Idea For A Quick Menu

[JustJ]

Hi Folks,
I've been reading around here for quite some time, and I finally have something I believe worthy of posting
It always bugged me with other mobile systems that if you are using one application and want to switch to another you had almost always go back to a certain menu point before opening it.
My idea to solve this uses one of the two analog controllers and another button, maybe one of the shoulder ones.
As soon as you move the analog stick (or after a short delay maybe) a (transparent) overlay app opens which looks as shown in the picture. In this case you have 8 Menu options arranged circularly, and a curser which shows the position of the analog controller. If you hover it over a menu item it could also be highlighted or so. Then if you move the cursor over one item and press (and hold) the shoulder button it opens the selected submenu (you always have the Menu/Item hirachy) and shows the 8 choices in this menu (as shown on the bottom) and then, to select the programm you have to hover it with the cursor and release the shoulder button, the menu disappears and the programm starts. If you release the cursor in the middle the menu closes. It is quite like the menu in battlefield 2 I believe.

Here is a quick and very rough sketch of how I think it would look like...

Sorry if it is a bit hard to understand. Unfortunately, I also don't know any programming language in which this would be realizable, none at all in fact, so if any of you guys would like to programm this, I think it would be quite useful, but this may also be just me.

Have fun and Servus,
JustJ

 

[Squidge]

Tapwave zodiac?

 

[parag0n]

This is the kind of system that was used for the game 'mass effect', in the overlay menus.

Its fantastic ingame, because you hold the left trigger, select what to do, then release the trigger and get right back to the action.

 

[WoD]

I tried to build a Tapwave zodiac radial menu copy for the GP2X but didn't really get anywhere. I like the idea of radial menus, specially when analogue sticks are available.

The irony being that it was never much good on the Zodiac as a primary interface.

 

[JustJ]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I meant. Only in this case (of cours if you want it otherwise the option should be available) you woudn't press the button to show the menu, the movment on the stick would (should) be enough. This would allow to use submenus and still be pretty damn quick. And even if you have two menu levels, you can put a programm you need very often on the right side in the right category so you just have to move the stick right and press and release the shoulder button quick.

Is there any software that has this approach that might be usable on the pandora?

 

[fischju2000]

Dual analog sticks, why not two side-by-side radial menus? One can open a folder or select a file, the other can choose what to do with it

 

[.Gogeta§§J4BR.]

I tried to build a Tapwave zodiac radial menu copy for the GP2X but didn't really get anywhere. I like the idea of radial menus, specially when analogue sticks are available.

there you have it that's why it didn't work right on the gp2x
I really enjoyed this menu system on the zodiac, but I don't the pandora needs to copy it... a smarter use of the touchscreen (think grab-to-the-side iphone menus) would already be good for it

 

[God Ginrai]

Hi Folks,
I've been reading around here for quite some time, and I finally have something I believe worthy of posting
It always bugged me with other mobile systems that if you are using one application and want to switch to another you had almost always go back to a certain menu point before opening it.
My idea to solve this uses one of the two analog controllers and another button, maybe one of the shoulder ones.
As soon as you move the analog stick (or after a short delay maybe) a (transparent) overlay app opens which looks as shown in the picture. In this case you have 8 Menu options arranged circularly, and a curser which shows the position of the analog controller. If you hover it over a menu item it could also be highlighted or so. Then if you move the cursor over one item and press (and hold) the shoulder button it opens the selected submenu (you always have the Menu/Item hirachy) and shows the 8 choices in this menu (as shown on the bottom) and then, to select the programm you have to hover it with the cursor and release the shoulder button, the menu disappears and the programm starts. If you release the cursor in the middle the menu closes. It is quite like the menu in battlefield 2 I believe.

Here is a quick and very rough sketch of how I think it would look like...

Sorry if it is a bit hard to understand. Unfortunately, I also don't know any programming language in which this would be realizable, none at all in fact, so if any of you guys would like to programm this, I think it would be quite useful, but this may also be just me.

Have fun and Servus,
JustJ



Interesting Idea, except your idea for how to summon the menu won't work in all apps, because, believe it or not, there actually will be apps that use the analog nubs. Instead, I would suggest some combination that uses the Pandora button to summon the menu.

-God Ginrai

 

[Eolair]

Looks like a cool idea. Not everyone want to smudge their screen with finger prints or bother with a stylus.
The problem would be finding someone willing to code it. Good luck

 

[cb88]

UDE has a radial honeycomb menu ... not sure it would be appropriate for the device though

http://udeproject.sourceforge.net/images/s...ts/ude029.1.jpg

 

[JustJ]

Interesting Idea, except your idea for how to summon the menu won't work in all apps, because, believe it or not, there actually will be apps that use the analog nubs. Instead, I would suggest some combination that uses the Pandora button to summon the menu.

-God Ginrai

Of course that wouldn't work with all the apps, but I intended it to be used only with non-game applications, and I don't think (although I could be quite wrong on that) that every app will use both sticks.
The Idea with the summon button would work too, but it would defy the purpose a bit (as I mostly thought of it as very quick menu for which you don't have to move your fingers a lot).