Closing, starting, and restarting applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9715282-B2
Application number	US-201313853964-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2013
Priority date	Mar 29, 2013
Publication date	Jul 25, 2017
Grant date	Jul 25, 2017

Abstract

Described herein are embodiments that relate to implementation of multi-stage gestures, using multi-stage gestures to control applications, and allowing, under certain conditions, invocation of an open operation (which would normally only open an application or bring an application to the fore) to cause a target application to terminate before being newly opened. A multi-stage gesture may be used to invoke different functions at respective gesture stages of a same input stroke. The functions may be different forms of application “closing”, such as backgrounding or suspending an application, terminating an application, and restarting an application. The restarting (including termination) of an application when the application is opened may be termed a “smart-restart”, which may involve interpreting from specific user activity that a user intends to restart an application.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of implementing a multi-stage gesture on a computing device comprising a processor, a display, and an input device, the method comprising:
receiving strokes, each stroke comprising a discrete contiguous two-dimensional path inputted by a user, each stroke controlling movement of a graphic representation of an application selected thereby, each application either executing or in a state of suspended execution, the computing device providing a first task management operation and a second task management operation, the task management operations available to be performed for applications configured to execute on the computing device, wherein the first task management operation comprises suspending or hiding an application on the computing device and the second task management operation comprises terminating an application on the computing device;
automatically identifying first-stage gestures by determining that corresponding first of the strokes have each individually satisfied a first condition, wherein each of the first of the strokes have ceased being inputted by the user after having satisfied the first condition and before being able to satisfy a second condition;
each time a first-stage gesture is identified, responding by automatically triggering the first task management operation on the correspondingly selected open application;
automatically identifying second-stage gestures by determining that second of the strokes have each individually satisfied the first condition and then satisfied the second condition, each of the second of the strokes having ceased to be inputted by the user after satisfying the first and second conditions; and
each time a second-stage gesture is identified, responding by automatically triggering the second task management operation on the correspondingly selected open application.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the computing provides a third task management operation, the method further comprising:
automatically identifying third-stage gestures by determining that corresponding third of the strokes have each individually satisfied the first condition then the second condition then the third condition, each of the third of the strokes having ceased to be inputted by the user in correspondence with satisfying the third condition.

3. A method according to claim 2 , wherein each time a third-stage gesture is identified, responding by automatically triggering a third task management operation comprising restarting the correspondingly selected application on the computing device.

4. A method according to claim 3 , wherein the first task management operation further comprises maintaining the correspondingly selected application in memory and causing the correspondingly selected application to be at least partially removed from the display, wherein the terminating an application comprises removing the application from memory, and wherein the re-starting comprises removing the application from memory and starting a new execution of the application.

5. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the first condition comprises: immediately before having moved in a direction determined to substantially match a first specified direction, having started at a first defined area or location, having moved a threshold distance, and/or having entered or ended at a second pre-defined area or location.

6. A method according to claim 2 , wherein the third condition comprises: having ended at a first pre-defined location or area, having ended after moving a threshold distance, and/or having ended at a second pre-defined location or area.

7. One or more computer-readable storage medium storing information to enable a computing device comprising a display, storage, and a processor to perform a process, the process comprising:
providing a first application management procedure and a second application management procedure, each available to be performed on applications configured to execute on the computing device;
receiving strokes detected by a user input device, each stroke comprising a discrete two-dimensional user-inputted path comprising a start of being inputted, an end of being inputted, and continuous input immediately after the start up until the end, and each stroke selecting a corresponding application installed on the computing device and controlling movement, on the display, of a corresponding graphic application representation; and
for each of the strokes, according to features of the strokes, determining when to invoke the first application management procedure and when to invoke the second application management procedure, wherein when a stroke lacking a second pre-defined feature is determined to have a first pre-defined feature before the corresponding end of being inputted, then the first application management procedure is invoked on the correspondingly selected application, and, when a stroke is determined to have the first pre-defined feature and immediately thereafter have a second pre-defined feature followed by the corresponding end of being inputted, then the second application management procedure is invoked on the correspondingly selected application, wherein the first and second application management procedures respectively comprise either (1) terminating an application and restarting an application, or (2) suspending an application and terminating an application.

8. A computer-readable storage medium according to claim 7 , the process further comprising providing a third application management procedure available to be invoked on the applications, and determining when to invoke the third application management procedure, wherein the third application management feature is invoked on a correspondingly selected application based on a determination that the stroke has the pre-defined first feature, the second pre-defined feature, and the third pre-defined feature.

9. A computer-readable storage medium according to claim 7 , wherein when a completed stroke does not have the second pre-defined feature then the second application management procedure is not invoked for the correspondingly selected application.

10. A computer-readable storage medium according to claim 8 , wherein the first application management procedure hides whichever application it is invoked on but does not terminate the application, and the second application management procedure at least terminates whichever application it is invoked on such that the application is neither running nor suspended after being terminated.

11. A computer-readable storage medium according to claim 8 , wherein whether a stroke invokes the first or second application management procedure depends, respectively, on whether the stroke is determined to have (i) the first pre-defined feature, or (ii) the first and second pre-defined features.

12. A computer-readable storage medium according to claim 7 , the process further comprising displaying a first visual effect responsive to detecting the first pre-defined feature and displaying a second visual effect responsive to detecting the second pre-defined feature.

13. A computer-readable storage medium according to claim 12 , wherein the first visual effect comprises displaying a reduced-size representation of the application, and the second visual effect comprises displaying a second representation of the application.

14. A computing device comprising:
a display;
storage storing instructions; and
a processor, when the computing device is operating, configured by the instructions to execute a process, the process comprising:
receiving inputs of strokes, each stroke consisting

Assignees

• Microsoft Corp
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Doan Christopher
• Sareen Chaitanya
• Worley Matthew
• Krause Michael
• Vranjes Miron

Classifications

• G06F3/04883 Primary

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

• G06F3/017 Primary

  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