JP2016529533A - Vector-based customizable instruction indicia - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a customizable instruction indicia drawing method. The method includes the steps of monitoring application program interface messaging and interrupting a call to a unique system pointer identifier. A stored collection of predefined vector shapes is accessed, from which a predefined vector shape is selected relative to the working system pointer identifier. Stroke and fill attributes are set for the vector shape. A series of vectorized rasterized frames with various attributes are formed and displayed to provide animated instructional indicia effects. The customized vector shape is rasterized and displayed to the end user operating the computer. In response to user input, instruction indicia customization, animation, and magnification is performed, where the user input is a touch screen event, body movement, hand gesture, mouse event, or keystroke. [Selection] Figure 1

Description

Cross-reference of related applications

  This application is a continuation of U.S. Patent Application No. 13 / 907,282, filed May 31, 2013, entitled "Vector-Based Magnification Pointer", which is entitled "Vector-Based Magnification Pointer". US Patent Application No. 12 / 828,765 filed July 1, 2010, and claims the priority date of July 2, 2009, incorporated herein by reference. Is done.

  The present invention relates to customization of a computer display interface, and more particularly to customization of its instruction indicia.

    Low vision people often require customization of the computer screen interface to distinguish text and images. Customized systems are built on the operating system itself or feature-rich as sold by the MAGIC brand manufactured by Freedom Scientific Inc., based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Includes third-party products.

  In the current state of the art, indication indicia such as cursors and carets cannot be scaled from small to large dimensions. For example, all mouse pointers have individual minimum dimensions and a common maximum dimension. The minimum dimension is the number of system metrics for the mouse pointer. Typically, this metric is 32 × 32 pixels for operating systems sold under the WINDOWS 7, VISTA, XP brand by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Washington. However, it is often the case that the mouse pointer occupies only 16x16 squares in this metric and is aligned to the upper left.

  When the screen is magnified to a high magnification, for example, 16 times, the mouse pointer is broken down into pixels, distracting the user. Various smoothing techniques can be utilized to reduce pixelation, but this process consumes CPU cycles and can lead to incomplete results. As a series of problems for low vision users associated with the display of a jagged pixelated indication indicia, such drawbacks can undermine the low vision user's confidence in the ability to see clearly, I don't know if it was caused by an expanded indication indicia or if the user's low vision resulted in a perceived imperfection.

  Yet another disadvantage is the limited customization of instruction indicia. Some low vision users find it difficult to identify a specific color, so it is a burden for the instruction indicia to recognize and see the movement when navigating the computer screen. There is, or even impossible. Therefore, there is a need for an indication indicia based on a vector in which the outline and body of the indication indicia are independently colored so that low vision users can better distinguish the indication indicia from the background content of the screen.

  Finally, the animation of the instruction indicia is well known in the art, but particularly in the animation of a cursor that is pixelated at a high magnification, the above-mentioned drawbacks are plagued. Therefore, there is a need for a method for animated instruction indicia based on vectors.

  The ability to smoothly magnify, animate, or customize the mouse pointer and other graphic elements is used to create an initially cached rasterized image that is ultimately used for final drawing (screen drawing). By using images based on vectors, this is greatly enhanced. This is because the shape and elements of an image based on a vector are drawn by an expression instead of a bitmap. Currently, all mouse pointers are drawn as bitmaps. When the bitmap is enlarged, it becomes essentially “bulky” and “stepped”. There is a post-scaling process applied to the artificial “smoothing” of the scaled bitmap, but the image is as sharp and sharp as the image generated from the scaled vector image It is impossible to generate

  In one embodiment of the present invention, a customized (ie, colored) instruction indicia drawing method is provided. The method comprises the steps of monitoring application program interface messaging, interrupting a call to a working system pointer identifier (such as its handle), accessing a stored collection of predefined vector shapes, vector Selecting from the collection of shapes a predefined vector shape that correlates to the pointer identifier of the system. A predetermined stroke attribute is set for the selected vector shape, which is then rasterized and displayed as an indication indicia. Among the stroke attributes are color, opacity, width, line ends, corner shapes, and dashes.

  In one embodiment of the present invention, the desktop color under the indication indicia hotspot is drawn and the stroke is automatically modified to provide a contrast between the outer portion of the indication indicia and the background boundary. . For example, the pure white background of RGB values is 255, 255, 255. If the stroke color of the cursor was initially set as white by the user, the stroke disappears visually as the indication indicia moves over the white background. By way of illustration, background RGB and stroke RGB values are monitored in real time. If the sum of the natural number differences between each RGB value is less than the threshold, current software automatically changes the stroke color to provide contrast. For example, if the thresholds are set to 150 in total, background RGB values of 205, 205, 205 (light gray) will cause an automatic change in stroke color. A similar function causes an automatic change because the RGB values of 105,255,255 (blue green) and 245,245,125 (yellow) also do not provide sufficient contrast from the white background. When the threshold is detected, the next step is to automatically change the stroke value. This can be done by a function that clearly changes the RGB values. RGB values range from 0 to 255. Thus, the first 205, 205, 205 (light gray) example provides a simple function of subtracting 75 if the value is greater than 127 and adding 75 if the value is less than 127. Thus, 205,205,205 will be dark gray of 130,130,130 and will stand out against the white background. The 105,255,255 turquoise strokes are automatically changed to brown 180,130,130 (which contrasts well against white).

  The effect of this feature is that the value of the stroke can be changed so that it does not mix with the background while the body of the indication indicia remains constant. Thus, Phil does not change color in response to the desktop background to cause visual confusion, and the end user defines the boundaries of the indication indicia by changing only the stroke color. You can remain aware of it. Another embodiment of the present invention provides customization of the indication indicia by setting a predetermined fill attribute for the vector shape prior to rasterization and thus customizing the appearance of the indication indicia body. Fill attributes include color and opacity.

  In one embodiment, after selecting a predefined vector shape corresponding to the working system pointer identifier, a set of rasterized frames is formed based on the selected vector shape. Each rasterized frame has various attributes, such as stroke and fill attributes, and magnification. The frames are continuously displayed for a predetermined period, and the animated instruction indicia is drawn.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, the instruction indicia is customized, animated, and enlarged in response to user input. User input may be of various types, for example, keystrokes, mouse wheel events, mouse movements, various touch screen inputs, user hand gestures, body movements, facial expressions, voice instructions, and the like. In order to detect such user input, an electronic device whose instruction indicia is enlarged on the screen needs to include at least one of a touch screen, a keyboard, a mouse, a structured light scanner, and a microphone.

  Instead of, or in addition to, actively interrupting the call to the current system pointer identifier, the operating system may actively poll for its current settings to resolve the current system pointer identifier.

  For enhanced efficiency and responsiveness, customized stroke and fill attributes and magnification factors are stored, previously rasterized shapes are remembered, and cache memory is saved without having to re-customize, scale, or customize shapes. May be called again. The shape may typically be stored in an available storage device, which includes, for example, a magnetic hard drive, a semiconductor drive, and / or a RAM.

  The present invention may be embodied in one or more non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for performing a method of operating a software program on a computer. The instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium are distinguished from an operating system that runs as an application and operates and interacts at the level of the display driver to change the screen output. Alternatively, the non-transitory computer readable medium may include an operating system, or an update thereof, to achieve the new functionality of the present invention.

  For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference is made to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

The conceptual diagram of one Embodiment of this invention which shows the state where the low vision user is looking at the screen of 1 time expansion. The conceptual diagram of one Embodiment of this invention which shows the state where the low vision user is looking at the screen of 2 time expansion. The conceptual diagram of one Embodiment of this invention which shows the state where the low vision user is looking at the screen of 4 times expansion. The conceptual diagram of one Embodiment of this invention which shows the state where the low vision user is looking at the screen of 16 time expansion. The conceptual diagram of one Embodiment of this invention which shows the state where the low vision user is looking at the screen of 16 time expansion. The graph which shows the convergence point of the maximum pointer indicia dimension of 16 times expansion. The figure which shows the graphic user interface for customizing a mouse pointer. FIG. 6 shows a graphic user interface for importing a vector based file and assigning instruction indicia to it. 1 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of the present invention showing periodic polling of the operating system to obtain current indication indicia settings. FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the present invention showing the interruption of dvrSetPointerShape between the operating system and the display driver to obtain the current indication indicia setting. 1 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of the present invention showing indication indicia customization. FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing four consecutive frames of an indicia vector shape, each frame having a different stroke, fill, expansion attribute, and predetermined duration. Schematic of one embodiment of the present invention showing instruction indicia animation. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the present invention showing an expansion of instruction indicia in response to user input. A and B are schematic views of an embodiment of the present invention that receives user input via a touch screen. A and B are schematic views of one embodiment of the present invention for receiving user input via a structured optical scanner.

  In FIG. 1, the low vision user 10 operates the display on the monitor 20 via the mouse 30 and the keyboard 40. The instruction indicia 50 is indicated by an arrow cursor as an example, but may be a caret. The cursor is a graphic image that represents the mouse and its movement on a Cartesian coordinate plane. The cursor can take many shapes, such as an pointing arrow, a hand, an hourglass, and an I-shaped text selector. On the other hand, the caret is a flashing indicia used to enter text. When the low vision user 10 inputs on the keyboard 40, characters appear as a caret, and the caret moves forward by one space. Display text 60 and display graphics 70 are provided in FIG. 1 to display relative magnification.

  FIG. 1 shows a non-enlarged GUI, instruction indicia 50, display text 60, and display graphic 70. In FIG. 2, the indication indicia 50, the display text 60, and the display graphic 70 are conceptually shown at a magnification of 2 times. In FIG. 3, the instruction indicia 50, the display text 60, and the display graphic 70 are conceptually shown at a 4 × magnification. In FIG. 4, the indication indicia 50, the display text 60, and the display graphic 70 are conceptually shown at a 16 × magnification. At this magnification, the indication indicia 50 overlaps about 20 percent of the GUI area. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, further expansion of the GUI and display text 60 decouples the previous synchronous expansion of the GUI and instruction indicia 50. Even if the enlargement of the display text 60 continues beyond a 16-fold enlargement, the dimensions of the indication indicia 50 remain constant.

  In FIG. 5, the enlargement of the instruction indicia 50 is separated from the enlargement of the GUI. The GUI is magnified 16 times, while the instruction indicia 50 is only magnified 4 times. The low vision user 10 can use the keyboard 40, mouse 30, or a combination thereof to decouple the enlargement between the indication indicia 50 and the GUI. Other peripherals such as a voice recognition system or an input system may be used to generate this event. According to the present invention, it may be automatically and intelligently disconnected. For example, a predetermined threshold of mouse inactivity may be detected, and the indication indicia 50 expansion may be gradually increased or decreased (as needed).

  An inactivity of the mouse with external data may be used to make an intelligent expansion decision. For example, if a lot of text is detected in response to mouse inactivity, the user is assumed to be reading the text. In this case, the greatly enlarged cursor only prevents the text display. Alternatively, movement of the mouse 30 immediately after a period of mouse inactivity is such that when the low vision user resumes using the indication indicia 50, the indication indicia 50 is easily positioned by the low vision user. Quick and gradual expansion of instruction indicia 50 may be invoked. Gradual enlargement may be used to provide animation effects. In other cases, multiple vector shapes that are gradually changed may result in other animation effects such as movement, rotation, and waveform. Since the shape is based on vectors, it is substantially more efficient than the latest technology in the art in terms of size increase to magnification, rasterization, cache storage, graphic quality, and cycle efficiency of cached images. It has an excellent effect.

  In another embodiment of the invention, an irregular movement of the mouse 30 by the low vision user 10 following a period of inactivity of the mouse 30 indicating that it is difficult to locate the indication indicia 50, an algorithm The process of detecting by. Irregular movement includes rapid horizontal movement and circular movement. In response to the detection of irregular movement, the indication indicia 50 is enlarged for a predetermined period according to the present invention, and then returned to a preset magnification. The advantage of the present invention over the prior art is that if the user is involved in a software application that requires such movement, the movement of the mouse recognized as "irregular" is intentional, Irregular movements follow a period of inactivity.

  FIG. 6 is a convergence graph representing four different pointer dimensions shown as small (♦), medium (■), large (▲), and extra large (X). The size value of the small pointer is 0.5x. The dimension value of the middle pointer is 1.0x. The size value of the large pointer is 2.0x. The size of the extra large pointer is 4.0x. At 1x magnification of the GUI, the small, medium, large and extra large pointer dimensions occupy ~ 0%, 3%, 5% and 10% of the GUI, respectively. As GUI magnification increases, user perceptions can vary significantly due to changes in pointer dimensions. However, in one embodiment of the invention, these pointer dimensions are normalized with a 16x GUI magnification. As the GUI is scaled from 1x to 16x, the size of the small pointer increases substantially over the oversized pointer size. Other magnification factors may be selected for convergence.

  In FIG. 7, a pointer authoring application is contemplated in the present invention to allow the user to create vector shapes and assign vector shapes to pointer settings and individual pointers. Pointer settings include a collection of various graphic images for a pointer cursor that varies depending on the environment in which the graphic image is displayed. When you select text to edit, the cursor changes to a vertical bar (I-beam). When panning around the document, the cursor appears as a hand. The graphic editing cursor appears as a pencil, brush, or paint bucket depending on the function. When waiting for the completion of the operation, a “standby” image such as an hourglass or a clock may appear. Other instruction options include selection of fill and line appearance for color, pattern, transparency, and the like. The shape may be assigned to a specific software application. This is accomplished by examining the operating system, where messaging is done to identify which application has the focus and, if necessary, at least proper pointer settings and cursor changes. Apply either. Since this method enables quick and clean drawing of a clear and clear image having an arbitrary shape, it is possible to animate the pointer cursor. A series of stylizations and / or changes in the dimensions of the vector shape are stored in the cache and the cursor appears animated when this flow is displayed. A mouse wheel scaling parameter or hotkey combination may be assigned to at least one of a particular shape or setting. For example, the user scrolls the mouse wheel in various directions while pressing the keyboard combination to enlarge or reduce the pointer cursor.

  FIG. 8 illustrates an import application that assigns an arbitrary vector-based graphic file to a particular pointer and / or pointer set. Vector file formats include, for example, Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), Open Document Graphics (ODG), Encapsulated Postscript (EPS), Portable Document Format (PDF), Small Document Format Includes Web Format (SWF), Windows Metafile (WMF), Windows Enhanced Metafile (EMF), XML Paper Specification (XPS), etc. Another advantage of the present invention is that low vision users have many collections of pre-existing vector art for use as an indication indicia of any magnification. In contrast, rasterized images are difficult to increase in size, but the pixelation of the bitmap image maintains clarity and sharpness.

  In FIG. 9, one embodiment of the present invention is shown as step 70. API messaging 80 is monitored for pointer handle calls 90. In order to match the pointer handle call 90 with a pre-existing shape in the vector shape database 110, a cross check 100 is made to the vector shape database 110. Vector shape database 110 includes one or more vector shapes stored in memory. The database 110 may be a file dictionary, a structured file such as XML, a completely related database, or the like. The vector shape database 110 associates pointer handle calls 90 with correlated vector images. For example, if the pointer handle call 90 requests a hand cursor image, the cross check 100 determines whether a vector image exists for the hand cursor image. If it does not exist, the bitmap image is enlarged and smoothed. However, if a vector image exists, it is enlarged to an appropriate enlargement magnification and then rasterized into a bitmap. Vector shape 120 is read and scaling function 130 is applied to form enlarged vector shape 140. Scaling is performed on the vector image by increasing or decreasing the length and width of the image.

  Since scaling is performed on the vector image, there is no pixelation as seen with bitmap scaling. A rasterization step 150 is applied to the enlarged vector shape 140 to form a rasterized shape 160 and then displayed 170 as an indication indicia.

FIG. 10 (shown as step 75) illustrates an alternative embodiment of the present invention that fits a pointer handle call 90 that does not have a shape corresponding to the vector shape database 110. FIG. If no match is obtained, the default bitmapped indication indicia 180 is expanded to an enlarged bitmap indication indicia 190. A smoothing process 200 is applied to the enlarged bitmap indication indicia 190 and displayed 170. In another embodiment of the present invention, if no match is found in the vector shape, the system prompts the low vision user 10 to match with the existing vector shape, form a new vector shape, or default bitmap Import a vector based file as a replacement for the instruction Indicia 180. In yet another embodiment of the present invention, a default vector shape is provided for a pointer handle call 90 that does not have a corresponding shape in the vector shape database 110.

  FIG. 11 shows periodic polling 220 of the operating system 210 to obtain the current indication indicia setting. When reading these settings, a predefined vector shape is selected that correlates with the polled indicia settings.

  In FIG. 12, an alternative pointer shape acquisition method includes interrupting the drvSetPointerShape value 240 between the operating system 210 and the display driver 230. The drvSetPointerShape value 240 is cross-checked 100 to confirm whether there is a correlation vector shape 110 indexed by the drvSetPointerShape value 240. The drvSetPointerShape value 240 is most appropriate for the 15 predefined (non-obsolete) cursor types available in the MICROSOFT WINDOWS application programming interface specification.

  FIG. 13 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention where stroke 262 and fill 264 are customizable. At step 250, the stroke 262 and fill 264 attributes of the vector shape 120 are set to form a customized vector shape 260. Rasterization step 150 is applied to customized vector shape 260 to obtain rasterized customized vector shape 270, which is displayed at step 170 as an indication indicia. The most important attribute of stroke 262 and fill 264 is color. Because certain color combinations are particularly beneficial for users with impaired vision because they are easier to recognize and view over extended periods of time. Other attributes of stroke 262 include opacity, width, line ends, corner shapes, and dashes. The opacity of the fill 264 can also be adjusted.

  FIG. 14 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention, in which the indication indicia is animated. Animation includes the step of forming a series of rasterized frames 280 of vector shape 120. The attributes of each subsequent rasterized frame 280 are different from the attributes of the previous rasterized frame 280, and these attributes include a stroke 262, a fill 264, and / or an enlargement factor.

  A predetermined duration 290 is associated with each rasterized frame 280. In order to obtain an animation effect, rasterized frames 280 are displayed in succession and each rasterized frame 280 is displayed with a corresponding duration 290. In some embodiments, the duration 290 may be the same for all rasterized frames 280, and in alternative embodiments, certain rasterized frames 280 may be displayed for a longer time than others. The series of rasterized vector images may be stored in a graphic file format that is compatible with the selected operating system. For example, the ANI file format is used for animated mouse cursors in the MICROSOFT WINDOWS operating system. The ANI file format is based on the MICROSOFT RIFF file format (resource interchange file format) used as a container for storing individual frames. Suitable file formats include default frame rate, continuous information (rasterized vector image order), cursor hotspots, and individual frames (rasterized image to ICO bitmap format). In addition, an individual frame rate for each image in the sequence may be set.

  An animation method of instruction indicia based on a vector is schematically shown in FIG. After the indication indicia vector shape 120 is selected, a set of rasterized frames 280 with different attributes of the vector shape 120 are formed at step 300. Next, the rasterized frame 280 is continuously displayed in step 310 to render the animated instruction indicia.

  The various embodiments of the invention described above may be performed in response to specific user input. FIG. 16 schematically illustrates an embodiment in which the vector-based indication indicia is expanded in response to user input 320. User input 320 is received as a mouse event 340, keystroke 350, touch screen event 360, gesture 370, voice command 380, or a combination thereof.

  17A-B illustrate an example of a touch screen event 360. The user can use this type of input on any device that has a touch screen 390. In the example shown in FIGS. 17A and 17B, the user's finger 400 touches the touch screen 390 and slides away while touching the surface of the touch screen 390. As shown in FIG. 17B, in response to the touch screen event 360, the indication indicia 50 is enlarged according to the process schematically illustrated in FIG. 16, independent of the display text 60 and the discreographic 70. . In an alternative embodiment, enlargement of display text 60 and / or display graphic 70 is combined with enlargement of indication indicia 50. Alternatively, the touch screen event 360 may be in the form of touch hold, touch tap, touch drag, touch flick, pinch, multi-touch, touch gesture pattern, stencil input, and the like.

  In the embodiment of the invention shown in FIGS. 18A-B, gesture 370 is received via structured light scanner 420. Structured optical scanner 420 is well known in the art, such as MICROSOFT KINECT, and is used to identify various gestures 370. 18A-B show an extension of the indication indicia 50 based on a vector in response to the gesture command 370. FIG. When user 10 raises his arm, structured light scanner 470 identifies gesture 370. In response to gesture 370, the vector-based indication indicia 50 is enlarged according to the process schematically illustrated in FIG. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 18A-B, the indication indicia 50 is enlarged independently of the display text 60 and the display graphic 70. In an alternative embodiment, the enlargement of the indication indicia 50 is combined with the enlargement of the display text 60 and / or the display graphic 70.

  Example hardware and software infrastructure

  The present invention is embodied in various computing platforms that operate in response to software-based instructions. The following provides a basic precedent for the information technology utilized to enable the present invention.

  The computer-readable medium described in the following claims is a computer-readable signal medium or a computer-readable storage medium. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus or device, or any suitable combination thereof. More detailed examples (non-exhaustive list) of computer readable storage media include electrical connections with one or more wires, portable computer diskettes, hard disks, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), Includes erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical fiber, portable compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM), optical storage, magnetic storage, or any suitable combination thereof. In the context of this document, a computer-readable storage medium is any tangible medium of expression that contains or stores a program for use by or in conjunction with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device in combination therewith. It's okay.

  The computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may take various forms, for example, electromagnetic, optical, or a suitable combination thereof. A computer-readable signal medium is not a computer-readable storage medium and is any computer-readable medium that can communicate, propagate, or communicate with a program for use by or in conjunction with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. It may be a medium.

  Program code embodied in a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any suitable medium, such as wireless, wired, fiber optic cable, radio frequency, or any suitable combination thereof. Computer program code for acting on aspects of the present invention includes object-oriented programming languages such as Java, C #, C ++, and common procedural programming languages such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. It may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages.

  Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference to flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. Of course, each block of the flowchart and / or block diagram, and combinations of at least one of the flowchart and / or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions are provided to the processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing device to create a machine, thereby via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device. The instructions are executed to generate a function / action execution means specified in at least one of one or more blocks of the flowcharts and block diagrams.

  These computer program instructions are stored in a computer readable medium that causes a computer, other programmable data processing device, or other equipment to function in a particular manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer readable medium are flowcharts and blocks. A product is produced that includes instructions to perform the functions / actions detailed in at least one of the one or more blocks of the figure.

  The computer program instructions are mounted on a computer, other programmable data processing device, or other device, and a series of operation steps are performed by the computer, other programmable device, or other device, and the computer or other programmable device. A computer-executed process is generated such that the instruction to execute results in a process for performing the function / action specified in at least one of the blocks and / or block diagrams.

  The effects described above and the effects apparent from the above description are achieved efficiently. Certain modifications may be made to the above-described configurations without departing from the scope of the invention, so that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative. It is not intended to be limiting.

  Claims glossary

  Caching: Storing data on electronic storage devices such as magnetic hard drives, semiconductor drives, and / or RAM.

  Desktop background: Graphic user interface canvas under instruction indicia. This is generally used to include not only “wallpaper” such as still images, but also anything under the instruction indicia, such as software application windows, dialog boxes, media display windows, etc.

  Fill: A body with a shape in the outline.

  Multi-touch: A type of touch screen event that involves the user touching two or more points on the screen surface.

  Pinch: A type of touch screen event that includes causing the user to touch two points on the screen surface and changing the distance between the touch points while maintaining contact.

  Instruction Indicia: A caret or cursor visual element that moves around a graphic user interface, typically in response to peripheral devices such as a mouse, trackpad, touch screen, etc.

  Rasterized frame: A pixel image obtained from rasterization of a vector shape.

  Rasterization: The process of converting a vector shape into a pixel image that is displayed on a video screen.

  RGB: An additive color model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce many colors. In the present invention, a digital 8-bit triplet array per channel is used as an illustrative embodiment.

  Stroke: A line that forms the contour of a shape

  Structured light scanner: A device that measures the three-dimensional shape of an object using a projected light pattern and a camera system. This device can detect body movements and gestures.

  System pointer identifier: An identifier such as a handle that causes the system to determine which instruction indicia is currently displayed.

  Touch drag: A type of touch screen event that includes touching the surface of the screen to the user and sliding the contact member along the screen surface while maintaining contact.

  Touch flick: A type of touch screen event that includes causing the user to touch the surface of the screen, quickly sliding the contact member along the screen surface, and interrupting the contact.

  Touch gesture pattern: A type of touch screen event including a step of sliding a contact member in a predetermined pattern while keeping the contact after the user touches the surface of the screen.

  Touch Hold: A type of touch screen event that includes the step of continuously touching the surface of the screen for a predetermined period of time.

  Touch tap: A type of touch screen event that includes the step of interrupting the touch immediately after the user touches the screen surface briefly.

  Touch screen: A display device that allows a user to interact with computer equipment by touching the surface of the screen.

  User input: End-user feedback received intentionally or unintentionally (as a command) by a computing device running a computer software application that controls the appearance of the indication indicia.

  Vector shape: A geometric shape in a computer graphic based on mathematical formulas.

10 user 30 mouse 40 keyboard 50 instruction indicia 60 display text 70 display graphic 70 step 80 API messaging 90 pointer handle call 100 cross check 110 vector shape 120 read vector shape 130 scaling 140 enlarged vector shape 150 Rasterize 160 Rasterize shape 170 Display

Claims (25)

A customized instruction indicia display method,
Identifying the working system pointer identifier from the operating system application program interface;
Accessing a stored collection of predefined instruction indicia vector shapes;
Selecting a pre-defined vector shape from the collection; and the selected vector shape correlates with a pointer identifier of a working system;
Setting a predetermined stroke attribute for defining the contour of the selected vector shape;
Rasterizing the selected vector shape;
Displaying the rasterized vector shape.   The method of claim 1, wherein the stroke attribute is selected from the group consisting of color, opacity, width, line end, corner shape, and dash.   The method of claim 1, further comprising setting predetermined fill attributes for those defining a body of the selected vector shape prior to displaying the rasterized vector shape.   Detecting the RGB value of the background desktop under the indication indicia and automatically recoloring the stroke color to provide a clear contrast between the background desktop and the stroke color; The method of claim 3.   5. The method of claim 4, wherein the stroke color is different from a fill color and forms a visually distinct contour boundary around the indication indicia.   The method of claim 1, further comprising caching the rasterized shape for reuse.   The method of claim 1, wherein the stroke attribute is set in response to user input.   The method of claim 7, wherein the user input is selected from a group consisting of keystrokes, mouse wheel events, mouse gestures, and combinations thereof.   The user input is received via a touch screen, and the user input is from a group consisting of touch hold, touch tap, touch drag, touch flick, pinch, multi-touch, touch gesture pattern, stencil input, and combinations thereof. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the method is selected.   8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user input is sensed by a structured light scanner and the user command is selected from the group consisting of hand gestures, body movements, facial expressions, and combinations thereof.   The method of claim 7, wherein the user input is a voice command received via a microphone. Instruction Indicia animation method,
Identifying a working system pointer identifier from an operating system application program interface;
Accessing a stored collection of predefined instruction indicia vector shapes;
Selecting a predefined vector shape from the collection; and the selected vector shape is correlated with a pointer identifier of the working system;
Forming a set of rasterized frames of the selected vector shape, and the rasterized frames have different attributes;
Continuously displaying the rasterized frame for a predetermined period.   The rasterized frame attribute of the selected vector shape is selected from the group consisting of stroke color, stroke weight, stroke opacity, fill color, fill opacity, magnification, and aspect ratio. 12 methods.   13. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one attribute of successive rasterized frames is different from a previous rasterized frame to the extent that it provides a visual animation effect when the rasterized frames are displayed continuously.   The method of claim 12, further comprising caching the rasterized shape for reuse.   13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of forming a set of rasterized frames and rendering the animated indicia by continuously displaying the rasterized frames is performed in response to user input.   The method of claim 16, wherein the user input is selected from a group consisting of keystrokes, mouse wheel events, mouse gestures, and combinations thereof.   The user input is received via a touch screen, and the user input is selected from the group consisting of touch hold, touch tap, touch drag, touch flick, pinch, multi-touch, touch gesture pattern, stencil input, and combinations thereof The method of claim 16, wherein:   The method of claim 16, wherein the user input is sensed by a structured light scanner, and the user input is selected from the group consisting of hand gestures, body movements, facial expressions, and combinations thereof.   The method of claim 16, wherein the user input is a voice command received via a microphone. An enlarged instruction indicia drawing method,
Receiving user input; and
In response to the user input, identifying a working system pointer identifier from an operating system application program interface;
Accessing a stored collection of predefined instruction indicia vector shapes;
Selecting a predefined vector shape from the collection; and the selected vector shape is correlated with a pointer identifier of the working system;
Scaling the vector shape to a magnification factor;
Rasterizing the scaled vector shape;
Displaying the rasterized shape, wherein the indication indicia is enlarged independently of background content.   The method of claim 21, wherein the user input is selected from a group consisting of keystrokes, mouse wheel events, mouse movements, and combinations thereof.   The user input is received via a touch screen, and the user input is selected from the group consisting of touch hold, touch tap, touch drag, touch flick, pinch, multi-touch, touch gesture pattern, stencil input, and combinations thereof 22. The method of claim 21, wherein:   24. The method of claim 21, wherein the user input is sensed by a structured light scanner and the user input is selected from the group consisting of hand gestures, body movements, facial expressions, and combinations thereof.   The method of claim 21, wherein the user input is a voice command received via a microphone.

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