Pre-rendering new content for an application-selectable user interface

• US 8,933,952 B2
• Filed: 09/10/2011
• Issued: 01/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zaman, Nazia, Donahue, Tyler J., Ray, Ethan Nelson, Velasco, Maverick J.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HAU H
• Application Number:
  US13/229,709
• Publication Number:
  US 20130063442A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,221 Days
• Field of Search: 345/545, 345/548
• US Class Current: 345/545
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/40 Filling a planar surface by adding surface attributes, e.g. colour or texture

Abstract

This document describes techniques for pre-rendering new content for an application-selectable user interface. These techniques permit a user to select to view application-selectable tiles of the interface and, on selection, quickly see new content through the tiles in the selected portion. In some embodiments, the techniques pre-render content for a portion of a non-visible region of the interface rather than all of the non-visible region to reduce resource costs, such as processor and memory usage on a device and communication bandwidth usage on a communication network.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

determining, for an interface having a visible region in which visible, selectable tiles associated with applications are presented, the visible, selectable tiles associated with at least two different applications, and a non-visible region in which tiles associated with applications are not currently presented, a pre-render portion of the non-visible region; and

pre-rendering new content for tiles in the pre-render portion and for which reports indicating the new content have been received, at least one of the tiles in the pre-render portion of the non-visible region associated with a different application than the at least two different applications associated with the tiles in the visible region.

2. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an input; and

determining a region of the interface that, responsive to the input, will be made visible, and

wherein the pre-render portion is the region of the interface that will be made visible.

3. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 2, wherein the input is a gesture and determining the region of the interface that will be made visible determines the region based on a snap point within the interface.

4. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 2, wherein the input is a gesture and determining the region of the interface that will be made visible determines the region based on an inertia of the gesture.

5. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein determining the pre-render portion determines an adjacent region adjacent to the visible region.

6. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 5, wherein the visible region is a first page having a size and the adjacent region is a second page having the size.

7. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the pre-render portion includes two portions, a first portion adjacent to a side of the visible region and a second portion adjacent to an opposite side of the visible region.

8. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein determining the pre-render portion includes determining an historical average of amounts of time between receiving inputs selecting to view selected regions and pre-rendering new content for tiles to be rendered in the selected regions.

9. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein determining the pre-render portion is based on a communication bandwidth to download content indicated in prior reports or a projected communication bandwidth to download the new content indicated in the reports.

10. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 9, wherein determining the pre-render portion based on the communication bandwidth or the projected communication bandwidth determines a smaller pre-render portion for a higher communication bandwidth and a larger pre-render portion for a lower communication bandwidth.

11. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein determining the pre-render portion is based on an amount of battery power remaining for a device on which the interface is presented.

12. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, further comprising receiving an input selecting to view the non-visible region and, responsive to the input, presenting the pre-render portion and rendering the pre-rendered new content for the tiles in the pre-render portion for which reports indicating the new content have been received.

13. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein pre-rendering new content for tiles pre-renders animation effects for the tiles.

14. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving reports associated with applications, the applications having associated tiles;

determining which of the associated tiles are in;

a visible region of an interface; and

a pre-render portion of a non-visible region of the interface;

rendering new content for the associated tiles in the visible region, the tiles in the visible region associated with at least two different applications;

pre-rendering new content for the associated tiles in the pre-render portion of the non-visible region, at least one of the tiles in the pre-render portion of the non-visible region associated with a different application than the at least two different applications associated with the tiles in the visible region;

receiving an input selecting to view the non-visible region;

responsive to the input, presenting the pre-render portion; and

rendering the pre-rendered new content for the tiles in the pre-render portion.

15. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 14, wherein pre-rendering new content determines Universal Resource Locators (URLs) in the reports that are associated with the associated tiles that are in the pre-render portion of the non-visible region and downloads visual media from the URLs.

16. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 15, wherein rendering the pre-rendered new content for the tiles renders the downloaded visual media within the associated tiles that are in the pre-render portion.

17. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 14, wherein the input selects to view at least a part of a remaining portion of the non-visible region, the remaining portion not including the pre-render portion, and further comprising, responsive to the input, pre-rendering text or an indicator for the associated tiles that are in the remaining portion.

18. A computer-implemented method comprising:

presenting an interface enabling selection of tiles associated with applications, the interface having a visible region and a non-visible region, the visible region containing tiles associated with at least two different applications;

receiving a gesture through the interface, the gesture having an inertia;

determining, based on the inertia of the gesture, a portion of the non-visible region that will be presented in response to the gesture;

determining a set of the applications for which;

reports indicating new content have been received; and

corresponding tiles are within the portion of the non-visible region that will be presented in response to the gesture, at least one of the corresponding tiles associated with a different application than the at least two different applications associated with the tiles in the visible region;

pre-rendering new content for the corresponding tiles in the portion of the non-visible region prior to presenting the portion of the non-visible region;

presenting the portion of the non-visible region; and

rendering the pre-rendered new content for the corresponding tiles in the portion of the non-visible region.

19. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 18, further comprising presenting, responsive to the gesture, a movement from the visible region, through a different portion of the non-visible region, and ending at the portion of the non-visible region.

20. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 19, wherein pre-rendering new content for the corresponding tiles is performed during the movement through the different portion of the non-visible region and before ending at the portion of the non-visible region, and further comprising delaying or slowing the movement until the pre-rendering is complete.