Apparatus and Method for Gesture Control of a Dual Panel Electronic Device

Abstract

An electronic device includes a processor, a first touch screen and a second touch screen. The first touch screen displays an object. An object transition module executed by the processor includes executable instructions to map a gesture applied to the object to a set of object movement parameters and then move the object from the first touch screen to the second touch screen in accordance with the object movement parameters.

1 . An electronic device, comprising:
 a processor, a first touch screen and a second touch screen, wherein the first touch screen displays an object; and   on object transition module executed by the processor, the object transition module including executable instructions to:
 map a gesture applied to the object to a set of object movement parameters, and 
 move the object from the first touch screen to the second touch screen in accordance with the object movement parameters. 
   
     
     
         2 . The electronic device of  claim 1  wherein the gesture is a single touch gesture. 
     
     
         3 . The electronic device of  claim 2  wherein the single touch gesture is a flick gesture characterized by some combination of position, velocity magnitude and velocity direction at the point of release from a contact point. 
     
     
         4 . The electronic device of  claim 3  wherein the object transition module applies a physics-based computation to the object movement parameters. 
     
     
         5 . The electronic device of  claim 4  wherein the physics-based computation utilizes assigned parameters to additional objects of the first touch screen and the second touch screen. 
     
     
         6 . The electronic device of  claim 4  wherein the physics-based computation utilizes assigned parameters to portions of the first touch screen and the second touch screen. 
     
     
         7 . The electronic device of  claim 1  wherein the object transition module models a discontinuity between the first touch screen and the second touch screen as a hill that an object must traverse. 
     
     
         8 . An electronic device, comprising:
 a processor;   individual touch screens; and   on object transition module executed by the processor, the object transition module including executable instructions to map a gesture to a set of object movement parameters and thereby trigger an exchange of contents between touch screens based on the object movement parameters.   
     
     
         9 . The electronic device of  claim 8  wherein the gesture is a pinch gesture across a discontinuity between two touch screens. 
     
     
         10 . An electronic device, comprising:
 a processor;   individual touch screens; and   on object transition module executed by the processor, the object transition module including executable instructions to:
 identify a first gesture that designates a selected object on a first screen, and 
 identify a second gesture that moves the content of a second screen beneath the selected object on the first screen. 
   
     
     
         11 . The electronic device of  claim 10  wherein the object transition module receives a third gesture to attach the selected object to the content of the second screen. 
     
     
         12 . The electronic device of  claim 11  wherein the object transition module replaces the content of the second screen with content from the page following the content of the second screen.