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detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display, applying one or more heuristics to the one or more finger contacts to determine a command f

detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display, applying one or more heuristics to the one or more finger contacts to determine a command for the device, and processing the command. So literally the function of every touchscreen device ever? Touchscreens have been around since 1970; this was filed for in 2006.

brian_cloutier 14y ago
Once again, reading snippets from a patent does nothing. You might as well read a copyrighted story and exclaim in horror "Well this is rich, he's trying to claim 'Once upon a time' for himself!" A patent does not claim every single thing that is listed. An infringing device must contain every single thing listed in the claims. Claim 7 is my favorite: "The computing device of claim 1, wherein, in one heuristic of the one or more heuristics, a contact comprising a simultaneous two-thumb twisting gesture corresponds to a 90.degree. screen rotation command."
- revelation 14y ago
  Sorry, I know, and I invite all the downvotes I can :) Its just the pure stupidity of it all that takes ahold of me when reading this stuff.
- gjm11 14y ago
  > An infringing device must contain every single thing listed in the claims. An infringing device must contain every single thing listed in at least one of the claims. If you infringe on any single claim, then you infringe. Usually what happens is that claim 1 is really broad, and then there's a sort of tree of claims with claim 1 at the root and more specific claims further down the tree. The early claims may well get invalidated when an infringement case goes to court, but the patent-holder hopes that the later more specific ones will survive and still be broad enough to cover what their rivals are doing. (For the avoidance of doubt, I agree with the general point brian_cloutier is making.)
wmf 14y ago
The meat of claim 1 is: "instructions for detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display; instructions for applying one or more heuristics to the one or more finger contacts to determine a command for the device; and instructions for processing the command; wherein the one or more heuristics comprise: a vertical screen scrolling heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a one-dimensional vertical screen scrolling command rather than a two-dimensional screen translation command based on an angle of initial movement of a finger contact with respect to the touch screen display; a two-dimensional screen translation heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to the two-dimensional screen translation command rather than the one-dimensional vertical screen scrolling command based on the angle of initial movement of the finger contact with respect to the touch screen display; and a next item heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a command to transition from displaying a respective item in a set of items to displaying a next item in the set of items." (Notice the ands.) So this is claiming the ability to distinguish three different specific gestures. (Besides Graffiti, I don't remember old touch devices using gestures at all, although I'm sure there were some.)
- wnoise 14y ago
  The Fingerworks TouchStream keyboard did, but of course, Apple bought them.

brian_cloutier 14y ago

Once again, reading snippets from a patent does nothing. You might as well read a copyrighted story and exclaim in horror "Well this is rich, he's trying to claim 'Once upon a time' for himself!" A patent does not claim every single thing that is listed. An infringing device must contain every single thing listed in the claims. Claim 7 is my favorite: "The computing device of claim 1, wherein, in one heuristic of the one or more heuristics, a contact comprising a simultaneous two-thumb twisting gesture corresponds to a 90.degree. screen rotation command."

revelation 14y ago
Sorry, I know, and I invite all the downvotes I can :) Its just the pure stupidity of it all that takes ahold of me when reading this stuff.
gjm11 14y ago
> An infringing device must contain every single thing listed in the claims. An infringing device must contain every single thing listed in at least one of the claims. If you infringe on any single claim, then you infringe. Usually what happens is that claim 1 is really broad, and then there's a sort of tree of claims with claim 1 at the root and more specific claims further down the tree. The early claims may well get invalidated when an infringement case goes to court, but the patent-holder hopes that the later more specific ones will survive and still be broad enough to cover what their rivals are doing. (For the avoidance of doubt, I agree with the general point brian_cloutier is making.)

wmf 14y ago

The meat of claim 1 is: "instructions for detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display; instructions for applying one or more heuristics to the one or more finger contacts to determine a command for the device; and instructions for processing the command; wherein the one or more heuristics comprise: a vertical screen scrolling heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a one-dimensional vertical screen scrolling command rather than a two-dimensional screen translation command based on an angle of initial movement of a finger contact with respect to the touch screen display; a two-dimensional screen translation heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to the two-dimensional screen translation command rather than the one-dimensional vertical screen scrolling command based on the angle of initial movement of the finger contact with respect to the touch screen display; and a next item heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a command to transition from displaying a respective item in a set of items to displaying a next item in the set of items." (Notice the ands.) So this is claiming the ability to distinguish three different specific gestures. (Besides Graffiti, I don't remember old touch devices using gestures at all, although I'm sure there were some.)

wnoise 14y ago
The Fingerworks TouchStream keyboard did, but of course, Apple bought them.