Apparatus and method of managing a plurality of objects displayed on touch screen

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016092063-A1
Application number	US-201514962267-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 8, 2015
Priority date	Nov 30, 2012
Publication date	Mar 31, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method and an apparatus of managing a plurality of objects displayed on a touch screen are provided. The method includes determining whether at least two objects of the plurality of objects have been touched simultaneously on the touch screen, determining whether at least one of the at least two objects has moved on the touch screen, if the at least two objects have been touched simultaneously, determining the distance between the touched at least two objects, if the at least one of the at least two objects has moved on the touch screen, combining the touched at least two objects into a set, if the distance between the touched at least two objects is less than a predetermined value, and displaying the set on the touch screen.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of displaying a plurality of objects on a display of an electronic device, the method comprising:
displaying a first object on the display of the electronic device; and displaying a plurality of second objects to radially surround the first object, wherein each of the plurality of second objects is disposed substantially equidistant from the first object.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first object and the plurality of second objects have a substantially circular shape.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first object and the plurality of second objects are vector icon images.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the first object and the plurality of second objects correspond to a specified application.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first object and the plurality of second objects form a hexagonal lattice arrangement.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of second objects includes six objects.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
displaying a plurality of third objects to radially surround one of the plurality of second objects, wherein each of the plurality of third objects is disposed substantially equidistant from the one of the plurality of second objects.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a first input at the electronic device; and modifying a size of the first object and the plurality of second objects based on the first input.

9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising maintaining a hexagonal lattice arrangement of the first object and the plurality of second objects when the size of the first object and the plurality of second objects is modified.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the modifying of the size of the first object and the plurality of second objects comprises uniformly resizing the first object and the plurality of second objects.

11 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving a second input at the electronic device, the second input corresponding to a selected one of the first object or one of the plurality second objects; and executing an application associated with the selected one of the first object or one of the plurality of second objects.

12 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the modifying of the size of the first object and the plurality of second objects comprises resizing the first object and the plurality of second objects a plurality of times.

13 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a first input at the electronic device, modifying the first object and the plurality of the second objects from a first size to a second size based on the first input; receiving a second input at the electronic device; and modifying the first object and the plurality of the second objects from the second size to a third size different from the first size based on the second input.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the second size is greater than the first size and the third size is greater than the second size.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the second size is less than the first size and the third size is less than the second size.

16 . An electronic device comprising:
a display configured to display a plurality of objects on a screen; and a controller configured to:
control the display to display a first object on the screen; and
control the display to display a plurality second objects to radially surround the first object,
wherein each of the plurality of second objects is disposed substantially equidistant from the first object.

17 . The electronic device of claim 16 , wherein the first object and the plurality of second objects have a substantially circular shape.

18 . The electronic device of claim 16 , wherein the first object and the plurality of second objects are vector icon images.

19 . The electronic device of claim 16 , wherein each of the first object and the plurality of second objects correspond to a specified application.

20 . The electronic device of claim 16 , wherein the first object and the plurality of second objects form a hexagonal lattice arrangement.

21 . The electronic device of claim 16 , wherein the plurality of second objects includes six objects.

22 . The electronic device of claim 16 ,
wherein the controller is further configured to display a plurality of third objects to radially surround one of the plurality of second objects, wherein each of the plurality of third objects is disposed substantially equidistant from the one of the plurality of second objects.

23 . The electronic device of claim 16 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
receive a first input at the electronic device; and modify a size of the first object and the plurality of second objects based on the first input.

24 . The electronic device of claim 23 ,
wherein the first object and the plurality of second objects form a hexagonal lattice arrangement, and wherein the hexagonal lattice arrangement is maintained when the size of the first object and the plurality of second objects is modified.

25 . The electronic device of claim 23 , wherein the controller is further configured to uniformly resize the first object and the plurality of second objects.

26 . The electronic device of claim 23 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
receive a second input at the electronic device, the second input corresponding to a selected one of the first object or one of the plurality second objects; and execute an application associated with the selected one of the first object or one of the plurality of second objects.

27 . The electronic device of claim 23 , wherein the controller is further configured to resize the first object and the plurality of second objects a plurality of times.

28 . The electronic device of claim 16 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
receive a first input at the electronic device; modify the first object and the plurality of the second objects from a first size to a second size based on the first input; receive a second input at the electronic device; and modify the first object and the plurality of the second objects from the second size to a third size different from the first size based on the second input.

29 . The electronic device of claim 28 , wherein the second size is greater than the first size and the third size is greater than the second size.

30 . The electronic device of claim 28 , wherein the second size is less than the first size and the third size is less than the second size.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Lee Seung-Myung

Classifications

• G06F3/0486

  Drag-and-drop · CPC title

• G06F3/04842

  Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements (G06F3/0482 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F3/0416 Primary

  Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers · CPC title

• G06F2203/04104

  Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger · CPC title

• G06F3/04883

  for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text · CPC title