Numeric input control through a non-linear slider
View Patent ↗The disclosed non-linear slider control enables a single control to rapidly change orders of magnitude in the scale of control by varying the bounds and quantization interval based on the value before the user begins a slide operation. The bigger the value is at the start, the larger the bounds and the interval. At the end of the slide operation, the bounds and step interval value are recomputed such that the end of the slider operation is centered in the new bounds.
1. A system for operating a nonlinear slider control comprising:
a computing device having a processor and having built-in or connection to a display device and one or more input devices, the computer device operating software to display a slider control on the display device, the slider control having:
a slider track;
a slider on the slider track visually representing a current slider value;
wherein the slider control is initialized with a current slider value and uses that current slider value to determine a range and a step interval size for the slider track; and
wherein after a change to the current slider value, the range and step interval size for the slider track are redetermined based on the changed current slider value and such that determination and redetermination of range and step interval size place the slider position at a mid-point of the slider track.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the slider control further includes two steppers for single increment movement of the slider on the slider track.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the slider control further includes a text display showing the current slider position value.
4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the text display is a text input field, and wherein input of a different value into the text input field changes the current slider value to the different value.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the slider control is configured such that the redetermination of range is from zero to twice the changed current slider value.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the slider control is configured such that the redetermination of step interval size is one hundredth of ten to the rounded up integer value of the logarithm of the changed current slider value with base ten.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the slider control is further configured such that the redetermination of range uses a non-zero minimum.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the slider control further includes a text input field for setting or adjusting the non-zero minimum.
9. A system for operating a nonlinear slider control comprising:
a computing device having a processor and having built-in or connection to a display device and one or more input devices, the computer device operating software to display a slider control on the display device, the slider control having:
a slider track;
a slider on the slider track visually representing a current slider value;
two steppers for single increment movement of the slider on the slider track;
wherein the slider control is initialized with a current slider value and uses that current slider value to determine a range and a step interval size for the slider track;
wherein the current slider value may be adjusted by input controls; and
wherein after a change to the current slider value by one of the input controls the range and step interval size for the slider track remain the same, while after a change to the current slider value by any of the other input controls the range and step interval size for the slider track are redetermined based on the changed current slider value.
10. A method of operating a nonlinear slider control comprising:
operating, on a computing device having a processor and having built-in or connection to a display device and one or more input devices, software to display a slider control on the display device;
displaying a slider track within the slider control;
displaying a slider on the slider track visually representing a current slider value;
initializing the slider control with a current slider value and using that current slider value to determine a range and a step interval size for the slider track;
changing the current slider value through one of the input devices; and
redetermining, based on the changed current slider value, the range and step interval size for the slider track, wherein the redetermination of range and step interval size places the slider position at a mid-point of the slider track.
11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising displaying two steppers for single increment movement of the slider on the slider track.
12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising displaying a text display of current slider position value.
13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising displaying the text display as a text input field, and accepting input of a different value into the text input field to change the current slider value to the different value.
14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the redetermination of range is from zero to twice the changed current slider value.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the redetermination of step interval size is one hundredth of ten to the rounded up integer value of the logarithm of the changed current slider value with base ten.
16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the redetermination of range uses a non-zero minimum.
17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising displaying a text input field accepting numeric text input for setting or adjusting the non-zero minimum.
18. A method of operating a nonlinear slider control comprising:
operating, on a computing device having a processor and having built-in or connection to a display device and one or more input devices, software to display a slider control on the display device;
displaying a slider track within the slider control;
displaying a slider on the slider track visually representing a current slider value;
displaying two steppers for single increment movement of the slider on the slider track;
initializing the slider control with a current slider value and using that current slider value to determine a range and a step interval size for the slider track;
changing the current slider value by one input control and not changing the range or step interval size for the slider track; and
changing the current slider value by other input controls and redetermining, based on the changed current slider value, the range and step interval size for the slider track.