[54] SYSTEM AND METHOD OF USING OBJECT SENSITIVITY FOR SELECTING COMPUTER-GENERATED OBJECTS
[75] Inventors: Heman Epelman-Wang. Cupertino;
Ruben Kleiman. Redwood City; David
Patrick Vronay. Petaluma, all of Calif.
[73] Assignee: Apple Computer, Inc., Cupertino,
Calif.
[21] Appl. No.: 551,195
[22] Filed: Oct 31,1995
[51] Int. CI.6 G06F 3/14
[52] U.S. CI 395/339; 395/333; 395/357
[58] Field of Search 395/155, 156.
395/159, 161. 700, 333, 334, 339, 348.
349, 357
[56] References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 5,297,253 3/1994 Meisel 395/160
5,506,952 4/1996 Choy et al 395/159
5,533,183 7/1996 Henderson, Jr. et al 395/159 X
5,539,870 7/1996 Conrad et al 395/155
5,574,901 11/1996 Takahashi 395/601
Primary Examiner—Raymond J. Bayerl
Assistant Examiner—A. Katbab
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Carr, DeFilippo & Ferrell LLP
[57] ABSTRACT
A system and method of using object sensitivity values and a cursor to select a graphical object from a plurality of graphical objects and sub-objects appearing on a display device. The plurality of graphical objects includes at least one container. A sensitivity value from the set of Normal, Opaque, Transparent, Invisible, Customized, and Automatic is designated for each of the objects. At authoring time, a sensitivity value from this set can be easily assigned to each of the objects, thus affecting the way hit testing proceeds over the objects. More particularly, an object is selected from the plurality of objects based on the position of the cursor, object position, object containment, and the sensitivity value of at least one of the objects.
23 Claims, 12 Drawing Sheets
