Microsoft filed a patent back on May 4th, 2010 called “Visual Motion Feedback for User Interface”, this is the “Metro UI” that’s on their Windows Phone 7 devices. Almost a year and a half later the USPTO has approved this patent and has granted them rights, ultimately giving Microsoft the protection it needs against any lawsuits or anyone who decides to copy the design. Eventually this UI will be in everything Microsoft does, phones, Xbox, computers, cars…
In the official description in the patent the UI claim is described as “In a computer system, a method comprising: receiving gesture information corresponding to a gesture on a touch input device; calculating simulated inertia motion for a movable user interface element based at least in part on the gesture information; based at least in part on the gesture information and on the simulated inertia motion, calculating a post-gesture position of the movable user interface element; determining that the post-gesture position exceeds a gesture boundary of the movable user interface element; and calculating a distortion effect in the movable user interface element to indicate that the gesture boundary has been exceeded.”
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
