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:
Dec. 31, 2013
Filed:
Sep. 07, 2010
Robert William Brown, Arnprior, CA;
Michael Hin Kai Hung, Toronto, CA;
Rebecca Lynne Young, Waterloo, CA;
Robert William Brown, Arnprior, CA;
Michael Hin Kai Hung, Toronto, CA;
Rebecca Lynne Young, Waterloo, CA;
BlackBerry Limited, Waterloo, CA;
Abstract
Graphical user representations, such as emoticons or avatars, used to convey mood and emotion, can be dynamically modified and manipulated, e.g. by squeezing, rotating, distorting, coloring, etc. This enables a user to customize or tailor an existing emoticon to better reflect the user's current mood or emotion. For example, a user may insert a smiley face emoticoninto a text message and then manipulate or distort the face or a component of the face (e.g. the smile) to broaden the smile into a grin, or twist the smile into an ironic smile, etc. This enables the user to personalize the emoticon rather than having to select the most appropriate emoticon from a palette of predefined emoticons. Another aspect is device hardware (e.g. dedicated or shared user interface elements or specific touchscreen gestures) for recognizing the squeezes or other gestures that are meant to modify or manipulate the emoticon.