DIORAMIC USER INTERFACE HAVING A USER CUSTOMIZED EXPERIENCE

• US 20100333037A1
• Filed: 06/29/2009
• Published: 12/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: PLANT, LAURENCE J., PAVLOVSKI, CHRISTOPHER J.
• Granted Patent: US 11,520,455 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/848
• 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: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

The present disclosure teaches a solution for a user customizable abstraction layer for tailoring all operating system, application, and web based interfaces. The interface differs from conventional user interfaces by presenting a dynamic interface which can enable user access across all domains and applications with which the user can interact. The interface can be dynamically built as a user interacts with clients (e.g., devices/applications). Clients can utilize common usage patterns, installed application, installed themes, personal information, and the like, to create a highly customized adaptive user designed and modifiable interface.

Claims

1. A dioramic system comprising:

an application interaction manager for receiving output events from a plurality of applications and for sending input event to said applications;

a diorama rendering engine for dynamically generating output for a dioramic user interface from received ones of the output events in accordance with at user customizations established within the dioramic system;

a user interaction manager for dynamically receiving user input from a dioramic user interface and converting in real-time said user input into said sent input events in accordance with user customizations established with in the dioramic system; and

a diorama bus configured to communicatively link said application interaction manager, said diorama rendering engine, and said user interaction manager to each other, wherein said dioramic user interface is a three dimensional interface independent of said applications comprising environment characteristics and avatars having characteristics derived from application specific events, wherein each of said application interaction manager, said diorama rendering engine, and said user interaction manager comprise computer program products stored in a physical medium executable by a hardware processor.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the dioramic system is hosted on a computing device providing the dioramic user experience for all user interaction functions and services of an operating system of the computing device, said dioramic system interfacing with the operating system by one of the following:

A) interfacing with the operating system by being embedded within the operating system software; and

B) interfacing with the operating system being implemented in an independent layer co-located with the operating system.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein each of said application interaction manager, said diorama rendering engine, and said user interaction manager comprise software applications implemented within a J2EE server, said dioramic system comprising middleware executing between a remotely located application and a remotely located diorama client.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said dioramic user interface establishes a user to machine interaction transparent to and independent of the applications exchanging data with the application interaction manager.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a user application interaction analysis engine for receiving an application output event and automatically conveying said event to the dioramic user interface.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an avatar engine configured to generate an avatar within a dioramic user interface, wherein the avatar has at least one of a physical characteristic and a personality characteristic, wherein the physical characteristic and personality characteristic is derived from a data set of an executing application and preferences of the user.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein avatar specifics for avatars utilized by said avatar engines are associated with a set of constraints, said constraints limiting behavior in manner consistent with an established persona.

8. The system of claim 6, avatars representing a famous individual having a public persona, wherein the avatars have constraints designed to keep interactions of the avatar consistent with the public personas of the represented individual.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a theme engine able to establish a plurality of settings for a dioramic user interface, wherein the settings alter the presentation and the behavior of the dioramic user interface during the application session in a manner transparent to the application without interrupting the application session.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a personality engine of the dioramic system able to receive user specific settings, wherein the user specific settings modify an avatar personality characteristic, wherein the personality characteristic is linked to an output of an executing application.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein a user of the dioramic system is represented as an avatar within the dioramic system interface, said dioramic system interface persisting characteristics of said avatar across boundaries of discrete computing environments.

17. The method of claim 11, representing a user of the dioramic user interface within the dioramic user interface as an avatar, said avatar being able to navigate a three dimensional virtual environment established by the dioramic system, said user environment comprising a plurality of other avatars and environments with which said avatar is able to interact, wherein at least at one of the other avatars or environments are specific to a different executing application, said different executing application and said application lacking programmatic linkages other than those established by said dioramic system.

11. A method for interfacing between a human and a machine comprising:

identifying an application executing on computing equipment comprising hardware;

while executing the application, generating output events and responding to input events, said output events being directed to a dioramic system, said input events coming from said dioramic system, said dioramic system comprising an application independent layer of abstraction between a user and the executing application;

said dioramic system generating a dioramic user interface, which is presented to a user, wherein the dioramic user interface is tailored in accordance with user specific customizations specific to the dioramic system;

said dioramic system detecting each output event, processing the output event in accordance with the user specific customizations to generate output presented within the dioramic user interface; and

said dioramic system detecting user provided input, converting the user provided input in accordance with the user specific customizations to generate said input events, which are handled by said executing application, wherein specifics of said dioramic user interface resulting from the user customizations are application transparent.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said dioramic user interface is a three dimensional interface not natively supported by the executing application.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

the dioramic system establishing at least one object of said application as an avatar within the dioramic user interface, wherein said executing application lacks programmatic code for representing said at least one object as an avatar.

14. The method of claim 11, applying a personality characteristic to the avatar, wherein the personality characteristic and at least one physical characteristic is dependent upon a user specific data set of the executing application, which is represented as a different personality trait inherently comprehensible based upon at least one of a personality characteristics mapped from a data state of the executing application.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one environmental characteristic, said environmental characteristic consistent with a theme established for a diorama, which is absent in the application, said environmental characteristic varying based upon application specific data set information specific to the user or the dioramic interface.

18. The method of claim 11, establishing a semantic theme within the dioramic system, wherein said semantic theme represents at least one object of said application as an avatar within the dioramic user interface, wherein said executing application lacks programmatic code for representing said theme.

19. A method for interacting between a set of humans and a set of application comprising:

identifying at least one collaboration application executing in a computing space; and

said application concurrently interacting with a plurality of different users in real time, each of said users utilizing a different user interface for said interactions, wherein at least one of said user interfaces comprises a dioramic user interface, wherein at least another of said user interfaces comprising an application specific interface, wherein said dioramic user interface is an application transparent interface comprising three dimensional interface independent of said application, said dioramic user interface comprising environment characteristics and avatars having characteristics derived from application specific events, which change based upon application specific events, wherein said application lacks programmatic code for the environment characteristics and said avatars.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

receiving a user customization directed to the dioramic user interface, changing an environment of the dioramic user interface and a plurality of avatars during the application session in a manner transparent to the application without interrupting the application session.