METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OPERATING A MENU OF A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE BASED ON A DETECTION OF A ROTATIONAL FREE-SPACE GESTURE

摘要

The invention is directed to a method and a corresponding system for operating a rotational menu of a GUI, based on a detection of a free-space gesture. The method comprises (i) Detecting, using a free-space gesture detection sensor, a rotational free-space gesture being performed by a user; (ii) Displaying on a display device at least a section of a rotational menu comprising a plurality of individually selectable menu items arranged in a sequential order along an arc comprising a specific predefined selection position along the arc; (iii) Synchronously and uniformly scrolling the sequence of menu items in the GUI along the arc in response to the detected gesture such that the scrolling speed is aligned, according to a predefined transformation ratio, with a detected rotational speed and direction of rotation of the detected gesture; (iv) Determining a start and a termination of the detected gesture and an accrued rotational scrolling angle or distance between a start point and an end point of the scrolling motion; (v) When the accrued scrolling angle or scrolling distance, respectively, reaches or extends beyond a predefined threshold value, automatically further scrolling the sequence of menu items by a remaining angle or distance such that thereby the respective next menu item is being moved along the direction of rotation to the selection position, and otherwise automatically reversing the scrolling motion of the sequence of menu items such as to return the last menu item to previously occupy the selection position back to the selection position; and (vi) Determining that particular menu item as a currently selected or pre-selected menu item which is located at the selection position after termination of the automatic scrolling.