State-based auxiliary display operation
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorsAndrew J. Fuller, Niels Van Dongen, Michael George Lenahan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Described is a technology by which routing of data may be automatically modified based on detected state data of a computing system. For example, user input may be routed from an actuator set to a host computer system when the host computer system is in an online state, or to an auxiliary computing device when the host computer system is offline. State may be determined based on one or more various criteria, such as online or offline, laptop lid position, display orientation, current communication and/or other criteria. The auxiliary display and/or actuator set may be embedded in the host computer system, or each may be separable from it or standalone, such as a remote control or cellular phone.
Claims20
A computer system comprising:
- a display;
- an actuator set having one or more physical actuators for receiving user input associated with one or more programs installed on the computer system;
- one or more processors;
- and
- one or more computer-readable hardware storage media having stored computer-executable instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to cause the computer system to:
- determine a mode of connection between the computer system and a separate computer system that the computer system is configured to be docked and undocked from, the mode of connection comprising a state of the computer system being docked or, alternatively, undocked from the separate computer system;
- based on the mode of connection, select a mode of operation for the computer system;
- based on the mode of operation, selectively determine how the one or more programs installed on the computer system are to operate, wherein the one or more programs operate in a first mode when the computer system is docked to the separate computer system and in a second mode when the computer system is undocked from the separate computer system;
- in response to the computer system being docked to the separate computer system, cause the one or more physical actuators of the computer system to transition from initially controlling operation of the computer system to subsequently controlling operation of the separate computer system and additionally cause the display of the computer system to transition from initially being controlled by the computer system to subsequently being controlled by the separate computer system;
- and
- while a main processing unit of the separate computer system is identified as being in a low power state, use a network interface of the separate computer system to receive a notification from a remote application.
A method implemented by a computer system that includes a display, an actuator set having one or more physical actuators for receiving user input associated with one or more programs installed on the computer system, one or more processors, and one or more computer-readable hardware storage media having stored computer-executable instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to cause the computer system to implement the method, the method comprising:
- determining a mode of connection between the computer system and a separate computer system that the computer system is configured to be docked and undocked from, the mode of connection comprising a state of the computer system being docked or, alternatively undocked from the separate computer system;
- based on the mode of connection, selecting a mode of operation for the computer system;
- based on the mode of operation, selectively determining how the one or more programs installed on the computer system are to operate, wherein the one or more programs operate in a first mode when the computer system is docked to the separate computer system and in a second mode when the computer system is undocked from the separate computer system;
- in response to the computer system being docked to the separate computer system, causing the one or more physical actuators of the computer system to transition from initially controlling operation of the computer system to subsequently controlling operation of the separate computer system and additionally causing the display of the computer system to transition from initially being controlled by the computer system to subsequently being controlled by the separate computer system;
- and
- while a main processing unit of the separate computer system is identified as being in a low power state, using a network interface of the separate computer system to receive a notification from a remote application.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.