If you are new, check out our tutorial contest first, and refer to the submission notes below. The following questions will help you understand specifically what we are looking for in this study.

We request previously undiscovered prior art including product documentation, patents and non-patent literature which can cover the technology described herein. This technology involves a touch-sensing or mouse-operable display with movable objects which incorporates a “throw” gesture for removing image objects from the screen if they have been dragged at a speed higher than a “threshold velocity.”

We’re looking for a description of a screen displaying objects which the user can move by touching the objects (or clicking them with a mouse) and dragging the image on this device’s screen. In particular, when an image is dragged and moved faster than a certain threshold velocity, the device removes that image from the screen. The use of a threshold in this way is critical. The description preferably should include that the system automatically replaces the image removed, but that is not necessary for all claims.

Figure 1: diagram of basic “throw” gesture. a) user selects an image and drags it across a screen, b) the image is dragged with a velocity greater than a particular “threshold” velocity, c) the system removes the image from the display, and d) a second image automatically appear to replace the first.

Further, the description preferably should include choosing a replacement image dependent on the direction of the throwing gesture, based on some or all of the following:

• the image is replaced by another image of the same class/type;
• throwing in one direction (e.g. left) will replace the image with the following image in an ordered set of images, and throwing in a second direction (e.g. right) will replace the image with the previous image in this ordered set (Fig 2 a,b below); and
• there exists a hierarchy of classes/types of images, and while throwing in a third direction (e.g. down) will replace the image with one from the next class/type down, throwing in a fourth direction (e.g. up) will replace the image with one from the previous class up in this hierarchy (Fig 2 b,c below)

Figure 2: diagram of example for image replacement. a) thrown to the right, replaced with next image in ordered series; b) thrown to the left, replaced with the previous image in an ordered series; c) thrown down, replaced with an image from the next class in a hierarchy; and d) replaced with an image from the previous class in a hierarchy.

Sources included in contest submissions should clearly describe a device with some or all of the above features. Source material can include patents or patent applications filed before August 28th, 1997, or non-patent literature, and particularly non-printed sources such as products, prototypes, research demonstrations. Submissions of these non-patent sources is strongly encouraged. Such material must have been publicly before August 28th, 1997.

Questions

The following questions will help contestants identify and clarify the specific criteria we’re looking for, as well as help us selected winning prize entries. The winner will be the first submission to answer the most questions beyond 1-3 and provide a clear, concise indication of where in each source we can find the pertinent support for each question answer. All sources must be clearly dated before August 28th, 1997, otherwise they will not be considered for contest prizes. Does the source describe...

1. a touchscreen or mouse-enabled computing device before August 28th, 1997?
2. displaying images which the user can move by touching (or clicking a mouse) and dragging the images on the touchscreen?
3. removing an image from the screen when the user drags it faster than a certain velocity threshold (“throwing” the image off the screen)?
4. automatically replacing the image with another image?
5. replacing the image with the next in an ordered set by throwing in one direction, and the previous in that ordered set by throwing in a second direction (e.g. see Fig. 2 a,b)?
6. a hierarchy of classes/types of images?
7. replacing the image with one from the next class/type in this hierarchy by throwing in a third direction, and one from the previous class/type in this hierarchy by throwing in a fourth direction (e.g. see Fig. 2 c,d)?
8. when the velocity is calculated and whether the mouse or finger is lifted at the time of the calculation?
9. differentiating between a “throwing” gesture and a “dragging” gesture?