Control of search results with multipoint pinch gestures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8930855-B2
Application number	US-201113340367-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 29, 2011
Priority date	Aug 3, 2011
Publication date	Jan 6, 2015
Grant date	Jan 6, 2015

Abstract

A device incorporates a touch-enabled screen configured to accept a user's interaction with the touch screen to control display of the results of searches for information online and for listings within ecommerce sites. A user's interaction with multipoint pinch gestures, applied to the touch screen and immediately above item data listings, navigates through large volumes of search results. By touch-selection of a facet of the item data returned in an item listing, a user may scale a characteristic of the selected facet of item data according to an application of multipoint pinch gestures. By application of a pinch-out and a pinch-in gesture respectively, a date facet of metadata may be scaled backward and forward in time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
displaying, by a device having a touch-enabled screen, a listing of items, including item data corresponding to each respective item in the listing of items, in an item data display area on the touch-enabled screen of the device, the listing of items resulting from a search of an online database, each item comprising image data and metadata;
receiving, from the touch-enabled screen of the device, an indication of a pinch gesture, including a pinch gesture characteristic, being implemented in association with a scaled-data display area within the item data display area, the scaled-data display area comprising an image data region and a metadata region, the association relative to a specific item in the listing of items;
in response to the pinch gesture, scaling a facet of the item data displayed in the scaled-data display area to produce a scaled-facet listing and displaying the scaled-facet listing;
receiving an indication of a change in the pinch gesture characteristic being implemented in association with the scaled-facet listing and correspondingly scaling a characteristic of the facet of the item data to produce a further scaled-facet listing; and
displaying the further scaled-facet listing in the scaled-data display area,
wherein scaling a facet of the item data in response to the pinch gesture includes:
scaling an initial temporal indicator of the metadata for the specific item in the listing of items to show metadata spanning forward in time, relative to the initial temporal indicator of the specific item without changing the image data for the specific item when the pinch gesture is a pinch-in gesture; and
scaling an initial temporal indicator of the metadata for the specific item in the listing of items to show metadata spanning backward in time, relative to the initial temporal indicator of the specific item without changing the image data for the specific item when the pinch gesture is a pinch-out gesture;
wherein scaling a characteristic of the facet of the item data in response to the change in pinch gesture comprises at least one of:
scaling a characteristic of the facet of the image data to replace previous image data with at least one of a thumbnail, a stylization, a characterization, symbolic image data, and a bullet point; and
scaling a characteristic of the facet of the metadata to replace previous metadata with at least one of a selection of sentences, a select phrase, a selection of words, a heading, and a subject.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein scaling a facet of the item data displayed in the scaled-data display area to produce a scaled-facet listing of associated item data includes:
in response to the pinch gesture and in association with a characteristic corresponding with the facet of the item data displayed in the sealed-data display area, modifying a degree of the characteristic in one of a decreasing amount and an increasing amount according to an amount of a corresponding change in the pinch gesture characteristic, the pinch gesture being one of a pinch-out gesture and a pinch-in gesture; and
displaying the scaled-facet listing in the sealed-data display area further including displaying an updated set of item data having the modified degree of the characteristic scaled by a corresponding pinch gesture characteristic.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein:
the facet of the item data being a temporal indicator and
in response to the pinch-out gesture, the scaled-facet listing being a sealed-in listing produced as an updated portion of item data having an earlier temporal indicator than an initial display of item data; and
displaying the scaled-facet listing includes replacing previous item data with the scaled-in listing within the sealed-data display area.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein:
the facet of the item data being a temporal indicator and
in response to the pinch-in gesture, the scaled-facet listing being a scaled-out listing produced as an updated display of item data having a later temporal indicator than an initial display of item data; and
displaying the scaled-facet listing includes replacing previous item data with the scaled-out listing within the scaled-data display area.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the facet of the item data being a temporal indicator and the modifying a degree of the characteristic further comprises:
producing a scaled-in listing implemented as an updated portion of item data having an earlier temporal indicator than an initial display of item data by an amount proportional to a magnitude of a pinch gesture characteristic corresponding to the pinch-out gesture and
wherein displaying the scaled-facet listing includes replacing previous item data with the scaled-in listing within the scaled-data display area.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the pinch-out gesture having a pinch gesture characteristic being one of a pinch-out velocity, a pinch-out magnitude, and a pinch-out orientation, each pinch gesture characteristic having respectively a velocity, a distance, and an angle respectively, according to which a separation between a first touch point and a second touch point increases.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the pinch-out gesture includes at least one of:
scaling the listing to produce the scaled-in listing at a rate corresponding to the pinch-out velocity; and
scaling the listing to produce the scaled-in listing by an amount corresponding to the pinch-out magnitude,
the at least one of scaling the listing at a rate and scaling the listing by an amount, indicated with a particular pinch-out orientation.

8. The method of claim 2 , wherein the facet of the item data being a temporal indicator and the modifying a degree of the characteristic further comprises:
producing a scaled-out listing implemented as an updated portion of item data having a later temporal indicator than an initial display of item data by an amount proportional to a magnitude of a pinch gesture characteristic corresponding to the pinch-in gesture and
wherein displaying the scaled-facet listing includes replacing previous item data with the scaled-out listing within the scaled-data display area.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the pinch-in gesture having a pinch gesture characteristic being one of a pinch-in velocity, a pinch-in magnitude, and a pinch-in orientation, each pinch gesture characteristic having respectively a velocity, a distance, and an angle respectively, according to which a separation between a first touch point and a second touch point decreases.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the pinch-in gesture includes at least one of:
scaling the listing to produce the scaled-out listing at a rate corresponding to the pinch-in velocity; and
scaling the listing to produce the scaled-out listing by an amount corresponding to the pinch-in magnitude,
the at least one of scaling the listing at a rate and scaling the listing by an amount, indicated with a particular pinch-in orientation.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium embodying a set of instructions, that when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
displaying, by a device having a touch-enabled screen, a listing of items, including item data corresponding to each respective item in the listing of items, in an item data display area on a the touch-enabled screen of the device, the listing of items resulting from a search of an online database, each item comprising image data and metadata;
receiving, from the touch-enabled screen of the device, an indication of a pinch gesture, including a pinch gesture characteristic, being im

Assignees

• Yuan Han-Shen
• Melcher Ryan
• Yankovich Steve
• Ebay Inc

Inventors

• Yuan Han-Shen
• Melcher Ryan
• Yankovich Steve

Classifications

• G06F3/04883 Primary

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

• G06F3/0482 Primary

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title

• G06F3/0484

  for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range · CPC title

• G06F3/017

  Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures (interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883) · CPC title

• G06F2203/04808

  Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen · CPC title