Input management system and method

• US 20060041892A1
• Filed: 09/29/2005
• Published: 02/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Need, Dwayne
• Granted Patent: US 7,433,979 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0227 Cooperation and interconnection of the input arrangement with other functional units of a computer G06F3/023 - G06F3/037 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a method and system for use in a computing environment for managing input information. The system for facilitating input management in a computerized environment may include an input manager for processing events received from an input provider. The system may additionally include a staging area including a stack of events created by the input manager. The staging area allows access by external components. The external components may include a set of filters capable of accessing and manipulating the stack of input events and a set of monitors capable of monitoring manipulation of the stack of events.

Claims

1. A method for managing input to facilitate third party access, the method comprising:

processing input events by creating a staging area including a stack of input events; and

providing third party listener access to the staging area to enable a third party to monitor events in the staging area.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising manipulating events in the stack using a filter.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising manipulating events in the stack using at least one of a mouse filter, a keyboard filter, and a stylus filter.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising manipulating events in the stack using a user-defined filter.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating a dictionary with each event in the stack.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising defining a state of each event in a stack with the associated dictionary.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising promoting a first type of event to a second type of event.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first type of event involves unknown input.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the second type of event with the dictionary associated with the first type of event.

10. A computer readable medium storing the computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

11. A method for providing an application with event notification, the method comprising:

receiving a primary event notification, the primary event including a dictionary;

pushing a secondary event onto a stack in response to the primary event;

providing the secondary event with the dictionary from the primary event; and

sending both the secondary event and the primary event to the application.

12. A system for exposing events for both a logical input device and a physical input device, the system comprising:

a promoter for converting logical input associated with an event to physical input; and

a dictionary accessible to an application, wherein the dictionary associates the logical input related to the event with the physical input.