CLOUD-CONNECTED, INTERACTIVE APPLICATION SHARED THROUGH A SOCIAL NETWORK

• US 20140019538A1
• Filed: 07/16/2012
• Published: 01/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cohen, Michael, Limpaecher, Alex, Zitnick, C. Larry
• Granted Patent: US 8,775,518 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

The current patent application is directed to a class of highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive applications that are well suited for distribution and execution in social-networking contexts. When executed within the contexts of browser applications running on processor-controlled electronic devices, the class of application programs to which the current patent application is directed provides for importing images and other information from a social-networking service, developing digitally encoded and electronically stored content based on the imported images and other information, and distributing the digitally encoded and electronically stored content within a social-networking environment.

Claims

1. A highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive computer system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more electronic memories;

a display device;

a highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application that is stored in the one or more electronic memories and that executes within a web-browser context on the one or more processors to control operation of the highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive computer system, the highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application accessing social-networking services provided by a social-networking-service-providing system through one or more social-networking-service interfaces, accessing user-interface tools and routines through a runtime interface provided by development-and-runtime-system web-browser plug-in, and accessing a cloud-computing data-storage interface to store and retrieve data to and from a cloud-computing facility; and

digitally-encoded content produced by the highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application that is stored in one or more physical data-storage devices within the social-networking-service-providing system and within the cloud-computing facility.

2. The highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive computer system of claim 1 wherein the highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application displays a drawing user interface on the display device through which a human user draws portraits.

3. The highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive computer system of claim 2 wherein the drawing user interface includes:

a semi-transparent electronic canvas;

drawing tools invoked through user-input features; and

a first user-input feature that, when invoked by user input, initiates storing operations that electronically store a drawing displayed on the semi-transparent electronic canvas.

4. The highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive computer system of claim 3 wherein the semi-transparent electronic canvas is overlaid by the highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application over an image, received through the one or more social-networking-service interfaces, that provides a drawing guide.

5. The highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive computer system of claim 4 wherein the drawing user interface provides tools that import color and or portions of the image into the overlying semi-transparent electronic canvas.

6. The highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive computer system of claim 2 wherein the highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application provides an interface that allows a user to retrieve a log file stored in the cloud-computing facility and replay drawing operations stored in the log file.

7. The highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive computer system of claim 2 wherein the highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application is accessible to users of the social-networking-service-providing system through one or more social-networking-service interfaces.

8. The highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive computer system of claim 2 wherein the highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application displays a user-interface feature that, when invoked by user input, initiates a posting operation that posts the drawing displayed on the semi-transparent electronic canvas to social-networking-service-supplied web pages.

9. A specialized portrait-drawing computer system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more electronic memories;

a display device;

a drawing user interface, controlled by an application stored in one or the one or more electronic memories and executed by one of the one or more processors and displayed on the display device, that provides drawing tools that, when manipulated by user input, draws a portrait on a semi-transparent electronic canvas overlaid over an image obtained from a social-networking service;

a user-interface feature that when invoked by user input, posts a drawing rendered on the semi-transparent electronic canvas to one or more user web pages provided by the social-networking service; and

a data-storage function provided by the application that stores digitally encoded drawings and drawing log files on a cloud-computing facility by accessing data-storage services through a cloud-computing data-storage-service interface.

10. The specialized portrait-drawing computer system of claim 9 wherein the drawing user interface includes:

the semi-transparent electronic canvas;

drawing tools invoked through user-input features; and

a user-input feature that, when invoked by user input, initiates storing operations that store a drawing displayed on the semi-transparent electronic canvas

11. The specialized portrait-drawing computer system of claim 10 wherein the drawing user interface additionally provides tools that import color and or portions of the image into the overlying semi-transparent electronic canvas.

12. The specialized portrait-drawing computer system of claim 9 wherein the specialized portrait-drawing computer system provides an interface that allows a user to retrieve a log file stored in the cloud-computing facility and replay drawing operations stored in the log file.

13. The specialized portrait-drawing computer system of claim 9 wherein the application is accessible to users of the social-networking-service-providing system through one or more social-networking-service interfaces.

14. A method for producing and sharing digitally-encoded content within a social network, the method comprising:

developing a highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application that executes within a web-browser context to control operation of a computer system, the highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application accessing social-networking services provided by a social-networking-service-providing system through one or more social-networking-service interfaces to access data stored on one or more physical data-storage devices within the social-networking-service-providing system and to store digitally-encoded content within the social-networking-service-providing system, accessing user-interface tools and routines through a runtime interface provided by development-and-runtime-system web-browser plug-in, and accessing a cloud-computing data-storage interface to store and retrieve digitally-encoded content to and from one or more physical data-storage devices within a cloud-computing facility; and

incorporating the highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application into the social-networking-service-providing system for access by users of the social-networking-service-providing system through one of the one or more social-networking-service interfaces.

15. The method of claim 14 further including developing a highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application in a development environment enhanced to include development tools and interfaces provided by the development-and-runtime-system.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application displays, when executed in the web-browser context on a user computer system, a drawing user interface on a display device of the user computer system through which a human user draws portraits.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the drawing user interface includes:

a semi-transparent electronic canvas;

drawing tools invoked through user-input features; and

a user-input feature that, when invoked by user input, initiates storing operations that electronically store a drawing displayed on the semi-transparent electronic canvas.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the semi-transparent electronic canvas is overlaid by the highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application over an image, received through the one or more social-networking-service interfaces, that provides a drawing guide.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the drawing user interface provides tools that import color and or portions of the image into the overlying semi-transparent electronic canvas.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein the highly functional, cloud-connected, interactive application provides an interface that allows a user to retrieve a log file stored in the cloud-computing facility and replay drawing operations stored in the log file.