CREATING AN IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENT

• US 20120167005A1
• Filed: 12/23/2010
• Published: 06/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Matthews, David, Satterfield, Jesse Clay, Hoefnagels, Stephan, Moreau, Samuel, Harris, Jensen, Steinglass, Alice
• Application Number:
  US12/977,235
• Publication Number:
  US 20120167005A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/799
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/14 Solving problems related to the presentation of information to be displayed
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports

Abstract

The working area of an immersive environment is presented on a display without relying on any system chrome. Two regions are defined within the immersive environment, one of which is a larger primary region and the second of which is a smaller non-primary region. The two regions are presented so that they not overlap with one another. The content of one executing user-interactive application is presented in the primary region and, simultaneously, content of one or more other executing user-interactive applications are presented in the non-primary region. In some implementations the non-primary is docked to one side of the display.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

presenting on a display an immersive environment that does not include system chrome;

defining within the immersive environment presented on the display a first region and a second region that does not overlap with the first region; and

simultaneously presenting content of at least a first executing user-interactive application in the first region and content of at least one executing second user-interactive application in the second region.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the first region is a primary region and the second region is a non-primary region that is docked to one side of the display.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the first region is configured to display content of a single executing user application and the second region is configured to display content of one or more executing user-interactive applications.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 further comprising simultaneously presenting content of a plurality of executing user-interactive applications in the second region.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the second region is fixed in size and further comprising arranging the content of each of the plurality of executing user-interactive applications presented in the second region so that they do not overlap with one another.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein simultaneously presenting content of a plurality of executing user-interactive applications in the second region includes presenting content of two executing user-interactive applications in the second region and further comprising:

in response to a user request, presenting in the second region content of a third executing user-interactive application; and

re-sizing the content of at least one of the two executing user-interactive applications in the second region to accommodate the content of the third executing user-interactive application.

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

in response to a user request, presenting content of a third executing user-interactive application in the first region; and

without additional user-input, moving the content of the first executing user-interactive application to the second region.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the content of the second region is selectively removable from the display and further comprising re-sizing the content presented in first region so that it occupies all of the immersive environment.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein the second region is selectively removable by a user.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising automatically removing the second region from the display without user intervention upon occurrence of a prescribed event or events.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein the prescribed event includes rotation of the display to portrait mode.

12. A computing device, comprising:

a computer-readable storage medium for storing a plurality of user-interactive applications;

a processor for executing the user-interactive applications;

an immersive environment module configured to provide content associated with applications in an immersive environment on a display; and

a manager module configured to define within the immersive environment presented on the display a first region and a second region that does not overlap with the first region such that content associated with a first executing user-interactive application is presented in the first region while content associated with at least one executing second user-interactive application is presented in the second region.

13. The computing device of claim 12 wherein the first region is configured to display content of a single executing user application and the second region is configured to display content of one or more executing user-interactive applications.

14. The computing device of claim 13 wherein the first region is a primary region and the second region is a non-primary region that is docked to one side of the display.

15. The computing device of claim 12 wherein the manager module is further configured to present content of a third executing user-interactive application in the second region upon user request and re-size the content of at least one of the two executing user-interactive applications in the second region to accommodate the content of the third executing user-interactive application.

16. The computing device of claim 12 wherein the manager module is further configured to present content of a third executing user-interactive application in the first region in response to a user request and, without additional user-input, moving the content of the first executing user-interactive application to the second region.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the first region is a primary region and the second region is a non-primary region that is docked to one side of the display.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the second region is selectively removable by a user and automatically removable without user intervention upon occurrence of a prescribed event or events.

17. A computer-readable medium, comprising:

causing an immersive environment that does not include system chrome to be presented on a display device, said immersive environment including a first region and a second region that do not overlap with one another on the display device;

causing content of at least a first executing user-interactive application to be presented in the first region and content of an executing second user-interactive application to be presented in the second region;

causing a third executing user-interactive application to be presented in the first region upon user request; and

causing, without additional user-intervention, the first executing user-interactive application to be moved to the second region.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 further comprising causing content of the second user-interactive application to remain in the second region while content of the first user-interactive application is moved to the second region such that the content of the first and second user-interactive applications do not overlap with one another.