SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EVENT-BASED RENDERING OF VISUAL EFFECTS

• US 20080313540A1
• Filed: 06/18/2007
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Isaacson, Scott, Carter, Stephen R., Reveman, David, Dirks, Anna
• Granted Patent: US 8,601,371 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/710
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/00 Animation

Abstract

A system and method is provided for rendering visual effects, or other types of effects, in response to an occurrence of one or more events. The visual effects may be rendered on a user desktop in order to alert or otherwise notify a user that the one or more events have occurred. The events may reflect incoming messages (e.g., e-mails, instant messages, etc.), application and/or system problems, downloads, appointments, alarms, updates, network status, or other software and/or hardware related events. The visual effects may be rendered on the desktop to subtly notify the user when an event of interest occurs.

Claims

1. A method for event-based rendering of visual effects, comprising:

detecting an occurrence of at least one event, the detected event occurring in a portion of a desktop environment; and

rendering at least one visual effect to visually identify the portion of the desktop environment in which the detected event occurred.

2. The method of claim 1, the detected event occurring when the portion of the desktop environment is not visually perceptible from a current view of the desktop environment, the rendered effect directionally or spatially identifying the portion of the desktop environment in which the detected event occurred relative to the current view.

3. The method of claim 1, the desktop environment including a plurality of workspaces organized in a multi-dimensional spatial context.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising navigating to the detected event when a user interacts with the rendered effect.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising generating a visually or audibly perceptible confirmation effect in response to the user interacting with the rendered effect.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising rendering a return visual effect to visually identify an area of the desktop environment where the user was working prior to navigating to the detected event.

7. The method of claim 6, the user interacting with the rendered effect by mousing-over the rendered effect, the method further comprising navigating back to the area of the desktop environment when the user mouses-off the rendered effect.

8. The method of claim 1, the at least one event including a plurality of events and the at least one visual effect including a plurality of visual effects, the plurality of visual effects rendered in a configuration enabling a user to navigate among the plurality of events.

9. The method of claim 7, the rendered configuration further identifying relative severities of the plurality of the events and relative orders in which the plurality of events occurred.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising rendering a second visual effect to indicate a severity of the detected event.

11. A method for event-based rendering of visual effects, comprising:

storing one or more plug-ins for rendering visual effects in a data repository;

associating one or more of the stored plug-ins with one or more events;

detecting an occurrence of one or more of the events; and

rendering one or more visual effects based on the plug-ins associated with the detected events.

12. The method of claim 11, the events including incoming messages, software problems, hardware problems, downloads, appointments, alarms, modal windows, or electronic updates.

13. The method of claim 11, the visual effects including glow effects, sparkle effects, ripple effects, rain effects, transparency effects, shadow effects, darken effects, frost effects, de-saturate effects, animated image effects, or color change effects.

14. A system for event-based rendering of visual effects, comprising:

an architecture that includes one or more plug-ins for rendering visual effects;

a configuration module that associates one or more of the plug-ins with one or more events;

a detection module that detects an occurrence of one or more of the events; and

at least one display device that renders one or more visual effects based on the plug-ins associated with the detected events.

15. The system of claim 14, the events including incoming messages, software problems, hardware problems, downloads, appointments, alarms, modal windows, network status, or electronic updates.

16. The system of claim 14, the visual effects including glow effects, sparkle effects, ripple effects, rain effects, transparency effects, shadow effects, darken effects, frost effects, de-saturate effects, animated image effects, or color change effects.