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:
Apr. 06, 2004
Filed:
Dec. 15, 2000
Rabindranath Dutta, Austin, TX (US);
Don Rutledge Day, Austin, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The focus on a selectable item, such as a menu item, desktop icon, hyperlink, etc., changes based on proximity of the cursor. Whenever a portion of the area surrounding the cursor moves over a portion of the selectable item, the item can be selected upon a mouse click or other selection means. In addition, the displayed region or window or page is divided up into non-overlapping regions among the selectable items. When the cursor moves into one of the non-overlapping regions, the item associated with that region would be selected if a selection means were to be utilized. Furthermore, focus is changed to an item if a cursor moves toward it. As such, the direction of movement of the cursor predicts the item the user is moving towards. The item then becomes selectable.