{
  "patent_number": "US 7434177",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How the Apple Mac Dock Magnifies Icons",
  "original_title": "User interface for providing consolidation and access",
  "summary": "Apple's 1999 patent on the macOS Dock, which shrinks a row of app icons to save screen space and smoothly magnifies them as your mouse pointer glides over them.",
  "what_it_does": "The patent covers a graphical user interface bar containing a row of interactive tiles representing apps, documents, or web links. When a user moves their cursor close to the bar, a processor dynamically enlarges the tile closest to the cursor, along with its immediate neighbors, using a smooth mathematical sine-wave scaling function. To prevent the growing icons from overlapping or spilling off the screen, the system simultaneously shifts the remaining unmagnified icons sideways along the bar. For example, when you hover over the Safari icon on a Mac, it balloons in size while the Mail and Calendar icons slide outward to make room.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover static application bars or taskbars where icons remain a constant size when hovered.",
    "Does not cover icon magnification triggered by touch gestures on a mobile screen without a cursor.",
    "Does not cover grids or menus of icons where magnification occurs in two dimensions rather than along a single linear bar.",
    "Does not cover magnification effects where adjacent icons do not shift position to accommodate the enlarged icon."
  ],
  "filed": "1999-12-20",
  "granted": "2008-10-07",
  "expires": null,
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Apple Inc",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/apple-inc",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Donald J. Lindsay",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/donald-j-lindsay"
    },
    {
      "name": "Bas Ording",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/bas-ording"
    },
    {
      "name": "Steven P. Jobs",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/steven-p-jobs"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 232,
  "tags": [
    "consumer_electronics",
    "software"
  ],
  "abstract": "Methods and systems for providing graphical user interfaces are described. To provide greater access and consolidation to frequently used items in the graphical user interface, a userbar is established which includes a plurality of item representations. To permit a greater number of items to reside in the userbar, a magnification function can be provided which magnifies items within the userbar when they are proximate the cursor associated with the graphical user interface.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7434177/itunes-digital-music-store",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7434177/itunes-digital-music-store/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US7434177",
  "relatedPatents": []
}