Method and apparatus for resizing video content displayed within a graphical user interface

• US 7,549,127 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2002
• Issued: 06/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tahoe Research Limited (f/k/a Learndale Limited) (Vector Capital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: RealNetworks, Inc.
• Inventors: Bradley, Peter J., Chasen, Jeffrey Martin, Moore, Kenneth B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo; Weilun
• Assistant Examiner(s): Theriault; Steven B.
• Application Number:
  US10/211,990
• Publication Number:
  US 20040025112A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,511 Days
• Field of Search: 846/09, 715/719, 715/726, 715/500.1, 715/768, 715/788, 715/792, 715/798, 715/800, 715/802, 715/799, 715/815, 345/629, 345/661
• US Class Current: 715/788
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

In one embodiment, video content is rendered within a windowpane displayed upon graphical user interface (GUI), a curser is positioned within the GUI responsive to user input, and a graphical resizing overlay is superimposed over the windowpane to facilitate arbitrary resizing of the windowpane and corresponding video content by the user when the cursor is positioned over the windowpane. In another aspect of the invention, an application window including at least a first windowpane and a second windowpane is displayed within a GUI, video content having a first display size is rendered within the first windowpane, the first windowpane and the corresponding video content is resized by a first amount resulting in a second display size, and the second windowpane is dynamically resized by a second amount proportional to the first amount such that the video content remains unobstructed by the first and second windowpanes and the application window.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

rendering video content within a windowpane displayed upon a graphical user interface (GUI), the rendered video content displayed in a proportional relation to the windowpane;

positioning a cursor to a location within the GUI responsive to a user input; and

upon positioning of said cursor within said windowpane, automatically superimposing a graphical resizing overlay over the windowpane to facilitate arbitrary resizing of the windowpane and corresponding video content by the user when the cursor is positioned within the windowpane, the arbitrary resizing maintaining the proportional relation between the rendered video content and the windowpane.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical resizing overlay is displayed in response to the cursor being moved from a first location outside of the windowpane to a second location inside the windowpane.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the overlay is transitory and disappears a predefined period of time after being displayed.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the overlay is redisplayed when the cursor is moved to a resize selection control area fixed with respect to the overlay.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the resize control area includes a full-screen mode control and one or more predetermined window zoom controls.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the overlay is transitory and disappears when the cursor is moved from a first location within the windowpane to a second location outside of the windowpane.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said overlay is redisplayed when the cursor is moved to a location back within the windowpane.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical resizing overlay facilitates arbitrary resizing of the video content while the video content maintains a constant aspect ratio.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering comprises:

blackening the GUI entirely; and

rendering the video content so as to be centered upon the blackened GUI.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

resizing the video content, wherein the video content maintains a constant aspect ratio.

11. A method comprising:

displaying an application window within a graphical user interface (GUI), the application window including at least first windowpane and a second windowpane;

rendering video content within the first windowpane, the video content having a first display size that is in a proportional relation to the first windowpane;

upon positioning of a cursor within said first windowpane, automatically superimposing a graphical resizing overlay over said first windowpane;

resizing the first windowpane and the corresponding video content via said graphical resizing overlay by a first amount resulting in a second display size wherein the corresponding video content remains in the proportional relation to the first windowpane; and

dynamically resizing the second windowpane by a second amount proportional to the first amount such that the video content remains unobstructed by the first and second windowpanes and the application window and remains in the proportional relation to the first windowpane.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the application window remains a constant size during the resizing of the first and second windowpanes.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining if a cursor indicates a first location within the GUI corresponding to one or more pixels associated with the rendered video content; and

superimposing a transitory graphical resizing overlay around at least a portion of the rendered video content to facilitate arbitrary resizing of the video content by a user, if the cursor indicates the first location.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the graphical resizing overlay is displayed when the cursor is moved to the first location within the first windowpane from a location outside of the first windowpane.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the overlay is transitory and disappears a predefined period of time after being displayed.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the overlay is redisplayed when the cursor is moved to a resize selection control area fixed with respect to the overlay.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the resize control area includes a full-screen mode control and one or more predetermined window zoom controls.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the overlay is transitory and disappears when the cursor is moved to a location outside of the first windowpane.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein overlay is redisplayed when the cursor is moved back to a location within the first windowpane.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the graphical resizing overlay facilitates arbitrary resizing of the video content while maintaining a constant aspect ratio within the displayed video content.

21. The method of claim 13, wherein the graphical resizing overlay is superimposed around the first windowpane.

22. The method of claim 11, wherein the second windowpane contains contextual information associated with the video content displayed in the first pane.

23. The method of claim 11, wherein rendering video content comprises rendering a video stream.

24. The method of claim 11, wherein the resizing of each of the first and second windowpanes is constrained by a minimum windowpane height, a maximum windowpane height, a minimum windowpane width, and a maximum windowpane width.

25. The method of claim 11, wherein one of the first and second windowpanes is given priority over the remaining windowpane such that content displayed within the windowpane having the priority is resized so as to maintain a constant aspect ratio.

26. The method of claim 11, wherein rendering comprises:

blackening the GUI; and

rendering the video content so as to be centered upon the blackened GUI.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the aspect ratio of the rendered video content remains constant during resizing of the video content.

28. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

a 3rd windowpane within the application window to natively display HTML pages within the application window.

29. The method of claim 11, wherein the first windowpane is resized based at least in part upon received user input.

30. The method of claim 11, wherein the first windowpane is resized based at least in part upon one or more logic functions.

31. A method comprising:

displaying an application window within a graphical user interface (GUI), the application window including at least a first windowpane;

rendering video content within the first windowpane, the video content having a first display size that is in a proportional relation to the first windowpane;

upon positioning of a cursor within said first windowpane, automatically superimposing a graphical resizing overlay over said first windowpane;

providing one or more icons indicating information related to the video content within the first windowpane; and

resizing the first windowpane, the one or more icons and the corresponding video content via said graphical resizing overlay by a first amount resulting in a second display size that remains in the proportional relation to the first windowpane, the resizing based at least in part upon received user input.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein resizing the first windowpane resizes the one or more icons and the corresponding video content proportionately as a result of a single movement of the cursor.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the one or more icons indicate a camera angle for viewing of the video content.

34. An apparatus comprising:

a storage medium having stored therein programming instructions designed to enable the apparatus to

render video content within a windowpane displayed upon a graphical user interface (GUI), the rendered video content in a proportional relation to the windowpane,

position a cursor to a location within the GUI responsive to a user input,

upon positioning of said cursor within said windowpane, automatically superimpose a graphical resizing overlay over the windowpane to facilitate arbitrary resizing of the windowpane and corresponding video content by the user when the cursor is positioned within the windowpane such that the rendered video content remains in the relational proportion to the windowpane; and

at least one processor coupled with the storage medium to execute the programming instructions.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein said graphical resizing overlay facilitates arbitrary resizing of the video content while the video content maintains a constant aspect ratio.

36. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the programming instructions further comprise programming instructions to

blacken the GUI entirely;

and

render the video content so as to be centered upon the blackened GUI.

37. An apparatus comprising:

a storage medium having stored therein programming instructions designed to enable the apparatus to

display an application window within a graphical user interface (GUI), the application window including at least a first windowpane and a second windowpane,

render video content within the first windowpane, the video content having a first display size, the rendered video content in a proportional relation to the windowpane,

upon positioning of a cursor within said first windowpane, automatically superimposing a graphical resizing overlay over said first windowpane;

resize the first windowpane and the corresponding video content by a first amount via said graphical resizing overlay resulting in a second display size, the resizing based at least in part upon received user input; and

dynamically resize the second windowpane by a second amount proportional to the first amount such that the video content remains unobstructed by the first and second windowpanes and the application window and remains in the proportional relation to the first window pane; and

at least one processor coupled with the storage medium to execute the programming instructions.

38. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the application window remains a constant size during the resizing of the first and second windowpanes.

39. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein one of the first and second windowpanes is given priority over the remaining windowpane such that content displayed within the windowpane having the priority is resized so as to maintain a constant aspect ratio.

40. An apparatus comprising:

a storage medium having stored therein programming instructions designed to enable the apparatus to

display an application window within a graphical user interface (GUI), the application window including at least a first windowpane,

render video content within the first windowpane, the video content having a first display size that is in a proportional relation to the windowpane,

upon positioning of a cursor within said first windowpane, automatically superimposing a graphical resizing overlay over said first windowpane;

provide one or more icons indicating information related to the video content within the first windowpane, and

resize the first windowpane, the one or more icons and the corresponding video content via said graphical resizing overlay by a first amount resulting in a second display size that remains in the proportional relation to the first windowpane, the resizing based at least in part upon received user input; and

at least one processor coupled with the storage medium to execute the programming instructions.

41. The apparatus of claim 40 wherein the programming instructions designed to resize the first windowpane further resize the one or more icons and the corresponding video content proportionately as a result of a single movement of the cursor.

42. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the one or more icons indicate a camera angle for viewing of the video content.

43. A recordable medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed, implement a method comprising:

rendering video content within a windowpane displayed upon a graphical user interface (GUI), the rendered video content displayed in a proportional relation to the windowpane;

positioning a cursor to a location within the GUI responsive to a user input; and

upon positioning of said cursor within said windowpane, automatically superimposing a graphical resizing overlay over the windowpane to facilitate arbitrary resizing of the windowpane and corresponding video content by the user when the cursor is positioned within the windowpane such that the rendered video content remains in the relational proportion to the windowpane.

44. The recordable medium of claim 43, wherein the graphical resizing overlay facilitates arbitrary resizing of the video content while the video content maintains a constant aspect ratio.

45. The recordable medium of claim 43, wherein rendering comprises:

blackening the GUI entirely; and

rendering the video content so as to be centered upon the blackened GUI.

46. A recordable medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed, implement a method comprising:

displaying an application window within a graphical user interface (GUI), the application window including at least a first windowpane and a second windowpane;

rendering video content within the first windowpane, the video content having a first display size that is in a proportional relation to the first windowpane;

upon positioning of a cursor within said first windowpane, automatically superimposing a graphical resizing overlay over said first windowpane;

resizing the first windowpane and the corresponding video content by a first amount via said graphical resizing overlay resulting in a second display size such that the rendered video content remains in the relational proportion to the first windowpane, the resizing based at least in part upon received user input; and

dynamically resizing the second windowpane by a second amount proportional to the first amount such that the video content remains unobstructed by the first and second windowpanes and the application window.

47. The recordable medium of claim 46, wherein the application window remains a constant size during the resizing of the first and second windowpanes.

48. The recordable medium of claim 46, wherein one of the first and second windowpanes is given priority over the remaining windowpane such that content displayed within the windowpane having the priority is resized so as to maintain a constant aspect ratio.

49. A recordable medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed, implement a method comprising:

displaying an application window within a graphical user interface (GUI), the application window including at least a first windowpane;

rendering video content within the first windowpane, the video content having a first display size, the rendered video content in a relational proportion to the first windowpane;

upon positioning of a cursor within said first windowpane, automatically superimposing a graphical resizing overlay over said first windowpane;

providing one or more icons indicating information related to the video content within the first windowpane; and

resizing the first windowpane, the one or more icons and the corresponding video content via the graphical resizing overlay by a first amount resulting in a second display size that remains in the proportional relation to the first windowpane, the resizing based at least in part upon received user input.

50. The recordable medium of claim 49 wherein resizing the first windowpane resizes the one or more icons and the corresponding video content proportionately as a result of a single movement of the cursor.

51. The recordable medium of claim 49, wherein the one or more icons indicate a camera angle for viewing of the video content.