{
  "patent_number": "US 8683378",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Smartphones Switch Between Slow and Fast Scrolling",
  "original_title": "Scrolling techniques for user interfaces",
  "summary": "A system that automatically changes how a list scrolls based on how fast or hard you interact with the screen.",
  "what_it_does": "This patent describes a way to manage long lists on a screen by switching between two scrolling modes based on user input speed or force. In 'elemental' mode, the system scrolls through items one by one, moving smoothly from the end of one group to the start of the next. In 'quick' mode, triggered when the input exceeds a certain threshold (like a faster swipe), the system skips ahead to the start of the next sublist. This allows a user to navigate large media libraries, like a music collection, much faster than manually scrolling through every single entry.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover scrolling that does not use sublists or categorized metadata.",
    "Does not cover simple linear scrolling that ignores input velocity or duration.",
    "Does not cover non-digital interfaces or physical paper-based lists."
  ],
  "filed": "2008-01-09",
  "granted": "2014-03-25",
  "expires": "2028-01-09",
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Apple Inc",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/apple-inc",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "William Bull",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/william-bull"
    },
    {
      "name": "Eric James Hope",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/eric-james-hope"
    },
    {
      "name": "Kourtny Minh HICKS",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/kourtny-minh-hicks"
    },
    {
      "name": "Policarpo Wood",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/policarpo-wood"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 42,
  "tags": [
    "consumer_electronics",
    "software"
  ],
  "abstract": "Systems and methods for improving the scrolling of user interfaces of electronic devices are provided. For example, a user interface may provide various visual, aural, and tactile enhancements for increasing the ease and speed with which a user may scroll through a list of listings to highlight a particular listing. Each listing may be associated with a particular entry in a media library. Moreover, each listing may be associated with one of multiple sublists in the list of listings, and each sublist may be defined based on a characteristic of a first piece of metadata associated with each entry in the media library. The various visual, aural, and tactile enhancements may be provided based on a relationship between a previously highlighted listing and a currently highlighted listing.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8683378/scrolling-techniques-for-user-interfaces",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8683378/scrolling-techniques-for-user-interfaces/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US8683378",
  "relatedPatents": [
    {
      "patentNumber": "7469381",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Touchscreens Show and Snap Back When You Scroll Past an Edge",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7469381/iphone-rubberbanding"
    },
    {
      "patentNumber": "8448084",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Pull-to-Refresh Works on Your Smartphone",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8448084/pull-to-refresh-gesture"
    },
    {
      "patentNumber": "7844915",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Touchscreens Handle Scrolling and Rubber-Band Effects",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7844915/application-programming-interfaces-for-scrolling-operations"
    },
    {
      "patentNumber": "7479949",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Touchscreens Understand Your Finger Swipes and Scrolls",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7479949/iphone-multi-touch"
    },
    {
      "patentNumber": "10466883",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Apple Watches Use a Rotating Dial to Navigate Menus",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/10466883/apple-arcade"
    }
  ]
}