Dynamically reconfigurable graphics layer system and method

• US 20090058872A1
• Filed: 09/04/2007
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Boettcher, Jesse W., Huang, Szu-Wen, Avkarogullari, Gokhan
• Granted Patent: US 8,884,981 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/589
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A method of displaying a user interface in a portable electronic device is provided. The method includes displaying a user interface via a graphics layer attached to a software renderer, detaching the graphics layer from the software renderer, and attaching the graphics layer to one or more of a plurality of hardware layers, such that the display of the graphics layer is facilitated by one or more features of at least one of the hardware layers. An electronic device is provided that includes a display, a processor coupled to the display and configured to provide a plurality of hardware layers, and a user interface comprising a graphics layer, wherein the display of the graphics layer is facilitated by one or more features of at least one of the hardware layers, wherein the graphics layer dynamically attaches to or detaches from one or more of the plurality of hardware layers.

Claims

1. A method of displaying graphics on an electronic device, comprising:

displaying an element of a user interface via a graphics layer attached to a software renderer;

detaching the graphics layer from the software renderer; and

attaching the graphics layer to one or more of a plurality of hardware layers.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising facilitating the display of one or more features using at least one of the plurality of hardware layers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein attaching the graphics layer comprises a performing a color format conversion, recalculating coordinates for a plurality of objects of the user interface, converting from a first pixel format to a second pixel format or any combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein facilitating the display of the one or more features comprises changing opacity, moving, resizing, rotating, blurring, pseudo-coloring, or any combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using the one or more hardware layers to perform a one or more display features of the graphics layer; and

reattaching the graphics layer to the software renderer after completion of the one or more features.

6. A method of displaying graphics on a electronic device, comprising:

displaying an element of a user interface via a graphics layer attached to a one or more of a plurality of hardware layers;

detaching the graphics layer from the one or more of the plurality of hardware layers; and

attaching the graphics layer to a software renderer.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising facilitating the display of one or more features using at least one of the plurality of hardware layers.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein attaching the graphics layer comprises performing a color format conversion, recalculating coordinates for a plurality of objects of the user interface, converting from a first pixel format to a second pixel format, or any combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 6, comprising applying one or more features to a plurality of elements of the user interface.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more features comprises changing opacity, rotating, resizing, moving, blurring, pseudo-coloring, or any combination thereof.

11. An electronic device, comprising:

a display;

a processor coupled to the display and configured to provide a plurality of hardware layers; and

a user interface comprising a plurality of graphics layers, wherein display of at least one graphics layer of the plurality of graphics layers is facilitated by one or more features of at least one of the plurality of hardware layers, wherein the at least one graphics layer dynamically attaches to and detaches from at least one of the plurality of hardware layers.

12. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the electronic device comprises at least one of a media player, a cellular phone, or a personal data organizer, or any combination thereof.

13. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the display comprises an LCD and wherein the plurality of hardware layers comprises a plurality of LCD controller registers.

14. The electronic device of claim 11, comprising a software renderer, and wherein the software renderer comprises a software compositing pipeline.

15. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the display comprises a touch screen, and wherein the user interface is displayed on the touch screen.

16. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the one or more of the plurality of hardware layers are dynamically selected for attachment based on the one or more features.

17. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the one or more features comprises changing opacity, rotating, resizing, moving, blurring, pseudo-coloring, or any combination thereof.

18. A method for performing display operations, comprising:

determining a graphics operation to be performed on a graphics layer; and

dynamically switching between software and hardware rendering of the graphics layer performing the graphics operation.

19. The method of claim 18, comprising performing the graphics operation.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the graphics operation comprises changing the opacity of, resizing, rotating, moving, blurring, or pseudo-coloring the graphics layer.

21. An electronic device, comprising:

a display; and

a processor coupled to the display and configured to render a graphics layer on the display and switch between software-based rendering and hardware-based rendering based on an operation performed on the graphics layer.

22. The electronic device of claim 21, wherein the processor renders the graphics layer using hardware-based rendering during a transition to another graphics layer.

23. The electronic device of claim 21, wherein the operation comprises a transition between the graphics layer and another graphics layer.