METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING VISUAL INFORMATION

• US 20110289427A1
• Filed: 05/21/2010
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Toprani, Shyam S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,092,128 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/746
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04804 Transparency, e.g. transparent or translucent windows
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

Efficiently managing visual information by small form factor electronic devices having limited display resources using a persistent overlay is described. The persistent overlay can be formed of selected visual information from a first page and can remain viewable over subsequently displayed pages.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

presenting a page of visual information at a display;

identifying at least a portion of the presented visual information for conversion to a persistent overlay;

converting the identified portion to the persistent overlay;

adding the visual information corresponding to the persistent overlay with that of the page by overlaying a corresponding portion of the page with the persistent overlay, wherein at least some visual information displayed as the page and overlaid by the persistent overlay remains viewable;

automatically overlaying a corresponding portion of another page by the persistent overlay where at least some visual information displayed as part of the other page and overlaid by the persistent overlay remains viewable; and

presenting the other page and the persistent overlay.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

changing the amount of visual information that remains viewable at the page in accordance with a number of pages on which the persistent overlay is presented.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising:

modifying the page immediately after the rendering to include the persistent overlay; and

storing a persistent overlay identifier used to identify the persistent overlay in a data storage device.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, further comprising:

associating metadata with the persistent overlay, wherein the metadata provides ancillary information about the persistent overlay.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, further comprising:

accessing the metadata associated with the persistent overlay by an application.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the rendering further comprises:

determining a relative importance value of the persistent overlay; and

adjusting the rendering of the persistent overlay in accordance with the relative importance value.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the adjusting the rendering comprises:

adjusting a transparency value of the persistent overlay by increasing the transparency value when the relative importance of the persistent overlay decreases and decreasing the transparency value when the relative importance of the persistent overlay increases.

8. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the adjusting the rendering comprises:

adjusting a transparency value of the persistent overlay by increasing the transparency value in direct relation to a number of subsequent pages beyond a threshold number of pages following the first page.

9. An electronic device arranged to present visual information at a display, comprising:

an input device; and

a processor in co-operative communication with the processor, wherein the input device provides an input signal that the processor uses to identify and process a portion of a page of visual information presented at the display as a persistent overlay, wherein the processor further acts to;

automatically add the visual information associated with the persistent overlay to that presented as the page by overlaying a corresponding portion of the page with the persistent overlay, wherein at least some of the overlaid visual information of the page remains viewable, and

add the visual information associated with the persistent overlay to that of a subsequently displayed page by overlaying a corresponding portion of the subsequently displayed page with the persistent overlay, wherein the persistent overlay includes updateable metadata associated with the visual information corresponding to the persistent overlay.

10. The device as recited in claim 9, wherein the processor further modifies a transparency factor of the persistent overlay in accordance with a number of pages on which the persistent overlay is added.

11. The device as recited in claim 10, wherein the processor determines a relative importance value of the persistent overlay and adjusts a transparency factor of the persistent overlay in accordance with the relative importance value.

12. The device as recited in claim 11, wherein the device further comprises:

a data storage device arranged to store data that includes at least media data, wherein the processor updates the data storage device with a persistent overlay identifier used to identify the persistent overlay.

13. The device as recited in claim 13, wherein the processor displays the persistent overlay identifier at the display in the form of an interactive clipboard.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium arranged to store a computer code executed by a processor, the computer readable medium comprising:

computer code for presenting a first page of visual information at a display;

computer code for identifying a portion of the presented visual information;

computer code for rendering the identified portion as a persistent overlay, wherein the persistent overlay allows any overlaid visual information to remain viewable;

computer code for presenting a second page subsequent to the presenting the first page; and

computer code for presenting the persistent overlay as part of the second page.

15. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 14, further comprising:

computer code for presenting the persistent overlay as part of the first page immediately after the rendering; and

computer code for storing a persistent overlay identifier used to identify the persistent overlay.

16. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 15, further comprising:

computer code for associating metadata with the persistent overlay, wherein the metadata provides ancillary information about the persistent overlay.

17. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 16, further comprising:

computer code for using the metadata associated with the persistent overlay as an input to an application.

18. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the rendering further comprises:

computer code for determining a relative importance value of the persistent overlay; and

computer code for adjusting a transparency factor of the persistent overlay in accordance with the relative importance value.

19. A method comprising:

presenting a current page of visual information at a display at least a portion of which visually represents an executable software application;

presenting visual information corresponding to a persistent overlay as part of the current page, the persistent overlay having associated metadata;

granting to the software application, access to at least some of the metadata; and

operating on the accessed data by the software application.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the granting access further comprises

rendering the persistent overlay as movable;

and

moving the persistent overlay to a location proximate to the visual information representing the executable software application.

21. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein once the software application is granted access to at least some of the metadata, the method further comprising:

using at least some of the accessed metadata is used by the software application as input data.

22. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein the input data is used in an initial execution of the software application.

23. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein the input data is used to modify the execution of the software application.