Apple patent indicates adding sound effects to a user interface for certain tasks
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Nov 29, 2009 at 10:00am
An Apple patent (number 200902993) has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office involving a graphical user interface having sound effects for operating control elements and dragging objects.
The present invention relates generally to graphical user interfaces for computer systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for interfacing applications and operating systems which provide for added behavior, in the form of sound effects, over object operation and movement in graphical user interfaces.
Systems and methods for providing an enhanced auditory behavior to a graphical user interface are described. Control elements portrayed by the graphical user interface on a display are associated with at least two states. When transitioning between states, a sound effect specified for that transition can be provided to provide further user or designer customization of the interface appearance. Movement of objects can be accompanied by a repeated sound effect. Characteristics of both sound effects can be easily adjusted in volume, pitch and frequency.
Here’s Apple’s summary of the invention: According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention, improved behavioral characteristics can be provided to GUIs by providing sound effects associated with object operations. For example, one-shot sounds can be output when control elements are operated, e.g., a sound associated with actuating a button control element. The volume, pitch, delay and frequency of the sound effect can be varied either randomly or by the theme designer.
“According to other exemplary embodiments of the present invention, a more complicated sound effect can be provided for GUI operations which involve dragging an object, e.g., an icon or a window, across the display. In these embodiments, a portion of the sound effect is repeated to provide for a variable length sound effect determined by the length of the drag operation. Panning can be incorporated by mixing stereo channels to provide an auditory effect of movement.”
The inventors are Robert Ulrich and Arlo Rose.
For more info on patents, check out Patents.com, a free patent search site.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 10,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
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