Abstract: Switching between an arm's length user interface and a distance user interface is provided. A first user interface optimized to operate a computer from an arm's-length distance is presented on a display. A command is received. It is determined whether the command is from a wired device or a wirelessly-connected device. When the command is from a wired device, then the first user interface continues to be presented. When the command is from a wirelessly-connected device, then the display is toggled from the first user interface to the distance user interface. The distance user interface is optimized for operating the computer from a television-viewing distance. The television-viewing distance measured in feet is approximately half of a diagonal measure of the image displayed on the display device measured in inches.

Abstract: A new user interface, a distance user interface, in a computer system for operating a computer from a television-viewing distance is provided. A centralized display is provided enabling a user to access streaming video and sound as well as music files, video files, and picture files from a single screen. Collaborative sharing of media content is provided by enabling a computer's operations and feedback to be collectively observed from a distance.

Abstract: Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that provide a framework for developing and deploying distributed robotic applications. The framework allows a robotic application to be distributed across robotic services. Communications with a robotic service are performed via a URI. An operation is performed on a data element exposed through the robotic service. The system facilitates asynchronous operations of a robotics application across services. A development environment allows the user to create a robotics project that uses the distributed framework. A visualization/simulation environment allows for communication with virtual devices and real world devices for simulating the operation of asynchronous robotic applications.

Abstract: A server federation cooperatively interacts to fulfill service requests by communicating using data structures that follow a schema in which the meaning of the communicated data is implied by the schema. Thus, in addition to the data being communicated, the meaning of the data is also communication allowing for intelligent decisions and inferences to be made based on the meaning of the data. Cooperative interaction is facilitated over a wide variety of networks by messaging through a common API that supports multiple transport mechanisms. Also, mid-session transfer between client devices is facilitated by schema and the transport-independent messaging structure. The user interfaces of the client devices will appear consistent even if the client devices have different user interface capabilities.

Abstract: Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that provide a framework for developing and deploying distributed robotic applications. The framework allows a robotic application to be distributed across robotic services. Communications with a robotic service are performed via a URI. An operation is performed on a data element exposed through the robotic service. The system facilitates asynchronous operations of a robotics application across services. A development environment allows the user to create a robotics project that uses the distributed framework. A visualization/simulation environment allows for communication with virtual devices and real world devices for simulating the operation of asynchronous robotic applications.

Abstract: A new user interface, a distance user interface, in a computer system for operating a computer from a television-viewing distance is provided. A centralized display is provided enabling a user to access streaming video and sound as well as music files, video files, and picture files from a single screen. Collaborative sharing of media content is provided by enabling a computer's operations and feedback to be collectively observed from a distance.

Abstract: An animation system provides synchronization services to synchronize actions of two more interactive user interface characters that are displayed simultaneously. The animation services allow applications to make animation requests to control the actions of characters on the display. These actions include playing one of the character's animation sequences and generating speech output with lip-synched animation of the character's mouth. Accessible via script commands or an Application Programming Interface, the synchronization services allow an application to control interaction between two or more characters on the display. Applications can synchronize actions by invoking straightforward commands such as Wait, Interrupt, or Stop.

Abstract: An animation system provides synchronization services to synchronize actions of two more interactive user interface characters that are displayed simultaneously. The animation services allow applications to make animation requests to control the actions of characters on the display. These actions include playing one of the character's animation sequences and generating speech output with lip-synched animation of the character's mouth. Accessible via script commands or an Application Programming Interface, the synchronization services allow an application to control interaction between two or more characters on the display. Applications can synchronize actions by invoking straightforward commands such as Wait, Interrupt, or Stop. In response to these commands, the animation server synchronizes scheduled actions by halting playback of a character until a specified action of another character completes or halting a specified action of one character after scheduled actions for another character are completed.

Abstract: The animation of a speaking character is synchronized with recorded speech by creating and playing a linguistically enhanced sound file. A sound editing tool employs a speech recognition engine to create the linguistically enhanced sound file from recorded speech and a text of the speech. The speech recognition engine provides timing information related to word breaks and phonemes that is used by the sound editing tool to annotate the speech sound data when creating the linguistically enhanced sound file. When the linguistically enhanced sound file is played to produce sound output, the timing information is retrieved to control the animated character's mouth movement and word pacing in the character's word balloon. The sound editing tool additionally provides editing functions for manipulating the timing information.

Abstract: An animation method and system generates interactive animation in the foreground of the user interface of the computer. The system generates arbitrary shaped animation that is independent of the background image of the user interface by computing a bounding region for a current animation frame in real time and creating a non-rectangular window to match this bounding region. The system draws the animation to this non-rectangular window, which clips the frame to the bounding region of the graphical object. The system can be used to create interactive animation that is not confined to a rectangular window of a hosting application or a window of the application making the request to playback animation.

Abstract: A client server animation system provides services to enable clients to play animation and lip-synched speech output for an interactive user interface character. Through the programming interface of the server, clients can specify both speech and cursor device input that an instance of an interactive user interface character will respond to when the clients are active. Clients can also request playback of animation and lip-synched speech output through this interface. Services can be invoked from application programs as well as web scripts embedded in web pages downloaded from the Internet.

Abstract: A system for scrolling during a drag and drop operation is provided wherein the determination of whether to scroll is based on the location of a mouse indicator as well as the speed of the mouse indicator. The system maintains a predetermined threshold that is empirically proven to reliably distinguish as to whether a user wishes to perform a drag and drop operation or whether the user wishes to invoke the automatic scrolling of the present invention. The system determines when the mouse indicator is over a predefined area of a window, compares the speed of the mouse indicator to the predetermined threshold and scrolls the window if the mouse indicator is over the predefined area and the speed is less than the predetermined threshold.

Abstract: A system for scrolling during a drag and drop operation is provided wherein the determination of whether to scroll is based on the location of a mouse indicator as well as the speed of the mouse indicator. The system maintains a predetermined threshold that is empirically proven to reliably distinguish as to whether a user wishes to perform a drag and drop operation or whether the user wishes to invoke the automatic scrolling of the present invention. The system determines when the mouse indicator is over a predefined area of a window, compares the speed of the mouse indicator to the predetermined threshold and scrolls the window if the mouse indicator is over the predefined area and the speed is less than the predetermined threshold.