Providing selected data through a locked display

• US 9,197,738 B2
• Filed: 04/10/2009
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Peev, Igor, Pengelly, Robert, Agnetta, Bryan T., Swank, Adam, Chen, Liang, Ghosh, Sumonto
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman, Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cortes, Howard
• Application Number:
  US12/421,646
• Publication Number:
  US 20100146384A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,419 Days
• Field of Search: 719/329, 715864-867, 715/204
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/673 the user being required to key in a code
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72472 wherein the items are sorted according to specific criteria, e.g. frequency of use
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector

Abstract

Providing content and/or functionality through a display of a locked computing device. Configuration data defined by a user or application vendor identifies the content and/or functionality to be made available. Upon receipt of the content, the computing device modifies the received content based on the configuration data and provides the modified content to the user through the display of the locked computing device. The computing device also interacts with the user in accordance with the functionality identified by the configuration data. In some embodiments, notifications about voice mail or electronic mail messages are displayed to the user through a locked touch screen display. Responsive to a finger tap or other user input, additional yet limited information relating to the notifications is displayed.

Claims

1. A system for customizing notifications available through a display of a locked mobile computing device, said system comprising:

a memory area for storing one or more notifications received by a mobile computing device while the mobile computing device is locked, said memory area further storing configuration data, said configuration data describing notifications to present to a user through a display of the locked mobile computing device and said configuration data further defining a subset of functions within an application program associated with one or more of the notifications, said subset of functions to be available for execution by the user while the mobile computing device is locked, said configuration data further identifying a keyword; and

a processor programmed to;

receive the configuration data from the user of the mobile computing device;

access one or more of the notifications stored in the memory area;

alter one or more of the accessed notifications based on the configuration data stored in the memory area, the processor being programmed to alter the accessed notifications by filtering the accessed notifications based on the keyword identified in the configuration data that specifies a limited functionality of the application program available without unlocking the mobile computing device;

present the altered notifications to the user through the display of the locked mobile computing device;

enable the subset of functions within the application program through the display while the mobile computing device is locked, whereby the user interacts with the application program via the presented altered notifications to perform at least one of the subset of functions within the application program while the mobile computing device remains locked; and

obtain, responsive to the user interaction, additional information about the presented altered notifications based on the configuration data to perform the at least one of the subset of functions the mobile corn device remains locked.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration data describes characteristics of the notifications, the configuration data being defined by a developer of the application program, the subset of functions within the application program, that remain available to the user when the mobile computing device becomes locked, being identified by the developer of the application program.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to analyze each of the accessed notifications by filtering the accessed notifications based on the configuration data.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the processor is programmed to present said one or more of the accessed notifications by presenting only the filtered notifications.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for selectively presenting content to the user through the display of the locked mobile computing device.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for customizing, per application program, the presentation of content to the user through the display of the locked mobile computing device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein altering one or more of the accessed notifications based on the configuration data stored in the memory area comprises altering content associated with a notification such that the altered content is a subset of the content that would be displayed through a display of an unlocked mobile computing device.

8. A method comprising:

accessing user-defined configuration data describing content to present to a user through a display of a locked computing device and said configuration data further defining a subset of functions of one or more application programs associated with the content, said subset of functions to be available to the user through the display of the locked computing device, said configuration data further identifying a keyword;

receiving, by the computing device, one or more content items while the computing device is locked;

transforming one or more of the received content items based on the accessed configuration data, the transforming comprising filtering the received content items based on the keyword identified in the configuration data that specifies a limited functionality of the one or more application programs available without unlocking the computing device;

providing the transformed content items for presentation to the user through the display of the locked computing device;

enabling the subset of functions of the application programs to be available through the display of the locked computing device, whereby the user interacts with one or more of the application programs via the provided, transformed content items; and

obtaining, responsive to the user interaction, additional information about the transformed content items based on the configuration data to perform at least one of the subset of functions while the computing device remains locked.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving from the user a selection of one of the provided content items; and

responsive to the received selection, directing the user to an unlock screen before unlocking the locked computing device and executing the application program associated with the selected one of the content items.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising responsive to the received selection, receiving a command from the user to unlock the locked computing device.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising providing, through the display of the locked computing device, representations of one or more of the application programs available on the computing device, wherein the representations are provided as a toolbar.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving a selection from the user of one of the provided representations; and

responsive to the received selection, unlocking the locked computing device and executing the application program associated with the selected one of the content items.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the user interaction with the one or more of the application programs unlocks the computing device without the user explicitly unlocking the computing device, and wherein accessing the user-defined configuration data comprises identifying one or more of the following:

an application associated with the content items, a type of notification associated with the content items, and a category of notification associated with the content items.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein said accessing, said receiving, said transforming, and said providing are performed by a cloud service, and wherein providing the transformed content items comprises transmitting the transformed content items from the cloud service to the computing device for display to the user.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the received content items have one or more data fields associated therewith, and wherein transforming the received content items comprises selecting one or more of the data fields based on the defined configuration data, and wherein providing the transformed content items comprises providing only the selected data fields while the computing device remains locked.

16. The method of claim 8, wherein defining the configuration data comprises receiving the configuration data when installing the application program on the computing device.

17. One or more computer storage media having computer-executable components, said components comprising:

a profile component for receiving, from a user, configuration data describing content to present to the user through a display of a locked computing device and said configuration data further defining a subset of functions of an application program associated with the content, said subset of functions to be available to the user through the display of the locked computing device, said application program executing on the computing device, wherein the profile component stores the received configuration data in a data structure associated with the application program;

an interface component for receiving one or more content items while the computing device is locked; and

a filter component for modifying the content items received by the interface component based on the configuration data received by the profile component and stored in the data structure, the modifying comprising filtering the content items based on a criteria specified by the configuration data, the criteria specifying content items originating from a particular content provider that are not allowed to be displayed through the display of the locked computing device and are allowed to be displayed through a display of an unlocked computing device, wherein the interface component provides the modified content items to the user through the display of the locked computing device, and wherein the filter component enables the user to interact with the provided content items to perform at least one of the subset of functions defined by the configuration data while the computing device remains locked and directs the user to an unlock screen, in response to the user interaction with the provided content items, before allowing performance of functions other than the subset of functions defined by the configuration data.

18. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the profile component receives the configuration data from a developer of the application program.

19. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the application program relates to one or more of the following:

stock prices, sports scores, transportation schedules, instant messages, and social networking messages.

20. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the configuration data identifies a category associated with one or more of the content items, and wherein the interface component provides the content items associated with the identified category to the user through the display of the locked computing device.