 5 943 679 A 8 1999 Niles et al i e 7071514 Oriented Displays 1996 Gippsland School of Computing an Infor 5 956 035 A 9 1999 Sciammarella et al 345 815 mation Technology Monash University pp 6 11 5 973 694 A 10 1999 Steele et al 345 835 MST Carpendale et al Extending Distortion Viewing from 2D to 6 073 036 A 6 2000 Heikkinen et al wee 379 354 3D Jul Aug 1997 Simon Fraser Univ
19. be more appro priately shown as the folder icon rather than a thumbnail of the window s content Applications icons on the userbar 600 US 7 434 177 B1 13 can provide a contextual menu of their open document win dows thereby allowing users to select a specific window to bring to the front As a process manager the userbar 600 provides a method for users to identify and switch between running applications For example the userbar 600 will permit users to hide unhide processes and perform other such actions through contextual menus or modified mouse clicks An application s status e g not running launching running and running but hidden can also be indicated by the userbar 600 e g by changing an appearance behavior or other characteristic of the applica tion s representative tile on the userbar 600 An application can update its status on the userbar 600 resulting in a change in the appearance or behavior of its representative tile For example a tile representing an e mail application that is resi dent on the userbar 600 can be overlaid with a number rep resenting the number of new messages in a user s inbox This number can be updated and changed to reflect changes in the status of the in box e g increasing as new messages are received in the inbox or decreasing after the user reviews his or her messages In operation according to this exemplary embodiment all running applications will appear on the userbar 60
20. can include a con trol e g a radio button group as shown in FIG 7 that sup port for example three states off on and by hotkey for the auto hide feature With auto hide on the userbar 600 will animate e g slide downwards offscreen when the cursor 610 is no longer within the region of the userbar 600 Then display space normally occupied by the userbar 600 is reclaimed and applications can be notified ofthis event New or zoomed documents will then be sized by the notified appli cations to make use of this additional screen space Moving the cursor 610 to the bottom of the display will reveal the userbar 600 If the option for hiding the userbar 600 using a hotkey is enabled the userbar 600 can then be hidden or revealed by executing a user definable key combination As mentioned above some tiles on the userbar 600 may acquire permanent residency on the userbar 600 such that for example when the graphical user interface 15 initialized the permanent tiles are automatically displayed within the user bar s display region The designation of tiles as permanent or non permanent may also be controlled by the user through the preferences dialog box 720 e g by using a select deselect permanent tiles function not shown in FIG 7 which permits 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 16 a user to identify objects for designation as permanent and optionally to select an image for the corresponding tile to be
21. ciated with continuing GUI design consider as an example of a GUI which has evolved over time the Finder user interface and information man agement system simply Finder user interface hereafter which runs on the Apple Macintosh computer The Finder user interface is based on the aforedescribed display principles using windows and icons to help manage com puter information The main or root window is called the desktop area or more generally the primary display region The desktop or primary display region is always open dis played on the screen with its contents accessible or at least partially accessible and takes up substantially the full dis play screen area when other windows are not open The desktop is usually visible in the background when other win dows are open Existing inside any particular window including the desk top itself are other information identifiers called icons An icon is a screen identifier associated with a particular collec tion of computer information Typically an icon may repre sent a file which is either a collection of data or a program 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 or program segment An icon also may represent the closed state of a window Icons are graphic images displayed on the computer screen and usually correspond to the type of infor mation stored within the file Icons give the user access to the particular
22. dow corresponding to the most recently opened window and the background windows representing those opened previously In the organization scheme described it is appreciated that files are nested within win dows and windows can be nested within other windows the main or root window being the desktop area or primary display region During a session using a window based information sys tem many windows can be open at one time with many displayed icons within Windows may overlap and partially or entirely hide other windows or icons What results is that the particular information the user wants to obtain may be US 7 434 177 B1 3 hidden behind several layers of windows and may be difficult to access when an icon is hidden by another window it is temporarily not accessible This has been referred to in the industry as the window overlap problem There are several instances where window overlap problems routinely arise in the usage of conventional user interfaces A few of the more troublesome scenarios are described below In order to complete a task often the user must access a single icon within an open window that exists in the back ground that is covered or partially covered by other win dows The desired icon target icon within the window is no longer visible and therefore not presently accessible The overlapping windows or those that lay top of the target window must be closed or moved away shuffled
23. e right edge of the tile are calculated as seen in FIG 8 c If the value of either d or d lies outside the range W W then the value is changed to be the closest of W and W Scaled values d and are then calculated using the following sine functions d Sxsine a 2xd W 2 dy Sxsine 1 2xd gt W 3 Each tile is then redrawn between d and having a size which is scaled equally in both width and height from the lower left hand corner by a factor 1 d d d gt d 4 Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the foregoing is merely an illustrative example of a particular yet still exem plary embodiment by which a variable magnification effect according to the present invention can be implemented Moreover although these exemplary embodiments describe user interfaces wherein the variable magnification effect is invoked when the cursor moves into the userbar 600 region ie when the cursor crosses a border of one of the tiles residing in the userbar 600 those skilled in the art will further appreciate that the magnification effect can also be invoked earlier e g when the cursor moves to within some predeter mined distance of one of the tile borders Userbar Functionality Having described examples of userbar contents and appearance according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention the discussion now turns to exemplary techniques in which the userbar 600 can be implemented to provide desirab
24. ed to the application dock 300 by dragging them into a desired location proximate the docking area at which time the operating system will integrate them into the dock 300 Although somewhat more flexible in terms of allowing the user to organize its content than the taskbar appbar of FIG 2 the application dock 300 still suffers from its limitations in terms of the number of applications which can be docked at any one time The icons in the dock are of a fixed size and according to the user manual are therefore limited to a maxi mum of 13 which can be included in the dock at any one time Thus it can be seen that there remains a need in the art to design a GUI which provides the user with a larger degree of flexibility in terms of both the layout of the tool which man ages these types of frequently used objects as well as permit ting a larger number of such objects to be managed and simultaneously displayed US 7 434 177 B1 5 SUMMARY According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention these and other drawbacks and difficulties of con ventional GUIs are overcome by providing a simple consoli dated and easily extensible facility for handling for example frequently used objects For example user interfaces accord ing to the present invention provide a tool referred to herein as the which consolidates features including launching and managing running applications opening and managing document
25. ems along an edge of a display area in the form of a bar consisting of at least one row of said items and that is responsive to the positioning of a cursor within a predeter mined distance of at least one of said items to magnify the size of the item closest to said cursor to a designated level and magnify other items proximate said closest item to levels less than said designated level and to move the items along said row to accommodate the magnified sizes of items so that items in the vicinity of said magnified items are not obscured 128 The computer readable medium of claim 127 wherein said other items are magnified to levels that are inversely related to their distance from said closest item 129 The computer readable medium of claim 127 wherein said user interface items are normally displayed at a default size in said bar and said designated level comprises a maxi mum magnified size for the items and wherein said closest item is magnified from said default size to said maximum size upon detecting that the cursor is positioned within said pre determined distance and maintained at said maximum size while said cursor is equal to or less than said predetermined distance from said closest item
26. erbar 600 from its default position In terms of the size of the userbar 600 according to this purely illustrative exemplary embodiment the userbar 600 has a default size of 64x64 pixels This default height may change at locations associated with the cursor position as described below in the section entitled Variable Magnifica tion of Userbar Tiles A gap ofa few pixels may be provided between the bottom of the userbar 600 and the bottom of the screen to allow windows that are placed or dragged below the height ofthe bar to remain partially visible Alternatively the userbar may be provided at the very bottom ofthe display space such that no gap exists In fact the userbar 600 may be located in any desired space on the display The userbar 600 is according to these exemplary embodi ments the topmost window on the screen i e all other win dows appear behind the userbar 600 Applications when creating or zooming document windows should place the bottom ofthe document window above the top ofthe bar so as notto obscure any portion ofthe window with the userbar 600 which would otherwise overlay the newly created window Each tile can have a label associated therewith For example in FIG 6 the label Clock can be seen centered above tile 610 Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the label could alternatively be displayed below the correspond ing tile According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention labels
27. ercentage of magnification of each tile can also be varied in any desired manner At a more fundamental level however it will be appreci ated that this magnification permits one or more selected tiles US 7 434 177 B1 11 in the userbar 600 i e the tile which is pointed to by the cursor 610 as well as tiles proximate to the cursor 610 to be readily viewed and identified even while other tiles residing in the userbar 600 are possibly more difficult to distinguish This magnification functionality among other techniques associ ated with user interfaces according to the present invention permits the userbar 600 to on the one hand handle many more objects than was possible in conventional user inter faces in a single simultaneously viewable manner while on the other hand allowing the user to readily identify and manipulate individual objects residing on the userbar As the cursor 610 moves over the userbar 600 certain tiles experience increased magnification while other tiles mag nification decreases based on their relative distance to the current cursor position Compare for example FIG 7 with FIG 6 Although these two figures depict the same userbar 600 i e with the same tiles residing therein the magnifica tion characteristics differ In FIG 7 the cursor 610 now rests over the tile entitled 8 Some of the tiles surrounding 8 are also magnified while the Clock tile has returned to its unmagni
28. ersity pp 42 51 6 169 538 Bl 1 2001 Nowlan etal 345 168 Declaration of Bas Ording with Exhibits A C dated Nov 28 2001 6 256 649 B1 7 2001 Mackinlay et al 707 503 Alan Simpson Windows 95 Uncut Chapter 21 pp 386 402 IDG 6 310 633 10 2001 Graham 345 835 Books Worldwide Inc Foster City CA Aug 1995 6 469 722 B1 10 2002 Kinoe etal cited by examiner U S Patent Oct 7 2008 Sheet 1 of 6 US 7 434 177 B1 DOCUMENT 1 DOCUMENT 3 57 58 DOCUMENT 2 DOCUMENT 4 FIG 1A PRIOR ART 75 20 FILE EDIT VIEW SPECIAL COLOR S 1 Ra MY DISK 51 TRASH 50 p DOCUMENT 5 WIP j 30 FIG 1B PRIOR ART U S Patent Oct 7 2008 Sheet 2 of 6 US 7 434 177 B1 200 FIG 3 PRIOR ART U S Patent Oct 7 2008 Sheet 3 of 6 US 7 434 177 B1 01 402 403 404 4 PROCESSOR DISPLAY DEVICE 40 5 406 407 408 FIG 4 RANDOM READ DATA ACCESS ONLY STORAGE MEMORY MEMORY DEVICE 400 ALPHA NUMERIC INPUT DEVICE CURSOR CONTROL DEVICE SIGNAL GENERATION DEVICE US 7 434 177 B1 Sheet 4 of 6 Oct 7 2008 U S Patent Old 099 059 Lue 40 9 7 009 2105 21 E 49 49 SMON OJN 2 lt MOPUIM 429 95 48001 9 3 O US 7 434 177 B1 Sheet 5 of 6 Oct 7 2008 U S Patent 2 Old 019 eme Kexyou 9 qisi
29. f a region associated with said bar 35 Thecomputer system of claim 34 wherein said first and second rates are different 36 computer system comprising a display a cursor for pointing to a position within said display a userbar rendered on said display and having a plurality of tiles associated therewith and a processor for varying a position of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display in accordance with a predefined relationship between an effect width W a default height h of said at least one of said plurality of tiles and a selected maximum height H of said at least one of said plurality of tiles wherein said predefined relationship includes a function S defined as S H h 2 sine ax h 2 Wx2 37 The computer system of claim 36 wherein each of said plurality of tiles represents an object with which a user of said computer system can interact 38 The computer system of claim 37 wherein said objects include at least one of applications documents windows and uniform resource locators 39 The computer system of claim 36 wherein said at least one of said plurality of tiles has a left edge and a right edge and wherein said at least one of said plurality of tiles is moved to a position such that said left edge has a distance d from said cursor and said right edge has a distance d from said cursor wherein d Sxsine z 2xd W dj
30. f a taskbar to organize concurrently running applications as shown in FIG 2 20 25 30 40 45 50 65 4 Therein the desktop window 200 includes a plurality of icons 210 as well as the taskbar 220 The icons 210 provide short cuts to applications or documents which can be invoked e g by double clicking on the desired icon The taskbar 220 identifies windows which are active including both those which are maximized and minimized i e are not currently displayed on the desktop 200 Each such active application is represented on the taskbar 220 by a corresponding button which typically has an iconic representation of the applica tion as well as some descriptive text As new applications are launched representative buttons will be added to the taskbar 220 from left to right Each existing button will be scaled in length to permit the taskbar to accommodate new buttons To maximize an application residing on the taskbar 220 the user can single click on the representative button Another feature sometimes seen in this type of conventional GUI are application bars e g appbar 230 Appbar 230 typically includes a number of smaller buttons relative to the length of buttons on the taskbar when only a few applications are resi dent there which buttons can be depressed to launch a cur rently inactive application This conventional GUI however suffers from the draw backs of having a rather rigidl
31. fect for browsing the scaled contents of the user bar This mechanism allows specified contents ofthe userbar in particular minimized windows to be presented at a larger size and in greater detail and legibility than other objects in the userbar This feature permits among other things the individual tiles of the tool to retain their legibility and pre vents the user interaction with the tool from being compro mised by the scaled contents BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other objects features and advantages of the present invention will be readily understood by those skilled in the art by reading the following detailed description in conjunction with the drawings in which FIGS 1 a and 1 5 depict a first conventional user inter face FIG 2 depicts a second conventional user interface which employs a taskbar and an appbar to handle objects FIG 3 depicts a third conventional user interface which employs an application dock FIG 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary system in which the present invention can be implemented FIG 5 is an exemplary computer system which may con tain the functional blocks of FIG 4 and in which the present invention can be implemented FIG 6 illustrates a user interface including a userbar according to an exemplary embodiment of the present inven tion FIG 7 depicts the user interface of FIG 6 with the cursor disposed at another location within the userbar region on the sc
32. fied state and is now displayed at a default size setting The magnification effect can be canceled when the cursor leaves the content region of the userbar 600 as deter mined by the level of magnification being applied which level is user selectable as described below For example if the default size of the tiles is 64 pixels but the tile on which the cursor is currently positioned has been scaled up to 128 pixels due to the magnification effect then this effect will not end until the cursor leaves the 128 pixel top boundary of the userbar 600 Also seen in FIG 7 is an exemplary userbar settings screen 620 which permits the user to vary the tile size magnification characteristics and the show hide characteristic of the user bar This feature of exemplary user interfaces according to the present invention will be described in more detail below With reference now to FIGS 8 a 8 d a more detailed example ofa variable magnification function according to the present invention will now be described Therein each tile is placed along a reference baseline 800 which may be located in any position and with any orientation on the display As seen in FIG 8 a each tile has the same height h but may have different widths FIG 8 a shows the default display state of a group of tiles residing in userbar 600 when the cursor 610 is outside of the userbar region 1 e the variable magnification effect has not been invoked To establish the
33. file represented by the graphic image when the icon is visible The use of icons and windows is well known in the art The file is the information packet that the user wishes to utilize create or modify each particular file has an associated name identifying the file Therefore any given file may be located in the information management system by knowing a file name an iconographic representation associated with the name or a window locator name information files situ ated within a particular window are identified with that par ticular window s own identification location within the com puter information management system Therefore any particular file information can be retrieved knowing its par ticular identification name and its window name Accord ingly the resulting screen display utilizing the FinderTM user interface may be broken down into multiple windows and graphic icons Another important element ofthis and other conventional user interfaces is a screen cursor The cursor allows direct user control over the user interface as described above The Finder user interface is complemented with a mouse and a corresponding pointer which makes up the cursor control device The user has control over the mouse which is an electro mechanical device that translates two dimensional mouse movement into a two dimensional screen position movement represented by for example a pointer or arrow head The user c
34. for each tile are only visibly displayed on the monitor while the cursor is proximate the corresponding tile For example as the cursor moves into a region associated with a particular tile the label associated with that tile is displayed When the cursor moves out of this region the tile label will vanish Tile labels when made visible or invisible can do so in a manner which makes them appear to fade in or fade out In current embodiments of the present invention when the cursor 610 enters the userbar region a fade in time ofzero milliseconds is provided although those skilled in the art will appreciate that this value may be changed In fact the fade in and fade out values mentioned herein may be user 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 changeable e g using the user preferences dialog box described below with respect to FIG 7 As the cursor 610 continues to roll across tiles on the userbar 600 the appropriate tile label fades in while the previous tile label fades out Current embodiments of the present invention provide however provide a value of zero milliseconds for fading in and fading out of the tile labels as the cursor moves across the userbar 600 If the cursor 610 leaves the userbar 600 the last label presented persists for a short period e g 250 milliseconds then fades out Although this exemplary embodiment of the present invention is described in the context of only displaying a single
35. he method of claim 93 wherein said at least two of said plurality of tiles establish a left and right end for said plurality of items 95 The method of claim 69 wherein said region extends beyond borders of said items 96 The method of claim 69 further comprising the step of displaying a label associated with said at least one of said plurality of items 97 The method of claim 96 wherein said step of display ing further comprises the step of displaying said label with a first predetermined fade in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of items from another of said plurality of items an 5 20 25 30 45 50 55 60 65 22 98 The method of claim 97 wherein said step of display ing further comprises the step of displaying said label with a second predetermined fade in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of items from outside said region 99 The method of claim 98 wherein said first and second fade in rates are different 100 The method of claim 96 further comprising the step of fading out said label when said cursor moves away from said at least one of said plurality of item 101 The method of claim 100 further comprising the step of using a first fade out rate when said cursor moves into another of said at least one of said plurality of items 102 The method of claim 101 further comprising the step of us
36. icons are magnified by a factor that 1s inversely related to their dis tances from said cursor 117 The method of claim 116 wherein the other icons that are magnified are those which are located within a defined distance of said cursor 118 The method of claim 117 wherein the value for said defined distance is user determinable 119 The method of claim 116 wherein said factor is based upon the sine function 120 The method of claim 117 wherein each icon is dis played within a corresponding tile area having two opposite edges that are respectively located at distances d and d from said cursor and said other icons are magnified by the factor 14447 4 4 4 where d Sxsine z 2xd W and dj Sxsine v 2xd W where 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 24 W is equal to said defined distance and S A A 2 sine ax h 2 Wx2 where H is a magnified size for one dimension of said one icon and his a default display size for said one dimension 121 The method of claim 120 wherein values for H andh are user definable 122 The method of claim 114 where the icons at the outermost ends of said row are predetermined and the other icons in said row are user selectable 123 The method of claim 114 wherein said row of icons is displayed adjacent one edge of a display for said computer system 124 A method for displaying items in a graphical user interface comprising the steps of displaying a
37. id plurality of tiles from another of said plurality of 0 25 30 40 45 50 55 60 65 20 tiles and with a second predetermined fade in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of tiles from outside a region associated with said userbar 66 The computer system of claim 65 wherein said first and second fade in rates are different 67 computer system comprising a display a cursor for pointing to a position within said display a userbar rendered on said display and having a plurality of tiles associated therewith and a processor for varying a position of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display wherein said proces sor displays a label associated with said at least one of said plurality of tiles with a first predetermined fade in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of tiles from another of said plurality of tiles and wherein said processor fades out said label when said cursor moves away from said at least one of said plurality oftiles using a first fade out rate when said cursor moves into another of said at least one of said plurality of tiles and using a second fade out rate when said cursor moves out of a region associated with said bar 68 Thecomputer system of claim 67 wherein said first and second rates are different 69 A method for displaying ite
38. ing a second fade out rate when said cursor moves out of said region 103 The method of claim 102 wherein said first and sec ond rates are different 104 A computer readable medium containing program instructions for displaying items in a graphical user interface that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the following operations providing a plurality of said items in a region of said graphical user interface each of said items having a default height associated therewith detecting movement of a cursor along said region and selectively magnifying at least one of said items closest to said cursor to a first level and magnifying items proxi mate to said one item to other levels less than said first level 105 A computer system comprising a display a cursor for pointing to a position within said display a bar rendered on said display and having a plurality of tiles associated therewith and a processor for varying a size of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display and for varying a position of another of said plurality of tiles in accordance with a predefined relationship that includes a function S defined as S H h 2 sine ax h 2 W2 where W is an effect width h is a default height of said at least one of said plurality of tiles and H is a selected maximum height of said at least one of said plurality of tiles 10
39. ion This modifier acts as a toggle between insert mode and drop mode and if released during the drag a drop will result in an default insert instead Tog gling the state of the modifier key will result in the bar open ing to accept an insert and closing During a modified drag eligible target tiles can be highlighted to denote that they can receive the object type being dragged The user can continue to drag items across the userbar 600 effectively browsing for eligible targets US 7 434 177 B1 15 The userbar 600 also provides a number of window man agement solutions that are intended to allow users to make better use of limited screen space For example according to exemplary embodiments ofthe present invention the userbar 600 does not provide direct access to all open document windows as only minimized windows are to be placed on the userbar Access to a document window menu associated with a tile resident on the userbar 600 can be provided in for example one oftwo ways First a sub menu can be displayed relative to each application tile the sub menu listing all of that application s open documents Second a dedicated application tile can be added to the userbar 600 which tile provides a menu interface to all open document windows grouped by their associated applications Userbar Customization As shown in FIG 7 exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide techniques and mechanisms which permit a user to adj
40. latively little computer training to smooth the transition of other industries into a computer based information paradigm As a result in the early to mid 1980 s many new I O philosophies such as user friendly WYSIWYG and menu driven came to the forefront of the industry These concepts are particularly applicable to microcomputers also known as personal computers which are intended to appeal to a broad audience of computer users including those who previously feared and mistrusted computers An important aspect of computers which employ these concepts was and continues to be the interface which allows the user to input commands and data and receive results which is commonly referred to as a graphical user interface GUI The success of this type of interface is evident from the number of companies which have emulated the desktop envi ronment Even successful concepts however must continu ally be improved in order to keep pace with the rapid growth in this industry The advent of multimedia especially CD ROM devices has provided vast quantities of secondary stor age which have been used to provide video capabilities e g live animation and video clips as regular components of application displays With these and other new resources at their disposal application designers and users alike demand additional functionality and greater ease of use from the desk top environment To consider the challenges asso
41. le user interface functionality According to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention the user bar 600 is not implemented as a container and therefore it cannot hold file system objects Therefore an object placed on the userbar 600 by the user can be implemented as an alias to the corresponding file system or source object This means that for example moving objects from the userbar to the trash 640 will not result in the source file being destroyed The userbar 600 according to the present invention has many functions and features including launching navigation and process management The userbar 600 can also support drag launching and storage e g the ability to open or store a document by dragging it to an application or folder respec tively that resides on the userbar 600 as a tile As a navigator the userbar 600 provides a method for users to easily access or navigate to favorite places including but not limited to windows For example according to exem plary embodiments all system supported universal resource locators URLs as well as local or remote directories can be placed on the userbar 600 However in the context of win dows minimized windows can be scaled and added to the userbar 600 Minimized windows can be presented on the userbar 600 for example as either thumbnails of their content or by their window proxy icon For example the minimized window of a Finder s view of a folder may
42. les from outside a region associated with said bar 109 The computer system of claim 108 wherein said first and second fade in rates are different 110 The computer system of claim 108 wherein said processor fades out said label when said cursor moves away from said at least one of said plurality of tiles 111 The computer system of claim 110 wherein said processor uses a first fade out rate when said cursor moves into another of said at least one of said plurality of tiles 112 The computer system of claim 111 wherein said processor uses a second fade out rate when said cursor moves out of a region associated with said bar 113 The computer system of claim 112 wherein first and second rates are different 114 A method for displaying representations of objects in a graphical user interface for a computer system comprising the steps of displaying a plurality of icons in a row where each icon represents an object in the computer system displaying a movable cursor via which the user can select individual ones of said icons magnifying the size of at least one of said icons as said cursor is moved into the vicinity of said one icon and repositioning others of the icons along said row to accom modate the magnified size of said one icon 115 The method of claim 114 further including the step of magnifying the size of other icons in said row that are proxi mate said one icon 116 The method of claim 115 wherein said other
43. located on the userbar 600 The above described exemplary embodiments intended to be illustrative in all respects rather than restric tive of the present invention For example although the fore going illustrative embodiments of the present invention depict a userbar as being a row of tiles disposed along the bottom of a display or screen those skilled in the art will appreciate that userbars according to the present invention may be displayed anywhere in the display space and with any orientation therein Userbars according to the present inven tion can have any desired shape e g they could be nonlinear shapes or could be presented as multiple rows of tiles Thus the present invention is capable of many variations in detailed implementation that can be derived from the description con tained herein by a person skilled in the art All such variations and modifications are considered to be within the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined by the following claims What is claimed is 1 A computer system comprising a display a cursor for pointing to a position within said display a bar rendered on said display and having a plurality of tiles associated therewith and a processor for varying a size of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display and for repositioning others of said plurality of tiles along said bar to accommodate the varied
44. ms in a graphical user interface comprising the steps of providing a plurality of said items in a region of said graphical user interface each of said items having a default height associated therewith moving a cursor along said region and selectively magnifying at least one of said items closest to said cursor to a first level and magnifying items proxi mate to said one item to other levels less than said first level 70 The method of claim 69 further comprising the steps of displaying said plurality of items in said region at said default height unless said plurality of items exceeds a predetermined number and scaling said plurality of items when said plurality of items exceeds said number 71 The method of claim 69 wherein said step of magni fying further comprises magnifying said items in accordance with a scaling factor S wherein S is a predefined relationship between an effect width W said default height h and a selected maximum height H of said items 72 The method of claim 71 wherein said predefined rela tionship is S H h 2 sine ax h 2 Wx2 73 The method of claim 72 wherein said plurality of items have a left edge and a right edge respectively located at distances d and d from said cursor and wherein each of said proximate items is moved to a position such that its left edge has a distance d from said cursor and its right edge has a distance from said cursor wherein d Sxsine a 2xd
45. n and instructions for the processor 401 a read only memory 403 coupled with the bus 400 for storing static information and instructions for the processor 401 a data storage device 404 such as a magnetic disk and disk drive or CD ROM drive coupled with the bus 400 for storing infor mation and instructions a display device 405 coupled to the bus 400 for displaying information to the computer user an alphanumeric input device 406 including alphanumeric and function keys coupled to the bus 400 for communicating information and command selections to the processor 401 a cursor control device 407 coupled to the bus for communi cating information and command selections to the processor 401 and a signal generating device 408 coupled to the bus 400 for communicating command selections to the processor 401 The display device 405 utilized with the computer system and the present invention may be a liquid crystal device cathode ray tube or other display device suitable for creating images and alphanumeric characters and ideographic char acter sets recognizable to the user The cursor control device 407 allows the computer user to dynamically signal the two dimensional movement of a visible symbol cursor on a display screen of the display device 405 Many implementa tions ofthe cursor control device are known in the art includ ing a trackball mouse joystick or special keys on the alpha numeric input device 406 capable of signaling movement of
46. n developed which provide differ ent solutions to the manner in which frequently used and currently active desktop objects are handled by the GUI For example consider the conventional GUI depicted in FIGS 1 and 1 5 Therein a Desk Drawer concept is imple mented to provide selectively hideable access to frequently used desktop objects FIG 1 a depicts the screen 75 having a desktop area 20 with the Desk Drawer closed wherein only the handle 10 ofthe Desk Drawer is visible An open window 60 containing several document icons 55 58 which are there fore accessible for operations by the user via cursor 50 The window 60 also includes a window title field 65 and window select region 74 When activated e g by placing cursor 50 over handle 10 the Desk Drawer opens to reveal its contents In this case icons 41 42 51 and 59 become visible Now that these icons are visible they too are available for manipulation by the user via cursor 50 Thus the Desk Drawer concept provides a mechanism for placing frequently used icons in an out of the way yet easily accessible location The interested reader is directed to U S Pat No 5 657 049 entitled Desk Drawer User Interface for a more in depth discussion of this tech nique the disclosure of which is incorporated here by refer ence Another conventional GUI i e that provided with the WINDOWS 95 Operating System tackles the problem of desktop clutter by the provision o
47. ontacts and directs the mouse When the mouse is moved freely on a table top then the pointer on the screen will move in a similar and proportional manner The mouse also contains one or more push buttons which can be used to effectuate control over the cursor pointer by selecting or deselecting specific icons or other display tools It is said thatthe cursor pointer is activated when the mouse button is depressed and the pointer remains active until the button is released Pointer activation may also be initiated by sequences of mouse button presses such as a double click interaction which involves rapidly pressing the mouse button press twice in sequence Access to information in a conventional user interface sys tem for a display management system is therefore based on windows icons and pointer movement of the cursor To access a file the cursor pointer is placed on the visible icon or visible file name and the pointer is activated A closed window may be represented by an icon or a window name A window opens when the pointer of the cursor rests on the visible icon or visible name representing the closed state of the window and the pointer is activated Within the open window files may be displayed by icon or by name An open window of various geometries may be rectangular and will exist within the display area of the main viewing screen on the desktop Multiple windows may be open at one time typically with the most foreground win
48. plurality of user interface items along an edge of a display area in the form of a bar consisting of at least one row of said items detecting the positioning of a cursor within a predeter mined distance from at least one of said items in response to said detection magnifying the size of the item closest to said cursor to a designated level and magnifying other items proximate said closest item to levels less than said designated level and moving the items along said row to accommodate the mag nified sizes of items so that items in the vicinity of said magnified items are not obscured 125 The method of claim 124 wherein said other items are magnified to levels that are inversely related to their distance from said closest item 126 The method of claim 124 wherein said user interface items are normally displayed at a default size in said bar and said designated level comprises a maximum magnified size for the items and further including the steps of magnifying said closest item from said default size to said maximum size upon detecting that the cursor is positioned within said pre determined distance and maintaining said closest item at said maximum size while said cursor is equal to or less than said predetermined distance from said closest item 127 A computer readable medium containing program instructions that when executed cause a computer to present a graphical user interface that displays a plurality of user interface it
49. r CD ROM and a display screen 512 Having described exemplary computer systems in which user interfaces according to the present invention can be implemented the discussion now turns to a description of such user interfaces According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention a userbar is provided to the user interface which solves many ofthe problems described above with respect to conventional user interface tools and facilities by providing extensibility scalability and flexibility which are lacking in prior systems Userbar Contents An example of the userbar according to the present inven tion can be seen in the user interface of FIG 6 Other examples are seen in subsequent figures which will be further described below Therein the userbar 600 includes a number in this example sixteen of tiles aligned along a bottom portion of a user interface the magnification level of which varies based on the position of the cursor 610 in a manner to be described below in the section entitled Userbar Appear ance The contents of the userbar 600 may represent a user selected or alternatively an application or operating system selected set of super favorite items i e items that the user has determined deserve greater ease of access than their broader collection of favorite items which could be numer ous The straightforward configuration mechanism of the userbar 600 according to the present invention facilitates frequen
50. r within a border of one of said plurality of tiles 27 The computer system of claim 1 wherein said cursor 18 proximate said bar when said cursor is within a predeter mined distance of one of said plurality of tiles 28 The computer system of claim 1 wherein said proces sor displays a label associated with said at least one of said plurality of tiles 29 computer system of claim 28 wherein said pro cessor displays said label with a first predetermined fade in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of tiles from another of said plurality of tiles 30 The computer system of claim 29 wherein said pro cessor displays said label with a second predetermined fade 20 25 30 35 40 50 55 60 65 18 in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of tiles from outside a region associated with said bar 31 Thecomputer system of claim 30 wherein said first and second fade in rates are different 32 The computer system of claim 28 wherein said pro cessor fades out said label when said cursor moves away from said at least one of said plurality of tiles 33 The computer system of claim 32 wherein said pro cessor uses a first fade out rate when said cursor moves into another of said at least one of said plurality of tiles 34 The computer system of claim 33 wherein said pro cessor uses a second fade out rate when said cursor moves out o
51. reen and 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 FIGS 8 a 8 d describe an exemplary magnification effect mechanism according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION In the following description for purposes of explanation and not limitation specific details are set forth such as par ticular circuits circuit components techniques etc in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention However it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these specific details In other instances detailed descriptions of well known methods devices and circuits are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present invention Exemplary embodiments of the present invention can be implemented on an Apple Macintosh computer system using the Finder user interface However it will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that user interfaces and elements of user interfaces according to the present invention can be used in combination with any system having a proces sor and a display In general such computer systems as illustrated in block diagram form by FIG 4 comprise a bus 400 for communicating information a processor 401 coupled with the bus for processing information and instructions a random access memory 402 coupled with the bus 400 for storing informatio
52. s and their associated windows access ing control strip functionality navigation to all types of uni form resource locators URLs and status and notification on running processes As mentioned above existing tools of this type such as taskbars and docks are constrained in one or more of at least two ways having a rigidly structured layout and being limited in the number of objects that they can represent in the avail able screen space With respect to layout the userbar accord ing to the present invention is designed so that the organiza tion ofthe userbar is in the hands of the user For example the tiles that represent the individual items in the userbar can be reorganized at will There is virtually no structure enforced on the user with the exception of two bookends which define boundaries of the facility With respect to screen space the userbar according to the present invention provides a method for scaling the entire contents of the object handling facility such that literally upwards of fifty objects or more can be accommodated in a single visible structure As the objects handled by the userbar become rather small e g due to the size set by the user or due to a large number of objects being added thereto it naturally becomes more difficult to distinguish between different tiles Accordingly exemplary embodiments of the present inven tion provide a magnification effect also referred to herein as a fisheye ef
53. sKowjp P MOUS ipus CS 0 6 024 21005 Woy p 49 9 SMON 041 2 ous sbuas 108496 2 2907 914 U S Patent Oct 7 2008 Sheet 6 of 6 US 7 434 177 B1 013 800 610 FIG 8D US 7 434 177 B1 1 USER INTERFACE FOR PROVIDING CONSOLIDATION AND ACCESS BACKGROUND The present invention relates generally to graphical user interfaces for computer systems More particularly the present invention relates to systems and methods for interfac ing applications and operating systems which provide for flexible customization of graphical user interfaces The evolution of the computer industry is unparalleled in its rate of growth and complexity Personal computers for example which began as little more than feeble calculators with limited memory tape driven input and monochrome displays are now able to tackle almost any data processing task While this meteoric increase in power was almost suf ficient to satisfy the demand of application designers and end users alike the corresponding increase in complexity created an ease of use problem which the industry was somewhat slower in solving Thus designers were faced with a new challenge to harness this computing power in a form usable by even those with re
54. said at least one charac teristic 18 The computer system of claim 13 wherein a status of objects as permanent or nonpermanent on said bar is said at least one characteristic 19 The computer system of claim 1 wherein said proces sor removes said bar from said display when said cursor moves away from said bar 20 The computer system of claim 19 wherein said pro cessor removes said bar by invoking an animation routine which makes said bar appear to slide into an edge of said display 21 The computer system of claim 1 wherein said proces sor removes said bar by invoking an animation routine which makes said bar appear to slide into an edge of said display in response to at least one keystroke 22 The computer system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of tiles occupy a single row on said display 23 The computer system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of tiles occupy multiple rows on said display 24 The computer system of claim 1 wherein two of said plurality oftiles are permanent residents of said bar and define endpoints thereof and other tiles can be selectively added to and deleted from positions intermediate said two tiles by a user 25 The computer system of claim 24 wherein said other tiles can be selectively repositioned on said bar relative to one another among said intermediate positions by a user 26 The computer system of claim 1 wherein said cursor is proximate said bar when said cursor is positioned on o
55. size of said one tile 2 The computer system of claim 1 wherein each of said plurality of tiles represents an object with which a user of said computer system can interact 3 The computer system of claim 2 wherein said objects include at least one of applications documents windows and uniform resource locators 4 The computer system of claim 1 wherein said at least one of a plurality of tiles includes a tile to which said cursor is closest and a plurality of tiles adjacent to said tile 5 The computer system of claim 1 wherein said processor repositions said others of said plurality of tiles in accordance with a predefined relationship between an effect width W a default height h of said at least one of said plurality of tiles and a selected maximum height H of said at least one of said plurality of tiles 6 The computer system of claim 5 wherein said pre defined relationship includes a function S defined as S H h 2 sine sx h 2 Wx2 7 The computer system of claim 6 wherein said others of said plurality of tiles each has a left edge and a right edge located at distances d and d from said cursor and is moved to a position such that said left edge has a distance 4 from said cursor and said right edge has a distance d from said cursor wherein d Sxsine z 2xd W d Sxsine 1 2xd gt W 8 The computer system of claim 7 wherein said at least one of said plurality of tiles is scaled by a factor of
56. strip the module s interface i e a menu will be presented Clicking outside of the interface will dis miss the interface On a minimized window this operation will cause the window to be maximized The user can switch between running applications by clicking on the desired application tile This will result in that appli cation and all of its associated windows being brought for ward in the window layering order In addition to drag and drop configuring of the userbar 600 users can drag and drop files and other userbar items onto tiles which reside on the userbar 600 For example a docu ment can be dragged and dropped onto a tile representing a word processing application in the userbar 600 resulting in the word processing application being launched and then opening the dropped document Alternatively a file can be dropped onto a folder residing on the userbar 600 resulting in the file being moved or copied to the target folder As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art itis useful to provide a mechanism which permits the GUI to distinguish between an operation wherein a user is adding an item to the userbar 600 and an operation wherein a user is dropping an item onto an existing tile which is already resident on the userbar 600 According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention a modifier key pressed anytime during the drag but prior to the drop will force a drop action in place of the normal insert act
57. t changes to its contents which contents are based on a user s preferences and will therefore naturally vary from one user to the next Any type of item or object may be handled by the userbar 600 however a few examples includ ing applications document files and windows will now be described in order to illustrate how exemplary userbars according to the present invention may represent and manipu late various items Applications can be presented on the userbar 600 by for example one of two methods First the application s icon can be added to the userbar 600 as a permanent fixture e g for most frequently launched applications Alternatively the application may not be a permanent fixture of the userbar 600 but may be added thereto because it is currently running Such non permanent applications may be represented in the user bar 600 only while the application remains running and may beremoved automatically by the GUI when the application is terminated Faceless background applications e g virus pro tection applications if not launched from the userbar 600 need not be represented on the userbar 600 while they are running Similarly application sub processes such as a Finder copy need not appear as a separate application tile on the userbar 600 Document files can also be placed on the userbar 600 This includes for example editable non editable 1 read only and stationary files An application s set files e g
58. t what point the existing tile and insert target tiles swap positions When item s are dropped the actual tile image s representing the item s replace their respective translucent insert target tile s An animation sequence may be displayed to reinforce this action The user can reorder or reposition items on the userbar 600 As mentioned above in this exemplary embodiment only two items the Finder application tile 630 and the Trash tile 640 cannot be repositioned Instead these tiles remain as bookends defining the boundaries of the userbar s contents Reordering items can be implemented in a straightforward manner by dragging an item tile to a new position with similar graphical feedback being provided as for the process of adding an item to the userbar 600 That is when removed the tile image can be changed to its translucent insert tile image and when reinserted into the userbar 600 the tile will reacquire the image associated with its current state Multiple items can be repositioned at the same time if the user first selects a plurality of items in the userbar 600 prior to initiating a drag operation 0 an 5 20 40 45 65 14 A selection of multiple tiles can be made by for example defining that performing a shift click ona tile will only select that tile with no further action occurring Ifthe user maintains the shift key in a depressed state additional tiles can be selected Subsequent dragging
59. ts of the present invention address this problem by providing for variable magnification levels as between different tiles on the userbar 600 Referring again to the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG 6 it will be seen that a cursor 610 rests on top of one tile in the userbar 600 i e the tile having the descriptive legend Clock thereabove It will immediately be recog nized that the Clock tile on which the cursor 610 rests has been magnified to be larger than the surrounding tiles in the userbar 600 This magnification is attributable to the fish eye effect which can be provided to the userbar 600 accord ing to exemplary embodiments of the present invention In this particular exemplary embodiment not only is the tile upon which cursor 610 rests magnified but so are sur rounding tiles The amount of magnification can vary as between tiles proximate the cursor position In this example the magnitude of the magnification level is a function of the distance of each tile edge from the cursor 610 Of course those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are many different types of magnification techniques and algorithms which can be employed to provide this type of functionality For example any number of tiles to either side of that over which the cursor is resting could experience some level of magnifi cation Alternatively only the individual tile over which the cursor is resting can be magnified The level p
60. ust the manner in which the userbar 600 is dis played on the screen In this example a dialog box 720 is illustrated having a number of user settable preferences avail able therein These preferences permit the user to tailor the appearance and behavior of the userbar 600 to suit his or her needs For example as described above the default tile size of the bar may be 64x64 pixels The default value refers to the size of a tile in its unmagnified state However this default value can be changed by the user e g by adjusting the slider shown in FIG 7 e g within a range of 16 to 128 pixels square The preferences dialog box 720 may also contain a set of controls which permit the user to determine when the magnification effect will be invoked and the amount of magnification pro vided In the exemplary preferences dialog box 720 illus trated in FIG 7 a set of controls is provided for this purpose including a radio button group that permits the user to deter mine when the magnification effect will be invoked and a slider that allows the user to set the maximum magnification level e g that associated with the tile over which the cursor 610 is currently positioned Of course the size of the magni fied tiles should not be less than the default size of the tiles and some upper limit may be desirable for the magnification e g 128 pixels The userbar 600 can also support the ability to be hidden offscreen The preferences dialog box 720
61. variable magnification function a scaling height H and an effect width W are chosen Either both or neither of these parameters may be user settable For example the user preferences dialog box 720 in FIG 7 pro vides an example wherein the user can select the scaling height H via a slider The effect width defines a region wherein any tile that lies even partially within W pixels to either side ofthe cursor position within the userbar region will be scaled For example as shown in FIG 8 5 the darker tiles will be scaled based on the cursor 61075 position while the lighter tiles on either end ofthe userbar 600 will not be scaled The parameter W can be chosen to be a multiple ofthe default tile width however such a relationship is not required After determining the effect region based on W and the cursor position a scale amount S based on the effect width and change in height of the tiles is calculated according to equation 1 S H h 2 sine ax h 2 W2 1 20 25 30 35 45 50 55 60 65 12 Tiles outside the effect region will be shifted away from the cursor position by the scale amount S resulting in the userbar 600 s width increasing by up to 2S When the cursor 610 enters the userbar region two dis tances d and d are calculated for each tile More specifi cally for each tile the distance d from the cursor 610 s position to the left edge of tile and the distance d from the cursor to th
62. y structured layout e g the user cannot select or organize the order of the buttons on the taskbar 220 and from difficulties in handling the representa tion of a large number of applications As more buttons are added to the taskbar 220 each individual button becomes smaller When for example between 20 30 applications have been launched and minimized the taskbar 220 begins to add new buttons as a second layer rather than continuing the line of buttons illustrated in FIG 2 To reach the second layer the user must toggle the taskbar 220 i e not all of the buttons are visible simultaneously on the GUI As the power of comput ers and number of interesting applications documents and other objects increases it is anticipated that users will wish to have ready access to a growing number of objects and there fore will find the approach depicted in FIG 2 to be annoying and ineffective Another conventional GUI which attempts to solve this particular problem can be found in the NeXT Operating System As illustrated in FIG 3 and further described in U S Pat No 5 146 556 entitled System and Method for Manag ing Graphic Images the disclosure of which is also expressly incorporated here by reference this GUI provides an application dock 300 including a column of icons on the right side of the screen 310 The dock 300 is described as providing a visible mechanism for starting applications Icons can be added and delet
63. ze is said at least one characteristic 85 The method of claim 81 wherein a setting for an autohide capability for said plurality of items is said at least one characteristic 86 The method of claim 81 wherein a status of objects as permanent or nonpermanent within said plurality of items is said at least one characteristic 87 The method of claim 86 further comprising the step of automatically rendering permanent items in said region at startup of said graphical user interface 88 The method of claim 69 further comprising the step of removing said plurality of items from said display when said cursor moves away from said region 89 The method of claim 88 further comprising the step of removing said plurality of items by invoking an animation routine which makes said plurality of items appear to slide into an edge of said graphical user interface 90 The method of claim 69 further comprising the step of removing said plurality of items by invoking an animation routine which makes said plurality of items appear to slide into an edge of said display in response to at least one keystroke 91 The method of claim 69 wherein said plurality of items occupy a single row on said graphical user interface 92 The method of claim 69 wherein said plurality of items occupy multiple rows on said graphical user interface 93 The method of claim 69 wherein at least two of said plurality of items are permanent residents 94 T

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