Method and system for auxiliary display of information for a computing device

• US 7,913,182 B2
• Filed: 08/23/2006
• Issued: 03/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chandley, Adrian, Ledbetter, Carl, Adams, Aditha May, Crosier, Dale C., Kaneko, Steve, Magendanz, Chad, Westerinen, William J., Schoppa, Chris, Bear, Eric Gould, Plank, Robert Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore; William L
• Assistant Examiner(s): NUNEZ, JORDANY
• Application Number:
  US11/509,437
• Publication Number:
  US 20070195007A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,672 Days
• Field of Search: 715/778, 345/1.1, 345/1.3, 455/566
• US Class Current: 715/778
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method and system for auxiliary display of information for a computing device. An auxiliary display is integrated with a computing system to provide an area where notifications can be peripherally presented off-screen. Whenever a background task sends a notification to the main display of the system, the notification may be redirected to appear instead on the auxiliary display. A user may then glance at the notification appearing on the auxiliary display to be informed of the message without interruption from the current task onscreen. Any type of information may be presented on the auxiliary display including incoming communications, meeting reminders, system alerts, and information from Internet subscription services. The auxiliary display may be placed on the central processor chassis or on the monitor border along with LED indicator lights to provide simple peripheral-vision notification. By pressing a button, a user may obtain additional detailed follow-up information.

Claims

1. A method for displaying notifications on an auxiliary display of a computing device that are specifically directed to a main display of the computing device, comprising:

receiving a notification at an information redirector running on the computing device, the notification being received from a background task of an information generator that is also running on the computing device, the information generator being either a personal management application comprising a calendar and task management program, or an operating system; and

wherein the notification comprises;

a notification of a scheduled item in a calendar or of a due date of a task when the information generator is the personal management application, or

a notification of device status, service alerts, or system health when the information generator is the operating system;

redirecting the notification to an auxiliary display manager of an auxiliary display rather than forwarding the notification to the main display such that the notification is not displayed on the main display;

receiving the notification at the auxiliary display manager of the auxiliary display;

the auxiliary display manager displaying the notification on the auxiliary display;

upon receiving user input that selects the notification, the auxiliary display manager notifying the information redirector of the selection of the notification;

the information redirector bringing the information generator that generated the notification to the foreground of the computing system and notifying the information generator of the selection of the notification; and

the information generator displaying the information corresponding to the selected notification on the main display of the computing system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein upon receiving the notification, the auxiliary display manager stores the notification in an auxiliary display queue and updates summary information that provides an indication of the number of notifications that are stored in the auxiliary display queue, the method further comprising:

the auxiliary display manager removing the selected notification from the auxiliary display queue and updating the summary information such that the selected notification is no longer displayed on the auxiliary display; and

displaying the summary information on the auxiliary display after the user selects the notification.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification corresponds to one of an email, instant message, calendar event, or system status of the computing device and wherein displaying the information corresponding to the selected notification on the main display comprises displaying the email using an email application, displaying the instant message using an instant message application, displaying the calendar event using a calendar application, or displaying the system status using an operating system component of the computing device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the notification is displayed on the auxiliary display upon being stored in the auxiliary display queue.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the notification is displayed for a predefined period of time after which the summary information is displayed on the display device in place of the notification.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving user input while the summary information is being displayed, and in response, displaying a list of the notifications that are stored in the auxiliary display queue.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the selected notification is a first notification and further comprising:

receiving user input that selects a second notification from the list of the notifications, and in response, the auxiliary display manager notifying the information redirector of the selection of the second notification;

the information redirector bringing the information generator that generated the second notification to the foreground of the computing system and notifying the information generator of the selection of the second notification; and

the information generator displaying the information corresponding to the second notification on the main display of the computing system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the information generator that generated the second notification is different than the information generator that generated the first notification.

9. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

removing the notification from the auxiliary display queue after a predefined period of time even if the notification has not been selected by the user.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification is a first notification and wherein each notification includes a priority, the method further comprising:

receiving a second notification from the information redirector while the first notification is being displayed on the auxiliary display;

determining that the second notification has a higher priority than the first notification; and

displaying the second notification in place of the first notification.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

storing an indication with the first notification that indicates that the first notification was not displayed for a first predefined period of time such that after the second notification is displayed for a second predefined period of time, the first notification is displayed again on the auxiliary display without user input.

12. A computer storage medium having stored computer executable instructions which when executed by a processor perform a method for displaying notifications on an auxiliary display of a computing device that are specifically directed to a main display of the computing device, comprising:

receiving a notification at an information redirector running on the computing device, the notification being received from a background task of an information generator that is also running on the computing device, the information generator being either a personal management application comprising a calendar and task management program, or an operating system, and wherein the notification comprises;

a notification of a scheduled item in a calendar or of a due date of a task when the information generator is the personal management application, or

a notification of device status, service alerts, or system health when the information generator is the operating system;

redirecting the notification to an auxiliary display manager of an auxiliary display rather than forwarding the notification to the main display such that the notification is not displayed on the main display;

receiving the notification at the auxiliary display manager of the auxiliary display;

the auxiliary display manager displaying the notification on the auxiliary display;

upon receiving user input that selects the notification, the auxiliary display manager notifying the information redirector of the selection of the notification;

the information redirector bringing the information generator that generated the notification to the foreground of the computing system and notifying the information generator of the selection of the notification; and

the information generator displaying the information corresponding to the selected notification on the main display of the computing system.

13. The computer storage medium of claim 12, wherein upon receiving the notification, the auxiliary display manager stores the notification in an auxiliary display queue and updates summary information that provides an indication of the number of notifications that are stored in the auxiliary display queue, and wherein the notification is displayed for a predefined period of time after which the summary information is displayed on the display device in place of the notification.

14. The computer storage medium of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving user input while the summary information is being displayed, and in response, displaying a list of the notifications that are stored in the auxiliary display queue.

15. The computer storage medium of claim 14, wherein the selected notification is a first notification and further comprising:

receiving user input that selects a second notification from the list of the notifications, and in response, the auxiliary display manager notifying the information redirector of the selection of the second notification;

the information redirector bringing the information generator that generated the second notification to the foreground of the computing system and notifying the information generator of the selection of the second notification; and

the information generator displaying the information corresponding to the second notification on the main display of the computing system.

16. The computer storage medium of claim 15, wherein the information generator that generated the second notification is different than the information generator that generated the first notification.

17. The computer storage medium of claim 12, wherein the notification is a first notification and wherein each notification includes a priority, further comprising:

receiving a second notification from the information redirector while the first notification is being displayed on the auxiliary display;

determining that the second notification has a higher priority than the first notification; and

displaying the second notification in place of the first notification.

18. The computer storage medium of claim 17, further comprising:

storing an indication with the first notification that indicates that the first notification was not displayed for a first predefined period of time such that after the second notification is displayed for a second predefined period of time, the first notification is displayed again on the auxiliary display without user input.

19. The computer storage medium of claim 17 wherein the first and second notifications are stored in an auxiliary display queue, and wherein each notification includes a type comprising one of synchronous and asynchronous, further comprising:

wherein storing the second notification in the auxiliary display queue comprises;

determining that the type of the second notification is synchronous, wherein synchronous notifications are displayed with higher priority than asynchronous notifications;

determining that the priority of the notification is high by checking a priority field that is included in the notification; and

storing the notification in the auxiliary display queue after any other synchronous notification having a high priority; and

wherein determining that the second notification has a higher priority than the first notification comprises;

determining that the second notification is stored in the queue in front of the first notification.

20. The computer storage medium of claim 19, wherein the second notification has a higher priority than the first notification because the first notification is either an asynchronous notification with any priority, or a synchronous notification with a priority lower than high.

21. The computer storage medium of claim 12, wherein the auxiliary display is physically integrated into the housing of the computing device.