Patent ID: 8477103

Claim:
A method performed on a computing device comprising a touch sensitive input surface and a display, the method for providing realistic movement on the display of objects manipulated using multi-touch input via the touch sensitive surface, the method comprising: determining that a user has released an application object of an application executing on the computing device by removing one or more contacts from a multi-touch input device, the application object displayed on the display; after the determining, invoking an inertia API (application programming interface) executing on the computing device to process a simulation of movement of the application object for a current inertia processing period, wherein the inertia API provides an application-independent platform invocable by arbitrary applications on the computing device, the inertia API simulating inertial object movements independent of a type of the application object; receiving, by the application, an inertia event generated by the inertia API after the determining, wherein the inertia event describes a manipulation of the object based on simulated inertia; and handling the received inertia event based on an effect of the manipulation in a context of the application by modifying the application object and displaying the application object on the display accordingly.