METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING A COMPLEMENTARY USER INTERFACE ON A DISPLAY SURFACE

• US 20110221765A1
• Filed: 09/14/2010
• Published: 09/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: xSides Corporation
• Original Assignee: xSides Corporation
• Inventors: Kaan, Carson, Nason, D. David
• Application Number:
  US12/882,129
• Publication Number:
  US 20110221765A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/626
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/84 output devices, e.g. displays or monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2105 Dual mode as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1438 using more than one graphics controller

Abstract

An alternate display content controller provides a technique for controlling a video display separately from and in addition to the content displayed on the operating system display surface. Where the display is a computer monitor, the alternate display content controller interacts with the computer utility operating system and hardware drivers to control allocation of display space and create and control one or more parallel graphical user interfaces in addition to the operating system desktop. An alternate display content controller may be incorporated in either hardware or software. As software, an alternate display content controller may be an application running on the computer operating system, or may include an operating system kernel of varying complexity ranging from dependent on the utility operating system for hardware system services to a parallel system independent of the utility operating system and capable of supporting dedicated applications. The alternate display content controller may also include content and operating software delivered over the Internet or any other LAN. The alternate display content controller may also be included in a television decoder/settop box to permit two or more parallel graphical user interfaces to be displayed simultaneously.

Claims

1. A method for preventing an unauthorized display source from overwriting an image displayed by an authorized display source on a video display system wherein the unauthorized display source comprises software code that utilizes a native operating system to generate output for display on the video display system, comprising:

allocating a buffer for use by the video display systems;

under control of code that is independent of the native operating system,

generating a display region mask that defines a display area of the video display system and a corresponding portion of the buffer;

associating the generated display region mask with the authorized display source; and

upon receiving an indication from the authorized display source to write the image to the portion of the buffer corresponding to the area defined by the associated display region mask, utilizing resources from the native operating system to write the image onto the display area, such that output from an unauthorized source is not displayed within the area defined by the associated display region mask.

2. A method for preventing a first application from overwriting data displayed by a second application on a video display system, comprising:

allocating a buffer for use by the video display systems;

generating a display region mask that defines a display area of the video display system corresponding to a portion of the buffer;

associating the generated display region mask with the second application;

receiving data for the first application from a graphics device interface associated with a native operating system;

modifying a portion of the received data intended for the display area defined by the display region mask to prevent the data from the first application from being displayed in the display area defined by the display region mask; and

transferring the data, including the modified portion, to a display driver associated with the video display system wherein the video display system displays data from the first application except in the display area defined by the display region mask and simultaneously displays data from the second application in the display area defined by the display region mask.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the modification of data is performed by a display filter positioned intermediate the graphics device interface and the video display driver to filter data from the first application intended for the display area defined by the display region mask.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving data for the second application from the graphics device interface and replacing the modified portion of the received data for the first application with the received data for the second application.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising resizing the display area to create a first display area under control of the native operating system and a second display area outside control of the native operating system.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the display region mask defines the second display area outside control of the native operating system as the display area of the video display system.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the first application is an executable application of the native operating system.

8. A system for preventing a first application from overwriting data displayed by a second application on a video display system, comprising:

a graphics device interface configured to receive graphic display interface (GDI) calls from a processor executing the first and second applications;

a programming interface to provide a routine to create a display region mask that defines a masked display area of the video display system and to associate the generated display region mask with the second application; and

a display filter to;

intercept the GDI calls from the graphics device interface associated with a native operating system;

when the display filter detects that an intercepted function call from the first application is specifying transmission of data to the masked display area, clip a portion of the received data intended for the masked display area to prevent the data from the first application from being displayed in the masked display area; and

a display output coupleable to the video display system and configured to receive data from the display filter and to provide the received data to the video display system.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the display filter resides intermediate the graphics device interface and the video display driver to filter data from the first application intended for the masked display area.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising a programming interface to resize the display area to create a first display area under control of the native operating system and a second display area outside control of the native operating system.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the masked display region mask is positioned with application on a video display system, by:

generating a display region mask that defines a display area of the video display system;

associating the generated display region mask with the second application;

receiving data for the first application from a graphics device interface associated with a native operating system; and

clipping a portion of the received data intended for the display area defined by the display region mask to prevent the data from the first application from being displayed in the display area defined by the display region mask wherein the video display system displays data from the first application except in the display area defined by the display region mask and simultaneously displays data from the second application in the display area defined by the display region mask.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions to cause the computer processor to transfer the data, including the clipped portion, to a display driver associated with the video display system.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12 wherein the modification of data is performed by a display filter positioned intermediate the graphics device interface and the video display driver to filter data from the first application intended for the display area defined by the display region mask.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instruction to cause the computer processor to resize the display area to create a first display area under control of the native operating system and a second display area outside control of the native operating system.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 12 wherein the first application is an executable application of the native operating system.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the display region mask defines the second display area outside control of the native operating system as the display area of the video display system.