Method and system for controlling a complementary user interface on a display surface

• US 6,892,359 B1
• Filed: 11/28/2000
• Issued: 05/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ostendo Technologies Inc.
• Original Assignee: xSides Corporation
• Inventors: Kennedy, John R., Syedach, Volodymyr, Nason, D. David
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Application Number:
  US09/724,978
• Time in Patent Office: 1,624 Days
• Field of Search: 345/788, 345/778, 345/779, 345/800, 345/802, 345/803, 345/764, 345/781, 345/742, 345/748, 345/741, 719/318, 719/328, 719/319, 719/321, 719/323, 719/327, 709/318, 709/328, 709/319, 709/321, 709/323, 709/327
• US Class Current: 715/788
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04802 3D-info-object: information is displayed on the internal or external surface of a three dimensional manipulable object, e.g. on the faces of a cube that can be rotated by the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• 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: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 1/167 Details of the interface to the display terminal specific for a CRT details suitable for both CRT and flat panel G09G5/006, specific for a flat panel G09G3/2096
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0232 Special driving of display border areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/027 Arrangements and methods specific for the display of internet documents
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/967 Visual or iconic programming
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/972 Inserted real-time video in operator interface

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 enabling the display of data on a video display system, the video display system having a total displayable area of which a first display area is a part, the first display area having an original size and being associated with an operating system display interface that enable applications to send output to the video display system through a video device driver, comprising:

apportioning the total displayable area of the video display system to include a second display area by resizing the first display area from the original size to a smaller size and apportioning the remainder of the total displayable area to a second display area that cannot be obscured by output from the operating system display interface;

intercepting at least one of function calls that enable an application to obtain input from an input device and function calls that transmit output to an output device; and

transparent to the operating system display interface, dynamically reapportioning the total displayable area between the first display area and the second display area by swapping the size of the first display area between the original size and the smaller size in response to the intercepted function calls, so that an application can render data to and obtain input from the first display area and the second display area.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein an intercepted function call is an operating system call and the size of the first display area is restored to the original size in response to the operating system call.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein operating system call causes mouse movement and the size of the first display area is restored to the original size to enable the mouse to move to any location within the displayable area.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein an intercepted function call is based on user events and the size of the first display area is restored to the original size in response to the user events.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein an intercepted function call is an application program call and the size of the first display area is restored to the original size in response to the application program call.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the dynamic reapportioning presents an illusion that a user interface of the operating system has been reduced by trapping display-related events.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the dynamic reapportioning is performed by altering display memory values associated with the native desktop.

8. The method of claim 1, the first display area associated with a first window, the second display area associated with a second window, and further comprising:

determining when an input/output event has switched context from the first window to the second window; and

resizing the first window to the original size to perform the event.

9. The method of claim 1, the first display area associated with a first window, the second display area associated with a second window, and further comprising:

determining when an input/output event has switched context from the second window to the first window; and

resizing the first window to the smaller size to perform the event.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the intercepted function call relates to mouse events.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the intercepted function call relates to keyboard events.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the intercepted function call relates to window sizing.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the intercepting is performed using software interrupt mechanism.

14. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer process to enable the display of data on a video display system, the video display system having a total displayable area of which a first display area is a part, the first display area having an original size and associated with an operating system display interface that enable applications to send output to the video display system through a video device driver, by performing:

apportioning the total displayable area of the video display system to include a second display area by resizing the first display area from the original size to a smaller size and apportioning the remainder of the total displayable area to a second display area that cannot be obscured by output from the operating system display interface;

intercepting at least one of function calls that enable an application to obtain input from an input device and function calls that transmit output to an output device; and

transparent to the operating system display interface, dynamically reapportioning the total displayable area between the first display area and the second display area by swapping the size of the first display area between the original size and the smaller size in response to the intercepted function calls, so that an application can render to and obtain input from the first display area and the second display area.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein an intercepted function call is an operating system call and the size of the first display area is restored to the original size in response to the operating system call.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the intercepted function call causes mouse movement and the size of the first display area is restored to the original size to enable the mouse to move to any location within the displayable area.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein an intercepted function call is based on user events and the size of the first display area is restored to the original size in response to the user events.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein an intercepted function call is an application program call and the size of the first display area is restored to the original size in response to the application program call.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the dynamic reapportioning presents an illusion that a user interface of the operating system has been reduced by trapping display-related events.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the dynamic reapportioning is performed by altering display memory values associated with the native desktop.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, the first display area associated with a first window, the second display area associated with a second window, and further comprising:

determining when an input/output event has switched context from the first window to the second window; and

resizing the first window to the original size to perform the event.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, the first display area associated with a first window, the second display area associated with a second window, and further comprising:

determining when an input/output event has switched context from the second window to the first window; and

resizing the first window to the smaller size to perform the event.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the intercepted function call relates to a keyboard event.

24. A universal trapping system for enabling the display of data on a video display system, the video display system having a total displayable area of which a first display area is a part, the first display area having a with an original size known and associated with an operating system display interface that enable applications to send output to the video display system through a video device driver, comprising:

creation module that creates a second display area outside the portion of the total displayable area that is apportioned to the first display area by reducing the first display area from the original size to a smaller size; and

trapping code that intercepts function calls between the operating system display interface and the device driver and, transparent to the operating system display interface, dynamically swaps the size of the first display area between the original size and the smaller size so as to enable an application to render data to and obtain input from the second display area.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the first display area and the second display area are windows.

26. The system of claim 24 wherein the trapping code intercepts a function call related to mouse events.

27. The system of claim 24 wherein the trapping code intercepts a function call related to keyboard events.

28. The system of claim 24 wherein the dynamic resizing presents an illusion that a user interface displayed in the first display area has been reduced in size in response to the trapping code trapping display-related events.

29. The system of claim 24 wherein the user interface is an operating system desktop.

30. The system of claim 24, further comprising a plurality of dynamic libraries containing application programming interfaces that display hardware through the trapping code to output to the second display area.

31. A system for enabling the display of data on a video display system having a total displayable area of which a first display area is a part, the first display area having an original size and associated with an operating system display interface that enables applications to send output to the video display system through a video device driver, comprising:

means for creating a second display area outside the portion of the total displayable area that is apportioned to the first display area by reducing the first display area from the original size to a smaller size and apportioning the remainder of the total displayable area to the second display area;

means for intercepting at least one of function calls that enable an application to obtain input from an input device and function calls that transmit output to an output device; and

means for dynamically resizing the first display area, in a manner transparent to the operating system display interface, by swapping the size of the first display area between the original size and the smaller size so as to enable code to render data to and obtain input from the second display area.