Allocation of space in an immersive environment

• US 8,627,227 B2
• Filed: 10/19/2012
• Issued: 01/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Matthews, David A., Worley, Matthew I., Sundelin, Nils A., Wong, Tsz Yan
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Kieu
• Assistant Examiner(s): Basom, Blaine
• Application Number:
  US13/656,639
• Publication Number:
  US 20130044136A1
• Time in Patent Office: 445 Days
• Field of Search: 715/792, 715/797, 715/806, 715/788, 715/798, 715/799, 715/800
• US Class Current: 715/788
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/01 Input arrangements or combined input and output arrangements for interaction between user and computer G06F3/16 takes precedence
• 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 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A computing device includes an immersive environment module for facilitating simultaneous display of a plurality of applications on a display device without relying on system chrome. At least a first of the applications is displayed in a primary region of the display. The computing device also includes a UI management component for enabling a user selection of an application for simultaneous display on the display device with at least one other application. Processing logic is configured to determine a size in at least one direction of content of a user-selected application as it is displayed on a non-primary region of the display device simultaneous with display of content of the first application on the primary region of the display device. The determination is based at least in part on one or more pre-defined size requirements specified by the selected application.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a first selection of a first application for parallel presentation in an immersive environment on one or more displays associated with a computing device;

responsive to the first selection, determining an amount of space of a primary region of the immersive environment to allocate for display of the first application, the primary region of the immersive environment not having system chrome;

responsive to the first selection, causing content of the first application to be displayed in the space of the primary region allocated for display of the first application;

receiving a second selection of a second application for parallel presentation with the first application in the immersive environment on the one or more displays associated with the computing device;

responsive to the second selection, determining an amount of space of a non-primary region of the immersive environment to allocate for display of the second application, the non-primary region of the immersive environment not having system chrome, the amount of space of the non-primary region to allocate for the display determined based on a predefined fill, no fill, or fill to maximum size requirement of requirements specified in the second application, the amount of space being;

for the predefined fill size requirement, all available space in the non-primary region;

for the predefined no fill size requirement, an amount of space within the non-primary region equal to the minimum size specified by the predefined no fill requirement;

or

for the predefined fill to maximum size requirement, all available space within the non-primary region equal to or less than a maximum size specified by the predefined fill to maximum size requirement;

responsive to the second selection, causing selected content of the second application to be displayed in the space of the non-primary region allocated for display of the second application, the selected content of the second application based on the requirements specified in the second application and the selected content being less than content of the second application that would be displayed in the space of the primary region allocated for display; and

enabling interaction with the second application through the non-primary region of the immersive environment and with the first application presented in the primary region of the immersive environment.

2. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, further comprising resizing the selected content of the second application for display in the non-primary region based on the one of the predefined size requirements.

3. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one of the predefined size requirements is the predefined no fill size requirement.

4. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, further comprising, in response to receiving a third selection to minimize the selected content of the second application, reducing the amount of space of the non-primary region allocated for display of the selected content of the second application based on a minimum height requirement of one of the predefined size requirements.

5. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one of the predefined size requirements is the predefined fill to maximum size requirement.

6. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one of the predefined size requirements further indicates whether to allocate the amount of space of the non-primary region based on an amount of currently unoccupied space in the non-primary region.

7. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one of the predefined size requirements of the second application specifies a height requirement or a width requirement as a number of pixels.

8. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining the amount of space of the non-primary region to allocate is also based on a predefined size requirement of the first application displayed in the primary region of the immersive environment.

9. A computer-implemented method comprising:

presenting first content of a first application in a primary region of an immersive environment, the primary region of the immersive environment not having system chrome;

receiving selection of second content of a second application for presentation in the primary region of the immersive environment;

causing presentation of the first content of the first application to be moved to a non-primary region of the immersive environment, the non-primary region of the immersive environment not having system chrome and being smaller than the primary region;

causing the first content, when presented in the non-primary region of the immersive environment, to be adjusted in accordance with content sizing requirements associated with the first application, the adjustment causing the first content when displayed in the non-primary region to be less than the first content when displayed in the primary region, the content sizing requirements including a fill, no fill, or fill to maximum size requirement and the adjustment causing the first content to be displayed filling the non-primary region for the fill requirement, filling a minimum size for the no fill requirement, or filling available space within the non-primary region equal to or less than a maximum size for the fill to maximum size requirement;

causing the second content of the second application to be presented in the primary region of the immersive environment; and

enabling interaction with the first content through the non-primary region of the immersive environment and with the second content presented in the primary region of the immersive environment.

10. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 9, wherein the content sizing requirements associated with the first application are exposed through an application programming interface (API) associated with the first application.

11. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 9, wherein the content sizing requirements define a width at which the first content of the first application is to be presented within the immersive environment.

12. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 9, wherein the content sizing requirement is the no fill requirement and causing the first content to be adjusted includes ensuring that the non-primary region has a space sufficient to allow presentation of the first content in accordance with the minimum size.

13. One or more computer-readable storage media comprising instructions that, responsive to execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving selection of an application for parallel presentation in an immersive environment on one or more displays associated with the computing device;

responsive to the selection, determining an amount of space of a non-primary region of the immersive environment to allocate for display of the selected application, the non-primary region of the immersive environment not having system chrome, the amount of space of the non-primary region to allocate determined based on a predefined fill, no fill, or fill to maximum size requirement of requirements specified in the selected application, the amount of space being;

for the predefined fill size requirement, all available space in the non-primary region;

for the predefined no fill size requirement, an amount of space within the non-primary region equal to the minimum size specified by the predefined no fill requirement;

or

for the predefined fill to maximum size requirement, all available space within the non-primary region equal to or less than a maximum size specified by the predefined fill to maximum size requirement;

causing selected content of the selected application to be displayed in the space of the non-primary region allocated for display of the selected application and in parallel with display of content of a different application presented in a primary region of the immersive environment, the primary region of the immersive environment not having system chrome, the selected content of the selected application being less than content of the selected application that would be displayed in a space of the primary region; and

enabling interaction with the selected application through the non-primary region of the immersive environment and with the different application presented in the primary region of the immersive environment.

14. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 13, wherein the amount of space is all available space in the non-primary region.

15. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 13, further comprising additional instructions that, responsive to execution by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform the operations further comprising resizing content of another application displayed in another space of the non-primary region based on another size requirement of the other application.

16. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 13, wherein the amount of space is equal to the minimum size specified by the size requirement.

17. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 13, wherein the amount of space is equal to or less than a maximum size specified by the size requirement and a fixed width specified by the size requirement.

18. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 13, wherein the amount of space is equal to the minimum size specified by the size requirement, wherein the size requirement of the selected application specifies a height requirement or a width requirement as a number of pixels.

19. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 13, wherein determining the amount of space of the non-primary region to allocate is further based on another size requirement of another application displayed in another space of the non-primary region of the immersive environment.