Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-27
2001-09-18
Bayerl, Raymond J. (Department: 2173)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C348S901000, C725S037000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06292187
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of computer implemented graphic image display. More particularly, the present invention relates to the field of computer implemented graphical user interfaces.
2. Related Art
FIG. 1
illustrates an exemplary electronic system
10
including a digital television receiver
12
coupled to a source of digital information such as the Internet or a digital broadcast medium
20
. Under control from a software application program that is resident therein, the digital television receiver
12
is able to display a user interface (UI)
14
on a display screen. The user interface
14
contains graphical elements such as menu bars
20
, buttons
16
and entry fields
18
. The software environments being standardized for digital television receivers allow software application programs that are downloaded over broadcast transmissions (“broadcast applications”) to construct graphical user interfaces
14
that are rendered by the digital television receiver
12
. In general, the broadcast applications are foreign to the digital television receiver
12
and, as such, can be authored by vendors other than the vendor of the digital television receiver
12
. Broadcast applications typically want to install and use their own user interfaces and have a rich programming environment at their disposal which provides them with much freedom in defining the look and feel of their user interfaces.
One problem in the prior art is that receiver vendors (manufacturers) also want some ability to influence the look and feel (e.g., the visual presentation and reaction to user events) of downloaded applications in order to provide a consistent and predictable experience for the user thereby making it easier for the user to interact with the receiver. In the above environment, the user interface of a broadcast application can conflict with the user interface appearance of the device vendor. In traditional windowing environments, the broadcast application's look and feel is determined largely by predefined user interface components, e.g., buttons, menus, window boarders, fields, etc., which are assembled and tailored by applications. The computer system platform of the receiver influences the look and feel first by specifying the APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) used to construct UI components and second by specifying the parameters, e.g., window border color, by which applications (or the user) may customize the appearance and behavior of UI components.
However, this approach is not viable in the proposed environments
10
(
FIG. 1
) for digital television receivers because broadcast applications may choose to ignore predefined UI components and can specify their own UI components. Since much of what then determines an application's visual appearance (look) and reaction to the user input (feel) is embedded in the logic of the broadcast application, it becomes very difficult for an entity residing on the receiver, such as an application manager, to influence the look and feel of an arbitrary application. What is desired is a mechanism that can allow a manufacturer to have some control over the look and feel of the user interface components of a digital television receiver, or similar electronic device, but yet is generic enough to be applied across many broadcast applications.
A second problem associated with the proposed environments
10
(
FIG. 1
) for digital television receivers is that applications using traditional windowing system concepts lack the dynamic graduation and dynamic multi-layered look that is generally associated with television graphics. What is needed, therefore, is a mechanism by which an application manager can enhance such applications with a more “TV friendly” look without interfering with the internal logic and programming of the broadcast applications.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention provides a mechanism that can allow a manufacturer to have some control over the look and feel of the user interface components of a digital television receiver, or similar electronic device, that is generic enough to be applied across many broadcast applications. The present invention also provides a mechanism by which an application manager can enhance such applications with a more “TV friendly” look without interfering with their internal logic. More specifically, one embodiment of the present invention is directed to an extension to a procedurally-based UI specification that does not require modification of existing broadcast applications. The present invention is based on graphics compositing techniques. The present invention allows the insertion of “visual effects” into an existing broadcast application without the need to modify, recompile or reverse engineer the broadcast application.
A method and system are described for modifying the visual presentation and the response to user events of a user interface of a broadcast application program without altering the logic of the broadcast application program. In one embodiment, user interfaces are represented as a hierarchical scene including a background and several components. Within an electronic network, broadcast applications can become resident, e.g., land, on a vendor's device within the network where the device has the ability to display a user interface. The present invention provides a set of mattes that can be used to modify the look and feel of the user interface of a broadcast application without altering the broadcast application. In this way, the vendor of the device can have some level of control regarding the way in which user interfaces are displayed on the device and interact with the user.
Each matte controls the way in which an associated component of the user interface is displayed and how the component is combined with other components. In one embodiment, mattes can force components to become semi-transparent thereby creating certain fading effects, special effects with respect to windows in focus, special effects on windows becoming iconified, wiping effects, etc., with respect to the components of the user interface. The present invention can be implemented as a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) which can be used by an application manager of the vendor's device, e.g., a digital television receiver. The APIs would be available to broadcast applications and could be used for visual effects involving elements of an application's user interface.
More specifically, embodiments of the present invention are directed to a computer implemented method of displaying a graphical user interface comprising the steps of: a) receiving a broadcast application from an external digital source of information (e.g., in one application a. one-way channel with no back channel in conventional broadcasting), the broadcast application containing a hierarchy of graphical user interface components defining a first graphical user interface, the step a) performed by a digital television receiver coupled to a network and having host software; and b) displaying a second graphical user interface based on the first graphical user interface, the step b) comprising the steps of: by) the host software modifying both the visual presentation of the first graphical user interface and the reaction to user input of the first graphical user interface without altering any logic of the broadcast application by providing a respective matte for each component of the hierarchy, each matte controlling a portion of its component that is to be displayed and the manner in which its component is combined with other components; and b2) displaying the hierarchy, as modified by the step b1), on a display screen of the network. Embodiments include the above and wherein the display screen is a digital television and each matte controls whether or not its associated component is display semi-transparent to create fade-in, fade-out, wipe and highlighting effects.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5666293 (1997-09-01), Metz et al.
Gibbs Simon J.
Matthews Neil
Bayerl Raymond J.
Nguyen Cao H.
Sony Electronics Inc.
Wagner , Murabito & Hao LLP
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