More Apple patents involve portable devices, touch screens

Posted by Dennis Sellers Apr 24, 2008 at 8:22am

A plethora of Apple patents involving portable multifunction devices and touch screens have popped up at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

Patent number 20080098331 is for a portable multifunction device displays a first icon and a second icon on its touch screen display. The inventors are Gregory Novick, Stephen O. Lemay, Kenneth Kocienda and Bas Ording.

According to Apple it involves a portable multifunction device that displays a first icon and a second icon on its touch screen display. In response to a sequence of finger movements across the first and second icons, wherein the finger stays in contact with the touch screen display during the movements, the portable device highlights the first icon for at least a predefined time period if a parameter associated with the finger’s position relative to the touch screen display meets a first predefined condition and then highlights the second icon for at least the predefined time period if the parameter associated with the finger’s position relative to the touch screen display meets a second predefined condition. The graphic below is a block diagram illustrating portable multifunction devices with touch-sensitive displays in accordance with some embodiments.

Patent number 20080094370 is for portable multifunction devices performing similar operations for different gestures. The inventors are Bas Ording, Scott Herz, Wayne C. Westerman, Scott Forstall, Greg Christie, Stephen O. Lemay, Marcel Van Os and Michael Matas.

A computer-implemented method for providing email at a portable communications device with a touch screen display is disclosed. A first portion of a list of entries with information about corresponding electronic messages is displayed in a first area of the touch screen display. A first portion of an electronic message that corresponds to an entry in the list of entries is displayed in a second area of the touch screen display that is separate from the first area. In response to a first gesture by a user in the first area of the touch screen display, the list of entries is scrolled to display a second portion of the list of entries. In response to a second gesture by the user in the second area of the touch screen display, the electronic message is moved in two dimensions to display a second portion of the electronic message. The graphic below illustrates an exemplary user interface for unlocking a portable electronic device in accordance with some embodiments.

Patent number 20080094368 is for a portable multifunction device, method and graphical user interface for displaying structured electronic documents. The inventors are Bas Ording, Scott Forstall, Greg Christie, Stephen O. Lemay, Imran Chaudhri, Richard Williamson, Chris Blumenberg and Marcel Van Os.

A computer-implemented method, for use in conjunction with a portable electronic device with a touch screen display, comprises displaying at least a portion of a structured electronic document on the touch screen display, wherein the structured electronic document comprises a plurality of boxes of content, and detecting a first gesture at a location on the displayed portion of the structured electronic document. A first box in the plurality of boxes at the location of the first gesture is determined. The first box on the touch screen display is enlarged and substantially centered.

Patent number 20080094356 is for methods for determining a cursor position from a finger contact with a touch screen display. The inventors are Bas Ording, Scott Forstall and Greg Christie.

The patent involves a portable device with a touch screen display that detects a contact area of a finger with the touch screen display and then determines a first position associated with the contact area. The cursor position of the finger contact is determined, at least in part, based on: the first position, one or more distances between the first position and one or more of the user interface objects; and one or more activation susceptibility numbers, each associated with a respective user interface object in the plurality of user interface objects. If the cursor position falls into the hidden hit region of a virtual push button on the touch screen display, the portable device is activated to perform operations associated with the virtual push button.

Patent number 20080094371 is for deleting gestures on a portable multifunction device. The inventors are Bas Ording, Scott Forstall, Stephen O. Lemay, Marcel Van Os and Greg Christie.

Deletion gestures for use on a portable multifunction device with a touch-sensitive display are disclosed. In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method for use in conjunction with the portable multifunction device comprises displaying a list of items on the touch-sensitive display, detecting a first gesture on the touch-sensitive display to edit the list of items, responding to the first gesture by displaying a first icon next to each deletable item in the list, detecting a second gesture on the touch-sensitive display to select one of the deletable items, and responding to the second gesture by displaying a second icon next to the selected item. If a third gesture on the second icon is detected, the selected deletable item is deleted. If a fourth gesture on the first icon next to the selected deletable item is detected, the second icon is deleted.

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