Method, apparatus and system for acquiring input events

• US 9,489,248 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2015
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tencent Technology Shenzhen Company Limited (Tencent Holdings Limited)
• Original Assignee: Tencent Technology Shenzhen Company Limited (Tencent Holdings Limited)
• Inventors: Long, Xingping, Luo, Xuecheng, Ou, Ruiqing, Wan, Maowu
• Primary Examiner(s): MUDRICK, TIMOTHY A
• Application Number:
  US14/871,726
• Publication Number:
  US 20160026511A1
• Time in Patent Office: 405 Days
• Field of Search: 719/318
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/543 Local
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

A method, apparatus and system for acquiring an input event in a computer system comprising different priorities for processes are provided, the method comprising: executing a servant process and a master process, wherein the servant process comprises a higher priority than the master process and an input event list; and upon the servant process acquiring an input event and determining that the input event is in the input event list, the servant process transmitting the input event to the master process. A servant process with a high priority is used to acquire input events, which facilitates the operation of other processes and enhances process execution efficiency.

Claims

1. A method for acquiring an input event in a computer system comprising different priorities for processes, the method comprising:

executing a servant process and a master process, including;

initiating an installation program with a high priority;

displaying a prompt window for a user of the computer system to set the high priority of the installation program;

installing the servant process through the installation program;

setting, by the installation program, a priority of the servant process to be higher than the priority of the master process; and

after the installation is complete and when the master process determines to initiate the servant process, executing the servant process;

setting up an input event list in the servant process; and

upon the servant process acquiring an input event and determining that the input event is in the input event list, the servant process transmitting the input event to the master process.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

setting the priority of the servant process higher than or equal to a priority of a current running process; and

transmitting the input event to the current running process.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after receiving the input event, the master process processing the input event.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the input event comprises a key event or a mouse button event, and the step of the servant process acquiring the input event comprises the servant process calling an application programming interface (API) command GetAsyncKeyState( ) to acquire a key event or a mouse button event.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the input event list comprises a plurality of key values that the master process is configured to process, and the step of the servant process acquiring the input event and determining that the input event is in the input event list comprising:

servant process acquiring a key value, determining whether the master process is configured to process the key value, and if so, transmitting the key value to the master process.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the input event list comprises a plurality of mouse button values that the master process is configured to process, and the step of the servant process acquiring the input event and determining that the input event is in the input event list comprising:

servant process acquiring a mouse button value, determining whether the master process is configured to process the mouse button value, and if so, transmitting the mouse button value to the master process.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing a plurality of master processes;

creating, by the servant process, a plurality of servant sub-processes that have a same priority and functions as the servant process, each servant sub-process corresponding to one of the plurality of master processes, the functions including acquiring an input event and transmitting the input event to a corresponding master process;

for each servant sub-process, setting an input event list corresponding to the one of the plurality of maser processes; and

upon a servant sub-process acquiring an input event and determining that the input event is in the input event list corresponding to the one of the plurality of maser processes, the servant sub-process transmitting the input event to the corresponding master process.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

formulating the method for acquiring the input event into a software plugin in accordance with standard APIs.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a form of the software plugin including:

ocx, dll, cab, Flash plugin, RealPlayer plugin, Microsoft Media Server plugin, and ActiveX plugin.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when the master process requests the servant process to cease operation, exiting the servant process.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the servant process acquiring the input event does not interfere with processing of the input event by other processes running in the computer system.

12. An apparatus for acquiring an input event in a computer system comprising different priorities for processes, comprising:

a process execution unit for executing a servant process and a master process;

a setup unit for setting the servant process with a higher priority than the priority of the master process, and for setting up an input event list in the servant process; and

an event transmission unit for, upon the servant process acquiring an input event and determining that the input event is in the input event list, transmitting the input event to the master process;

wherein the setup unit setting the servant process with a higher priority than the priority of the master process further including;

initiating an installation program with a high priority;

displaying a prompt window for a user of the computer system to set the high priority of the installation program;

installing the servant process through the installation program; and

setting, by the installation program, a priority of the servant process to be higher than the priority of the master process;

and wherein the process execution unit executing the servant process and the master process further including;

after the installation is complete and when the master process determines to initiate the servant process, executing the servant process.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the setup unit is further configured for setting the priority of the servant process higher than or equal to a priority of a current running process;

and the event transmission unit is further configured for transmitting the input event to the current running process.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising an event processing unit for, after the master process receiving the input event, processing the input event.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the input event comprises a key event or a mouse button event, and the event transmission unit is configured for calling an API command GetAsyncKeyState( ) to acquire a key event or a mouse button event.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the input event list comprises a plurality of key values that the master process is configured to process, and the event transmission unit is configured for controlling the servant process to acquire a key value and determine whether the master process is configured to process the key value, and if so, transmitting the key value to the master process.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the input event list comprises a plurality of mouse button values that the master process is configured to process, and the event transmission unit is configured for controlling the servant process to acquire a mouse button value and determine whether the master process is configured to process the mouse button value, and if so, transmitting the mouse button value to the master process.

18. A system for acquiring an input event in a computer system comprising different priorities for processes, comprising:

a current running process execution unit for executing the current running process;

a master process execution unit for executing the master process and

a servant process executing unit for executing the servant process, including;

initiating an installation program with a high priority;

displaying a prompt window for a user of the computer system to set the high priority of the installation program;

installing the servant process through the installation program;

setting, by the installation program, a priority of the servant process to be higher than the priority of the master process; and

after the installation is complete and when the master process determines to initiate the servant process, executing the servant process;

wherein the servant process comprises an input event list, and a priority of the servant process is higher than or equal to a priority of the current running process; and

the servant process execution process is configured for acquiring an input event;

upon determining that the input event is in the input event list, transmitting the input event to the master process; and

upon determining that the input event is not in the input event list, transmitting the input event to the current running process.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the servant process execution process is configured to execute a gaming program, and the master process execution unit is configured to execute an audio process.