INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD FOR PRIVATE USE

• US 20110050611A1
• Filed: 08/24/2010
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Promethean Limited (Best Assistant Education Group Co.)
• Original Assignee: Promethean Limited (Best Assistant Education Group Co.)
• Inventors: PEARCE, Nigel
• Granted Patent: US 9,411,441 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/046 by electromagnetic means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

There is disclosed a method of controlling a computer system, which computer system is adapted to receive inputs from an interactive display surface and one or more other input devices, the computer system being further adapted to display images on the interactive display surface and a further display surface, the interactive display surface and the further display surface forming a contiguous desktop display for the computer system, the method comprising:

• • receiving input data from the one or more input devices, wherein a foreground application is determined in dependence upon the input data from the one or more input devices;
  • receiving input data from the interactive display surface, wherein the input data from the interactive display surface does not affect the determination of the foreground application.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a computer system, which computer system is adapted to receive inputs from an interactive display surface and one or more other input devices, the computer system being further adapted to display images on the interactive display surface and a further display, the interactive display surface and the further display surface forming a contiguous desktop display for the computer system, the method comprising:

receiving input data from the one or more input devices, wherein a foreground application is determined in dependence upon the input data from the one or more input devices;

receiving input data from the interactive display surface, wherein the input data from the interactive display surface does not affect the determination of the foreground application.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising routing the input data from the interactive display surface to one or more applications.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of routing the data received from the interactive display surface comprises converting the data into a proprietary format.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the one or more applications are adapted to process the data in the proprietary format.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein any background application receiving data from the interactive display surface is maintained as a background application.

6. The method of claim 1 in which the input data from the interactive display surface is thereby prevented from interrupting the input data received from the one or more input devices.

7. The method of claim 1 in which an input focus of the computer system is thereby unaffected by the input data from the interactive display system.

8. A computer program for performing, when run on a computer, the method steps of claim 1.

9. A computer program product for storing a computer program code which, when run on a computer system, performs the method steps of claim 1.

10. A computer system adapted to display one or more images on an interactive display surface and to display one or more images on a further display, the computer system being further adapted to receive inputs from the interactive display surface and from one or more further input devices, the computer system being further adapted to determine a foreground application in dependence upon the input data received from the one or more further input devices, and to make said determination independent of the input data received from the interactive display surface.

11. The computer system of claim 10 further adapted such that any application receiving data from the interactive display surface is maintained as a background application.

12. The computer system of claim 10 further adapted such that one or more images displayed on the interactive display surface are associated with the one or more applications.

13. The computer system of claim 10 further adapted to control the one or more background applications using the interactive display surface.

14. The computer system of claim 10 further adapted to route the input data from the one or more input devices to one or more possible foreground applications.

15. The computer system of claim 14 further adapted such that one or more images displayed on the further display are associated with the one or more possible foreground applications.

16. The computer system of claim 14 further adapted such that the one of the one or more possible foreground applications with which the input data from the one or more input devices is associated is determined to be the foreground application.

17. The computer system of claim 10 wherein the interactive display surface is a display surface of a projection system and the further display is a display of the computer system.

18. The computer system of claim 10 wherein there is further provided a pointing device, the interactive display surface being adapted to detect the presence and position of the pointing device on the interactive surface.

19. The computer system of claim 18 wherein the interactive display surface is a touch sensitive surface and the pointing device is a finger.

20. The computer system of claim 10 wherein the interactive display surface is adapted to control a first set of software applications and the one or more further input devices are adapted to control a second set of software applications.