Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-16
2004-10-12
Kincaid, Kristine (Department: 2174)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000, C345S215000, C345S215000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06803930
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to facilitating a user's ability to view content on a display monitor, e.g., while the user is navigating through an electronic document.
BACKGROUND
The term “content” encompasses a wide variety of information including text, images, web pages, multimedia presentation, virtual worlds, interactive sessions, or any combination thereof. Computers are widely used to display and manipulate such content.
The essential elements of a computer are a processor for executing instructions and a memory.
FIG. 1
shows one type of computer, a programmable processing system (system)
101
. The system
101
includes a processor
102
, a random access memory (RAM)
103
, a program memory
104
(for example, a writable read-only memory (ROM) such as a flash ROM), and an input/output (I/O) controller
105
coupled by a processor (CPU) bus
106
. The system
101
can be preprogrammed, in ROM, for example, or it can be programmed (and reprogrammed) by loading a program from another source (for example, from a floppy disk, a CD-ROM, or from another computer via a communication link). A computer generally also can receive programs and data from a storage medium such as an internal disk (not shown) or a removable disk
107
.
The I/O controller
105
is coupled by means of an I/O bus
108
to an I/O interface
109
. The I/O interface
109
receives and transmits data (e.g., stills, pictures, movies, and animations for importing into a composition) in analog or digital form over communication links (not shown) such as a serial link, local area network, wireless link, and parallel link. The I/O interface
109
also may be connected to a removable disk drive
111
for reading and writing data to/from removable disk
107
. Also coupled to the I/O bus
106
are a display
112
and a keyboard
113
. Alternatively, separate connections (separate buses) can be used for the I/O interface
109
, display
112
and keyboard
113
.
As shown in
FIG. 2
, a user of a computer system can access content either stored locally at the user's own client system
202
(for example, a personal or laptop computer) or remotely (using a modem
204
and a telephone line
206
or, alternatively, using TCP/IP over a direct communications link
207
) at one or more server systems
200
. An example of a server system is a host computer that provides subscribers with online computer services such as e-mail, e-commerce, chat rooms, Internet access, electronic newspapers and magazines, etc. Users of a host computer's online services typically communicate with one or more central servers systems
200
through client software executing on their respective client systems
202
.
Content, whether locally or remotely stored, is typically accessed using an application program specially designed to process a particular type of content. These applications typically allow the user to manipulate the content, including the capability to display, edit, or both. Applications used primarily to view content include “browsers,” “readers,” and “viewers.” Some applications have the ability to process many different types of content simultaneously, while others have the ability to use “plug-in” or “helper” applications allowing the user to add support for additional content types. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is an example of a browser application that displays many different types of content and supports plug-ins.
FIG. 3
shows a screenshot of a web page
301
displayed by the Internet Explorer browser.
Many computer systems provide a graphical user interface (GUI) that includes windows to allow applications to display portions of content. Multiple windows can be displayed on a display monitor at any time.
FIG. 4
shows a typical windowed GUI
401
with two windows
402
currently displayed. Each window
402
is a separate viewing area on the computer display screen in a system that allows multiple viewing areas. Windows are managed by a windows manager that allows windows to be stretched on any side, minimized, maximized, and closed using graphical controls
404
.
Frequently, a body of content (for example, a word processing document or an image file) may be too large to display in its entirety on a display monitor at a usable size. Other times, the display monitor may be physically large enough to display all of the content at once, but a user has chosen to display the content in a magnified state or in a window that is only a fraction of the size of the display monitor. In both cases, application programs typically display only a portion, or subset, of the content and allow the user to navigate incrementally through the content one portion at a time. These content portions may overlap, so that a newly displayed portion contains some of the previously displayed portion. Or, the successively displayed portions may be disjoint, such that none of the old portion is displayed with the new portion. As used herein, an “old” content portion refers to a previously displayed portion of the content and a “new” content portion corresponds to a subsequently displayed portion of the content.
Windowed GUI environments ordinarily handle the processing involved with displaying only a portion of the underlying content. In non-windowed environments, applications must provide their own means for displaying portions of their content. For example, text-terminal based programs, such as the “less” and “more” text viewers provided with Unix operating systems, can be used to display text documents a single page at a time.
In order to allow users to navigate through the content, applications provide a variety of techniques to enable users to indicate which new portion of content to display. For example, in a typical word processing context, the application, in response to user input, can “scroll” the document by showing the old content portion moving off the page in a smooth, continuous motion as a new adjacent content portion moves onto the page. Another method of displaying new portions of content is by using “paging.” In this case, the application simply jumps to and displays the new portion of content, replacing the old portion on the display monitor without any intermediate display states. Scrolling and paging can occur in any direction, but typically involve moving to a portion of content in a horizontal or vertical direction to display a new portion of content.
Several navigation mechanisms involve the use of the keyboard. For example, the arrow keys typically indicate that the application should display a portion of content overlapping the currently displayed portion of content and located in the direction indicated by the particular arrow selected. Similarly, the “Page Up” and “Page Down” keys indicate that the application should display a portion of content adjacent to the current portion and located in the indicated direction (i.e., up or down).
Other navigation mechanisms are graphical in nature. Known as “widgets,” these mechanisms are user interface controls that can be manipulated by the user, typically using a cursor controlled by a mouse or touchpad. A widget is an element of a graphical user interface (GUI) that displays information or provides a specific way for a user to interact with the operating system and application programs. Widgets include icons, pull-down menus, buttons, selection boxes, progress indicators, on-off checkboxes, scrollbars, windows, window edges (for resizing the window), toggle buttons, forms, and many other devices for displaying information and for inviting, accepting, and responding to user actions.
In a graphical user interface environment, different ways exist to select a portion of content to be displayed by an application. For example, a scrollbar is a graphical widget that can be used to navigate in a single dimension through content, typically in the vertical or horizontal dimension.
FIG. 5
shows a typical vertical scrollbar
501
attached to a window
502
with text content
503
. The current portion of text displayed is represented by “bubble” or “thumb”
504
Adobe Systems Incorporated
Fish & Richardson P.C.
Kincaid Kristine
Tran Mylinh
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