DYNAMIC DEVICE STATE REPRESENTATION IN A USER INTERFACE

• US 20090217188A1
• Filed: 02/27/2008
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ramasubramanian, Narasimhan, Sadovsky, Vladimir, Alexander, Robin
• Granted Patent: US 8,812,970 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/771
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34

Abstract

Processes for presenting a current state of a device having device storage connected with a host system are provided. In some processes, device manufacturers or vendors define a set of operational states of a device and provide user interface (UI) elements of a custom representation of each state through information stored in the device storage. Initially, the set of states of the device and UI elements associated with each state are received from the device storage. Information regarding a current state is received from the device, and a representation of the current state, which includes the received UI elements, is presented on the host system. In other processes, UI elements of a representation of each state are obtained from a remote system using device identification information. In other processes, UI elements from the device, from the host system, and/or from a remote system are combined to form a state representation.

Claims

1. A method for presenting a representation of current state of a device having device storage using a host system, the method comprising:

a) receiving first information from the device storage, the first information including a set of states of the device and an identification of one or more user interface elements associated with each state, wherein a representation of a state comprises the one or more user interface elements associated with the state;

b) receiving second information from the accessible portion of the device storage, the second information including an identification of a current state of the device;

c) presenting the representation of the identified current state of the device through a user interface of the host system.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying the device storage for a set of device states before receiving the first information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the representation of the identified current state of the device comprises a superposition of a UI element stored in a host database and the one or more user interface elements associated with the current state received from device storage.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving information regarding an updated state of the device from the device; and

presenting a representation of the updated state through a user interface.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the information regarding an updated state of the device is received asynchronously from the device.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the information regarding an updated state of the device is received in response to a poll of the device for a current device state.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising receiving a request for a state representation of a current device state from an application through an application programming interface and polling the device for a current device state.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the device is a Universal Serial Bus (USB) compatible device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information and second information are communicated in the IEEE 1667 protocol.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the device is a secure transient storage device.

11. A computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

12. A method for presenting a representation of a current state of a device having device storage using a host system, the method comprising:

receiving device identification information from the device storage;

obtaining a set of states and an identification of one or more user interface elements associated with each state from a remote system based on the received device identification information, wherein a representation of a state comprises the one or more user interface elements associated with the state;

receiving information identifying a current state of the device from the device; and

presenting a representation of the identified current state of the device through a graphical user interface of the host system.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving information regarding an updated state of the device from the device; and

presenting a representation of the updated state through a user interface.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the information regarding an updated state of the device is received asynchronously from the device.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the information regarding an updated state of the device is received in response to a poll of the device for a current device state.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a request for a state representation of the current device state from an application executing on the host system through an application program interface.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the first information and second information are communicated in the IEEE 1667 protocol.

18. A computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions for performing the method of claim 12.

19. A method for obtaining state representations for a device having device storage connected to a host system having a database of state representations, the method comprising:

a) querying the device storage for a set of states and a representation of each state in the set of states, wherein a representation of each state comprises one or more user interface elements associated with each state;

b) if the device does not return a state representation for each state in the set of states, searching the database of state representations of the host system for a representation of each state in a first subset of states, wherein the first subset of states includes states for which the device did not return a representation; and

c) if a state representation is not found for each state in the first subset of states, submitting a request to a remote service for a representation of each state in a second subset of states, wherein the second subset of states includes states in the first subset for which a representation was not found in the database of state representations of the host system.

20. A computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions for performing the method of claim 19.