DIRECTING USERS' ATTENTION TO SPECIFIC ICONS BEING APPROACHED BY AN ON-SCREEN POINTER ON USER INTERACTIVE DISPLAY INTERFACES

摘要

In an interactive display interface, an implementation for highlighting all icons in any set of a plurality of said icons, wherein each icon in the set is within a predetermined distance of an approaching pointer or cursor. In other words, the point of the pointer or cursor may be considered to be surrounded by a circular halo with a radius of said predetermined distance. The user moves the cursor in a standard manner. However, if the icons that the moving cursor is approaching are so densely spaced that more than one, i.e. a plurality of icons come within the halo, then all of the icons within this set of the plurality of icons is highlighted to give the user a more distinct choice. The highlighting of each of said highlighted icons is ended when the pointer moves outside of said predetermined distance or halo radius. There is also an implementation for sequentially highlighting each icon in the set instead of simultaneously highlighting the set of icons. This is particularly effective where the icons are overlapped or stacked.