Selective display of cursor

• US 20080195979A1
• Filed: 02/13/2007
• Published: 08/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sadek, Mohamed, Wright, Stephen H., Santiago, Pravin Kumar, Souza, Jeremy de
• Granted Patent: US 8,001,483 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/856
• 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: G09G 5/08 Cursor circuits

Abstract

An application may be provided with an interface for hiding a cursor from or showing a cursor to a video driver and for causing cursor information to be saved in data storage and retrieved from data storage. The interface may include an application program interface (API), which may be callable from the application program. The interface may also include one or more bits included in a video driver, such that the modification of any of the one or more bits may change operation of the video driver. Modification of at least some of the bits may cause a cursor to be hidden from the video driver, may cause a previously hidden cursor to be shown to the video driver, may cause cursor information to be saved in a data storage, or may cause the cursor information to be retrieved from the data storage.

Claims

1. A method, for use with an accessibility application, for selectively hiding or showing a system cursor, the method comprising:

saving information about a system cursor; and

hiding the system cursor from a video driver in preparation for executing the accessibility application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the saving of information about the system cursor further comprises caching information with respect to a position and an appearance of the system cursor.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving the saved information about the system cursor; and

showing the system cursor to the video driver after exiting the accessibility application, a position and an appearance of the system cursor having been restored from the saved information about the system cursor.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a custom cursor to the video driver when the accessibility application is executing.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calling an application program interface to perform the saving of the information about the system cursor and the hiding of the system cursor.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising showing the system cursor to a second video driver while performing the hiding of the system cursor from the video driver, wherein

the video driver is associated with a primary display, and

the second video driver is associated with a virtual device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an arbitration mechanism to determine whether to hide or show the system cursor with respect to the video driver when a plurality of processes make conflicting requests to either show or hide the system cursor with respect to the video driver.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking a lifetime of a process that requested the system cursor to be hidden from the video driver; and

restoring the system cursor such that the system cursor is shown to the video driver when the tracking of the lifetime of the process determines that the process is terminated.

9. A processing device comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory for storing data and instructions for the at least one processor; and

a communication interface connecting the at least one processor and the memory,

wherein the memory includes;

instructions for providing an application program interface, the application program interface being callable from an accessibility application and providing a facility for the accessibility application to save information about a system cursor and to hide the system cursor from a video driver.

10. The processing device of claim 9, wherein the memory further includes:

instructions for controlling whether a second video driver receives or is prevented from receiving information with respect to displaying a cursor, the instructions for controlling whether the second video driver receives or is prevented from receiving the information with respect to displaying the cursor being arranged to execute independently of whether the system cursor is hidden from the video driver or shown to the video driver.

11. The processing device of claim 9, wherein the facility for the accessibility program to save information about a system cursor further comprises instructions for caching information with respect to a position and an appearance of the system cursor.

12. The processing device of claim 9, wherein the memory further includes:

instructions for providing custom mouse cursor data to the video driver when the system cursor is hidden from the video driver.

13. The processing device of claim 9, wherein the memory further includes:

instructions for providing custom mouse cursor data to the video driver when the system cursor is hidden from the video driver; and

instructions for hiding custom mouse cursor data from the video driver.

14. The processing device of claim 9, wherein the memory further includes:

instructions for showing the system cursor to a second video driver while hiding the system cursor from the video driver, the video driver being associated with a physical display, and the second video driver being associated with a virtual device.

15. The processing device of claim 9, wherein the memory further includes:

instructions for determining a termination of a process that requested the system cursor to be hidden from the video driver; and

instructions for restoring the system cursor such that the system cursor is shown to the video driver after the process is determined to be terminated.

16. A tangible machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon for at least one processor, the tangible machine-readable medium comprising:

instructions for providing a facility for an accessibility application to save information about a cursor and to hide the cursor from one of a plurality of the video drivers.

17. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions for providing a facility for an accessibility application to save information about a cursor further comprise:

instructions for caching information with respect to position an appearance of the cursor.

18. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising:

instructions for hiding the cursor from or showing the cursor to any one of the plurality of the video drivers independently from hiding the cursor from or showing the cursor to another one of the plurality of the video drivers.

19. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein:

one of the plurality of video drivers is associated with a physical display, and others of the plurality of video drivers are associated with virtual devices.

20. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising:

instructions for deciding whether to hide the cursor from or show the cursor to the one of the plurality of video drivers when a plurality of processes conflict with one another with respect to either the hiding of the cursor from or the showing of the cursor to the one of the plurality of video drivers.