Appeal No. 2002-2023 Paper 31
Application No. 08/689,526 Page 10
traveling direction" and if it determines that the cursor is not moving toward a
designated area, it stops at the boundary of window 3,
even if the mouse is still moving (c. 6, ll. 44-55).
B. Keyson
Keyson relates to a method of controlling cursor
speed based on its direction of travel in relation to a
desired screen location or target area. Specifically, Keyson discloses a cursor/pointer
speed control method
characterized by decreasing an amount of movement of the moveable part
[e.g., a mouse, trackball or joystick], required to move the cursor a unit
distance, below a pre-specified level when the cursor is entering a target
area in the virtual space [e.g., computer/data processing system display];
and increasing the amount above the level when the cursor is leaving the
area. Preferably, the increasing and decreasing is done gradually to avoid
abrupt cursor movements. [Col. 3, ll. 25-32.]
"[D]ynamically varying the movement effort in this manner ... [is said to have] a catching
effect on the cursor, such that more user movement is required to leave than to enter
the target region" (c. 2, ll. 45-48). The method is said to "optimize user-interactivity" (c.
3, ll. 17-18).
C. McCambridge
McCambridge discloses a method which uses "cursor orientation", i.e., the
alignment of a cursor relative to an edge of a display screen, to keep the cursor visible
on the screen (abstract; c. 3, ll. 38-56). To wit, McCambridge determines the X,Y
coordinates of the cursor relative to the top, bottom, left and right corners of the screen
to detect whether the cursor has "disappeared" from the screen and, if so, selects a new
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