The verdict in the Samsung vs Apple trial is out and Samsung has been found guilty of infringing on several of Apple’s patents. I’ve recently wrote an article about Patent ‘381 . In this article I would like to take a closer look at Patent ‘915. This is commonly referred to the ‘pinch to zoom’ patent. The application of this patent was filed in January , 2007 and was granted in November, 2010. The patent is titled – Application programming interfaces for scrolling operations and the full patent number is US7,844,915. The inventors are listed as Andrew Platzer and Scot Herz.
The Invention of Patent ‘915:
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“At least certain embodiments of the present disclosure include an environment with user interface software interacting with a software application. A method for operating through an application programming interface (API) in this environment includes transferring a set bounce call. The method further includes setting at least one of maximum and minimum bounce values. The set bounce call causes a bounce of a scrolled region in an opposite direction of a scroll based on a region past an edge of the scrolled region being visible in a display region at the end of the scroll.”
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The Background of Patent ‘915:
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“An API is a source code interface that a computer system or program library provides in order to support requests for services from a software application. An API is specified in terms of a programming language that can be interpretative or compiled when an application is built, rather than an explicit low-level description of how data is laid out in memory. The software that provides the functionality described by an API is said to be an implementation of the API.
Various devices such as electronic devices, computing systems, portable devices, and handheld devices have software applications. The API interfaces between the software applications and user interface software to provide a user of the device with certain features and operations. A user may desire certain operations such as scrolling, selecting, gesturing, and animating operations for a display of the device.
Scrolling is the act of sliding a directional (e.g., horizontal or vertical) presentation of content, such as text, drawings, or images, across a screen or display window. In a typical graphical user interface, scrolling is done with the help of a scrollbar or using keyboard shortcuts often the arrow keys. Gesturing is a type of user input with two or more input points. Animating operations include changing content within a given time period.
The various types of devices may have a limited display size, user interface, software, API interface and/or processing capability which limits the ease of use of the devices. User interfaces of devices implement APIs in order to provide requested functionality and features. These user interfaces can have difficulty interpreting the various types of user inputs and providing the intended functionality associated with the user inputs.”
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Claim 8 of Patent ‘915:
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[pullquote]by scaling the view associated with the event object based on receiving the two or more input points in the form of the user input.[/pullquote]
“A machine readable storage medium storing executable program instructions which when executed cause a data processing system to perform a method comprising: receiving a user input, the user input is one or more input points applied to a touch-sensitive display that is integrated with the data processing system; creating an event object in response to the user input; determining whether the event object invokes a scroll or gesture operation by distinguishing between a single input point applied to the touch-sensitive display that is interpreted as the scroll operation and two or more input points applied to the touch-sensitive display that are interpreted as the gesture operation; issuing at least one scroll or gesture call based on invoking the scroll or gesture operation; responding to at least one scroll call, if issued, by scrolling a window having a view associated with the event object; and responding to at least one gesture call, if issued, by scaling the view associated with the event object based on receiving the two or more input points in the form of the user input.”
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Source: USPTO
Image Credit: idownloadblog
