Patents Examined by Ba Huynh
  • Patent number: 7739617
    Abstract: A computer-human interface provides a mechanism to manage the available space of a computer display in a manner that facilitates navigation among multiple windows that are overlaid upon one another. The interface includes a user-selectable mode in which the windows are rearranged, and resized if necessary, so that all open windows can be simultaneously viewed within the area of the display, thereby enabling any one of the windows to be easily selected for access. In effect, the presentation of the windows is “flattened” so that all windows appear at the same virtual depth, rather than overlapping one another. With this approach, there is no need to minimize windows in order to access one that is overlaid by another, thereby enabling the user to keep the content of all windows visible and accessible. Subsets of windows can be repositioned in the same manner, or all windows can be removed from the display area for access to desktop objects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2010
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Bas Ording, John Louch
  • Patent number: 7735023
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implement techniques for navigating user interface elements of a computer program application. A navigation key press of a navigation key is detected, where the navigation key has a group identifier. A selected group of user interface elements associated with the group identifier is identified. Input focus is shifted to a user interface element in the selected group based on the navigation key.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2010
    Assignee: SAP AG
    Inventors: Thomas Chadzelek, Armin Reichert, Josef Dietl
  • Patent number: 7730429
    Abstract: This document discusses, among other things, a computer software program that implements a graphical workspace for idea management. This includes a graphical user interface (GUI) with an idea map window and a word processor document window. The idea map represents ideas as a hierarchical network of nodes and links. An interface automatically updates the word processor document using sequencing information from the hierarchical network. A routine automatically arranges nodes in the 2D representation. Another routine automatically generates virtual 3D representations of the idea map.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2010
    Assignee: Spark-Space Ltd.
    Inventors: Elaine Kruse, Andres Kruse
  • Patent number: 7730430
    Abstract: A method for enhancing a mouse cursor is presented. During the mouse cursor update display cycle, a test on the current mouse speed is made. If the mouse cursor's speed exceeds a predetermined threshold, an enhanced mouse cursor is generated and displayed on the computer screen. According to one embodiment, an enhanced mouse cursor is generated by increasing the size of a standard mouse cursor in proportion to the speed of the mouse cursor. According to an alternative embodiment, an enhanced mouse cursor is generated by interpolating the mouse cursor's path and adding a motion-blur effect along the interpolated path. According to yet another embodiment, an enhanced mouse cursor is generated by interpolating the mouse cursor's path and a plurality of mouse cursor images are displayed along the interpolated path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Patrick M. Baudisch, George G. Robertson, Edward B. Cutrell
  • Patent number: 7730422
    Abstract: Intelligent rearrangement of icons on a desktop in response to changes in desktop size, such as orientation, may be provided using a number of approaches. Desktop area in multiple orientations may be divided into a grid having equal numbers of rows and columns, and placement of icons in each orientation may use common grid coordinates. Icons may alternatively be reflected along a diagonal of desktops in different orientations, such that some icon positional relationships may be maintained. Placement of icons on a desktop may be restricted to a predefined subset region of the desktop, where the subset region will fit in multiple orientations without requiring adjustment. Additionally, areas of a desktop in multiple orientations may be reserved for predefined types of icons, and changes in orientation may result in placement of icons in corresponding reserved areas based on icon attribute.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Thomas P Russo
  • Patent number: 7725837
    Abstract: The present subject matter describes a browser for efficiently presenting and browsing a large digital photograph collection. The browser includes a graphical interface—referred to as a time quilt—that combines a wrappable timeline with a space filling layout. Thumbnails representing individual images or clusters of images are laid out chronologically in columns, from top to bottom. When the bottom of a column is reached, a new column is started to the right of the existing column(s). Semantic zooming is used wherein zooming in on a thumbnail image that represents a cluster renders thumbnails of images in the cluster when the thumbnails of the images can be rendered in a legible size. Tiered zooming is also described, which is semantic zooming on multiple levels—representative thumbnails give way to clusters of representative thumbnails that each represent an image or a cluster of images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Curtis G. Wong, David F. Huynh, Patrick M. Baudisch, Steven M. Drucker
  • Patent number: 7721215
    Abstract: In a service providing system, a live-distribution service for live-distributing contents supplied according to a reservation, and a chat service for providing the use of a chat space corresponding to the reservation for live distribution are provided. After the live distribution finishes, a communication server sends the whole or a part of the contents of chatting performed in the chat space corresponding to the reservation for the live distribution, to a personal computer. With this, even if the user of the personal computer, who supplies the contents, could not participate in a chat with a user of another personal computer while capturing the contents, for example, the user of the personal computer can check the contents of the chat later.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Katsushi Fujii, Shinichi Kanai, Takao Yoshimine, Shigehiko Nishizawa, Junichi Miyazaki, Yousuke Noumi
  • Patent number: 7721214
    Abstract: A architecture is provided to enable a client web browser to conduct and manage a multilevel search. The browser includes an application layer interface. The application layer interface is for coupling to network via a protocol stack. The browser also includes a markup language parser. The parser receives information from the application layer interface. The browser also includes a graphical user interface for interacting with a user. The graphical user interface allows a user to specify a set of multilevel search parameters. The browser also includes a markup language processor that receives input from the markup language parser and multilevel search parameters from the graphical user interface. The markup language processor conducts and manages a multilevel search to find specified information on a current web page or a web page referenced by the current web page in accordance with a parameterized search tree.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2010
    Assignee: RPX-NW Acquisition LLC
    Inventor: Eric Morgan Dowling
  • Patent number: 7716588
    Abstract: A graphical user interface for a network of content devices that includes two or more graphical representations of two or more respective content devices that are coupled to a content device network. Graphical representations of two or more content streams between the graphical representations of content devices have graphical indicia, and two or more content display windows are provided to display content. Displayed content is associated with respective graphical indicia of the content streams so as to inform a user viewing the graphical representation of the content streams that the content streams carry the displayed content. In variations, the graphical user interface includes a master menu box that includes a content source selection menu for selecting a source content device, a content directory displaying content available from the source content device and a destination menu for selecting a destination content device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2010
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Electronics Inc.
    Inventor: Ryuichi Iwamura
  • Patent number: 7716585
    Abstract: A device discovery and presentation system. The architecture facilitates automatically sensing devices, ports, or other wirelessly identifiable entities by detecting such entities, and displaying a 2-D or 3-D representation of the relative location of such entities to a user via a display. The architecture may be controlled to detect such entities in a confined envelope of space for a specified distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Andrew C. Glass
  • Patent number: 7716606
    Abstract: The invention enables users to virtually attach information to situations in the real world, and also enables users to quickly and easily find out desired information. An IR sensor receives an IR signal transmitted from an IR beacon, and supplies the received signal to a sub-notebook PC. A CCD video camera takes in a visual ID from an object, and supplies the inputted visual ID to the sub-notebook PC. A user inputs, through a microphone, a voice to be attached to situations in the real world. The sub-notebook PC transmits position data, object data and voice data, which have been supplied to it, to a server through a communication unit. The transmitted data is received by the server via a wireless LAN. The server stores the received voice data in a database in correspondence to the position data and the object data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Junichi Rekimoto
  • Patent number: 7716598
    Abstract: Methods and systems for scaling down a Web page image enables the image to be displayed on a standard television without horizontal scrolling of the image. A Web page image that initially has a horizontal dimension larger than the horizontal dimension of a television display is received from a web server and subsequently scaled down by a scaling factor that is based only upon the amount of scaling that is necessary to fit the image within the horizontal dimension of the television display. This scaling factor is used to scale the image horizontally and vertically, thus preserving the aspect ratio of the image. When a hyperlink from the scaled down Web page image is selected, coordinates to the hyperlink are scaled up based on the same scaling factor so that they will correspond with the server-side image map of the Web page image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher M. White, Phillip Y. Goldman, David R. Anderson, Keith R. Ohlfs, Bruce A. Leak
  • Patent number: 7716597
    Abstract: In various embodiments, a method, computer system and computer program product for displaying information are provided. A first subset of information of the file is presented in a scrollable area. The first subset of information comprises, at least in part, a second subset of information. The second subset of information is designated as a materialization entity. When the file in the scrollable area is scrolled and at least a portion of the materialization entity is scrolled out of the scrollable area, the materialization entity is displayed, at least in part, in a materialization area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gregory M. Plow, Farrokh E. Pourmirzaie
  • Patent number: 7716594
    Abstract: In a service providing system, a live-distribution service for live-distributing contents supplied according to a reservation, and a chat service for providing the use of a chat space corresponding to the reservation for the live distribution are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Katsushi Fujii, Shinichi Kanai, Takao Yoshimine, Shigehiko Nishizawa, Junichi Miyazaki, Yousuke Noumi
  • Patent number: 7712051
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for navigating user interface elements of a computer program application. In one aspect, a method includes grouping user interface elements of an application into groups based on a hierarchical arrangement of the elements, detecting a navigation key press of a sibling or a parent navigation key, and if it is a sibling navigation key, shifting input focus to a next sibling group in the hierarchy, and if it is a parent navigation key, shifting input focus to a parent group in the hierarchy. In another aspect, a method for navigating editable cells of a table includes detecting a forward or a backward navigation key; if it is a forward navigation key, shifting input focus to a next editable cell of the table; and if it is a backward navigation key, shifting input focus to a previous editable cell of the table.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2010
    Assignee: SAP AG
    Inventors: Thomas Chadzelek, Armin Reichert, Josef Dietl
  • Patent number: 7712040
    Abstract: When reserved mail fails to be transmitted, an error message is promptly displayed in a partial field of a display unit for a predetermined period of time. A user operates a specific key in the predetermined period of time, thereby allowing the user to return to a screen for editing the failed mail. The user can promptly take an appropriate action on the failed reserved mail.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2010
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventor: Susumu Aoyama
  • Patent number: 7712036
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to a system and method for scannable executable design. In a first aspect of the present invention, a system and method for developing an executable includes scanning an image and identifying a representation of a user interface element included in the scanned image. An executable is then formatted to include a user interface element corresponding to the identified representation of the user interface element. In a second aspect of the present invention, a representation of a user interface element suitable for scanning includes an object capable of being positioned on a medium, the object representing the user interface element. The object is capable of being identified as corresponding to the user interface element so that when the object is scanned, an executable is formatted to include the user interface corresponding to the identified representation of the user interface element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2010
    Assignee: Gateway, Inc.
    Inventor: Glen J. Anderson
  • Patent number: 7712033
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to a method of dynamically controlling and displaying an Internet browser interface, and to a dynamically controllable Internet browser interface. In accordance with the present invention, a browser interface may be customized using a controlling software program that may be provided by an Internet content provider, an ISP, or that may reside on an Internet user's computer. The controlling software program enables the Internet user, the content provider, or the ISP to customize and control the information and/or functionality of a user's browser and browser interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2010
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventor: Thomas Shafron
  • Patent number: 7707506
    Abstract: A breadcrumb may be displayed which identifies at least two restrictions of a plurality of documents in a sequence. The breadcrumb may include a graphical user interface element associated with a selected one of the restrictions having at least one subsequent restriction in the sequence. Once this graphical user interface element is selected, at least one attribute and a numeric indication of a number of the documents responsive to each restriction prior to the selected restriction that contain the attribute and each restriction in the sequence subsequent to the selected restriction may be displayed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2010
    Assignee: SAP AG
    Inventors: Achim Weigel, Darin Krasle, Hans-Juergen Richstein
  • Patent number: 7703034
    Abstract: A system and method for viewing timing of one or more loops in a graphical program. A graphical program having one or more loops may be created. In one embodiment the one or more loops may include one or more timed loops, i.e., the loops may be configured to execute according to particular execution periods. The graphical program may be executed, and timing analysis data regarding timing of the one or more loops during execution of the graphical program may be stored. A graphical user interface (GUI) for viewing timing of the one or more loops during execution of the graphical program may be displayed. In various embodiments the GUI may display any of various kinds of information regarding timing of the one or more loops, and any kind of visual presentation may be used in displaying the information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: National Instruments Corporation
    Inventors: Jacob Kornerup, Biren Shah, Aljosa Vrancic, Bob Preis