US 6,892,359 B1 · Method and system for controlling a complementary user interface on a display surface

Abstract

An alternate display content controller provides a technique for controlling a video display separately from and in addition to the content displayed on the operating system display surface. Where the display is a computer monitor, the alternate display content controller interacts with the computer utility operating system and hardware drivers to control allocation of display space and create and control one or more parallel graphical user interfaces in addition to the operating system desktop. An alternate display content controller may be incorporated in either hardware or software. As software, an alternate display content controller may be an application running on the computer operating system, or may include an operating system kernel of varying complexity ranging from dependent on the utility operating system for hardware system services to a parallel system independent of the utility operating system and capable of supporting dedicated applications. The alternate display content controller may also include content and operating software delivered over the Internet or any other LAN. The alternate display content controller may also be included in a television decoder/settop box to permit two or more parallel graphical user interfaces to be displayed simultaneously.

Claims31

Dependent claims

A method for enabling the display of data on a video display system, the video display system having a total displayable area of which a first display area is a part, the first display area having an original size and being associated with an operating system display interface that enable applications to send output to the video display system through a video device driver, comprising:

apportioning the total displayable area of the video display system to include a second display area by resizing the first display area from the original size to a smaller size and apportioning the remainder of the total displayable area to a second display area that cannot be obscured by output from the operating system display interface;
intercepting at least one of function calls that enable an application to obtain input from an input device and function calls that transmit output to an output device;
and
transparent to the operating system display interface, dynamically reapportioning the total displayable area between the first display area and the second display area by swapping the size of the first display area between the original size and the smaller size in response to the intercepted function calls, so that an application can render data to and obtain input from the first display area and the second display area.

1 more element

A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer process to enable the display of data on a video display system, the video display system having a total displayable area of which a first display area is a part, the first display area having an original size and associated with an operating system display interface that enable applications to send output to the video display system through a video device driver, by performing:

apportioning the total displayable area of the video display system to include a second display area by resizing the first display area from the original size to a smaller size and apportioning the remainder of the total displayable area to a second display area that cannot be obscured by output from the operating system display interface;
intercepting at least one of function calls that enable an application to obtain input from an input device and function calls that transmit output to an output device;
and
transparent to the operating system display interface, dynamically reapportioning the total displayable area between the first display area and the second display area by swapping the size of the first display area between the original size and the smaller size in response to the intercepted function calls, so that an application can render to and obtain input from the first display area and the second display area.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method and system for controlling a complementary user interface on a display surface

Life of this patent

Method and system for controlling a complementary user interface on a display surface

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims31