Patent ID: 8736566

Claim:
An apparatus capable of causing a visual portion of an audio/visual program received from one of a plurality of sources to be displayed on a display element, the apparatus comprising: a remote control comprising: a casing; and a first manually-operable control disposed on the casing and comprising a touch-sensitive surface, wherein the first manually-operable control is associated with a first menu having a first plurality of menu items, and wherein the first manually-operable control is configured to substantially match the shape of the first menu and is operable to enable selection of one menu item of the first plurality of menu items; a processing device able to receive indications from the remote control of the first manually-operable control being operated, and able to cause the visual portion to be displayed within a first portion of the display element and cause the first menu to be displayed within a second portion of the display element, and wherein the second portion extends at least partially about a periphery of the display element and at least partially about the periphery of the first portion; and a storage accessible to the processing device and storing a sequence of instructions that when executed by the processing device, causes the processing device to: cause the first menu to be displayed on the display element in response to contact with the touch-sensitive surface being detected; cause the first portion of the display element to be reduced in size to accommodate the first menu, and cause the visual portion of the audio/visual program to be rescaled based on the reduced size; cause a first marker to be displayed on a first portion of the first menu having substantially the same relative position on the first menu as a current position of the contact with the touch-sensitive surface; in response to movement of the current position of the contact with the touch-sensitive surface about the touch-sensitive surface, cause the first marker to be moved about the first menu and among menu items of the first plurality of menu items such that the first marker maintains substantially the same relative position on the first menu as the current position of the contact with the touch-sensitive surface; and cause a selection of the one menu item of the first plurality of menu items in response to the first marker being moved towards the one menu item and cause operation of the first manually-operable control to select the one menu item with the current position of the contact with the touch-sensitive surface being maintained at a position on the touch-sensitive surface that corresponds to a position of the one menu item on the first menu.