Volumetric user interface layers for electronic devices
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsPeter L. HAJAS, Jason M. CAHILL, Raffael HANNEMANN
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Aspects of the subject technology provide volumetric interface layers for an electronic device. The volumetric interface layers may be discrete distance layers, each having a respective distance from the electronic device, in which user interfaces can be displayed by the electronic device. Applications running on the electronic device may be provided with the ability to request display of a user interface for the application in one of the discrete distance layers. In one or more implementations, the discrete distance layers may be semantically labeled, and may be requested by an application using their semantic labels.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- receiving, by a system-level process of an electronic device from an application running on the electronic device, a request to display a user interface of the application in a selected one of a plurality of discrete distance layers established by the system-level process, each distance layer corresponding to a distance away from the electronic device in a physical environment of the electronic device;
- receiving user interface information from the application at the system-level process;
- and
- displaying, by the system-level process of the electronic device and using the user interface information, the user interface to be perceived by a user of the electronic device at the distance corresponding to the selected one of the plurality of discrete distance layers.
An electronic device, comprising:
- a memory;
- and
- one or more processors configured to:
- receive, by a system-level process of the electronic device from an application running on the electronic device, a request to display a user interface of the application in a selected one of a plurality of discrete distance layers established by the system-level process, each distance layer corresponding to a distance away from the electronic device in a physical environment of the electronic device;
- receive user interface information from the application at the system-level process;
- and
- display, by the system-level process of the electronic device and using the user interface information, the user interface to be perceived by a user of the electronic device at the distance corresponding to the selected one of the plurality of discrete distance layers.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
- receiving, by a system-level process of an electronic device from an application running on the electronic device, a request to display a user interface of the application in a selected one of a plurality of discrete distance layers established by the system-level process, each distance layer corresponding to a distance away from the electronic device in a physical environment of the electronic device;
- receiving user interface information from the application at the system-level process;
- and
- displaying, by the system-level process of the electronic device and using the user interface information, the user interface to be perceived by a user of the electronic device at the distance corresponding to the selected one of the plurality of discrete distance layers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.