The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 04, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 06, 1997
Dylan B Ashe, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Apple Computer, Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
In a graphical user interface for computers, a scroll bar tracking and drawing procedure associates elements of the scroll bar with regions on the display. The region for the thumb can move relative to the other regions, and thereby track the movement of the cursor. Within each element's associated region, any desired pattern can be drawn. As a result, the thumb can be non-rectangular in shape. Furthermore, since the image within a region can be any arbitrary pattern, the image for the thumb can be either a complete image, to accommodate live scrolling, or a ghost image to accommodate ghost scrolling. As such, a single procedure can support both modes of operation, and permit the interface to be easily switched between the two.