Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Oracle America, Inc.

Richard Berlin

Annette M Wagner

Fazeel Mufti

Osana Tishkova

Michael A Arent

James A Graham

Michael Arent

An intuitive scrolling feedback mechanism is provided to enable novice and infrequent computer users to understand and to utilize the scrolling functionality offered by a computing device. Scrolling feedback is provided by displaying a portion of a set of information in a display area. In addition, a control region is displayed, comprising one or more activable controls. These controls, when activated by a user via a user interface, cause a different portion of the set of information to be displayed in the display area. In addition, a status region is displayed, comprising a plurality of location indicators. A subset of the location indicators is displayed in a first manner (e.g. a darker color), while the remainder of the location indicators is displayed in a second and different manner (e.g. a lighter color). The subset of the indicators is determined based upon the portion of the set of information that is currently being displayed in the display region. In effect, the location indicators provide the user with an indication as to where the currently displayed portion is relative to the entire set of information. As the user scrolls forward in the set of information, more location indicators are &ldquo;filled in&rdquo; with the darker color. As the user scrolls backward, location indicators are &ldquo;unfilled&rdquo;. At any time, the user can get a sense of how far into the set of information he has scrolled by simply viewing the status region. This &ldquo;filling&rdquo; and &ldquo;unfilling&rdquo; of the location indicators gives the user a very intuitive feel of the scrolling process.

Mechanism for providing intuitive scrolling feedback

The present invention comprises a method for providing feedback to the user of a graphical user interface using visual and operational clues. In an embodiment of the invention, the user is provided visual clues that inform the user in what direction the display area can be scrolled. The display area may contain a list, a text box, a pop-up menu or any kind of data. Operational clues help the user determine what actions move the list and what actions do not move the list. The invention can be implemented in the form of a list. A list is comprised of one or more fields. At the top of the list and at the bottom of the list is a blank space that functions as one of the visual clues. The purpose of the blank space is to inform the user they are at the top of the list and cannot scroll any further up or that they are at the bottom of the list and cannot scroll any further down. Another form of visual clue is provided through the use of partially visible fields. Partially visible fields help the user know in which direction the list can be scrolled by indicating to the user that additional fields are present beyond the partially visible one.

Method and apparatus for providing feedback while scrolling

In a computer graphics windowing system including a color map, a method for managing palette color value contents of the color map. Input color values are received. Error values between each input color value and each palette color value are used to determine a closest palette color value to each input color value. A list of input color values having largest error value distances to their respective closest palette color values is determined. A subset of this list is added to the color map to derive a modified color map. A color value metric process for determining an error value between each input color value and each palette color value comprises converting each input color value and each palette color value to a uniform color space. A lightness weighting constant is used to skew the error value in to be more strongly influenced by differences in lightness than by differences in chromaticity. A look up table having address spaces indexed by RGB index color values is generated. Each address space of the look up table is filled with a color map address of the closest palette color value to the respective RGB index color value referencing the address space.

Method and apparatus for generating small, optimized color look-up tables

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Richard Berlin