Apple awarded patent for iOS 'loupe' on-screen content magnification

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday granted Apple rights to a variation of the content magnification system used in iOS, a common tool many iPhone, iPad and iPod owners utilize on a daily basis to enlarge graphical assets.

Magnification
Source: USTPO


First filed for in 2009, Apple's U.S. Patent No. 8,358,281 for a "Device, method, and graphical user interface for management and manipulation of user interface elements" describes the graphical representation of the magnifying loupe iOS users access by touching and holding on a specific area of an iDevice screen. By using the loupe method, in this case as it pertains to certain graphical assets like graphs, the patent saves extra cumbersome steps, like pinch-to-zoom or tap-to-zoom, that may not be needed for a given situation.

According to the property's background, the method was invented as a solution for managing and manipulating GUI elements on small-screened devices like the iPhone. In addition to being beneficial to the user, the culling of unnecessary operations to zoom in on a UI element also helps in saving conserving battery life.

The context-sensitive system requires a number of predefined conditions to be when displaying the magnification loupe as a safeguard against errant pop-ups when such a tool is not needed. For example, the loupe may appear when a user touches on a graph line that is smaller than a predefined size threshold.

Chart
Illustration of tap menus.


As described in the patent language, a user first selects a given point on a touchscreen which corresponds to a location on the display of one or more UI elements. From these targeted elements, the system compares the smallest displayed feature with a predetermined size threshold. If the feature is smaller than or equal to the threshold, the loupe displays a magnified image of the element in accordance with a scaled magnification factor. If the features are larger than the predetermined threshold, no magnification is applied.

The patent notes that size thresholds can be measured in length, such as inches or centimeters, or relation to display pixels.

Further, the system also allows for the selection of interface elements and performing an action associated with a multitouch gesture such as tapping the screen.

Apple's '281 patent credits Ian Patrick McCullough and Peter Glen Berger as its inventors.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12


    Patenting the zoom. Okay.

  • Reply 2 of 12


    The first time I used on my original iPhone..I thought it was brilliant! Still do... :)

  • Reply 3 of 12
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member


    Android had that years before iOS¡

  • Reply 4 of 12


    Some Court will rule this invalid!!

  • Reply 5 of 12

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lkrupp View Post


    Android had that years before iOS¡



    Apple had Android OS before Android and it's called iOS.

  • Reply 6 of 12
    kdarlingkdarling Posts: 1,640member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lightknight View Post


    Patenting the zoom. Okay.



     


    Nope, not patenting the zoom itself.  


     


    Onscreen magnifying loupes are obvious and have been around a long time.  


     


    Apple's patent is for setting a minimum object size threshold before the magnifier will kick in.   In other words, if you're touching a tiny object, it'll show the loupe.  Otherwise it won't bother.


     


    Even that's not enough to get a patent, though.  Apple's patent also requires that, after being magnified, selection markers show up and follow the finger.

  • Reply 7 of 12
    lkrupp wrote: »
    Android had that years before iOS¡

    But is it/was it done using the same method.
  • Reply 8 of 12
    andreyandrey Posts: 108member
    Yeah, it's about magnifying glass of course and not a zoom. I always use this neat feature on iPad and like it. Unfortunately the only tool that helps to deal with dumb autocorrect. I checked on N4 and it doesn't have anything like this. Even though JB has more intuitive corrective suggestive entry system manual correction (after autocorrection) isn't as friendly as on iOS.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    dunksdunks Posts: 1,254member
    andrey wrote: »
    Yeah, it's about magnifying glass of course and not a zoom. I always use this neat feature on iPad and like it. Unfortunately the only tool that helps to deal with dumb autocorrect. I checked on N4 and it doesn't have anything like this. Even though JB has more intuitive corrective suggestive entry system manual correction (after autocorrection) isn't as friendly as on iOS.

    I think iOS handles autocorrect extremely well. First of all the keyboard is excellent. It also indicates substitutions before they replace the word and these substitutions happen by default. If you want to purposefully misspell a word or spell an unusual word just tap the suggested word to dismiss. Capitalisation not preceded by a full stop is assumed to be a name and autocorrect is suppressed. Very elegant!
  • Reply 10 of 12
    What is funny is I used it on this post/app.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    hjbhjb Posts: 278member


    I think it would only be valid if there were no rounded magnifying glass ever existed.

  • Reply 12 of 12
    andreyandrey Posts: 108member
    dunks wrote: »
    I think iOS handles autocorrect extremely well. First of all the keyboard is excellent. It also indicates substitutions before they replace the word and these substitutions happen by default. If you want to purposefully misspell a word or spell an unusual word just tap the suggested word to dismiss. Capitalisation not preceded by a full stop is assumed to be a name and autocorrect is suppressed. Very elegant!

    I marked with bold for you. There's website for this http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com. Enjoy. My wife calls iOS autocorrect as donkey. When I type I rather will have misspelled word then autocorrected since don't pay much attention.
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