Modular user interface

• US 7,389,417 B1
• Filed: 01/28/2004
• Issued: 06/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Steinglass, Alice, Arama, Roxana, Asmi, Yasser
• Primary Examiner(s): Barron, Jr.; Gilberto
• Assistant Examiner(s): PERUNGAVOOR, VENKATANARAY
• Application Number:
  US10/766,082
• Time in Patent Office: 1,602 Days
• Field of Search: 715/826, 715/835, 715/825, 715/967, 715/969, 715/866, 713/167
• US Class Current: 713/167
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A modular user interface (UI) with consistent sensory interactions across a plurality of selectable UI features that involve user interactions with a computing device. A controlling program invokes one or more functional UI modules each of which performs a data function of the corresponding UI feature. The data functions do not involve any sensory interaction with the user. Instead, a UI plug-in implements sensory interactions with the user, such as displays, sounds, animation, data entry, etc. The sensory interactions are based on the data functions and a skin file of visual, audio, layout, and other sensory data. The skin file, the UI plug-in, and the functional UI modules can be independently modified or replaced at any time to change sensory and/or functional aspects of the UI features. A UI engine manages computing resources and acts as a common communication gateway between the controlling program, functional UI modules, and UI plug-in.

Claims

1. In a digital computing system that includes a main control program exemplified by any of a game code module, an application program, a simulation or an operating system, and wherein the main control program communicates with one or more functional user interface (UI) modules for data processing of a type which does not require human sensory interaction with a user of the computing system, as exemplified by displaying data entry fields, providing audio indications, video indications or other human perceptible sensory interface actions, a method of enabling change to any of the human sensory interactions such as visual data display, audio output or video display, without having to change the functional UI modules or main control program, comprising:

providing a common communication scheme for use between various types of UI modules, including functional UI modules for providing data for presentation to a user, and one or more UI plug-in software modules for implementing UI features by determining how to provide human sensory interaction through mechanisms such as visual display, video display, audio display or any combination of the foregoing;

networking a user interface (UI) engine having an engine interface with a main control program running on the computing system so as to provide communication of commands between the main control program and the UI engine;

networking to the UI engine and to the main control program and/or other network components one or more functional UI software modules for implementing UI features using functions that do not directly identify how to provide human sensory interaction with a user;

networking to the UI engine one or more UI plug-in software modules for implementing UI features that receive input from the one or more functional UI software modules and determine how to provide human sensory interaction through mechanisms such as visual display, video display, audio display, or any combination of the foregoing, such that the determination of how to provide human sensory interaction is determined by the one or more UI plug-in software modules and not by the main control program and/or the one or more functional UI software modules;

said one or more functional UI software modules communicating with the UI engine using said common UI communication scheme and thereby providing to one or more functional UI software modules or to the main control program human sensory interaction as required by either the one or more functional UI software modules or the main control program; and

changing, adding or deleting one or more of the UI plug-in software modules so as to change the human sensory interaction of one or more functional UI software modules or the main control program, but otherwise leaving one or more functional UI software modules and main control program unchanged.

6. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the functional UI software modules enable at least one of:

(a) a network communication feature for communicating data associated with a user interaction;

(b) a data entry feature for enabling a user to enter data to at least one of a game, a simulation, or an application program;

(c) a data display feature for enabling a user to view data that is obtained by and generated by one of the plurality of user interface modules; and

(d) an audio feature.

7. The method of claim 1 or 2, further comprising a step for causing at least one of the functional UI software modules to specify a user interface object to at least one of the UI plug-in software modules, the specified user interface object providing a sensory interaction with the user.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step for causing the at least one UI plug-in software module to select data from a predefined set of sensory data, the selected data corresponding to the user interface object specified by the at least one functional UI software module.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising a step for modifying the predefined set of sensory data during a runtime operation.

2. In a digital computing system that includes a main control program exemplified by any of a game code module, an application program, a simulation or an operating system, and wherein the main control program communicates with one or more functional user interface (UI) modules for data processing of a type which does not require human sensory interaction with a user of the computing system, as exemplified by displaying data entry fields, providing audio indications, video indications or other human perceptible sensory interface actions, a computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium having executable code for causing the computing system to execute a method of enabling change to any of the human sensory interactions such as visual data display, audio output or video display, without having to change the functional UI modules or main control program, and wherein the method comprises:

providing a common communication scheme for use between various types of UI modules, including functional UI modules for providing data for presentation to a user, and one or more UI plug-in software modules for implementing UI features by determining how to provide human sensory interaction through mechanisms such as visual display, video display, audio display or any combination of the foregoing;

networking a user interface (UI) engine having an engine interface with a main control program running on the computing system so as to provide communication of commands between the main control program and the UI engine;

networking to the UI engine and to the main control program and/or other network components one or more functional UI software modules for implementing UI features using functions that do not directly identify how to provide human sensory interaction with a user;

networking to the U“

engine one or more U”

plug-in software modules for implementing UI features that receive input from the one or more functional UI software modules and determine how to provide human sensory interaction through mechanisms such as visual display, video display, audio display, or any combination of the foregoing, such that the determination of how to provide human sensory interaction is determined by the one or more UI plug-in software modules and not by the main control program and/or the one or more functional UI software modules;

said one or more functional UI software modules communicating with the UI engine using said common UI communication scheme and thereby providing to one or more functional UI software modules or to the main control program human sensory interaction as required by either the one or more functional UI software modules or the main control program; and

changing, adding or deleting one or more of the UI plug-in software modules so as to change the human sensory interaction of one or more functional UI software modules or the main control program, but otherwise leaving one or more functional UI software modules and main control program unchanged.

3. In a digital computing system that includes a main control program exemplified by any of a game code module, an application program, a simulation or an operating system, and wherein the main control program communicates with one or more functional user interface (UI) modules for data processing of a type which does not require human sensory interaction with a user of the computing system, as exemplified by displaying data entry fields, providing audio indications, video indications or other human perceptible sensory interface actions, a modular software interface system for enabling change to any of the human sensory interactions such as visual data display, audio output or video display, without having to change the functional user interface modules, comprising:

a UI engine having an engine interface, and the UI engine being networked through the engine interface with a main control program running on the computing system so as to provide communication of commands between the main control program and the UI engine, and the UI engine providing a common communication scheme for use between other UI modules;

one or more functional UI software modules for implementing UI features using functions that do not directly identify how to provide human sensory interaction with a user, said one or more functional UI software modules being networked so as to communicate with;

i) the UI engine using said common UI communication scheme, and

ii) the main control program and/or other network components; and

one or more UI plug-in software modules for implementing UI features that determine how to provide human sensory interaction through mechanisms such as visual display, video display, audio display, or any combination of the foregoing, and said one or more functional UI software modules being networked so as to communicate with the UI engine using said common UI communication scheme, the one or more UI plug-in software modules providing human sensory interaction as required by either the main control program or other functional UI software modules in a manner such that the determination of how to provide sensory interaction is determined by the one or more UI plug-in software modules and not by the main control program and/or the one or more functional UI software modules, but the UI plug-in software modules being otherwise adapted to be changed with affecting or requiring changes to the main control program or other functional UI software modules.

4. The system of claim 3, the system further comprising:

one or more setting files, each setting file providing a predefined set of sensory data to be used by the one or more UI plug-in software modules to determine how to provide sensory interaction.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the main program, when executed, identifies which of the one or more functional UI software modules, the one or more UI plug-in software modules, and which of the one or more setting files to use when presenting data generated by, or at the request of, the main control program.

10. The system of claim 3, wherein the functional UI software modules enable at least one of:

(a) a network communication feature for communicating data associated with a user interaction;

(b) a data entry feature for enabling a user to enter data to at least one of a game, a simulation, or an application program;

(c) a data display feature for enabling a user to view data that is obtained by and generated by one of the plurality of user interface modules; and

(d) an audio feature.

11. The system of claim 3, wherein at least one of the functional UI software modules specifies a user interface object to at least one of the UI plug-in modules, the specified user interface object providing a sensory interaction with the user.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the predefined set of sensory data is modified during a runtime operation.