Patent ID: 8624855

Claim:
At a computer system including a processor and system memory, a method for recognizing a multiple input point gesture, the method comprising: an act of receiving an unordered set of point locations, the unordered set of point locations indicating that simultaneous contact was detected at a plurality of locations on an input surface without regard for the order in which contact was detected at individual locations included in the plurality of locations, the plurality of locations including at least three locations, including a first location, a second location and a third location, where a user touched the input surface with one or more fingers or other objects; an act of determining a number of locations included in the at least three locations where contact was simultaneously detected from the unordered set of points; an act of determining that the user released the one or more fingers or other objects from the input surface, such that contact is no longer detected at the at least three locations on the input surface where the simultaneous contact was initially detected; and in response to determining that the user released the one or more fingers or other objects from the input surface, such that contact is no longer detected at the number of locations where simultaneous contact was initially detected, an act of the processor recognizing an input gesture based on and corresponding to (1) the number of locations where simultaneous contact was initially detected, but no longer detected, without regard for the order in which contact was detected at individual locations included in the plurality of locations, and (2) a relative orientation of the at least three locations on the input surface where the fingers or other objects were initially placed on the input surface, without detecting movement of the fingers or other objects, wherein different gestures correspond to different relative orientations for different determined numbers of locations where simultaneous contact was initially detected, but where contact is no longer detected.