Patent ID: 8462112

Claim:
A computing system, comprising: a display for presenting a graphical user interface; a pointing device for a user to provide user input to manipulate a position indicator on the display; and a positioning system configured to: receive the user input via the pointing device, wherein a position change of the pointing device provides a corresponding change in the position indicator that is proportional to a selected scale factor of a plurality of scale factors, wherein a default scale factor corresponds to no frictional effect; determine whether the position indicator is within a control region; determine whether to apply a frictional effect corresponding to a first scale factor less than the default scale factor within the control region as a responsiveness effect to be applied to the position change of the pointing device when the position indicator is within the control region; computationally apply the frictional effect as the first scale factor to the user input to determine a next position on the display for the position indicator when the determining determines to apply the frictional effect by: receiving a first position change of the pointing device resulting from the user input; calculating a modified position change by modifying the first position change based on the first scale factor to produce the frictional effect within the control region, the modified position change being less than the first position change; and determining the next position of the position indicator using the modified position change such that the change in the position indicator is less than if the default scale factor was used; and cause the position indicator to be displayed at the next position on the display.