System for storage and navigation of application states and interactions

• US 9,141,937 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2012
• Issued: 09/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Dempski, Kelly L., Harvey, Brandon L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sun, Michael
• Application Number:
  US13/480,624
• Publication Number:
  US 20120266102A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,215 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Complex collaboration or decision support applications perform complex design or planning tasks, often with the input of large groups of people over long periods of time. The combination of time and complexity can often obscure past actions, making it difficult to remember the factors that influenced earlier stages in the planning task. This is especially true if the task involves many people and different people work at different times. The application state navigation system provides an application-independent mechanism that allows operators to walk back through the history of the application in order to better understand (or remember) the application actions that were taken in the past and the triggers for those actions.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, from a state processor and by each of a plurality of application processors, state data associated with a particular state of an application interface for an output display, wherein;

a plurality of display devices are each arranged to produce a respective output portion of the output display,

for each state, the output display is a single contiguous image that is formed by multiple, aligned image tiles, each image tile representing a respective output portion that is produced by one of the plurality of display devices, and

each of the plurality of application processors is associated with and controls a respective one of the plurality of display devices;

providing, by each of the plurality of application processors to each of their respective display devices, a display control signal to produce the respective output portion of the output display for the particular state of the application interface for the output display;

receiving, from the state processor and by each of the plurality of application processors, a message indicating detected user interaction with the output display that is formed by the multiple, aligned image tiles;

determining, by each of the plurality of application processors, whether the detected user interaction affects the respective output portion of the output display produced by the display device that is controlled by the application processor;

determining, by the one or more application processors that are determined to control a display device that produces a respective output portion of the output display that is (i) formed by the multiple, aligned image tiles, and (ii) affected by the detected user interaction, to provide an update control signal to the display device that is controlled by the application processor in order to update the respective output portion of the output display; and

determining, by the one or more application processors that are determined to not control a display device that produces a respective portion of the output display that is (i) formed by the multiple, aligned image tiles, and (ii) affected by the detected user interaction, to not provide the update control signal to the display device that is controlled by the application processor.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining, by each of the plurality of application processors, a context representative of the respective output portion of the output display produced by the display device controlled by the application processor; and

wherein determining, by each of the plurality of application processors, whether the detected user interaction affects the respective output portion of the output display produced by the display device that is controlled by the application processor comprises determining, by each of the plurality of application processors, that the context for the application processor has changed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the respective output portion of the output display comprises an image tile among the multiple, aligned image tiles.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the image tile is associated with a display device.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the image tile is associated with one or more display devices.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is a state change message.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, by an application processor included in the plurality of application processors, to the state change processor, a state change message indicative of a state change of the application processor;

receiving, by the plurality of application processors other than the application processor from the state change processor, the state change message provided by the application processor; and

updating, by the plurality of application processors, state data associated with the particular state of the application interface for the output display.

8. A system comprising:

one or more computers; and

a machine readable medium coupled to the one or more computers having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a state processor and by each of a plurality of application processors, state data associated with a particular state of an application interface for an output display, wherein;

a plurality of display devices are each arranged to produce a respective output portion of the output display,

for each state, the output display is a single contiguous image that is formed by multiple, aligned image tiles, each image tile representing a respective output portion that is produced by one of the plurality of display devices, and

each of the plurality of application processors is associated with and controls a respective one of the plurality of display devices;

providing, by each of the plurality of application processors to each of their respective display devices, a display control signal to produce the respective output portion of the output display for the particular state of the application interface for the output display;

receiving, from the state processor and by each of the plurality of application processors, a message indicating detected user interaction with the output display that is formed by the multiple, aligned image tiles;

determining, by each of the plurality of application processors, whether the detected user interaction affects the respective output portion of the output display produced by the display device that is controlled by the application processor;

determining, by the one or more application processors that are determined to control a display device that produces a respective output portion of the output display that is (i) formed by the multiple, aligned image tiles, and (ii) affected by the detected user interaction, to provide an update control signal to the display device that is controlled by the application processor in order to update the respective output portion of the output display; and

determining, by the one or more application processors that are determined to not control a display device that produces a respective portion of the output display that is (i) formed by the multiple, aligned image tiles, and (ii) affected by the detected user interaction, to not provide the update control signal to the display device that is controlled by the application processor.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

maintaining, by each of the plurality of application processors, a context representative of the respective output portion of the output display produced by the display device controlled by the application processor; and

wherein determining, by each of the plurality of application processors, whether the detected user interaction affects the respective output portion of the output display produced by the display device that is controlled by the application processor comprises determining, by each of the plurality of application processors, that the context for the application processor has changed.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the respective output portion of the output display comprises an image tile among the multiple, aligned image tiles.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the image tile is associated with a display device.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the image tile is associated with one or more display devices.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the message is a state change message.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

providing, by an application processor included in the plurality of application processors, to the state change processor, a state change message indicative of a state change of the application processor;

receiving, by the plurality of application processors other than the application processor from the state change processor, the state change message provided by the application processor; and

updating, by the plurality of application processors, state data associated with the particular state of the application interface for the output display.

15. A machine-readable medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a state processor and by each of a plurality of application processors, state data associated with a particular state of an application interface for an output display, wherein;

a plurality of display devices are each arranged to produce a respective output portion of the output display,

for each state, the output display is a single contiguous image that is formed by multiple, aligned image tiles, each image tile representing a respective output portion that is produced by one of the plurality of display devices, and

each of the plurality of application processors is associated with and controls a respective one of the plurality of display devices;

providing, by each of the plurality of application processors to each of their respective display devices, a display control signal to produce the respective output portion of the output display for the particular state of the application interface for the output display;

receiving, from the state processor and by each of the plurality of application processors, a message indicating detected user interaction with the output display that is formed by the multiple, aligned image tiles;

determining, by each of the plurality of application processors, whether the detected user interaction affects the respective output portion of the output display produced by the display device that is controlled by the application processor;

determining, by the one or more application processors that are determined to control a display device that produces a respective output portion of the output display that is (i) formed by the multiple, aligned image tiles, and (ii) affected by the detected user interaction, to provide an update control signal to the display device that is controlled by the application processor in order to update the respective output portion of the output display; and

determining, by the one or more application processors that are determined to not control a display device that produces a respective portion of the output display that is (i) formed by the multiple, aligned image tiles, and (ii) affected by the detected user interaction, to not provide the update control signal to the display device that is controlled by the application processor.

16. A computer-implemented method comprising:

providing, by a state processor to each of a plurality of application processors, state data associated with a particular state of an application interface for an output display, wherein;

a plurality of display devices are each arranged to produce a respective output portion of the output display,

for each state, the output display is a single contiguous image that is formed by multiple, aligned image tiles, each image tile representing a respective output portion that is produced by one of the plurality of display devices,

each of the plurality of application processors is associated with and controls a respective one of the plurality of display devices, and

each of the plurality of application processors provides a display control signal to each of their respective display devices to produce the respective output portion of the output display for the particular state of the application interface for the output display;

receiving, by the state processor, information indicative of a detected user interaction with the output display that is formed by the multiple, aligned image tiles;

providing, by the state processor to each of the plurality of application processors, a message indicating the detected user interaction with the output display;

receiving, by the state processor from an application processor included in the plurality of application processors, a state change message indicating a change in state of the application processor due to the detected user interaction affecting the respective output portion of the output display that is formed by the multiple, aligned image tiles; and

providing, by the state processor to the plurality of application processors other than the application processor that sent the state change message, the state change message received from the application processor indicating the change in state of the application processor.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

maintaining, by each of the plurality of application processors, a context representative of the respective output portion of the output display produced by the display device controlled by the application processor; and

wherein the change in state of the application processor is a result of a change in the context of the application processor.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the respective output portion of the output display comprises an image tile among the multiple, aligned image tiles.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the image tile is associated with a display device.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the image tile is associated with one or more display devices.