Painting user controls

• US 20100107120A1
• Filed: 10/27/2008
• Published: 04/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Simpson, Jared, Sareen, Chaitanya, Hoefnagels, Stephan, Jarrett, Rob, Anderson, Bret
• Granted Patent: US 8,490,026 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/821
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

The described implementations relate to dynamically painting user-controls. One method dynamically determines a highlight color of a user-control under a cursor on a graphical user-interface. The method also paints at least a portion of the user-control with the highlight color.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a tracking module configured to track a location and direction of movement of a cursor over a graphical user-interface;

a color module configured to obtain color information relating to user-controls on the graphical user-interface and to determine a highlight color of individual user-controls from the color information; and

,

a painting module configured to paint a portion of individual user-controls with the highlight color.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the color module is configured to identify an icon of an individual user-control and obtain the color information from the icon.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the color module is configured to obtain the color information at a pixel level and to sort pixels by color.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the color module is configured to determine the highlight color from the sorted pixels.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the painting module is configured to paint the portion with a pair of concentric glows having a location of the cursor as a focus.

6. A method, comprising:

dynamically determining a highlight color of a user-control under a cursor on a graphical user-interface (GUI); and

,

painting at least a portion of the user-control with the highlight color.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

identifying an icon of the user-control;

obtaining pixels of the icon; and

,

sorting the pixels by color.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the dynamically determining comprises determining the highlight color as the color associated with a highest number of pixels.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the dynamically determining excludes white, black, grey and transparent when determining the highlight color.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

attempting to identify an icon of the user-control;

in an instance where no icon is identified, further attempting to identify text of the user-control; and

,

obtaining pixels of the text; and

,

sorting the pixels by color.

11. The method of claim 6, further comprising tracking cursor location and direction of movement over the user-control and obtaining color information relating to the user-control and wherein the dynamically determining utilizes the color information.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the painting conveys cursor location and direction relative to the user-control.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the painting comprises generating a glow around the cursor.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein the painting comprises generating inner and outer concentric glows around the cursor.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the inner glow is relatively concentrated and the outer glow is relatively diffuse.

16. The method of claim 6, wherein the painting comprises generating an ellipse around the cursor.

17. The method of claim 6, wherein the painting comprises generating a comet-shape around the cursor with a tail of the comet pointing toward a previous location of the cursor.

18. A computer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereon that when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to perform acts, comprising:

identifying a group of related user-controls on a graphical user-interface, wherein an individual user-control includes an icon; and

,

painting at least portions of the user-controls of the group with a color that is dynamically selected from information relating to the icon.

19. The computer-readable storage media of claim 18, wherein the identifying comprises identifying the group that relates to a specific application.

20. The computer-readable storage media of claim 18, wherein the identifying comprises identifying the group that relates to a web-site.