Common visual and functional architecture for presenting and controlling arbitrary telephone line features
First Claim
1. A computer readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon, wherein execution of the instructions performs the following steps:
- generating a set of executable user interface control programming objects operable to present user interface controls in a screen phone user interface, wherein the user interface control programming objects expose an application programming interface comprising at least one method for processing events directed from an executable user interface element programming object;
presenting via the executable user interface element programming object an element of the screen phone user interface;
exposing an application programming interface comprising at least one method for receiving event notifications andforwarding received notifications to the user interface control programming objects.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A user interface for screen phones monitors telephone line state information and displays user interface controls and telephone line status information dependent on the telephone line state. The user interface includes a display element referred to as a call slip that expands and collapses in response to changes in telephone line state and user input. The call slip updates the information that it displays based on telephone line state changes and information communicated from one or more telephony monitoring applications. The call slip displays user interface controls representing tasks that are dependent on information derived from a telephone call, such as caller ID information. The software used to control the display of call slips and to monitor telephone line state is part of a software platform that may be customized for a particular device or application. For example, an implementer may select default display elements and monitoring application programs from the platform and add custom display elements that communicate with the default programs via their programming interfaces.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A computer readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon, wherein execution of the instructions performs the following steps:
-
generating a set of executable user interface control programming objects operable to present user interface controls in a screen phone user interface, wherein the user interface control programming objects expose an application programming interface comprising at least one method for processing events directed from an executable user interface element programming object; presenting via the executable user interface element programming object an element of the screen phone user interface; exposing an application programming interface comprising at least one method for receiving event notifications and forwarding received notifications to the user interface control programming objects. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A method of customizing a software system for a screen phone, wherein the software system comprises one or more monitoring applications monitoring telephone line state information, one or more default element objects presenting default elements in a user interface, and a display manager controlling the user interface and facilitating communication within the software system, the method comprising:
-
adding to the software system a custom element object that controls the display of a corresponding custom user interface element in the user interface; wherein the custom element object exposes a programming interface comprising one or more methods that mirror one or more methods of a programming interface of the display manager and one or more methods of a programming interface of the default element objects, and wherein the custom element object is operable to receive telephone line state information and forward the information to one or more objects associated with the custom element via at least one of the mirrored methods. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. An extensible telephone software system providing telephony functionality and a displayed user interface, the software system comprising:
-
a plurality of telephony monitoring applications for sensing changes in telephone line state and sending notifications indicating telephone line state; a set of one or more container objects operable to receive notifications indicating telephone line state from the telephony monitoring applications, the container objects further operable to present a user interface manifestation and forward the received notifications; and a set of one or more containee objects operable to display a user interface control within the user interface manifestation and further operable to receive notifications originating from one or more of the plurality of telephony monitoring applications and forwarded by the container objects; wherein additional functionality can be added to the software system by adding additional containee objects. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
-
Specification