Method and apparatus for providing a three-dimensional task gallery computer interface
First Claim
1. A method of generating a display on a computer screen in a computer system, the method comprising:
- displaying a three-dimensional environment;
displaying at least two tasks in the three-dimensional environment, each task capable of including an image of at least two windows, at least one task comprising an ordered stack of windows in which the windows are automatically aligned and a loose stack of windows in which the alignment between the windows is set by a user;
displaying the movement of one of the tasks in the three dimensional environment in response to input from a user.
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Abstract
The present invention provides a three-dimensional user interface for a computer system that allows a user to combine and store a group of windows as a task. The image of each task can be positioned within a three-dimensional environment such that the user may utilize spatial memory in order remember where a particular task is located. In further embodiments of the invention, the three-dimensional environment includes a stage, which is used to display the task with the current focus. When a user selects a new task in the gallery, the task is moved to the stage and given focus. If a previous task was on the stage, an image of the previous task is captured. This image is then moved into the task gallery away from the stage. This process allows users to switch between multiple window configurations with a simple action.
267 Citations
34 Claims
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1. A method of generating a display on a computer screen in a computer system, the method comprising:
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displaying a three-dimensional environment;
displaying at least two tasks in the three-dimensional environment, each task capable of including an image of at least two windows, at least one task comprising an ordered stack of windows in which the windows are automatically aligned and a loose stack of windows in which the alignment between the windows is set by a user;
displaying the movement of one of the tasks in the three dimensional environment in response to input from a user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable components comprising:
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a display environment component capable of displaying a three-dimensional environment;
a display task component capable of displaying at least two window images in each of at least two task images in the three-dimensional environment, at least one of the task images comprising at least two windows in a loose stack and at least two windows in an ordered stack separate from the loose stack; and
a move task component capable of moving at least one of the task images in the three-dimensional environment in response to input from the user. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable components comprising:
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a environment display component capable of displaying a three-dimensional environment on a computer screen, the three-dimensional environment comprising at least one stage and at least one non-focus task comprising images of at least two windows;
a movement component capable of displaying animated movement of a non-focus task toward a stage;
a conversion component capable of converting the non-focus task into a focus task when the non-focus task reaches the stage; and
a focus conversion component capable of converting a previous focus task on the stage into a converted non-focus task, the focus conversion component comprising a snapshot component capable of replacing the previous focus task with an image of the previous focus task. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34)
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Specification