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Contents
1. me ugneanddy ajdues 5 655 093 Sheet 5 of 14 Aug 5 1997 U S Patent ASSEN NS SS SSS 006 06 OH SS AR Ne AN Sa SSE ugneayddy asdues SISI suas 8 9 wel Upi ald 5 655 093 Sheet 6 of 14 Aug 5 1997 U S Patent 002 III uupeayddy ajdwesg WSEAS 5823399921 Bumer pal pT 333 Ki U S Patent Aug 5 1997 Sheet 7 of 14 5 655 093 Sample Apple aton 5355 Flle Edit Ted Drawing Preferences SEE 241 241 RS FIG 3B FIG 3C FIG 3D FIG SE U S Patent Aug 5 1997 Sheet 8 of 14 5 655 093 Sample Appheatiun File Edit Text Drawing Preferences SRT FF E NG ES x Nai EN ES IE IT IT TG IK LET as SSD N FIG 3F o CJ O U S Patent Aug 5 1997 Sheet 9 of 14 5 655 093 pr NN Sanque Appleaten File Edt Jext Drawing Preferences 95 KA RN a ES N N 5 FIG 4A TEN 24 275b FIG 4B FIG 2 275d 241 Pa 241 265 2756 FIG 4D FIG 4E 5 655 093 Sheet 10 of 14 Aug 5 1997 U S Patent HOM 19S 1H914 v 53113 Tad ANY 155 433 MVHG ICON me SAND dv Old NITO TOS NINO 8 1HOIH 489 8 0 5 Tad NITO 19S 0 ANV 1 31 1531 S ig XAT TOS 0 52. 25 30 45 50 55 65 2 process one user typed command at a time In an effort to keep the number of keystrokes required for a command to a manageable level these command line interfaces tended to employ short commands however these commands were often cryptic as well Thus while VDTs provided increased flexibility these command line interfaces were still far from intuitive for the average user With increasingly widespread availability of powerful microprocessors graphical user interfaces GUIs pro nounces gooeys have become feasible GUI is a type of display format that enables a user to operate a computer by pointing to pictorial representations such as icons bitmaps and pull down menus displayed on a screen device Choices are generally selected by the user with a keyboard and or pointing device the latter including such well known devices as a mouse track ball digitizing tablet and light pen or the like Thus the need for the user to memorize special commands has been lessened by the ability to operate a computer by selecting screen objects Well known GUIs include Apple s Macintosh Mac interface Microsoft s Windows IBM s OS 2 Presentation Manager Sun Microsystem s Open Look and Open Soft ware Foundation s Motif Employing one or more windows a menu bar and a screen pointer each of these systems can be readily distinguished from almost any non GUI system The screen
3. a cursor for indicating a position at a particular pixel on the user interface said cursor moving on the user interface in response to movement of a pointing device by a user said pointing device including at least two user activated buttons each which generates a first signal when single clicked by the user and generating a second signal when double clicked by the user and as the pointing device is moved by the user displaying feedback to the user for indicating all combinations of said signals which comprise valid input for each pixel pointed to by the cursor as it moves across the user interface
4. are easier to use To increase ease of use designers of computer systems have labored for decades to create architectures which are intuitive Most of this effort has been centered around the user interface or Ul the means by which a user commu nicates i e supplies input and receives output with a computer Not surprisingly the quality of a user interface depends to an extent on the technology in the underlying hardware Early advances in user interface design came in the form of interactive computer systems Unlike batchprocess ing systems these computers allowed users to interact in real time often printing the desired results moments after the user had keyed in an appropriate command Employing teletype ITY terminals however these early command line systems were interactive only to the extent of receiving or printing one line of text at a time As TTY interfaces gave way to video display terminals VDTs it became possible for a user to input and receive information anywhere on a screen Typically employing special keystrokes these character based VDTs allowed a user to move a cursor across the screen Thus a user could go back reposition the cursor and correct mistakes and or otherwise update information Exemplified Microsoft s DOS A gt prompt these sys tems were still rather limited in their ability to receive user input however A typical system for example could only 10 15 20
5. clicks the corresponding menu item with the screen or mouse pointer For some menu items particularly those which may be nested in several layers deep a keyboard equivalent or hot key may be available but Unfortunately these must also be memorized by the user A window is a rectangle displayed on the screen that allows a user to work within a program In typical operation the user may move the window about on the screen change its size or shape enlarge it to fill the screen close it entirely or change how much of its contents are displayed To aid the user in the manipulation of its contents a window will typically include a number of user interface components such as buttons menus sliders and the like Outside the window the screen can display other screen objects such as other windows disk drive icons or even a trash can icon 5 655 093 3 Another advantage attendant to a GUI environment is consistency of operation between application software For example a task common to more than one application e g saving a data file is generally performed in the same manner regardless of the particular application e g spreadsheet wordprocessor and the like currently operating To foster this consistency most GUI vendors publish style guides setting forth interface guidelines for application developers IBM s System Application Architecture Common User Access Advanced Interface Design Guide SC26 4582 0 and Mic
6. cursor or pointer typically displayed as a small arrow icon bitmap allows the user to select indi vidual points on the screen In operation the screen cursor moves to a desired screen location in response to movements of a pointing device e g mouse by the user Besides movement most pointing devices include one or more switches or mouse buttons for specifying additional user input or user events For example a user may select a screen point by clicking depressing and releasing a mouse button once while the cursor is positioned at the desired point By double clicking two mouse clicks in rapid succession a user may select an item and start an action By dragging continually depressing a mouse button the user may move objects on the screen or select groups of objects Thus objects can be picked up moved and directly manipu lated with a versatility that is not possible with a keyboard alone Moveover pointing is a very natural human action which unlike a keyboard does not require any special training to master The menu bar runs across the top of the screen and serves to group or categorize commands available to the user Clicking on an item on the menu bar typically causes a pull down menu to appear This second or submenu also includes a number of items each of which is associated with a desired action including the display of even more menus To select a desired action the user usually
7. indication to the user of which pointing device input operations mouse button clicks if any are available at a given instance In FIG 3H for example the cursor 225f changes e g into a crosshair to indicate a different mode of operation such as enlarging or shrinking the screen object 241 However there is still no indication to the user of how such an operation would be achieved Should the user perform a left mouse click or a drag to effect the currently available operation Thus even though a screen cursor may be updated with different bitmaps to indicate various modes of operation available to the user such updates do not indicate the particular action which the user must undertake to accomplish the available operation INTELLIGENT SCREEN CURSOR 1 User Interface Referring now to FIGS 4 7 a user interface for the intelligent screen cursor of the present invention will be illustrated In FIGS 4A E the screen cursor operation of FIGS 3A E will again be illustrated this time employing the intelligent screen cursor of the present invention In FIG 4A screen object 241 is again illustrated in the client area 220 of window 200 in this example however the move ment of an intelligent screen cursor 275 towards the object 241 indicated by the dashed arrow will be shown As illustrated in FIGS 4B E as the intelligent screen cursor 275 moves towards the object 241 valid input operations available to the user are sh
8. 200 may be accessed as follows The client area of each window is treated as a separate drawing surface comprised of a two dimensional array of picture elements or pixels Default drawing coordinates are provided so that the origin 0 0 is in the upper left corner of the windows client area with corre sponding maximum coordinates at the lower right hand corner Fach pixel may be individually addressed by appli cation and or system software thereby permitting the dis play and access of any desired graphic image Thus instead of entering a series of complex or cryptic commands the user may simply point at a screen object and then indicate the action desired To achieve this point and shoot functionality practi cally all GUIs provide a screen cursor or pointer such as the screen cursor 225 Screen cursor 225 is an icon or small bitmap image or mask commonly in the form of a slanted arrow which appears to float i e freely move across a screen in response to user input signals e g from the pointing device 105 The screen cursor includes a hot 10 15 20 25 35 45 50 55 65 6 spot e g the tip of the arrow for indicating an exact position Since the most popular pointing device employed is a mouse device the screen cursor 225 is often referred to as a mouse cursor Single button double button and triple button mouse devices which may serve to generate signals for the cursor 225 a
9. 883 3 80 ONY GNV 19S NINO LNIW3AOW WS 1431 3NON SEA 2 0 5 655 093 Sheet 11 of 14 Aug 5 1997 U S Patent Old TULI AAN 0 433 AX 1 45 M0170 915 HINO 155 433 5 655 093 Sheet 12 of 14 Aug 5 1997 U S Patent 85 Ol U S Patent Aug 5 1997 Sheet 13 of 14 nog BS File Edt Text Drawing Preferences Sample Apphestion CLICK LEFT BUTTON TO SELECT OBJECT FIG 6A Sample Applizatign File Edt Jext Drawing Preferences 5 655 093 e A U S Patent Aug 5 1997 Sheet 14 of 14 5 655 093 700 701 DETERMINE IF MOUSE PRESENT SM MOUSEPRESENT 702 DETERMINE MOUSE SIGNALS WHICH ARE VALID 703 DETERMINE BITMAP ICON WHICH MATCHES AVAILABLE VALID INPUT SIGNALS SET MOUSE ICON TO DETERMINED BITMAP SETCURSOR FIG 7 5 655 093 1 INTELLIGENT SCREEN CURSOR This is a File Wrapper Continuation Patent application of application Ser No 07 847 504 filed Mar 6 1992 now abandoned A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whats
10. United States Patent p79 US005655093A 11 Patent Number 5 655 093 Frid Nielsen 45 Date of Patent Aug 5 1997 54 INTELLIGENT SCREEN CURSOR 5 235 679 8 1993 Yoshizawa et al 6 395 161 X 75 Inventor Lars Frid Nielsen Santa Cruz Calif OTHER PUBLICATIONS Mastering WordPerfect 5 1 x 5 2 for Windows Trademark 73 Assignee Borland International Inc Scotts of Sybex Inc 1992 pp 6 8 69 70 646 649 659 x Valley Calif 665 666 Wordperfect 5 1 for Windows by Example Trademark of 21 Appl No 751 457 Tony Webster amp Associates 1992 pp 1 3 9 381 385 amp 551 554 22 Filed Nov 18 1996 Matthies Kurt W G Balloon Help Takes Off MacUser Related U S Application Data Dec 1991 pp 241 248 Primary Examiner Phu K Nguyen 63 Continuation of Ser No 847 504 Mar 6 1992 abandoned Assistant Examiner Cliff N Vo eee iaaa ai iS 666 3 00 Attorney Agent or Firm Jobn A Smart 52 US Ch 395 326 395 334 57 ABSTRACT 58 Field of Search 395 326 334 395 336 333 337 345 156 7 A system for assisting a user of a computer system in entering valid information includes a computer having a 56 References Cited processor and a memory a display device for illustrating screen objects a screen cursor for indicating a location on U S PATENT DOCUMENTS the display device a
11. ailable In Windows for example a mouse pointer message WM_NCHITEST may be employed to query where a mouse cursor is posi tioned on a window The query returns a hit test code indicating the location For example a code of HTVSCROLL indicates that the cursor is positioned on the vertical scroll bar HTCLIENT on the other hand indicates that the cursor is positioned within the client area Moreover a window object may include additional routines for testing whether the screen cursor is within a predefined hit radius for screen objects e g employing Windows PtInRegion and PtinRect routines and or determining a current mode of operation e g draw edit select and the like for the system 10 15 20 25 30 35 45 50 55 10 From this information the system may discern a set of input device signals which are valid In step 703 a screen cursor bitmap correctly illustrating the pointing device sig nals available for input is determined For example if the current hit test code is HTREDUCE cursor is positioned at the windows minimize button the left single click cursor bitmap 281 is chosen In step 704 the screen cursor is updated with the bitmap determined to be appropriate from step 703 The actual updating may be accomplished by employing Windows CreateCursor and SetCursor routines which are fully described in the above cited Windows SDK materials In step 705 a loop is established to wait fo
12. ce for example the bitmap cursor may display a mouse device icon showing which button s should be depressed 10 15 20 25 30 35 45 50 55 65 4 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1A is a block diagram of a computer system in which the present invention may be embodied FIG 1B a block diagram of a software system of the present invention which may include operating system application software and user interface components FIG 2A bitmap screen shots illustrating the basic archi tecture and functionality of a graphical user interface including the operation of a screen mouse cursor or pointer FIG 2B is a collection of screen cursor icons which may serve to indicate different modes e g drawing mode of operation FIGS 2C E are bitmap screen shots illustrating the use of different screen cursors to indicate mode of operation FIGS 3A E illustrate the operation of a screen cursor which does not provide immediate feedback of the actual input options available to the user FIGS 3F J illustrate the operation of a screen cursor which unlike the cursor of FIGS 3A E indicates the availability of an additional mode however the cursor still does not provide immediate feedback of the actual input options available to the user FIGS 4A E illustrate an intelligent screen cursor of the present invention which allows the user to immediately determine valid options available for an input dev
13. computer graphics those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the present invention may be employed in certain character based systems as well INTRODUCTION The following description will focus on the Microsoft Windows environment which is currently one of the most popular GUI interfaces The present invention however is not limited to any particular interface but instead may be advantageously applied to any environment which allows user input by means of a screen cursor Therefore the description of the windowing environment which follows is for purposes of illustration and not limitation As shown in FIG 2A most all GUIs are based on a graphical window metaphor Window 200 which is dis played on the screen 106 is a rectangular graphical user interface for viewing and manipulating graphic images Window 200 contains a menu bar 210 having a plurality of choices each of which may invoke additional submenus and software tools for use on screen images Window 200 includes a client area 220 for displaying images such as graphics or text objects In essence this is a workspace or viewport for the user to interact with data objects which reside within the computer system 100 Regions outside of the area 220 on the other hand are commonly referred to as non client areas Important to the successful implementation of any GUI is the ability of the user to access individual points in a window Objects within the window
14. es of the intelligent screen cursor of the present invention will be illustrated Both figures illustrate the interaction between a screen cursor and the scroll bar 217 of window 200 In FIG 5A as the screen cursor 225 touches different components of the scroll bar 217 there is no indication or feedback to the user of what pointing device input s if any are acceptable In FIG 5B in contrast the intelligent screen cursor 275 indicates the valid inputs of the pointing device at all times At position 1 for example the cursor 275 displays the bitmap 280 thus indicating only movement of the pointing device is available At position 2 the cursor 275 is updated with the bitmap 281 to indicate that a left single click is a valid entry At position 3 the cursor 275 is again updated this time with the bitmap 286 thus indicating valid pointing device input includes left click and drag operations Finally at position 4 the cursor 275 reverts back to the bitmap 281 to indicate to the user that a left single click is the only currently valid pointing device input other than movement Referring now to FIGS 6A B alternative embodiments of the intelligent screen cursor of the present invention will be illustrated In FIG 6A which corresponds to previous FIG 4D the intelligent screen cursor 275 may be accom panied by additional screen indicia such as textual mes sages Thus as the cursor 275 touches the object 241 a screen mes
15. ice FIGS 4F G are a collection of icons for the intelligent screen cursor of the present invention each of which serves to indicate valid options available for an input device different modes e g drawing mode of operation may be indicated as well FIGS 5A B are partial bitmap screen shots illustrating the advantages of the intelligent screen cursor during inter action with a window scroll bar FIG 6A is a bitmap screen shot illustrating an alternative embodiment of the present invention where the intelligent screen cursor is augmented with textual screen information FIG 6B is a bitmap screen shot illustrating a lesser preferred embodiment of the present invention where user feedback is provided by graphic and or textual information or other indicia displayed at a location remote from the actual screen cursor FIG 7 is a flowchart of a method of the present invention for implementing an intelligent screen cursor DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The invention may be embodied on a computer system such as the system 100 of FIG 1A which comprises a central processor 101 a main memory 102 an input output controller 103 a keyboard 104 a pointing device 105 e g mouse track ball pen device or the like a display device 106 and a mass storage 107 e g hard disk Additional input output devices such as a printing device 108 may be included in the system 100 as desired As shown the various com
16. n input device for positioning the screen 4 622 013 11 1986 Cerchio 434 118 x cursor and screen information for indicating user operations 4 789 962 12 1988 Berry 395 155 available with the input device 4 964 077 10 1990 Eisen 364 419 1 5 123 087 6 1992 Newell 395 155 X 1 Claim 14 Drawing Sheets TG 7 Pi NONE LEFT LEFT SGL LEFT SGL LEFT SGL MOVEMENT ONLY SGL CLICK AND DBL AND DBL AND DBL CLICKS CLICKS CLICKS RIGHT RIGHT SGL SGL CLICK AND DBL CLICKS a 285 286 287 K K LEFT SGL LEFT LEFT AND DBL SGL CLICK DBL CLICK CLICKS DRAG DRAG 4 DRAG RIGHT RIGHT SGL CLICK U S Patent Aug 5 1997 Sheet 1 of 14 5 655 093 KEYBOARD POINTING DEVICE 102 DISPLAY DEVICE MAIN M MEMORY STORAGE VO CONTROLLER PRINTING 101 DEVICE CENTRAL PROCESSOR 110 151 APPLICATION SOFTWARE OPERATING SYSTEM INTERFACE USER FIG 1B 5 655 093 Sheet 2 of 14 Aug 5 1997 U S Patent m BU PEE BBS Llc Sic uoyeayddy 3 19 95 U S Patent Aug 5 1997 Sheet 3 of 14 5 655 093 gt gt gt 8 8 N co N BI ta FIG 2B 8 8 ao 5 8 Bb 5 655 093 Sheet 4 of 14 Aug 5 1997 U S Patent 9c OH LEG gt mopuim 095 ul 5995 aq Aew YOIYM jo 90 5 e 91 533 3 523 1 Guan pol Mp3
17. oever BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to computer sys tems and more particularly to systems and techniques for receiving information from and conveying information to a user of a computer system With the advent of the personal computer the use of computer systems is becoming increasingly prevalent in everyday life In the past computers were often housed in highly restricted areas with access limited to a few com puter scientists and programmers Today however comput ers can be seen on the desktops of most business profes sionals Running software applications such as word processors and spreadsheets for example even the average business professional can realize substantial productivity gains Besides the business environment computers can also be found in wide use both at home and at school Also in contrast to the past the average computer user of today is usually not a computer scientist Instead he or she will typically have little or no formal training in the com puter sciences or even in the basic use of a personal computer Nevertheless these untrained workers often must be proficient in the use of computers in order to compete effectively in the job market An applicant for a legal secretary position today for example is expected to be proficient in the use of wordprocessing software such as WordPerfect As a result there have been much interest in providing computers which
18. ouble clicks and a right single and double clicks As shown by bitmaps 285 286 287 a drag operation e g continuous depressing of a mouse button coupled with movement may be indicated as well with appropriate user motion suggested by arrows or other visual clues Moreover the intelligent cursor of the present invention may also provide screen information indicating a particular mode of operation e g draw mode Bitmap 289 for example illustrates the available mode of operation e g draw mode as well as the pointing device inputs e g left single and double clicks with drag and right single click which are currently available As illustrated in FIG 4G the intelligent screen cursor of the present invention may display other screen indicia including additional graphic elements and or alphanumeric information to illustrate or convey available user inputs Screen cursor bitmaps 291 292 for example include a diamond graphic object to indicate an available double click unlike previously illustrated cursor bitmaps 282 284 single click capability is not assumed As still yet another example screen cursor bitmaps 291 293 294 and 295 include textual information indicating available clicks 6 8 S for single click D for double click In a similar manner keyboard states e g SHIFT ALT and CTRL which are to accom pany a mouse input may also be indicated Referring now to FIGS SA B the advantag
19. own directly by the screen cursor 275 In FIG 4D for example a left mouse button of the screen cursor 275c is highlighted with a single caret 265 to indicate that a left mouse click may be entered by the user at this point in time As shown in FIG 4E a double click of the left mouse button may be indicated by additional screen indicia such as a double caret 266 displayed within the left button area of screen cursor 275d In FIGS 4B and 4C however the mouse button 265 of cursor 275 is not high lighted i e it is displayed as blank or empty as there are no valid pointing device input signals available other than general movement of the pointing device As shown in FIG 4F exemplary pointing device input may be indicated as follows Bitmap 280 illustrates the system context When no pointing device input is valid other than general movement of the pointing device Bitmap 281 indicates a left single click Bitmap 282 on the other hand indicates a valid left single and double clicks In this instance a single click is assumed accompany a double click alternatively each signal may be shown separately as described hereinbelow Moreover signals from different buttons may be indicated In bitmap 283 for example valid 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 65 8 input includes a left single and double clicks and a right single click In bitmap 284 on the other hand valid input includes a left single and d
20. ponents of the system 100 communicate through a system bus 110 or similar architecture Illustrated in FIG 1B a computer software system 150 is provided for programming the operation of the computer system 100 Software system 150 which is stored in system memory 102 and on disk memory 107 includes an kernel or operating system 151 and a shell or interface 153 One or more application programs such as application software 152 may be loaded i e transferred from storage 107 into 5 655 093 5 memory 102 for execution by the system 100 Under the command of software 151 and or application software 152 the system 100 receives user commands and data through user interface 153 The interface 153 also serves to display results whereupon the user may supply additional inputs or terminate the session In a preferred embodiment the system 100 is an IBM compatible personal computer available from a variety of vendors including IBM of Armonk N Y Operating sys tem 151 is MS DOS and interface 153 is Microsoft Windows both of which are available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond Wash Application software 152 can be any one of a variety of software applications including word processing database spreadsheet CAD applications and the like Alternatively the system 100 may be implemented in other platforms including Macintosh Unix and the like While the present invention is best implemented in those systems employing
21. r the next user event such as moving the screen cursor a user event has occurred and the user has not terminated the event loop yes at step 706 then the method loops back to step 702 for updating the screen cursor as necessary Upon termination of the session by the user no at step 706 the method concludes While the invention is described in some detail with specific reference to a single preferred embodiment and certain alternatives there is no intent to limit the invention to that particular embodiment or those specific alternatives For example the intelligent screen cursor of the present invention has been illustrated with mouse device bitmaps Those skilled in the art however will appreciate that the intelligent screen cursor of the present invention may include bitmaps of other input devices including trackballs Joysticks light pens and the like Moreover the present invention may be advantageously implemented in a variety of other UI platforms including Macintosh X Windows Motif Next Step and the like Thus the true scope of the present invention is not limited to any one of the foregoing exemplary embodiments but is instead defined by the fol lowing claims What is claimed is 1 In a computer system an improved method for pro viding feedback to a user the method comprising displaying a user interface comprising a two dimensional array of picture elements pixels displaying on the user interface
22. re available from a variety of vendors including Apple Computers of Cupertino Calif Microsoft Corporation of Redmond Wash and Logitech Corporation of Fremont Calif As shown in FIG 2B Microsoft Windows includes standard or stock cursors 230 239 for use by application programs As shown in FIGS 2C E these different cursor bitmaps are employed to indicate different modes of opera tion In FIG 2C for example the user has entered a text object 240 in the client area 220 of the window 200 In this example the mouse pointer is displayed as the I beam cursor bitmap 231 for indicating the current insertion point for entering text into the client area 220 Thus the cursor 231 indicates a screen position and a system mode text entry In a similar manner as shown in FIG 2D the screen cursor may be displayed as a crosshair bitmap 233 In this example the crosshair indicates a screen position and a drawing mode such as an ellipse drawing mode Once an object has been drawn the screen cursor 225 may revert back to the default cursor bitmap 230 as shown in FIG 2E The exact function of the default cursor is however not self evident instead the user would likely have to refer to a user s manual to discern available input options Refer now to FIGS 3A J various operations of the screen cursor 225 will be illustrated In FIG 3A the client area 220 of the window 200 contains the graphic object ellipse 241 The user desires to mo
23. ring within a windows client area may be reported by the following messages WM LBUTTONDBLCLK Left button double click WM_LBUTTONDOWN Left button down WM_LBUTTONUP Left button up WM_MBUTTONDBLCLK Middle button double click WM_MBUTTONDOWN Middle button down WM_MBUTTONUP Middle button up WM__MOUSEMOVE Mouse Move WM_RBUTTONDBLCLK Right button double click WM_RBUTTONDOWN Right button down WM_RBUTTONUP Right button up Similar messages for mouse events occurring in non client areas are also available Since the non client area of a window is maintained by Windows however these latter messages are often safely ignored by a window object The dispatching of messages in an event based system such as Microsoft Windows is known in the art see e g Petzold C Programming Windows Second Edition Microsoft Press 1990 Additional information can be found in Microsoft s Window Software Development Kit includ ing 1 Guide to Programming 2 Reference Vols 1 and 2 and 3 Tools all available from Microsoft Corp of Redmond Wash The disclosures of each of the foregoing are hereby incorporated by reference The individual steps of the method 700 are as follows In step 701 the system determines if a pointing device such as a mouse device is present This is a simple matter of querying Windows system settings In step 702 the system determines a context including the current mouse cursor location and operation s currently av
24. rosoft s Windows style guides are two such examples Despite efforts to present a consistent interface however most application software still requires complex user actions such as triple clicking or dragging a mouse device while a key is held down Thus there typically exists a plethora of ways to do almost anything in a graphical interface such as the Mac While this increases the flexibil ity of a system it also adds to the complexity of the interface that the user must master And this problem is by no means limited just to novice users Experienced computer users are reluctant to read user manuals and hence often fair no better than novice users The problem of interface complexity is even worse between GUIs from different vendors In that case there is usually no common style guide to which the multi platform application developer can turn Moreover competing GUIs will often be purposely inconsistent presumably for mar keting and or legal reasons All told the user is still required to memorize special commands The present invention recognizes that it is highly desirable to provide computers with system and application software which is highly intuitive to users including those who are untrained in the use of the software What is needed is a system and interface methods which require little or no knowledge of specific commands by the user More particularly the system should automatically and explicitly indicate to the u
25. sage 301 is displayed to assist the user even further in understanding valid inputs and their conse quences In a lesser preferred embodiment shown in FIG 6B the intelligent screen cursor of the present invention may pro vide screen information at a region remote from the current cursor position e g at a separate window In this case a window 303 containing a functional bitmap such as those from FIG 4F is operationally coupled to the screen cursor 225 Therefore the intelligent screen cursor of the present invention may also employ remote graphical indicia such as feedback window 303 to indicate to the user which pointing device operations are valid As still yet another embodiment 5 655 093 9 pointing device 105 itself may provide this information for example in the form of visual e g LED or LCD or tactile e g vibrating clues The pointing device information itself may be provided in addition to or in lieu of the screen cursor 2 Internal Operation Referring now to FIG 7 the internal processes of the system 100 will now be described in detail The operation of the intelligent cursor is performed by an event driven method 700 which may be invoked by a message dispatcher in response to user events including keyboard and mouse events Moreover the method determines user events e g left button double click which are currently valid and reports them to the user By way of example mouse events commonly occur
26. ser the appropriate action he or she may take The present invention fulfills this and other needs SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A system of the present invention for assisting the user in entering valid information includes a computer having a processor and a memory a display device for illustrating screen objects a screen cursor for indicating a location on the display device an input device for positioning the screen cursor and displayed screen information for indicating user operations available with the input device In a preferred embodiment the system includes an intelligent screen cur sor providing both screen location information as well as information about which user input s if any are valid in a given context of the system A method of the present invention for assisting a user of a computer system having an input device includes deter mining valid user signals which are available for the input device in the current context of the system displaying screen information indicating operation s of the input device which correspond to the determined valid user signals and continually updating the screen information for different screen locations or contexts of the computer system In a preferred method of the present invention the valid signals or user inputs which may be entered with a pointing device are indicated to the user by a screen cursor bitmap which illustrates how the signals are generated For a two button mouse devi
27. ursors icons 230 239 of FIG 2B does not solve the problem the user is still required to know the valid point ing device operations beforehand This is illustrated with particular reference to FIGS 3F J In FIG 3F the screen object 241 shown again in the client area 220 of window 200 has been selected e g user has invoked a selection mode as indicated by bounding boxes or handles such as handle 243 In FIGS 3G J the movement of the screen 5 655 093 7 cursor 225 towards the screen object 241 is again illustrated In FIG 3G the screen cursor 225 approaches the object 241 as shown by the cursor 225e In FIG 3H the screen cursor 225 is within a preselected minimum distance hit radius of the handle 243 At this point the screen cursor 225 is updated with the cursor bitmap 233 to indicate that a different mode of operation is available to the user such as resizing the object 241 As shown in FIG 31 the screen cursor now cursor 225g will continue to display the cursor bitmap 233 while the cursor is within the hit radius of the handle 243 Once the screen cursor is outside of the hit radius of the handle 243 for example it is inside the object 241 as shown by the cursor 225h of FIG 31 the screen cursor reverts back to the default bitmap 230 While the screen cursor is updated with a different bitmap e g crosshairs of cursors 225f 225g during the foregoing operation there is still no visual clue or
28. ve the screen cursor 225 towards the ellipse 241 the general direction of movement being indicated by a dashed arrow This operation is illustrated specifically in FIGS 3B E From FIG 3B to FIG 3C the screen cursor 225 has moved towards the ellipse 241 as indicated by the transition from cursor 225a to cursor 225b for example in response to the pointing device 105 being moved in an upward and left direction In FIGS 3D and 3E the movement of the screen cursor 225 continues towards the screen object 241 In FIG 3D for example the tip or hot point of the screen cursor 225 is touching the object 241 as indicated by the cursor 225c In FIG 3E movement of the screen cursor 225 has continued such that itis now placed within the object 241 as indicated by screen cursor 225d Throughout the foregoing sequence of operation the user receives no indication or feedback of what input signals i e mouse clicks are valid In FIG 3D for example it may be a valid operation for the user to select the object 241 by left clicking the pointing device 105 In FIG 3E for example it may be a valid operation for the user to double click a left button of the pointing device 105 to invoke a particular operation such as duplicating the object 241 As shown however there is no indication which if any of these pointing device operations are available to the user at a given time Merely selecting different cursor bitmaps such as from c
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