摘要 |
Graphical user representations, such as emoticons or avatars, used to convey mood and emotion, can be dynamically modified and manipulated, e.g. by squeezing, rotating, distorting, colouring, etc. This enables a user to customize or tailor an existing emoticon to better reflect the user's current mood or emotion. For example, a user may insert a smiley face emoticon ~ into a text message and then manipulate or distort the face or a component of the face (e.g. the smile) to broaden the smile into a grin, or twist the smile into an ironic smile, etc. This enables the user to personalize the emoticon rather than having to select the most appropriate emoticon from a palette of predefined emoticons. Another aspect is device hardware (e.g. dedicated or shared user interface elements or specific touchscreen gestures) for recognizing the squeezes or other gestures that are meant to modify or manipulate the emoticon. |