US 2003/0071818 A1 · Methods and systems for displaying animated graphics on a computing device

Abstract

Disclosed are methods and systems for interfaces between video applications and display screens that allow applications to intelligently use display resources of their host device without tying themselves too closely to operational particulars of that host. A graphics arbiter provides display environment information to the video applications and accesses the applications' output to efficiently present that output to the display screen, possibly transforming the output or allowing another application to transform it in the process. The graphics arbiter tells applications the estimated time when the next frame will be displayed on the screen. Applications tailor their output to the estimated display time, thus improving output quality while decreasing resource waste by avoiding the production of “extra” frames. The graphics arbiter tells an application when its output is fully or partially occluded so that the application need not expend resources to draw portions of frames that are not visible.

Claims42

Dependent claims

A system for displaying information from a first display source and from a second display source on a display device, the system comprising:

a presentation surface set associated with the display device;
a first display memory surface set associated with the first display source;
a second display memory surface set associated with the second display source;
and
a graphics arbiter, distinct from the first display source and from the second display source, for transferring display information from the first display memory surface set and from the second display memory surface set to the presentation surface set.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Methods and systems for displaying animated graphics on a computing device

Life of this patent

Methods and systems for displaying animated graphics on a computing device

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims42