Progress-indicating mouse pointer

Details Progress-indicating mouse pointer Progress-indicating mouse pointer

1997-04-04

2000-08-01

dela Torre, Crescelle N.

Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system

Display driving control circuitry

Controlling the condition of display elements

345349, 345977, G06F 314

Patent

active

060973900

ABSTRACT:
A method of indicating a state of progress of a task being processed in a computer system by providing a progress-indicating visual pointer on a display device of the computer system. Prior art visual pointers (such as an arrowhead) are responsive to a pointer device such as a mouse, and are used to manipulate features of a graphical user interface (GUI). These prior art pointers do not indicate the state of progress of a task underway, but rather only indicate that the task is still running. The progress-indicating pointer of the present invention can take the form of a wristwatch or clock icon having a face which is filled, e.g., in a clockwise fashion, or the form of an hourglass icon having a portion, e.g., the lower half of the hourglass, which is filled in an amount proportionate to the state of progress of the task being processed. The different states of the icon can easily be presented by providing a plurality of bitmaps (e.g., a 32-by-32 array of pixel elements), and program instructions select one of the bitmaps for the progress-indicating visual pointer based on the state of progress of the task being processed. The progress-indicating pointer may be provided in response to instructions from the operating system or from the application software.

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