1. Background and Relevant Art
Computer systems and related technology affect many aspects of society. Indeed, the computer system's ability to process information has transformed the way we live and work. Computer systems now commonly perform a host of tasks (e.g., word processing, scheduling, accounting, etc.) that prior to the advent of the computer system were performed manually. More recently, computer systems have been coupled to one another and to other electronic devices to form both wired and wireless computer networks over which the computer systems and other electronic devices can transfer electronic data. Accordingly, the performance of many computing tasks are distributed across a number of different computer systems and/or a number of different computing environments.
Most applications present some type of user-interface at a display device that permits a user to interact with the application. An application's user interface typically tends to be optimized for a specific user distance. That is, user interfaces are developed with a specific user experience and user distance in mind (e.g., television 10 feet, eBook 2 feet, digital signage 30 feet, etc.).
For some applications, distance and/or proximity can be used to enable/disable user-interface elements in a fixed size configuration, such as, a rear-view camera on a vehicle or a user-interface surface on a smart phone. For example, on a smart phone a touch surface can be disabled when a user is close to a proximity sensor. This can be used to disable the touch surface when a user moves the phone close to their face for voice communication.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds