Rendering content on computing systems

• US 9,772,980 B1
• Filed: 09/24/2015
• Issued: 09/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Qin, Min, Kloba, Grace Hua, Ren, Huan
• Primary Examiner(s): Parra, Omar S
• Application Number:
  US14/864,534
• Time in Patent Office: 733 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/28 involving image processing hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/40 Scaling of whole images or parts thereof, e.g. expanding or contracting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2335 involving reformatting operations of audio signals, e.g. by converting from one coding standard to another details of audio signal transcoding G10L19/173
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42653 for processing graphics
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/431 Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0122 the input and the output signals having different aspect ratios

Abstract

A system and method for rendering video content is disclosed. Video content is retrieved from a network and rendered by a graphics processing unit (GPU). The retrieved video content is rendered when a display of the video content is in an application foreground, and stopped when the display of the video content is moved from the application foreground to an application background. The rendering of the video content is then resumed when the display of the video content is returned from the application background to the application foreground.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

retrieving video content from a network;

rendering the retrieved video content for display in a foreground of one or more user interfaces; and

responsive to the display of the video content being moved from the foreground to a background of the one or more user interfaces, stopping the rendering of the video content and storing a last rendered video frame of the video content in an area of a graphics processing unit (GPU) memory that will not be overwritten with a rendered video frame displayed by a user interface in the foreground while the video content is in the background.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

resuming the rendering of the video content in connection with the display of the video content being moved from the background to the foreground.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

wherein the one or more user interfaces comprise a tabbed application, a first tab of the tabbed application providing the display of the video content, and wherein the display of the video content being moved from the foreground to the background comprises switching from the first tab to a second tab of the tabbed application.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

storing a current playback position of the video content when the first tab is moved from the foreground to the background, wherein resuming the rendering of the video content comprises resuming the rendering of the video content from the stored playback position.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the tabbed application is a web browser.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

parsing markup language code of a web page to retrieve a video link, wherein the video content is retrieved from the network using the video link.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the video link comprises a uniform resource locator (URL).

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the video content is retrieved from a video content source over the network, wherein stopping the rendering of the video content comprises disconnecting a network connection to the video content source when the video content is moved from the foreground to the background, and wherein resuming the rendering of the video content comprises reestablishing the network connection to the video content source when the video content is moved from the background to the foreground.

9. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

retrieving video content from a network;

rendering the retrieved video content for a display of the video content in an application foreground;

in response to the display of the video content being moved from the application foreground to an application background, stopping the rendering of the retrieved video content and storing a last rendered video frame of the rendered video content in an area of a graphics processing unit (GPU) memory that will not be overwritten with a rendered video frame displayed by a user interface in the application foreground while the video content is in the application background; and

providing for display, based on the display of the video content being returned from the application background to the application foreground, the stored last rendered video frame of the rendered video content in the application foreground.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the display of the video content is on a first tabbed page in a web browser, and wherein moving the display of the video content from the application foreground to an application background comprises switching between the first tabbed page and a second tabbed page in the web browser.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

parsing markup language code of a web page to retrieve a video link, wherein the video content is retrieved from the network using the video link.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, while the stored last rendered video frame is displayed, a user input to resume playback of the video content; and

resuming, based on the user input, the rendering of the video content from a point at which the rendering stopped.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising:

compositing the stored last rendered video frame of the rendered video content with rendered web content when the display of the video content is moved from the application background to the application foreground.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the video content is retrieved from a video content source over the network, and stopping the rendering of the video content comprises disconnecting a network connection to the video content source when the video content is moved from the foreground to the background, the method further comprising:

when the display of the video content is returned from application background to the application foreground, reestablishing the network connection to the video content source while the stored last rendered video frame is provided for display in the application foreground.

15. A system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

retrieve video content from a network;

render the retrieved video content when a display of the video content is in an application foreground of an application; and

in response to the display of the video content being moved from the application foreground to an application background, stop rendering of the video content and store a last rendered video frame of the rendered video content in an area of a graphics processing unit (GPU) memory that will not be overwritten with a rendered video frame displayed by a user interface in the application foreground while the video content is in the application background.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the one or more processors to:

resume the rendering of the video content when the display of the video content is returned from the application background to the application foreground.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the one or more processors to:

composite the last rendered video frame with rendered web content when the display of the video content is returned from the application background to the application foreground.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the display of the video content is on a first tabbed page in a web browser, and wherein moving the display of the video content from the application foreground to an application background comprises switching between the first tabbed page and a second tabbed page in the web browser.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the video content is retrieved from a video content source over the network, wherein stopping the rendering of the video content comprises disconnecting a network connection to the video content source when the video content is moved from the foreground to the background, and wherein resuming the rendering of the video content comprises reestablishing the network connection to the video content source when the video content is moved from the background to the foreground.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the last rendered video frame is stored in the GPU memory as a graphics texture while the video content is in the background.