Just a Brief Note

Today's brief report on Apple's Radial Menu patent application marks our second presentation on this subject matter. Our first report on this feature was posted back in late 2010. The only thing in common between the two patents is the very first paragraph of Apple's patent background, as you'll see. From there on in, the patent verbiage is completely different. The first patent application focused mainly on radial menus in use with graphic or video applications whereas their second patent is focused more on the mechanics of using the radial menu in general.

Apple's Korean filing was fairly large and detailed. However, due to the fact that the patent graphic verbiage was set in Korean, as you could see in our patent graphic below, and that the quality of graphics presented in the application so poor, we're unable to go into any real depth on the subject matter at this time. Therefore we'll present you with Apple full patent background and Summary as it was presented so that you could get the gist of Apple's application.

Apple's Patent Background

User interfaces of computer applications often provide numerous commands or user interface tools for a user to choose from. For instance, many applications include drop-down menus. Such menus often include lists of commands. There are standard commands such as opening a file, printing a document, saving a document, etc., as well as more application-specific commands such as inserting a page break (for a word-processing application), formatting cells (for a spreadsheet application), etc.

Such drop-down menus are often located at the top of a window in which an application is running. Accessing drop-down menus via a cursor controller involves moving a cursor to the top of the window with the cursor control device, then moving along to the appropriate top level menu item, selecting a submenu (if necessary), etc. Using a cursor to select items on a linear pull-down menu requires a user to move the cursor by a particular distance down the menu to reach the desired menu item. This could require moving a cursor through a considerable distance and with considerable precision required to reach the desired menu item without going past it.

Radial menus could provide desired menu selections without the difficulties inherent in drop-down menus. However, there is minimal use as of yet of radial menus in popular computing applications. Accordingly, there is a need for radial menus with improved features that will make such menus more desirable for users.

Apple's Patent Summary

Some embodiments of the invention provide several novel techniques for manipulating radial menus in graphical user interfaces of an application. In some embodiments, radial menus include multiple selectable items arranged about an internal location (e.g., a center of the radial menu). The novel radial menu techniques of some embodiments include (i) non-uniform spacing of menu items, (ii) the use of shading or highlighting within a region associated with an item to indicate the present selectability of the item, and (iii) the use of radial gestures for opening sub-menus and the subsequent display of the sub-menu.

As non-uniform arrangements of the selectable items about the internal location is based on priorities assigned to the different selectable items in some embodiments. Specifically, some embodiments vary the distance between the menu items such that items with a higher priority are further from their neighboring items than those with a lower priority. Some embodiments assign a range of angles to each menu item. A user moving a cursor or touching a touchscreen within an angular region defined by the range of angles and then providing selection input will select the menu item. Some such embodiments assign a larger range of angles to higher priority items than to lower priority items. Various criteria may be used to determine the priorities of the different menu items, such as the frequency of selection or expected frequency of selection of the menu items.

Some embodiments display a highlight over a selectable region for a menu item when the menu item is presently selectable. In some embodiments, the menu item is displayed as a distinct icon and the highlighted region is larger than the displayed icon. The highlight, in some embodiments, is displayed as though a light is emanating from the center of the radial menu towards the displayed menu item. The area covered by this highlight is the angular area defined by the range of angles assigned to the particular menu item, or a portion of that angular area extending a particular radial distance, in some embodiments. The area for a particular item is highlighted when the cursor is over the area in some embodiments, as a user could select the item in that case by clicking a mouse button, tapping a touchpad, etc.

In addition to mouse clicks or equivalent input, some embodiments enable gestural selection of menu items. A gestural selection, in some embodiments, is a rapid movement of the cursor in a particular direction. Gestural selections, like click selections, cause a selection of a particular menu item from the radial menu. The angle of the gesture, in some embodiments, determines the menu item selected. When the menu item selected opens a sub-menu, some embodiments wait until further input is received and display the sub-menu as a radial menu with a central location at the location of the cursor. This enables subsequent rapid sweep gestures.

In some embodiments, the cursor referred to in the description above is an icon (e.g., an arrow) that is displayed on a screen. The icon is controlled by a user via a cursor control device (e.g., a mouse, trackpad, etc.) that the user interacts with in order to move the icon on the screen. The user also interacts with the cursor control device in order to generate other inputs such as selections (e.g., by clicking or double-clicking a mouse button). In other embodiments, however, the cursor is not displayed and is defined as a location at which a user is touching the screen (i.e., when the radial menu is displayed on a touchscreen). Thus, the cursor moves as a user's finger (or other object touching the touchscreen) moves, though no icon is actually displayed.

Rapid Gestural Movements

In addition to mouse clicks or equivalent input, some embodiments enable gestural selection of menu items. A gestural selection, in some embodiments, is a rapid movement of the cursor in a particular direction. Gestural selections, like click selections, cause a selection of a particular menu item from the radial menu. The angle of the gesture, in some embodiments, determines the menu item selected. When the menu item selected opens a sub-menu, some embodiments wait until further input is received and display the sub-menu as a radial menu with a central location at the location of the cursor. This enables subsequent rapid sweep gestures.

The Five Stages of the Radial Menu

Apple's patent FIG. 6 illustrates the opening and display of a radial menu with selectable items arranged non-uniformly about a central location. Patent FIG. 6 illustrates the opening and display of the radial menu 600 in five stages, 610-650. Stage 610 illustrates the display of a single selectable item, stage 620 illustrates the selection of the single item, stages 630 and 640 illustrate the opening of the radial menu in response to this selection, and stage 650 illustrates the fully opened radial menu.

The radial menu is displayed as part of different GUIs in different embodiments. For instance, the radial menu could be part of the GUI of an operating system, an application that runs on an operating system (e.g., a media-editing application, a word processing application, a computer game, etc.), or a stand-alone application on a computer, a handheld device (e.g., a cell phone, media player, etc.), or other computing device.

While the example of patent FIG. 6 illustrates the radial menus displayed in front of an empty background, one of ordinary skill will recognize that in some embodiments the radial menu items are displayed over other UI items when the radial menu is invoked.

Apple mentions that radial menus could be used in a gaming application and if you look at our opening graphic and contrast it to another Apple patent graphic for a poker game, you begin to see that Apple is working on various angles for using radial menus as the patent application suggests. In the future, you might tap on a master folder on your iPad and have your subfolders appear in a radial menu so that you could find them quicker without the icon looking like a folder as they do today. It could be that a particular iApp has multiple levels to it. Tapping on the icon could bring up the various levels in radial form so that you could get to what you want quicker than opening the app and performing several steps to get to a particular segment of the app.

Apple's patent application was published in Korea in May 2012. Although this is Apple's second patent application regarding this particular form of presenting menus and/or toolbars, they're found heavily borrowing from this theme in two other patent applications. The first was covered in September 2010 and the second in December 2010.

Notice

Patently Apple presents a detailed summary of patent applications with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent application should be read in its entirety for full and accurate details.

Revelations found in patent applications shouldn't be interpreted as rumor or fast-tracked according to rumor timetables. Apple's patent applications have provided the Mac community with a clear heads-up on some of the greatest product trends including the iPod, iPhone, iPad, iOS cameras, LED displays, iCloud services and more. About Comments: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments.

Sites Covering our Original Report

MacSurfer, Twitter, Facebook, Apple Investor News, Google Reader, Macnews, iPhone World Canada, Macity Italy, MacDirectory, iSpazio Italy, and more.