Companies do take patents very seriously, since this is one way where they can protect their intellectual property and make a handsome sum of money out of it if others were to make use of it. Having said that, we have seen Apple wanting to protect a free-falling iOS device with their latest patent, and Microsoft too, intends to patent Multi-Touch-Movement (MTM) gestures that will target tablet devices.
Modern tablets with MTM gestures support integrated will enable users to interact with the device by touching the surface of the touchscreen using a single finger before proceeding to drag the entire finger across the surface of the touchscreen surface, so that one can pan through the device.
Right now, performing a zoom operation is also easy – just touch the surface of the touchscreen with a couple of fingers before moving the fingers closer together to zoom out, or farther apart to zoom in. There will be sensors including the accelerometer which will further augment the experience, for instance, whenever a device is rotated to landscape mode, the UI will be able to adjust itself automatically to the new orientation. We are all too familiar with that, and Microsoft intends to shake things up with a new set of MTM gestures.
Functionality is described herein for detecting and responding to gestures performed by a user using a computing device, such as, but not limited to, a tablet computing device. In one implementation, the functionality operates by receiving touch input information from at least one touch input mechanism in response to a user touching the computing device. The functionality also receives movement input information from at least one movement input mechanism in response to movement of the computing device. The functionality then determines whether the touch input information and the movement input information indicate that a user has performed or is performing a multi-touch-movement (MTM) gesture. In some cases, the user performs an MTM gesture by grasping the computing device with two hands and establishing contact with one or more surfaces of the computing device with those hands. The user then moves the computing device in a prescribed path, and/or to achieve a prescribed static posture. For example, the MTM gesture can be defined with respect to any type of tilting, flipping, pivoting, twisting, sliding, shaking, vibrating, and/or tapping motion.
The functionality can invoke any behavior in response to determining that the user has performed (or is performing) an MTM gesture. More specifically, in one case, the functionality performs the behavior after a discrete gesture has been performed. In another case, the functionality performs the behavior over the course of the gesture, once it is determined that the gesture is being performed. In one case, the functionality can modify a view in response to determining that the user has performed an MTM gesture. In another case, the functionality can invoke any function in response to determining that the user has performed an MTM gesture. In another case, the functionality can perform any type of control operation, e.g., by using the gesture to specify a parameter, a path, a range of values, etc. The control operation may affect any designated item in any manner. Still other types of behavior can be associated with gestures.