RESOLUTION INDEPENDENT USER INTERFACE DESIGN

• US 20070171233A1
• Filed: 04/04/2007
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Zimmer, MARK
• Granted Patent: US 7,907,146 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/581
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

Graphical user interface material map objects are specified by a collection of attribute-value pairs, the collection of which comprises a complete description of the material map and may be used by a rendering engine to create a visual representation of the material map at any resolution. That is, material map representations in accordance with the invention are resolution independent. Another benefit of representing material maps in accordance with the invention is that they may be encrypted to prevent unauthorized inspection or use.

Claims

1. A method to represent a graphical user interface element, comprising:

receiving a first plurality of values for each of a first plurality of display attributes associated with a graphical user interface object, the first plurality of display attributes specifying first display characteristics of the graphical user interface object;

associating a first one of the first plurality of values with a first attribute, wherein the first value is further associated with a first display resolution;

associating a second one of the of first plurality of values with the first attribute, wherein the second value is further associated with a second display resolution;

receiving a second plurality of values for a material map, the material map for use with the graphical user interface object;

associating each of the second plurality of values with a display attribute of the material map, the second plurality of values sufficiently complete to permit the material map to be rendered; and

storing the first and second plurality of display attributes and their associated values in a file.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the file to a rendering engine for generating a visual representation of the graphical user interface object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a third one of the first plurality of values is associated with a display attribute that is independent of a display resolution of the graphical user interface object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least on of the acts of associating comprises a user explicitly associating a value with one or more of the display attributes.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least on of the acts of associating comprises automatically associating a default value to one or more of the display attributes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of storing comprises storing the first and second plurality of display attributes and their associated values in a flat file.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of storing comprises storing the first and second plurality of display attributes and their associated values in a hierarchically-ordered file.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the act of storing comprises storing the first and second plurality of display attributes and their associated values in an extensible Markup Language file.

11. A program storage device, readable by a programmable control device, comprising instructions stored thereon for causing the programmable control device to perform a method in accordance with any one of claims 1 through 9.