Customization of an Immersive Environment

• US 20130044136A1
• Filed: 10/19/2012
• Published: 02/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Matthews, David A., Worley, Matthew I., Sundelin, Nils A., Wong, Tsz Yan
• Granted Patent: US 8,627,227 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/660
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• 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 3/01 Input arrangements or combined input and output arrangements for interaction between user and computer G06F3/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A computing device includes an immersive environment module for facilitating simultaneous display of a plurality of applications on a display device without relying on system chrome. At least a first of the applications is displayed in a primary region of the display. The computing device also includes a UI management component for enabling a user selection of an application for simultaneous display on the display device with at least one other application. Processing logic is configured to determine a size in at least one direction of content of a user-selected application as it is displayed on a non-primary region of the display device simultaneous with display of content of the first application on the primary region of the display device. The determination is based at least in part on one or more pre-defined size requirements specified by the selected application.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving selection of an application for parallel presentation in an immersive environment on one or more displays associated with a computing device;

responsive to the selection, determining an amount of space of a non-primary region of the immersive environment to allocate for display of the selected application; and

causing content of the selected application to be displayed in the space of the non-primary region allocated for display of the selected application and in parallel with display of content of a different application presented in a primary region of the immersive environment.

2. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining the amount of space of the non-primary region to allocate is based on a predefined size requirement of the selected application or another predefined size requirement of the different application.

3. A computer-implemented method as recited in 2, further comprising resizing the content of the selected application for display in the non-primary region based on the predefined size requirement of the selected application or the other predefined size requirement of the different application.

4. A computer-implemented method as recited in 2, wherein the predefined size requirement includes a minimum height requirement or a minimum width requirement at which content of the respective application is to be displayed.

5. A computer-implemented method as recited in 4, further comprising, in response to receiving a second selection to minimize the content of the selected application, reducing the amount of space of the non-primary region allocated for display of the content of the selected application based on at least one of the minimum height requirement or the minimum width requirement.

6. A computer-implemented method as recited in 4, wherein the predefined size requirement further includes a maximum height requirement or a maximum width requirement.

7. A computer-implemented method as recited in 2, wherein the predefined size requirement further indicates whether to allocate the amount of space of the non-primary region based on the predefined size requirement or an amount of currently unoccupied space in the non-primary region.

8. A computer-implemented method as recited in 2, wherein the predefined size requirement of the selected application specifies a height requirement or a width requirement as a number of pixels.

9. A computer-implemented method as recited in 2, wherein determining the amount of space of the non-primary region to allocate is based on the predefined size requirement of the selected application and the other predefined size requirement of the different application displayed in the primary region of the immersive environment.

10. A computer-implemented method comprising:

presenting first content of a first application in a primary region of an immersive environment;

receiving selection of second content of a second application for presentation in the primary region of the immersive environment;

causing presentation of the first content of the first application to be moved to a non-primary region of the immersive environment, the non-primary region and the primary region being differently sized;

causing a size of the first content, when presented in the non-primary region of the immersive environment, to be adjusted in accordance with content sizing requirements associated with the first application; and

causing the second content of the second application to be presented in the primary region of the immersive environment.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the content sizing requirements associated with the first application are exposed through an application programming interface (API) associated with the first application.

12. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the content sizing requirements define a height or width at which the content of the first application is to be presented within the immersive environment.

13. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein causing the size of first the content to be adjusted includes ensuring that the non-primary region has a space sufficient to allow presentation of the first content in accordance with a minimum size as specified by the content sizing requirements.

14. One or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving selection of an application for parallel presentation in an immersive environment on one or more displays associated with a computing device;

responsive to the selection, determining an amount of space of a non-primary region of the immersive environment to allocate for display of the selected application; and

causing content of the selected application to be displayed in the space of the non-primary region allocated for display of the selected application and in parallel with display of content of a different application presented in a primary region of the immersive environment.

15. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 14, wherein the operation of determining the amount of space of the non-primary region to allocate is based on a predefined size requirement of the selected application or another predefined size requirement of another application displayed in another space of the non-primary region.

16. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 15, further comprising additional instructions that, when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform the operations further comprising resizing content of the additional application displayed in the other space of the non-primary region based on the other predefined size requirement of the other application.

17. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 15, wherein the predefined size requirement includes a minimum height requirement or a minimum width requirement at which content of the respective application is to be displayed.

18. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 15, wherein the predefined size requirement includes a fixed width requirement and a variable height requirement.

19. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 15, wherein the predefined size requirement of the selected application specifies a height requirement or a width requirement as a number of pixels.

20. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 15, wherein determining the amount of space of the non-primary region to allocate is based on the predefined size requirement of the selected application and the other predefined size requirement of the other application displayed in another space of the non-primary region of the immersive environment.