Apple Granted Patent for Moving Radial Menus

Apple has been granted a patent today for their invention relating to providing radial menus in computer applications. Specifically, this invention is directed toward providing menus and submenus at optimal locations relative to a cursor.

The first US granted patent was covered by Patently Apple in 2012. Today's granted patent covers the very same patent figures. Apple had first submitted these patents in Europe and Korea in the hopes of keeping the project secret.

The difference between the granted patent of 2012 and the one issued today lies within Apple's patent claims. The 2012 patent was about a "method of displaying radial menus." In this granted patent the focus is on two things.

The first is about a "computer readable memory" storing a computer program for execution by at least one processor the computer program comprising sets of instructions for: displaying a radial menu comprising a plurality of selectable GUI items arranged radially around a location indicator, each of the selectable GUI items being associated with a set of angles from a center point of the radial menu; identifying a movement of the location indicator to select one of the selectable GUI items, the selected GUI item associated with a submenu; predicting, before the movement of the location indicator stops, an expected location at which the location indicator is expected to stop moving; determining, that the expected location is too close to an edge of a window of a graphical user interface to fully display a radial submenu centered around the expected location; responsive to determining that the expected location is too close to an edge of the window, displaying an expanding submenu, the expanding submenu fitting in the window by initially being displayed at a smaller size than a normal size with edges substantially at the edges of the screen, with the center of the submenu moving away from the edges of the screen as it expands until it reaches full size, wherein a location of the location indicator is positioned at a center of the submenu during an expansion of the expanding submenu.

The second is about "the movement of the location indicator is determined based upon an input from a touchscreen." This ensures that the patent covers the use of radial menus in future iDevices.

Although Apple had the invention on record first, it was Samsung that introduced the idea last September during the introduction of their new Note smartphone as noted below. Their new feature is called Air Command.

Apple credits Jean-Pierre Mouilleseaux and Charles Migos as the inventors of granted patent 8,826,181. The possible timing of such a feature to market is unknown at this time.

Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of granted patents with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any Granted Patent should be read in its entirety for full details. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 8pm MST and sporadically on the weekend.

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