Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090031236 | USER INTERFACE AND METHOD TO FACILITATE HIERARCHICAL SPECIFICATION OF QUERIES USING AN INFORMATION TAXONOMY - A user interface, system, and method are disclosed to facilitate specification of queries and displaying corresponding results. The user interface presents the user with dimensions that contain one or more headings arranged according to an information taxonomy, which can vary based on the intended implementation for the system and user interface. A corresponding filter or query is constructed based on the user selecting of one or more headings. The filter is applied to one or more databases to return results that satisfy the filter. The results are presented in the user interface and can include interactive items based on a particular query as well as can correspond to a fully specified task. | 01-29-2009 |
20090091565 | ADVERTISING WITH AN INFLUENTIAL PARTICIPANT IN A VIRTUAL WORLD - Technologies are described herein for advertising with an influential participant in a virtual world. A facilitator rating is determined for each of a plurality of participants in the virtual world. The facilitator rating may indicate an influence of each of the plurality of participants on other participants in the virtual world. One or more participants are identified from the plurality of participants based on the facilitator rating. The one or more participants are utilized to provide an advertisement in the virtual world. | 04-09-2009 |
20090128483 | ADVANCED NAVIGATION TECHNIQUES FOR PORTABLE DEVICES - The present invention provides a unique system and method that facilitates navigating smoothly and gracefully through any type of content viewable on portable devices such as cell-phones, PDAs, and/or any other hybrids thereof. In addition, such navigation can be performed while preserving perspective and context with respect to a larger amount of content. Pointing devices can also be used to navigate through content—the amount or detail of the content being dependant on the speed of the pointing device. Additionally, a semi-transparent overview of content can be overlaid a zoomed-in portion of content to provide perspective to the zoomed in portion. Content shown in the semi-transparent overview can depend on the location of the pointing device with respect to the content. | 05-21-2009 |
20100107218 | SECURED COMPARTMENT FOR TRANSACTIONS - Systems and methods that establish a secured compartment that manages sensitive user transactions/information on a user's machine. The secured compartment qualifies user interaction with the machine, and separates such qualified interaction from other user activity on the machine. A user is switched to such secured compartment upon occurrence of a predetermined event, such as in form of: an explicit request (e.g., a secure attention sequence); an implicit request (e.g., inference of user activities); and presence of a peripheral device that is bound to the secured compartment (e.g., a USB)—wherein such actions typically cannot be generated by an application running outside the secured compartment. | 04-29-2010 |
20110167379 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL TASK GALLERY COMPUTER INTERFACE - The present invention provides a three-dimensional user interface for a computer system that allows a user to combine and store a group of windows as a task. The image of each task can be positioned within a three-dimensional environment such that the user may utilize spatial memory in order remember where a particular task is located. | 07-07-2011 |
20110173556 | System and method for managing software applications in a graphical user interface - A system and method for managing software application windows in a graphical user interface having a desktop and taskbar display area are provided. Each instantiated program is represented as one or more graphical windows in the desktop and as a control tile in the taskbar. Control tiles are grouped into control tile groups that facilitate organization and single access control. Project control tile groups allow the grouping of multiple software applications. Additionally, minimized control tile group layout and state may be preserved and previewed prior to being restored. | 07-14-2011 |
20120174025 | Single-Handed Approach for Navigation of Application Tiles Using Panning and Zooming - Unique interactive systems and methods that facilitate single-handed navigation and interaction with applications within a display space on any type of mobile computing device are provided. Embodiments include or employ scalable application tiles corresponding to applications, whereby the application tiles can provide or indicate the current state of the corresponding application. State information provided in each tile can vary as well depending on the current size of the tile. Tiles can be arranged into a plurality of zones such that a user can view one zone at a time and obtain context and information from the application tiles in that zone rather than working with all tiles and all zones simultaneously. The view of the display space can be of the world or all application tiles, zone, or application. Panning and zooming among the zones, application tiles and/or views can also be performed. | 07-05-2012 |
20120290973 | SYSTEM AND METHOD THAT FACILITATES COMPUTER DESKTOP USE VIA SCALING OF DISPLAYED OBJECTS - The techniques described herein provide user interface(s) for managing display objects on a display surface. The techniques define a central focus area where the display objects are displayed and behave as usual, and a periphery outside the focus area where the display objects are reduced in size based on their location, getting smaller as they near an edge of the display surface so that many more objects can remain visible. | 11-15-2012 |
20150058791 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL TASK GALLERY COMPUTER INTERFACE - The present invention provides a three-dimensional user interface for a computer system that allows a user to combine and store a group of windows as a task. The image of each task can be positioned within a three-dimensional environment such that the user may utilize spatial memory in order remember where a particular task is located. | 02-26-2015 |