Dynamic reflective highlighting of a glass appearance window frame

• US 7,412,663 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2005
• Issued: 08/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Melander, Greg S., Lindsay, Donald J., Hoek, Tjeerd
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu; Sy D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kumar; Anil N
• Application Number:
  US11/289,510
• Publication Number:
  US 20070124691A1
• Time in Patent Office: 986 Days
• Field of Search: 715/765, 715/764, 715/767, 715/768, 715/778, 715/781, 715/803, 715/782
• US Class Current: 715/781
• 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: G06T 11/00 2D [Two Dimensional] image generation

Abstract

Aspects for changing a reflective highlight on a glass appearance window frame of an application window are described. An illustrative method includes steps of displaying a first reflective highlight on a glass appearance window frame of an application window, calculating a second reflective highlight in response to detection of an event, and changing the displayed first reflective highlight on the glass appearance window frame of the first application window to the second reflective highlight. The event may correspond to a command to move and/or resize the application window, determination of a time of day event, determination of a change in active/inactive status of the application window, or to a command to change a reflective highlight configuration. Reflective highlights may be changed automatically and/or in response to receipt of an input from a user to change one or more portions of a reflective highlight configuration.

Claims

1. A computer storage medium having computer-executable commands for performing a method for changing a reflective highlight on a glass appearance window frame, the steps comprising:

displaying the glass appearance window frame around an application window, wherein the glass appearance window frame comprises an application window frame having one or more display characteristics that convey the appearance of real-world, physical glass;

displaying a first reflective highlight on the glass appearance window frame, wherein the first reflective highlight conveys the appearance of a real-world reflection of light from a light source;

calculating a second reflective highlight in response to detection of an event; and

changing the displayed first reflective highlight on the glass appearance window frame of the first application window to the second reflective highlight.

2. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the event conesponds to receipt of a command to reposition the application window.

3. The computer storage medium of claim 2, wherein the command to reposition corresponds to a command to move the application window from a first position in a desktop space to a second position in the desktop space.

4. The computer storage medium of claim 3, wherein for each refresh of a display screen, the computer-executable commands further perform steps of:

calculating a different reflective highlight; and

displaying the different reflective highlight on the glass appearance window frame of the application window at a different position in the desktop space.

5. The computer storage medium of claim 2, wherein the command to reposition includes a command to reposition the application window to a position within a stack of application windows in a desktop space.

6. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the event coffesponds to receipt of a command to change the active/inactive status of the application window.

7. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the event coffesponds to a time of day event.

8. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the event corresponds to receipt of a command to change a reflective highlight configuration of glass appearance window frames of application windows.

9. The computer storage medium of claim 8, wherein the command to change coffesponds to a change in a reference point of a reflective highlight originating light source.

10. The computer storage medium of claim 8, wherein the command to change corresponds to receipt of a user input to change the reflective highlight configuration to a second reflective highlight configuration.

11. The computer storage medium of claim 1, further comprising steps of:

displaying a third reflective highlight on a glass appearance window frame of a second application window;

calculating a fourth reflective highlight; and

changing the displayed third reflective highlight on the glass appearance window frame of the second application window to the fourth reflective highlight.

12. The computer storage medium of claim 11, wherein the second reflective highlight is more opaque than the fourth reflective highlight.

13. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the step of calculating includes steps of:

determining an area of a glass appearance window frame of the application window within a desktop space; and

determining a portion of a reflective highlight image bitmap for display in response to the detection of the event.

14. The computer storage medium of claim 13, wherein the step of determining the portion of the reflective highlight image bitmap includes determining an offset of the application window from a center of the desktop space.

15. A method for changing a reflective highlight on a glass appearance window frame, the method comprising steps of:

displaying the glass appearance window frame around an application window, wherein the glass appearance window frame comprises an application window frame having one or more display characteristics that convey the appearance of real-world, physical glass;

displaying a first reflective highlight on the glass appearance window frame, wherein the first reflective highlight conveys the appearance of a real-world reflection of light from a light source;

calculating a second reflective highlight in response to detection of an event, wherein the event corresponds to at least one of receipt of a command to reposition the application window, receipt of a command to change the active/inactive status of the application window, and a time of day event, wherein a time of day event comprises a change of time of day; and

changing the displayed first reflective highlight on the glass appearance window frame of the first application window to the second reflective highlight.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the command to reposition corresponds to a command to move the application window from a first position in a desktop space to a second position in the desktop space.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein for each refresh of a display screen, the method further comprising steps of:

calculating a different reflective highlight; and

displaying the different reflective highlight on the glass appearance window frame of the application window at a different position in the desktop space.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising steps of:

displaying a third reflective highlight on a glass appearance window frame of a second application window;

calculating a fourth reflective highlight; and

changing the displayed third reflective highlight on the glass appearance window frame of the second application window to the fourth reflective highlight,

wherein the second reflective highlight is different from the fourth reflective highlight.

19. A software architecture stored on one or more computer storage media for processing data representative of a change in a reflective highlight on a glass appearance window frame of an application window, comprising:

at least one component configured to automatically change a reflective highlight on a glass appearance window frame of an application window in response to detection of an event, wherein the glass appearance window frame comprises an application window frame having one or more display characteristics that convey the appearance of real-world, physical glass, and wherein the event corresponds to at least one of receipt of a command to reposition the application window, receipt of a command to change the active/inactive status of the application window, and a change of time of day; and

at least one application program interface to access the component.