U.S. patent application number 13/399929 was filed with the patent office on 2013-01-24 for dynamic cross-environment application configuration/orientation.
This patent application is currently assigned to Z124. The applicant listed for this patent is Wuke Liu, Brian Reeves, Paul E. Reeves. Invention is credited to Wuke Liu, Brian Reeves, Paul E. Reeves.
Application Number | 20130024778 13/399929 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 47506967 |
Filed Date | 2013-01-24 |
United States Patent
Application |
20130024778 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Reeves; Brian ; et
al. |
January 24, 2013 |
DYNAMIC CROSS-ENVIRONMENT APPLICATION CONFIGURATION/ORIENTATION
Abstract
Dynamic configuration of cross-environment applications enhances
the computing experience in a computing environment with an
extended active user environment and/or multiple active user
environments. A mobile computing device maintains multiple active
device configurations associated with multiple active user
environments and/or application windows within active user
environments. Device configuration qualifiers are determined from a
variety of sources including device characteristics, device
indicators, user settings, and/or application presentation. The
mobile computing device selects active resource sets for
applications based on the device configuration qualifiers.
Application presentation is dynamically updated by disestablishing
an application screen and establishing a new active application
screen using a different resource set. The mobile computing device
may be a smartphone running the Android mobile operating system and
a full desktop Linux distribution on a modified Android kernel.
Inventors: |
Reeves; Brian; (Hamilton,
CA) ; Reeves; Paul E.; (Oakville, CA) ; Liu;
Wuke; (Mississauga, CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Reeves; Brian
Reeves; Paul E.
Liu; Wuke |
Hamilton
Oakville
Mississauga |
|
CA
CA
CA |
|
|
Assignee: |
Z124
Georgetown
KY
|
Family ID: |
47506967 |
Appl. No.: |
13/399929 |
Filed: |
February 17, 2012 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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61507199 |
Jul 13, 2011 |
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61507201 |
Jul 13, 2011 |
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61507203 |
Jul 13, 2011 |
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61507206 |
Jul 13, 2011 |
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61507209 |
Jul 13, 2011 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
715/744 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G09G 2354/00 20130101;
G09G 5/14 20130101; H04L 67/36 20130101; H04W 4/60 20180201; G06F
3/1423 20130101; G09G 2370/047 20130101; G06F 3/04847 20130101;
G09G 2370/12 20130101; G06F 9/451 20180201; G06F 3/0481 20130101;
G06F 3/1454 20130101; G09G 2340/0492 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
715/744 |
International
Class: |
G06F 3/01 20060101
G06F003/01 |
Claims
1. A method for dynamically configuring an active application
screen of a first application running in a first operating system
of a mobile computing device, the first operating system associated
with a first active user environment, comprising: receiving a
device configuration change message, the device configuration
change message related to a device configuration of a second active
user environment, the second active user environment receiving
graphics information from the mobile computing device through a
graphics interface; receiving a display parameter associated with
an active display of the second active user environment; selecting
an active resource set from a plurality of resource sets associated
with the first application based at least in part on the display
parameter; disestablishing a first application screen associated
with the first application; and displaying a second application
screen associated with the first application using the active
resource set on the active display of the second user
environment.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second active user
environment is associated with a second operating system, the
second operating system in active concurrent execution with the
first operating system on a shared kernel of the mobile computing
device.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising translating a
plurality of configuration parameters including the received
display parameter into a configuration qualifier, wherein the
configuration qualifier is used in selecting the active resource
set from the plurality of resource sets.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one of the plurality of
configuration parameters is associated with the first active user
environment.
5. The method of claim 2, wherein the display parameter is based on
a property of a console window associated with a console
application running on the second operating system.
6. The method of claim 3, wherein the display parameter comprises a
resolution of the console window.
7. The method of claim 3, wherein the display parameter comprises
an aspect ratio of the console window.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the device configuration change
message indicates a connection state of the second active user
environment.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the device configuration change
message comprises a user input that indicates that the active
application screen is to be moved from a display associated with
the first user environment to the display associated with the
second user environment.
10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: selecting a
secondary resource set from the plurality of resource sets
associated with the application; displaying a first application
screen of the application in a first portion of a display
associated with the second active user interaction space using the
resource set; and displaying a second application screen of the
application in a second portion of the display associated with the
second active user interaction space using the secondary resource
set.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the second active user
interaction space is associated with the first operating
system.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting of the resource
set is in response to a user input that indicates that the
application should be moved from the first active user interaction
space to the second active user interaction space.
13. A mobile computing device including a computer-readable medium
storing instructions for a physical processor, the instructions,
when executed, causing the processor to perform steps comprising:
running a first application in a first operating system of the
mobile computing device, the first operating system associated with
a first active user environment; receiving a device configuration
change message, the device configuration change message related to
a device configuration of a second active user environment, the
second active user environment receiving graphics information from
the mobile computing device through a graphics interface; receiving
a display parameter associated with an active display of the second
active user environment; selecting an active resource set from a
plurality of resource sets associated with the first application
based on the display parameter; disestablishing a first application
screen associated with the first application; and displaying a
second application screen associated with the first application
using the active resource set on the active display of the second
active user environment.
14. The mobile computing device of claim 13, wherein the second
active user environment is associated with a second operating
system, the second operating system in active concurrent execution
with the first operating system on a shared kernel of the mobile
computing device.
15. A method comprising: maintaining, in a mobile operating system
of a mobile computing device, a first active device configuration
associated with a first user environment, the first user
environment including a display of the mobile computing device;
running a first application on a first operating system of the
mobile computing device; selecting resources for a first
application screen associated with the first application according
to the first active device configuration; displaying the first
application screen on the display of the mobile computing device;
maintaining a second active device configuration associated with a
second user environment; running a second application on the first
operating system; selecting resources for a second application
screen associated with the second application according to the
second active device configuration; and displaying the second
application screen on a display of the second user environment.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the second user environment is
associated with a second operating system, the second operating
system in active concurrent execution with the first operating
system on a shared kernel of the mobile computing device.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the second application screen
is displayed within a console window associated a console
application running on the second operating system.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the second active device
configuration includes a qualifier associated with a parameter of
the console window.
19. The method of claim 15, wherein the second active device
configuration includes a qualifier associated with an input device
of the second user environment.
Description
BACKGROUND
[0001] 1. Field
[0002] This Application relates generally to the field of mobile
computing environments, and more particularly to dynamically
configuration applications in a computing environment with multiple
active user environments.
[0003] 2. Relevant Background
[0004] Mobile communications devices are becoming ubiquitous in
today's society. For example, as of the end of 2008, 90 percent of
Americans had a mobile wireless device. Among the fastest growing
mobile communications devices are smartphones, that is, mobile
phones built on top of a mobile computing platform. Mobile
providers have launched hundreds of new smartphones in the last
three years based upon several different computing platforms (e.g.,
Apple iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile, and the
like). In the U.S., smartphone penetration reached almost 23% by
the middle of 2010, and over 35% in some age-groups. In Europe, the
smartphone market grew by 41% from 2009 to 2010, with over 60
million smartphone subscribers as of July 2010 in the five largest
European countries alone.
[0005] Smartphone computing platforms typically include a mobile
operating system ("OS") running on a mobile processor. While mobile
processors and mobile OSs have increased the capabilities of these
devices, smartphones have not tended to replace personal computer
("PC") environments (i.e., Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and the like)
such as desktop or notebook computers at least because of the
limited user experience provided. In particular, smartphones
typically have different processing resources, user interface
device(s), peripheral devices, and applications. For example,
mobile processors may have a different processor architecture than
PC processors that emphasizes features like low-power operation and
communications capabilities over raw processing and/or graphics
performance. In addition, smartphones tend to have smaller amounts
of other hardware resources such as memory (e.g., SRAM, DRAM, etc.)
and storage (e.g., hard disk, SSD, etc.) resources. Other
considerations typically include a smaller display size that limits
the amount of information that can be presented through a mobile OS
graphical user interface ("GUI") and different user input devices.
Use interface input device(s) for smartphones typically include a
small thumb-style QWERTY keyboard, touch-screen display,
click-wheel, and/or scroll-wheel. In contrast, laptop, notebook,
and desktop computers that use a desktop OS typically have a
full-size keyboard, pointing device(s), and/or a larger screen
area. As a result, mobile OSs typically have a different
architecture where some capabilities and features such as
communications, lower power consumption, touch-screen capability,
and the like, are emphasized over traditionally emphasized PC
capabilities such as processing speed, graphics processing, and
application multi-tasking
[0006] Because of the architecture differences, applications or
"Apps" designed for mobile OSs tend to be designed for tasks and
activities that are typical of a mobile computing experience (e.g.,
communications, gaming, navigation, and the like). For example,
over a third of all Android App downloads have been targeted
towards the gaming and entertainment categories while less than 20%
of downloads fall under the tools and productivity categories. In
addition, many applications that are common on PC platforms are
either not available for mobile OSs or are available only with a
limited features set.
[0007] For example, many smartphones run Google's Android operating
system. Android runs only applications that are specifically
developed to run within a Java-based virtual machine runtime
environment. In addition, while Android is based on a modified
Linux kernel, it uses different standard C libraries, system
managers, and services than Linux. Accordingly, applications
written for Linux do not run on Android without modification or
porting. Similarly, Apple's iPhone uses the iOS mobile operating
system. Again, while iOS is derived from Mac OS X, applications
developed for OS X do not run on iOS. Therefore, while many
applications are available for mobile OSs such as Android and iOS,
many other common applications for desktop operating systems such
as Linux and Mac OS X are either not available on the mobile
platforms or have limited funcitonality. As such, these mobile OSs
provide
[0008] Accordingly, smartphones are typically suited for a limited
set of user experiences and provide applications designed primarily
for the mobile environment. In particular, smartphones do not
provide a suitable desktop user experience, nor do they run most
common desktop applications. For some tasks such as typing or
editing documents, the user interface components typically found on
a smartphones tend to be more difficult to use than a full-size
keyboard and large display that may be typically found on a PC
platform.
[0009] As a result, many users carry and use multiple computing
devices including a smartphone, laptop, and/or tablet computer. In
this instance, each device has its own CPU, memory, file storage,
and operating system. Connectivity and file sharing between
smartphones and other computing devices involves linking one device
(e.g., smartphone, running a mobile OS) to a second, wholly
disparate device (e.g., notebook, desktop, or tablet running a
desktop OS), through a wireless or wired connection. Information is
shared across devices by synchronizing data between applications
running separately on each device. This process, typically called
"synching," is cumbersome and generally requires active management
by the user.
SUMMARY
[0010] To be added after Inventor Review,
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] Embodiments of the present invention are illustrated in
referenced figures of the drawings, in which like numbers refer to
like elements throughout the description of the figures.
[0012] FIG. 1 illustrates a computing environment that provides
multiple user computing experiences, according to various
embodiments.
[0013] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary system architecture for a
mobile computing device, according to various embodiments.
[0014] FIG. 3 illustrates an operating system architecture for a
computing environment, according to various embodiments.
[0015] FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary computing environment
employing various aspects of embodiments.
[0016] FIG. 5 illustrates aspects of an operating system
architecture for a computing environment, according to various
embodiments.
[0017] FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary boot procedure that may be
used to configure an operating system architecture of a mobile
computing device in more detail, according to various
embodiments.
[0018] FIG. 7 illustrates an operating system architecture
configuration for providing cross-environment rendering of
applications and/or user interaction spaces, according to various
embodiments.
[0019] FIG. 8 illustrates a computing environment with multiple
user environments, according to various embodiments.
[0020] FIG. 9 illustrates aspects of cross-environment remote
rendering, according to various embodiments.
[0021] FIG. 10 shows a flow diagram of an illustrative method for
cross-environment remote rendering in a non-extended rendering
context, according to various embodiments.
[0022] FIG. 11 illustrates a registration and drawing process flow
for cross-environment remote rendering, according to various
embodiments.
[0023] FIG. 12 shows a flow diagram of another illustrative method
for cross-environment rendering in a non-extended rendering
context, according to various embodiments.
[0024] FIG. 13 illustrates operating system architecture
configuration 300b for providing user interaction support to
cross-environment applications, according to various
embodiments.
[0025] FIG. 14 illustrates aspects of user interaction support for
cross-environment applications rendered using a non-extended
graphics context, according to various embodiments.
[0026] FIG. 15 illustrates aspects of concurrent user interface
support across multiple OSs using extended rendering contexts,
according to various embodiments.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0027] The present disclosure is generally directed to dynamically
managing configuration of applications for display of application
screens across multiple active user environments. More
particularly, applications or "Apps" may be running on a first
operating system ("OS") of a mobile computing device that generally
defines a first active user environment. The first active user
environment may include one or more display devices and other user
input devices. An application screen of an App running within the
first OS may be displayed within a second active user environment
connected to the first active user environment. The second active
user environment may be associated with the first OS or a second OS
also running on the mobile computing device. Further, the
application screen may be presented in various ways on the second
display of the second active user environment. For example, user
interface components of the application screen may be dynamically
configured according to a current configuration of the second
active user environment to provide the optimal user experience
across the multiple user environments and presentation variations.
Dynamic configuration includes dynamic selection of application
resources based on the current display characteristics including
parameters associated with the second active user environment and
application screen presentation within the second active user
environment. Dynamic configuration may also include dynamically
managing application screen orientation across multiple active user
environments for various use cases. While the dynamic application
configuration techniques presented in the disclosure are discussed
with reference to a mobile computing device and various docked
terminal environments, the disclosure may, in various embodiments,
be applied to other computing devices (e.g., laptop computers,
tablet computers, desktop computers, etc.) and is not intended to
be limited to handheld mobile computing devices unless otherwise
explicitly specified.
[0028] FIG. 1 illustrates a computing environment 100 that provides
multiple user computing experiences through multiple active user
environments, according to various embodiments. A first active user
environment 115 of computing environment 100 is defined by
display(s) 116, touch screen sensor(s) 117, and/or I/O devices 118
of mobile computing device 110. The display(s) 116 may be operative
to display a displayed image or "screen." As used herein, the term
display is intended to connote device hardware, whereas screen is
intended to connote the displayed image produced on the display. In
this regard, a display is physical hardware that is operable to
render screen. A screen may encompass a majority of one or more
displays. For instance, a screen may occupy substantially all of
the display area of one or more displays except for areas dedicated
to other functions (e.g. menu bars, status bars, and the like). A
screen may be associated with an application and/or an operating
system executing on the mobile computing device 110. For instance,
application screens or desktop screens may be displayed and an
application may have various kinds of application screens that are
capable of being manipulated as will be described further
below.
[0029] When mobile computing device 110 is operated as a
stand-alone mobile device, active user environment 115 presents a
typical mobile computing user experience. In this regard, mobile
computing device 110 typically includes mobile telephony
capabilities and user interaction features suited to a mobile
computing use model. For example, mobile computing device 110 may
present a graphical user interface ("GUI") suited to active user
environment 115 including display(s) 116, touch-screen sensor(s)
117, and/or I/O device(s) 118. The user may interact with Apps
running on mobile computing device 110 through an application
screen including various interactive features (e.g., buttons, text
fields, toggle fields, etc.) presented on display(s) 116. In some
instances, the user interacts with these interactive features by
way of I/O device(s) 118. In other instances, the user interacts
with these features by way of touch-screen sensor(s) 117 using
gestures and symbols that are input to touch screen sensor(s) 117
using the user's fingers or a stylus. In yet other instances, the
user interacts with these features using a combination of I/O
device(s) 118 and touch-screen sensor(s) 117.
[0030] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary hardware system architecture
for mobile computing device 110, according to various embodiments.
Mobile computing device 110 includes mobile processor 114 with one
or more CPU core(s) 204 and external display interface 220.
Generally, mobile computing device 110 may also include memory 206,
storage devices 208, touch-screen display controller 212 connected
to touch-screen display(s) 116 and/or touch-screen sensor(s) 117,
I/O devices 118, power management IC 214 connected to battery 216,
cellular modem 218, communication devices 222, and/or other devices
224 that are connected to processor 114 through various
communication signals and interfaces. I/O devices 118 generally
includes buttons and other user interface components that may be
employed in mobile computing device 110. For example, I/O devices
118 may include a set of buttons, (e.g., back, menu, home, search,
etc.), off-screen gesture area, click-wheel, scroll-wheel, QWERTY
keyboard, etc. Other devices 224 may include, for example, GPS
devices, LAN connectivity, microphones, speakers, cameras,
accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and/or MS/MMC/SD/SDIO
card interfaces. External display interface 220 may be any suitable
display interface (e.g., VGA, DVI, HDMI, wireless, etc.).
[0031] One or more sensor devices of the mobile computing device
110 may be able to monitor the orientation of the mobile computing
device with respect to gravity. For example, using an
accelerometer, gyroscope, inclinometer, or magnetometer, or some
combination of these sensors, mobile computing device 110 may be
able to determine whether it is substantially in a portrait
orientation (meaning that a long axis of the display(s) 116 is
oriented vertically) or substantially in a landscape orientation
(long axis oriented horizontally) with respect to gravity. These
devices may further provide other control functionality by
monitoring the orientation and/or movement of the mobile computing
device 110. As used herein, the term orientation sensor is intended
to mean some combination of sensors (e.g., accelerometer,
gyroscope, inclinometer, magnetometer, etc.) that may be used to
determine orientation of a device with respect to gravity and is
not intended to be limited to any particular sensor type or
technology.
[0032] Processor 114 may be an ARM-based mobile processor. In
embodiments, mobile processor 114 is a mobile ARM-based processor
such as Texas Instruments OMAP3430, Marvell PXA320, Freescale
iMX51, or Qualcomm QSD8650/8250. However, mobile processor 114 may
be another suitable ARM-based mobile processor or processor based
on other processor architectures such as, for example, x86-based
processor architectures or other RISC-based processor
architectures.
[0033] While FIG. 2 illustrates one exemplary hardware
implementation 112 for mobile computing device 110, other
architectures are contemplated as within the scope of the
invention. For example, various components illustrated in FIG. 2 as
external to mobile processor 114 may be integrated into mobile
processor 114. Optionally, external display interface 220, shown in
FIG. 2 as integrated into mobile processor 114, may be external to
mobile processor 114. Additionally, other computer architectures
employing a system bus, discrete graphics processor, and/or other
architectural variations are suitable for employing aspects of the
present invention.
[0034] Returning to FIG. 1, mobile computing device 110 may be
docked with a secondary terminal environment 140. Secondary
terminal environment 140 may be some combination of visual
rendering devices (e.g., monitor or display) 140, I/O devices
(e.g., mouse, touch pad, touch-screen, keyboard, etc.) 146, and
other computing peripherals (e.g., HDD, optical disc drive, memory
stick, camera, printer, GPS, accelerometer, etc.) 148 connected to
mobile computing device 110 by connecting port 142 on secondary
terminal environment 140 with port 120 on mobile computing device
110 through interface 122. Interface 122 may be some combination of
wired (e.g., USB, Firewire, Thunderbolt, HDMI, VGA, etc.) or
wireless (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, Wireless HDMI, etc.) interfaces.
While secondary terminal environments may have some processing or
logic elements such as microcontrollers or other application
specific integrated circuits ("ASICs"), they typically do not have
a processor that runs a separate instance of an operating
system.
[0035] Secondary terminal environments that define a second active
user environment may be suited for one or more of various use
models, depending on the components that make up the secondary
terminal environment. Some secondary terminal environments may be
associated with a user computing experience that is similar to the
user computing experience of the mobile computing device 110, while
others may provide a user computing experience more traditionally
associated with desktop computing. For example, secondary terminal
environment 140 may be a device that includes a display 144 with a
corresponding touch-screen sensor 146 that serves as the primary
user input for the device. This type of secondary terminal
environment may be called a tablet-style secondary terminal
environment. While a tablet-style secondary terminal environment
may have a larger touch-screen display than mobile computing device
110, the user experience of this type of secondary terminal
environment may be similar in some ways to the user experience of
mobile computing device 110. Specifically, it may be convenient for
a user to interact with applications displayed on this type of
secondary terminal environment through similar gesture-based
techniques (i.e., touching, swiping, pinching, etc.) and/or virtual
keyboards as they might use on mobile computing device 110. In one
embodiment known as a "Smart Pad," a tablet-style secondary
terminal environment includes a 10.1-inch diagonal (1280.times.800
resolution) touch-enabled display, standard set of buttons (e.g.,
back, menu, home, search, etc.), one or more cameras, and an
off-screen gesture area. A tablet-style secondary terminal
environment may include other peripheral devices that may be used
to influence the configuration of applications presented to the
user on the tablet-style secondary terminal environment. For
example, a tablet-style secondary terminal environment may include
a GPS receiver, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, and/or
other sensors for determining its location and/or orientation.
Using these sensors, the tablet-style secondary terminal
environment may be able to determine whether it is substantially in
a portrait orientation or substantially in a landscape
orientation.
[0036] Another type of secondary terminal environment is a laptop
or notebook-style secondary terminal environment. A notebook-style
secondary terminal environment generally includes a display screen
144, keyboard and pointing device(s) 146, and/or other peripheral
devices 148 in a clam-shell type enclosure. In embodiments, a
laptop or notebook-style secondary terminal environment may be
known as a "Smart Display" or "LapDock." Because this type of
secondary terminal environment includes a larger display, full-size
keyboard, and pointing device(s), it typically has a user computing
experience associated with a desktop computing experience. In this
regard, this type of secondary terminal environment may not have a
similar user experience profile to mobile computing device 110. A
notebook-style secondary terminal environment may include other
peripheral devices that may be used to influence the configuration
of applications presented to the user on the secondary terminal
environment. For example, a notebook-style secondary terminal
environment may include a GPS receiver, accelerometer, gyroscope,
magnetometer, and/or other sensors for determining its location
and/or orientation. Using these sensors, the tablet-style secondary
terminal environment may be able to determine whether it is
substantially in a portrait orientation or substantially in a
landscape orientation.
[0037] The various secondary terminal environments may also include
a variety of generic input/output device peripherals that make up a
typical desktop computing environment. The I/O devices may be
connected through a docking hub (or "dock cradle") that includes
port 142 and one or more device I/O ports for connecting various
commercially available display monitors 144, I/O devices 146,
and/or other peripheral devices 148. For example, a docking hub may
include a display port (e.g., VGA, DVI, HDMI, Wireless HDMI, etc.),
and generic device ports (e.g., USB, Firewire, etc.). As one
example, a user may connect a commercially available display,
keyboard, and pointing device(s) to the docking hub. In this way,
the user may create a secondary terminal environment from a
combination of input/output devices. Commonly, this secondary
terminal environment will be suited to a desktop computing
experience. In particular, this type of secondary terminal
environment may be suited to a computing experience designed around
the use of a pointing device(s) and physical keyboard to interact
with a user interface on the display.
[0038] In embodiments, mobile computing device 110 includes
multiple operating systems running concurrently on a shared kernel.
Concurrent execution of a mobile OS and a desktop OS on a shared
kernel is described in more detail in U.S. patent application Ser.
No. 13/217,108, filed Aug. 24, 2011, entitled "MULTI-OPERATING
SYSTEM," herein incorporated by reference. In this way, a single
mobile computing device can provide a mobile computing experience
through a first user interaction space and a desktop computing
experience through a second user interaction space.
[0039] FIG. 3 illustrates OS architecture 300 that may be employed
to run mobile OS 130 and desktop OS 160 concurrently on mobile
computing device 110, according to various embodiments. As
illustrated in FIG. 3, mobile OS 130 and desktop OS 160 are
independent operating systems. Specifically, mobile OS 130 and
desktop OS 160 may have independent and incompatible user
libraries, graphics systems, and/or framework layers. Functions and
instructions for OS architecture 300 may be stored as computer
program code on a tangible computer readable medium of mobile
computing device 110. For example, instructions for OS architecture
300 may be stored in storage device(s) 208 of mobile computing
device 110.
[0040] In OS architecture 300, mobile OS 130 and desktop OS 160 run
concurrently on shared kernel 320. This means that mobile OS 130
and desktop OS 160 are running on shared kernel 320 at the same
time. Specifically, mobile OS 130 and desktop OS 160 both interface
to shared kernel 320 through the same kernel interface 322, for
example, by making system calls to shared kernel 320. Shared kernel
320 manages task scheduling for processes of both mobile OS 130 and
desktop OS 160. In this regard, mobile OS 130 and desktop OS 160
are running independently and concurrently on shared kernel 320. In
addition, shared kernel 320 runs directly on mobile processor 114
of mobile computing device 110, as illustrated in FIG. 3.
Specifically, shared kernel 320 directly manages the computing
resources of processor 114 such as CPU scheduling, memory access,
and I/O. In this regard, hardware resources are not virtualized,
meaning that mobile OS 130 and desktop OS 160 make system calls
through kernel interface 322 without virtualized memory or I/O
access.
[0041] As illustrated in FIG. 3, mobile OS 130 has libraries layer
330, application framework layer 340, and application layer 350. In
mobile OS 130, applications 352 and 354 run in application layer
350 supported by application framework layer 340 of mobile OS 130.
Application framework layer 340 includes manager(s) 342 and
service(s) 344 that are used by applications running on mobile OS
130. For example, application framework layer 340 may include a
window manager, activity manager, package manager, resource
manager, telephony manager, gesture controller, and/or other
managers and services for the mobile environment. Application
framework layer 340 may include a mobile application runtime
environment that executes applications developed for mobile OS 130.
The mobile application runtime environment may be optimized for
mobile computing resources such as lower processing power and/or
limited memory space. The mobile application runtime environment
may rely on the kernel for process isolation, memory management,
and threading support. Libraries layer 330 includes user libraries
332 that implement common functions such as I/O and string
manipulation, graphics functions, database capabilities,
communication capabilities, and/or other functions and
capabilities.
[0042] As illustrated in FIG. 3, desktop OS 160 has libraries layer
360, framework layer 370, and application layer 380. In desktop OS
160, applications 382 and 384 run in application layer 380
supported by application framework layer 370 of desktop OS 160.
Application framework layer 370 includes manager(s) 372 and
service(s) 374 that are used by applications running on desktop OS
160. For example, application framework layer 370 may include a
window manager, activity manager, package manager, resource
manager, and/or other managers and services common to a desktop
environment. Libraries layer 360 may include user libraries 362
that implement common functions such as I/O and string
manipulation, graphics functions, database capabilities,
communication capabilities, and/or other functions and
capabilities.
[0043] In various embodiments of the present disclosure, desktop OS
160 runs in a separate execution environment from mobile OS 130.
For example, mobile OS 130 may run in a root execution environment
and desktop OS 160 may run in a secondary execution environment
established under the root execution environment. Processes and
applications running on mobile OS 130 access user libraries 332,
manager(s) 342 and service(s) 344 in the root execution
environment. Processes and applications running on desktop OS 160
access user libraries 362, manager(s) 372 and service(s) 374 in the
secondary execution environment.
[0044] In embodiments, mobile OS 130 and desktop 160 are
independent operating systems with incompatible user libraries,
graphics systems, and/or application frameworks. Therefore,
applications developed for mobile OS 130 may not run directly on
desktop OS 160, and applications developed for desktop OS 160 may
not run directly on mobile OS 130. For example, application 352,
running in application layer 350 of mobile OS 130, may be
incompatible with desktop OS 160, meaning that application 352
could not run on desktop OS 160. Specifically, application 352 may
depend on manager(s) 342, service(s) 344, and/or libraries 332 of
mobile OS 130 that are either not available or not compatible with
manager(s) 372, service(s) 374, and/or libraries 362 of desktop OS
160.
[0045] As a result, mobile OS 130 and desktop OS 160 may have
different sets of available applications. In this regard, mobile OS
130 and desktop OS 160 of OS architecture 300 provide separate user
experiences through separate sets of applications accessible
through separate user interaction spaces. The user may access the
applications available on (i.e., compiled for and loaded within the
execution environment of) mobile OS 130 through a first user
interaction space associated with mobile OS 130, and the
applications available on desktop OS 160 through a second user
interaction space associated with desktop OS 160.
[0046] As described above, mobile operating systems typically do
not use the same graphics environment as desktop operating systems.
Graphics environments for desktop OSs were designed for flexibility
and high performance. For example, the X-window system, used by
some desktop OSs, provides platform and network independence at the
expense of greater processing and system resources. In contrast,
graphics environments for mobile OSs are designed more for
efficiency and the specific user input devices of a mobile
computing environment and less for flexibility. Because the
graphics environments of mobile and desktop OSs are often
different, an application running on a mobile OS may not be
re-directed to display within a user space of a desktop OS by
re-directing the graphics information from the graphics server of
the mobile OS to the graphics server of the desktop OS.
[0047] The most widely adopted mobile OS is Google's Android. While
Android is based on Linux, it includes modifications to the kernel
and other OS layers for the mobile environment and mobile
processors. In particular, while the Linux kernel is designed for a
PC (i.e., x86) CPU architecture, the Android kernel is modified for
ARM-based mobile processors. Android device drivers are also
particularly tailored for devices typically present in a mobile
hardware architecture including touch-screens, mobile connectivity
(GSM/EDGE, CDMA, Wi-Fi, etc.), battery management, GPS,
accelerometers, and camera modules, among other devices. In
addition, Android does not have a native X Window System nor does
it support the full set of standard GNU libraries, and this makes
it difficult to port existing GNU/Linux applications or libraries
to Android.
[0048] Apple's iOS operating system (run on the iPhone) and
Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 are similarly modified for the mobile
environment and mobile hardware architecture. For example, while
iOS is derived from the Mac OS X desktop OS, common Mac OS X
applications do not run natively on iOS. Specifically, iOS
applications are developed through a standard developer's kit
("SDK") to run within the "Cocoa Touch" runtime environment of iOS,
which provides basic application infrastructure and support for key
iOS features such as touch-based input, push notifications, and
system services. Therefore, applications written for Mac OS X do
not run on iOS without porting. In addition, it may be difficult to
port Mac OS X applications to iOS because of differences between
user libraries and/or application framework layers of the two OSs,
and/or differences in system resources of the mobile and desktop
hardware.
[0049] In one embodiment consistent with OS architecture 300, an
Android mobile OS and a full Linux OS run independently and
concurrently on a modified Android kernel. In this embodiment, the
Android OS may be a modified Android distribution while the Linux
OS ("Hydroid") may be a modified Debian Linux desktop OS. FIGS. 4-6
illustrate Android mobile OS 430, Android kernel 520, and Hydroid
OS 660 that may be employed in OS architecture 300 in more detail,
according to various embodiments.
[0050] As illustrated in FIG. 4, Android OS 430 includes a set of
C/C++ libraries in libraries layer 432 that are accessed through
application framework layer 440. Libraries layer 432 includes the
"bionic" system C library 439 that was developed specifically for
Android to be smaller and faster than the "glibc" Linux C-library.
Libraries layer 432 also includes inter-process communication
("IPC") library 436, which includes the base classes for the
"Binder" IPC mechanism of the Android OS. Binder was developed
specifically for Android to allow communication between processes
and services. Other libraries shown in libraries layer 432 in FIG.
4 include media libraries 435 that support recording and playback
of media formats, surface manager 434 that manages access to the
display subsystem and composites graphic layers from multiple
applications, 2D and 3D graphics engines 438, and lightweight
relational database engine 437. Other libraries that may be
included in libraries layer 432 but are not pictured in FIG. 4
include bitmap and vector font rendering libraries, utilities
libraries, browser tools (i.e., WebKit, etc.), and/or secure
communication libraries (i.e., SSL, etc.).
[0051] Application framework layer 440 of Android OS 430 provides a
development platform that allows developers to use components of
the device hardware, access location information, run background
services, set alarms, add notifications to the status bar, etc.
Framework layer 440 also allows applications to publish their
capabilities and make use of the published capabilities of other
applications. Components of application framework layer 440 of
Android mobile OS 430 include activity manager 441, resource
manager 442, window manager 443, dock manager 444, hardware and
system services 445, desktop monitor service 446, multi-display
manager 447, and remote communication service 448. Other components
that may be included in framework layer 440 of Android mobile OS
430 include a view system, telephony manager, package manager,
location manager, and/or notification manager, among other managers
and services.
[0052] Applications running on Android OS 430 run within the Dalvik
virtual machine 431 in the Android runtime environment 433 on top
of the Android object-oriented application framework. Dalvik
virtual machine 431 is a register-based virtual machine, and runs a
compact executable format that is designed to reduce memory usage
and processing requirements. Applications running on Android OS 430
include home screen 451, email application 452, phone application
453, browser application 454, and/or other application(s)
("App(s)") 455. Each application may include one or more
application screens through which the user interfaces with the
application.
[0053] The Android OS graphics system uses a client/server model. A
surface manager ("SurfaceFlinger") is the graphics server and
applications are the clients. SurfaceFlinger maintains a list of
display ID's and keeps track of assigning applications to display
ID's. In one embodiment, mobile computing device 110 has multiple
touch screen displays 116. In this embodiment, display ID 0 is
associated with one of the touch screen displays 116 and display ID
1 is associated with the other touch screen display 116. Display ID
2 is associated with both touch screen displays 116 (i.e., the
application is displayed on both displays at the same time).
[0054] Graphics information for Android applications and/or
activities includes windows, views, and canvasses. Each window,
view, and/or canvas is implemented with an underlying surface
object. Surface objects are double-buffered (front and back
buffers) and synchronized across processes for drawing.
SurfaceFlinger maintains all surfaces in a shared memory pool which
allows all processes within Android to access and draw into them
without expensive copy operations and without using a server-side
drawing protocol such as X-Windows. Applications always draw into
the back buffer while SurfaceFlinger reads from the front buffer.
SurfaceFlinger creates each surface object, maintains all surface
objects, and also maintains a list of surface objects for each
application. When the application finishes drawing in the back
buffer, it posts an event to SurfaceFlinger, which swaps the back
buffer to the front and queues the task of rendering the surface
information to the frame buffer.
[0055] SurfaceFlinger monitors all window change events. When one
or more window change events occur, SurfaceFlinger renders the
surface information to the frame buffer for one or more displays.
Rendering includes compositing the surfaces, i.e., composing the
final image frame based on dimensions, transparency, z-order, and
visibility of the surfaces. Rendering may also include hardware
acceleration (e.g., OpenGL 2D and/or 3D interface for graphics
processing hardware). SurfaceFlinger loops over all surface objects
and renders their front buffers to the frame buffer in their Z
order.
[0056] FIG. 5 illustrates modified Android kernel 520 in more
detail, according to various embodiments. Modified Android kernel
520 includes touch-screen display driver 521, camera driver(s) 522,
Bluetooth driver(s) 523, shared memory allocator 524, IPC driver(s)
525, USB driver(s) 526, WiFi driver(s) 527, I/O device driver(s)
528, and/or power management module 530. I/O device driver(s) 528
includes device drivers for external I/O devices, including devices
that may be connected to mobile computing device 110 through port
120. Modified Android kernel 520 may include other drivers and
functional blocks including a low memory killer, kernel debugger,
logging capability, and/or other hardware device drivers.
[0057] FIG. 6 illustrates Hydroid OS 660 in more detail, according
to various embodiments. Hydroid is a full Linux OS that is capable
of running almost any application developed for standard Linux
distributions. In particular, libraries layer 662 of Hydroid OS 660
includes Linux libraries that support networking, graphics
processing, database management, and other common program
functions. For example, user libraries 662 may include the "glibc"
Linux C library 664, Linux graphics libraries 662 (e.g., GTK,
OpenGL, etc.), Linux utilities libraries 661, Linux database
libraries, and/or other Linux user libraries. Applications run on
Hydroid within an X-Windows Linux graphical environment using
X-Server 674, window manager 673, and/or desktop environment 672.
Illustrated applications include word processor 681, email
application 682, spreadsheet application 683, browser 684, and
other application(s) 685.
[0058] The Linux OS graphics system is based on the X-windows (or
"X11") graphics system. X-windows is a platform-independent,
networked graphics framework. X-windows uses a client/server model
where the X-server is the graphics server and applications are the
clients. The X-server controls input/output hardware associated
with the Linux OS such as displays, touch-screen displays,
keyboards, pointing device(s), etc. In this regard, X-windows
provides a server-side drawing graphics architecture, i.e., the
X-server maintains the content for drawables including windows and
pixmaps. X-clients communicate with the X-server by exchanging data
packets that describe drawing operations over a communication
channel. X-clients access the X communication protocol through a
library of standard routines (the "Xlib"). For example, an X-client
may send a request to the X-server to draw a rectangle in the
client window. The X-server sends input events to the X-clients,
for example, keyboard or pointing device input, and/or window
movement or resizing. Input events are relative to client windows.
For example, if the user clicks when the pointer is within a
window, the X-server sends a packet that includes the input event
to the X-client associated with the window that includes the action
and positioning of the event relative to the window.
[0059] Because of the differences in operating system frameworks,
graphics systems, and/or libraries, applications written for
Android do not generally run on Hydroid OS 660 and applications
written for standard Linux distributions do not generally run on
Android OS 430. In this regard, applications for Android OS 430 and
Hydroid OS 660 are not bytecode compatible, meaning compiled and
executable programs for one do not run on the other.
[0060] In one embodiment, Hydroid OS 660 includes components of a
cross-environment communication framework that facilitates
communication with Android OS 430 through shared kernel 520. These
components include IPC library 663 that includes the base classes
for the Binder IPC mechanism of the Android OS and remote
communications service 671.
[0061] In one embodiment, Hydroid OS 660 is run within a chrooted
(created with the `chroot` command) secondary execution environment
created within the Android root environment. Processes and
applications within Hydroid OS 660 are run within the secondary
execution environment such that the apparent root directory seen by
these processes and applications is the root directory of the
secondary execution environment. In this way, Hydroid OS 660 can
run programs written for standard Linux distributions without
modification because Linux user libraries 662 are available to
processes running on Hydroid OS 660 in the chrooted secondary
execution environment.
[0062] As described above, mobile computing device 110 typically
defines a single active user environment through which the user
interacts with mobile OS 130 and/or applications running on the
mobile OS. Accordingly, mobile OS 130 typically maintains a single
active device configuration that includes configuration qualifiers
associated with various parameters of the mobile computing device.
Device configuration qualifiers may include display properties such
as resolution, display pixel density (i.e., dots per inch or
"dpi"), display orientation, and/or display aspect ratio. Device
configuration qualifiers may also include input device properties
such as touch-screen type, navigation method (e.g., touch-screen,
trackball, scroll-wheel, etc.), keyboard availability, and the
like. Display properties such as display resolution, display
orientation, and/or display aspect ratio may correspond to various
combinations of device configuration qualifiers. In one embodiment,
mobile computing device 110 defines configuration qualifiers for
display size (e.g., small, medium, large, xlarge, etc.), display
orientation (e.g., portrait, landscape), display pixel density
(e.g., low, medium, high, extra-high, etc.), and display aspect
ratio (e.g., normal, wide, etc.) that are associated with the
display(s) 116 of the mobile computing device.
[0063] Because mobile computing devices that run the same mobile OS
may have different device configurations, applications for mobile
OS 130 may be designed to run on multiple physical device
configurations. To that end, applications may externalize
application resources to provide compatibility with multiple
different computing device hardware configurations without
requiring the application to be recompiled. In this regard,
application resources may be maintained in separate files and/or
locations from application program code. Application resources
include images, strings, and/or other components used to create
application screens associated with the application. For example,
application resources may include graphical resources such as
drawable resources (e.g., bitmap files, state lists, shapes,
re-sizeable bitmaps, nine-patches, etc.), animation drawables,
and/or other drawable or graphical elements used by an application
to build an application screen. Other types of resources include
animation resources, layout resources, menu resources, and value
resources (e.g., strings, integers, colors, etc.). In some
instances, mobile OS 130 may be designed to build application
screens associated with applications by selecting application
screen resources upon startup of the application or modification of
an application screen by the application.
[0064] Resources may be grouped into sets of resources which may be
indexed using a resource configuration list or hierarchy. Each set
of resources may provide application resources appropriate for a
particular range of device configurations. Generally, when an
application is launched, mobile OS 130 selects resources based on
the device configuration for an application screen associated with
the application. Mobile OS 130 may follow a predetermined procedure
for selecting resources based on device configuration qualifiers.
For example, mobile OS 130 may traverse a qualifier table to locate
an appropriate set of resources for the current device
configuration. The qualifier table may define the precedence of
configuration qualifiers for selecting an appropriate resource set
from the available resource sets for the application.
[0065] At the time that a mobile OS is built for a specific mobile
computing device, certain device configuration qualifiers may be
statically defined for the OS build. These device configuration
qualifiers may correspond with physical parameters of the specific
mobile computing device. In this regard, these configuration
qualifiers are hard-coded into the OS build such that the mobile OS
will use these configuration qualifiers to create all application
screens for applications run on the mobile OS. Typically,
configuration qualifiers such as display resolution, display pixel
density, and display aspect ratio may be statically defined in a
mobile OS build.
[0066] Some qualifiers of a device configuration may change during
run-time (i.e., during the life-cycle of the application). Mobile
OS 130 may have a mechanism through which it manages device
configuration changes during runtime of applications. In
particular, mobile OS 130 may tear down an application screen
established with a first set of resources for a running application
and rebuild the application screen with a second set of resources
based on certain configuration changes. Commonly, mobile OS 130 may
dynamically rebuild application screens based on an orientation
change of the mobile computing device 110.
[0067] Referring back to FIG. 1, mobile computing device 110 may be
docked with secondary terminal environment 140 by connecting port
120 of mobile computing device 110 to port 142 of secondary
terminal environment 140 to create a computing environment 100 that
includes multiple active user environments. The multiple active
user environments of computing environment 100 may be configured to
be used in different ways for various use models. In one
configuration, mobile computing device 110 may associate the
secondary terminal environment 140 with mobile OS 130. In this
configuration, user environment 140 may present a second active
user environment to user environment 115, or, user environment 140
may replace user environment 115 as a single active user
environment for mobile computing device 110. Accordingly, this
configuration may have a single active user environment or more
than one active user environment associated with mobile OS 130.
This configuration of computing environment 100 may be referred to
as a single OS, extended active user environment configuration.
Apps running on mobile OS 130 may be displayed in various
configurations on the displays 116 associated with the first user
environment 115 and one or more display(s) 144 of the second active
user environment 140. For instance, an App running on mobile OS 130
could have an application screen displayed on display 144 of the
second active user environment 140.
[0068] As described above, in some embodiments, mobile computing
device 110 has a second operating system (e.g., desktop OS, etc.)
in active concurrent execution with the mobile OS on a shared
kernel. For these embodiments, mobile computing device 110 may
associate secondary terminal environment 140 with desktop OS 160.
In this configuration, computing environment 100 presents a first
computing experience through a first active user environment 115
associated with mobile OS 130, and, concurrently, a second
computing experience through second active user environment 140
associated with desktop OS 160. These configurations may generally
be referred to as multiple-OS, multiple active user environment
configurations. While generally these configurations provide the
advantages of two or more separate user environments suited to
different computing experiences, in some instances the user may
wish to access various Apps and/or capabilities of one operating
system through the active user environment associated with a
different operating system. For example, the user may wish to
access mobile telephony, location awareness capabilities, and/or
other applications and/or services of mobile OS 130 through the
active user environment associated with desktop OS 160.
[0069] In either the single-OS, extended active user environment
configurations or multiple-OS, multiple active user environment
configurations described above, applications running on mobile OS
130 may be displayed (i.e., via an application screen) across one
or more active user environments. For example, a user may begin
interacting with an App running on mobile OS 130 through an
application screen displayed within the first user environment 115,
subsequently dock the mobile computing device 110 with a secondary
user environment 140 and continue to interact with the same App
through an application screen displayed on a display of the
secondary user environment 140. Alternatively, a user may launch an
App on mobile OS 130 from within a secondary user environment 140
such that an application screen associated with the App is
displayed within the secondary user environment 140.
[0070] An application screen displayed across environments (i.e.,
an application running on an OS associated with a first active user
environment displayed on a display associated with a second active
user environment) may be displayed in a number of configurations
within the second active user environment. In some instances, the
application screen may take up all or substantially all of a
display associated with the second active user environment. In
other instances, the application screen may be displayed within a
window on a display associated with the second active user
environment. In these instances, the window may be reconfigured
dynamically by the user according to current user preferences
related to interacting with the App. The second active user
environment 140 may be associated with the mobile OS 130, or, in
some instances, the second active user environment 140 may be
associated with the desktop OS 160.
[0071] Embodiments provide various novel techniques for dynamically
configuring application screens for various device configurations
that include extended user environments and/or multiple user
environments. Dynamic configuration of application screens includes
dynamically maintaining multiple active device configurations
(i.e., multiple sets of configuration qualifiers associated with
separate active user environments) and dynamic resource selection
based on the multiple active device configurations. Dynamic
configuration of application screens takes into account
characteristics of the multiple active user environments.
Embodiments also support dynamic configuration of applications
displayed across user environments in a multiple operating system
computing environment. These embodiments support dynamic
configuration of applications running in a first operating system
and displayed within console windows of a second operating system
on a per console window and/or per application basis. For example,
these embodiments include determining and maintaining an active
device configuration in a first OS associated with a console window
of a second OS used to display an application running in the first
OS through cross-environment display techniques. Application
screens of applications running in the first OS are generated using
dynamic resource selection based on configuration qualifiers of the
active device configuration associated with the console window of
the second OS.
[0072] In embodiments, configuration qualifiers associated with a
virtual display may be translated from indicators and/or parameters
coming from multiple sources. That is, some configuration
qualifiers may be determined from parameters associated with the
first user environment 115, while other configuration qualifiers
(e.g., orientation qualifier) may be determined from parameters
associated with a secondary terminal environment. In yet other
embodiments, a single configuration qualifier may be translated
from multiple display and/or device parameters, where some display
and/or device parameters are associated with the first active user
environment 115 and some display and/or device parameters are
associated with the secondary terminal environment.
[0073] Yet other embodiments manage screen orientation for an App
based on various characteristics of a second active user
environment and relationships between the mobile computing device
and the second active user environment. For example, the mobile
computing device may have a fixed mechanical relationship to a
secondary terminal environment that determines an orientation
relationship or offset. In instances where the mobile computing
device does not have a fixed mechanical relationship to the
secondary terminal environment, the secondary terminal environment
may or may not have an independent orientation sensor for
determining the orientation of the secondary terminal environment
independently of the mobile computing device. Embodiments may also
use orientation and/or aspect ratio of an application screen within
a second active user environment for application configuration,
including dynamically selecting resources for the application
screen. In yet other embodiments, the active device configuration
for an application screen may be disassociated from the orientation
sensor of the mobile device. In these embodiments, the orientation
qualifier of the active device configuration may be determined
according to device characteristics of the second active user
environment, a default orientation, and/or a user-selectable
orientation.
[0074] FIG. 7 illustrates a computing environment 700a that
includes mobile computing device 110. As described above, mobile
computing device 110 generally includes one or more display
device(s) 116 and one or more input device(s) (e.g., touch screen
sensor(s) 117 and/or I/O device(s) 118, etc.) that make up a first
user environment 115. Mobile computing device 110 includes a first
operating system (e.g., mobile OS 130, etc.). Mobile computing
device 110 may have a second operating system (e.g., desktop OS
160, etc.) running concurrently with the first OS on a shared
kernel. When mobile computing device 110 is not docked with a
secondary terminal environment, the first operating system provides
a mobile computing experience through the first active user
environment. When mobile computing device 110 is not docked, the
second OS, if present, may be in a suspended state.
[0075] In computing environment 700a, application 752 runs on
mobile OS 130. Application 752 includes multiple resource sets
including resource set A 742, resource set B 744, resource set C
746, and/or resource set D 748. Resource sets A, B, C, and D may
include corresponding resources that may be used to build
applications screens that are appropriate for various device
configurations. As illustrated in FIG. 7, application screen 762 is
displayed on display(s) 116 of mobile computing device 110 using
resource set A 742. Resource set A 742 may have a target device
configuration range that includes a display having display
properties similar or substantially similar to display device(s)
116 of mobile computing device 110. In this regard, resource set A
may include drawable resources and layout resources that define a
particular application screen appearance that is suited to a
display having display properties (e.g., height, width, dpi, etc.)
within a range that includes display(s) 116.
[0076] Single-OS, extended active user environment embodiments
[0077] FIG. 8 illustrates a computing environment 700b in which
mobile computing device 110 has been docked or connected with a
tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840 through interface
122. When mobile computing device 110 is docked with secondary
terminal environment 840, computing environment 700b includes a
first user environment 115 and a second user environment 840. Upon
docking or connecting a secondary terminal environment, mobile
computing device 110 may determine a user experience profile
associated with the secondary terminal environment. In the
computing environment 700b, the mobile computing device 110 may
determine that secondary terminal environment has a user experience
profile associated with a tablet-style secondary terminal
environment. In this instance, mobile computing device 110 may
associate tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840 with
mobile OS 130, according to a user or device setting. In various
embodiments, a second OS (e.g., desktop OS 160) may be running
concurrently with mobile OS 130 on shared kernel 320. In these
instances, the second OS may be in a suspended state when mobile
computing device 110 is undocked. If mobile computing device 110
associates a docked tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840
with mobile OS 130, the second OS may remain suspended.
[0078] Tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840 may have a
physical dock connector to which mobile computing device 110 may be
attached. The physical dock connector may provide electrical
coupling (e.g., interface 122, etc.) and optionally mechanical
fixturing of the mobile computing device 110 to the tablet-style
secondary terminal environment 840. That is, the dock connector may
establish a predetermined physical relationship between display 116
of the first user environment 115 and display 844 of secondary
terminal environment 840. The predetermined physical relationship
may define a fixed orientation offset. For example, when display
116 is in a portrait orientation display 844 may also be in a
portrait orientation (i.e., the fixed offset may be zero degrees),
or when display 116 is in a portrait orientation, display 844 may
be in a landscape orientation (i.e., a fixed offset of 90
degrees).
[0079] Alternatively, tablet-style secondary terminal environment
840 may be connected to mobile computing device 110 through a wired
or wireless interface that does not constrain the physical
relationship between mobile computing device 110 and tablet-style
secondary terminal environment 840. For example, tablet-style
secondary terminal environment 840 may be connected to mobile
computing device 110 through a wireless-HDMI interface. In this
instance, relative positioning of tablet-style secondary terminal
environment 840 to mobile computing device 110, including
orientation with respect to gravity, may be arbitrary. In some
embodiments, tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840
includes an orientation sensor. In these instances, tablet-style
secondary terminal environment 804 may indicate an orientation of
display 844 with respect to gravity to mobile computing device 110
through interface 122.
[0080] Mobile computing device 110 may query tablet-style secondary
terminal environment 840 to determine various parameters associated
with the docked secondary terminal environment 840. For example,
mobile computing device may query terminal environment 840 for
parameters such as display dimensions (e.g., width, height, etc.),
display pixel density (e.g., dpi, etc.), display orientation (e.g.,
arbitrary, offset, on-board sensing, etc.). Mobile computing device
110 may receive these parameters through interface 122. For
example, interface 122 may include an extended display
identification data (EDID) interface that provides a data structure
indicating the display properties and/or I/O device capabilities of
the secondary terminal environment 840. Various user interface
properties for the second user environment 840 may be different
than for the first user environment 115. In particular, display
properties for display 844 of the second user environment 840 may
be different than display properties of one or more display(s) 116
of the first user environment 115. For example, display 844 may
have a larger screen area (i.e., larger physical display
dimensions), higher display resolution, different display aspect
ratio, different display pixel density, and/or other differences
from display(s) 116.
[0081] Consider that mobile computing device 110 determines that a
user experience profile of secondary terminal environment 840
corresponds to a tablet-style secondary terminal environment, and
that a device setting or user setting of mobile computing device
110 indicates that this type of secondary terminal environment is
to be associated with mobile OS 130. Mobile OS 130 establishes a
virtual display (i.e., generates a virtual display ID and
corresponding graphics context for building graphics information
from application screen content and/or surface data) associated
with display 844 of the tablet-style secondary terminal environment
840. In some instances, mobile computing device 110 may maintain
operation of user environment 115 when mobile computing device 110
is docked to a tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840. In
this instance, display 844 of secondary terminal environment 840
acts as an alternative display to display 116 through which the
user interfaces with mobile OS 130. In other instances, mobile
computing device 110 may disable user environment 115 when mobile
computing device 110 is docked to secondary terminal environment
840. In this instance, secondary terminal environment 840 replaces
user environment 115 as the single active user environment.
[0082] Once mobile computing device 110 and secondary terminal
environment 840 are connected through interface 122 and mobile OS
130 is associated with secondary terminal environment 840, the user
may display one or more active application screens on the second
active user environment. For example, the user may have indicated
through a gesture or menu selection that application 752 is to be
displayed in secondary terminal environment 840. Upon detection of
an event indicating that the application screen associated with
application 752 is to be displayed on display 844 of tablet-style
secondary terminal environment 840, mobile OS 130 builds
application screen 864 on display 844 using resources that are
appropriate for application screen 864.
[0083] Dynamically selecting resources for application screen 864
includes determining properties associated with the display and I/O
devices associated with tablet-style secondary terminal environment
840, selecting qualifiers that define the graphics context of the
virtual display associated with tablet-style secondary terminal
environment 840, and selecting qualifiers that determine I/O
properties of tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840. That
is, mobile OS 130 maintains a separate active device configuration
associated with secondary terminal environment 840 (e.g., via the
virtual display ID associated with secondary terminal environment
840). Configuration qualifiers associated with the secondary
terminal environment may be determined in part from device
parameters of the mobile computing device (e.g., dock mode, etc)
and in part from device parameters of the secondary terminal
environment (e.g., aspect ratio, dpi, display size, etc.).
Determining configuration properties of tablet-style secondary
terminal environment 840 includes determining an orientation
configuration of tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840.
Several configuration qualifiers associated with the secondary
terminal environment 840 may be dynamically updated as the
tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840 is interacted with
by the user.
[0084] In various embodiments described above, tablet-style
secondary terminal environment 840 has a fixed orientation offset
to mobile computing device 110. For example, mobile computing
device 110 may physically dock with tablet-style secondary terminal
environment 840 such that the docking arrangement defines a fixed
orientation relationship between display 116 and display 844. In
this instance, mobile OS 130 establishes a graphics context for the
virtual display associated with tablet-style secondary terminal
environment 840 according to the orientation of the mobile
computing device 110 and the fixed orientation offset. For example,
mobile computing device 110 may dock with a tablet-style secondary
terminal environment 840 such that a long axis of one or more of
the display(s) 116 of mobile computing device is orthogonal to the
long axis of a display 844 of the tablet-style secondary terminal
environment 840. Alternatively, mobile computing device 110 may
dock with tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840 such that
display(s) 116 of mobile computing device and display 844 have a
different orientation offset. In these fixed offset embodiments,
mobile computing device 110 generates qualifiers for resource
selection for application 752 based on an orientation of the mobile
computing device 110 and the fixed offset. For example, if mobile
computing device 110 has a portrait orientation, mobile OS 130 may
define an orientation qualifier for the virtual display associated
with display 844 as having a landscape orientation.
[0085] In other embodiments described above, mobile computing
device 110 and tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840 may
be connected such that they do not have a constrained physical
relationship. For example, mobile computing device 110 and
tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840 may be connected
through a wired or wireless interface. In these embodiments,
tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840 may have an
on-board orientation sensor to determine the orientation of display
844 with respect to gravity. In these instances, mobile OS 130
associates an orientation qualifier of the virtual display with the
orientation of tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840
through an orientation indicator received from the tablet-style
secondary terminal environment 840. Accordingly, the secondary
terminal environment orientation qualifier is used to determine
dynamic resource selection for application screen 864. For example,
tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840 may indicate that
display 844 is in a portrait orientation. As illustrated in FIG. 8,
application screen 864 may be built using resource set B 744. As
described above, resource set B 744 may be appropriate for the
display properties of display 844 and the current orientation of
tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840. In these
instances, mobile OS 130 may maintain the mobile computing device
orientation qualifier associated with display of application
screens on display 116 of the mobile computing device 110. In this
regard, mobile OS 130 maintains multiple orientation qualifier
feeds associated with multiple active user environments. Mobile OS
130 may associate orientation qualifiers with particular display
IDs such that application screens displayed through the particular
displays update according the orientation of the associated
displays.
[0086] Consider that the user continues to interact with
application 752 through application screen 864 on display 844 of
tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840 in the portrait
orientation as illustrated in FIG. 8. For particular user
interactions with application 752, the user may desire that
application 752 present a landscape orientation. FIG. 9 illustrates
a computing environment 700c in which the tablet-style secondary
terminal environment 840 is operated by the user in a first
position 972 generally providing a portrait orientation for display
844. In the first position 972, application screen 864 of
application 752 has been established using resource set B 744. At
some point during interaction with application 752 through
application screen 864, the user rotates the tablet-style secondary
terminal environment 840 from a first position 972 having generally
a portrait orientation to a second position 974 having generally a
landscape orientation.
[0087] In fixed orientation offset embodiments, mobile OS 130
updates the orientation qualifier associated with the tablet-style
secondary terminal environment based on the change in orientation
of mobile computing device 110 and the fixed orientation offset.
For example, consider that the fixed orientation offset between
mobile computing device 110 and tablet-style secondary terminal
environment 840 is 90 degrees. In this instance, when the user
rotates the tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840 from
the first position 972 to the second position 974, mobile computing
device 110 will indicate that it has been rotated from a landscape
to a portrait orientation. In this instance, mobile OS 130 applies
the orientation offset and determines that tablet-style secondary
terminal environment 840 has been rotated from a portrait
orientation to a landscape orientation. Mobile OS 130 tears down
the application screen 864 and performs dynamic resource selection
to select the appropriate resources for the new orientation. For
example, the application screen 964 may be built with resource set
C 746 as illustrated in FIG. 9.
[0088] In multiple orientation feed embodiments, when tablet-style
secondary terminal environment 840 is rotated to the second
position 974, mobile OS 130 may receive an indicator message from
the tablet-style secondary terminal environment 840 indicating that
the orientation of display 844 has changed. Mobile OS 130 updates
the orientation qualifier associated with display 844 to the new
orientation of the second position 974. Again, as illustrated in
FIG. 9, mobile OS 130 tears down application screen 864 and
establishes application screen 964 on display 844 using resource
set C 746 of application 752.
[0089] In other embodiments, tablet-style secondary terminal
environment 840 may not include an independent orientation sensor.
In these embodiments, mobile OS 130 may disassociate resource
selection for applications displayed on the second user environment
with the orientation qualifier associated with mobile computing
device 110. In these instances, mobile OS 130 may determine the
orientation qualifier associated with the second active user
environment based on device properties such as a standard use-mode
orientation. Alternatively, a default orientation setting, user
setting, or resource preference parameter may determine the
orientation qualifier associated with display 844 of tablet-style
secondary terminal environment 840. For example, a certain
application may default to a resource set associated with a
portrait orientation of display 844 for an application screen
displayed on display 844.
[0090] Multiple-OS, Multiple User-Environment Embodiments
[0091] Returning to FIG. 7, the first OS (e.g., mobile OS 130,
etc.) may be running concurrently with a second OS (e.g., desktop
OS 160, etc.) on shared kernel 320. In computing environment 700a,
mobile OS 130 is associated with the first active user environment
115 defined by the mobile computing device 110. When the mobile
computing device 110 is in an undocked state (i.e., not connected
or docked to a secondary terminal environment), desktop OS 160 may
be in a suspended state.
[0092] FIG. 10 illustrates a computing environment 700d where
mobile computing device 110 is docked to a secondary terminal
environment 1040. Secondary terminal environment 1040 may be a
notebook-type secondary terminal environment, a desktop-type
secondary terminal environment, and/or another type of secondary
terminal environment. In computing environment 700d, mobile
computing device 110 may associate desktop OS 160 with secondary
terminal environment 1040. In this instance, desktop OS 160
presents an independent desktop computing experience through the
second user environment defined by the I/O devices associated with
secondary terminal environment 1040 (e.g., display 1044, a
keyboard, pointing device(s), etc.).
[0093] Using various techniques, applications running on mobile OS
130 may be accessed and have application screens displayed within a
console window of secondary user environment 1040 associated with
desktop OS 160. These techniques are described in more detail in
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/246,665, filed Sep. 27, 2011,
entitled "INSTANT REMOTE RENDERING," the entire contents of which
are incorporated herein for all purposes.
[0094] Dynamically configuring applications displayed across user
environments associated with different operating systems raises a
number of issues. For example, mobile OS's typically display one
application screen at a time and maintain a single active device
configuration associated with the mobile computing device.
Accordingly, application screens for mobile OS's are not designed
to be dynamically resized. However, a cross-environment application
screen may be displayed within a window of a GUI of a separate OS
(e.g., desktop OS 160, etc.). Further, a desktop OS may display
multiple application screens concurrently within windows of the
desktop OS GUI. These windows may be dynamically stretched or
otherwise resized in various ways. Additionally, other device
configuration parameters associated with a secondary terminal
environment may affect how a cross-environment application screen
appears and is interacted with by the user. For example, input
devices associated with secondary terminal environments may
determine the way that the user interacts with application screens.
A secondary terminal environment may also include other attributes
that can dynamically affect device configuration. For example, the
secondary terminal environment may have an orientation sensor that
can sense the orientation of a display of the secondary terminal
environment with respect to gravity. In these instances, the
orientation of the cross-environment application screen may be
affected by the orientation of the secondary terminal
environment.
[0095] Accordingly, dynamically configuring cross-environment
application screens includes maintaining multiple active device
configurations based on device configuration parameters that come
from a variety of sources. These sources include devices associated
with the secondary terminal environment 1040 (e.g., EDID data from
display 1044, availability and/or type of input devices, sensor
information, etc.), console windows displayed on the display of the
second user environment, and/or information from sensors on mobile
computing device 110 (e.g., ambient light level, etc.). Mobile OS
130 determines the appropriate configuration qualifier for each
active device configuration and selects resources for applications
based on the active device configuration associated with the
application (e.g., through a display identifier, etc.).
[0096] Consider that computing environment 700d represents mobile
computing device 110 docked with a notebook-style secondary
terminal environment 1040. A first application 1052 runs on mobile
OS 130 and is associated with application screen 1062 displayed on
display 116 of mobile computing device 110. A second application
1054 is also running on mobile OS 130. Application 1054 is
associated with application screen 1064 displayed on display 1044
of secondary terminal environment 1040. For example, application
screen 1064 may be displayed through a console window 1084
associated with a console application 1080 running on desktop OS
160. In embodiments, mobile OS 130 may define a virtual display
associated with console application 1080. That is, to mobile OS
130, console application 1080 may be considered an independent
display device through which mobile OS 130 may display applications
screens and/or other graphics information in console window
1084.
[0097] In computing environment 700d, mobile OS 130 maintains
multiple active device configurations. For example, mobile OS 130
may maintain an active device configuration for the first user
environment 115 and a separate active device configuration
associated with the console application 1080 through which
application screen 1064 is displayed. Further, additional
applications may be running on mobile OS 130 and displayed through
separate console applications running on desktop OS 160. Mobile OS
130 may maintain additional separate active device configurations
for each application running on mobile OS 130 and displayed
remotely (i.e., within a user environment external to mobile
computing device 110). As described above, application 1054 may
include resources 1040 for various different device configurations.
For example, application 1054 may include resource sets E 1072, F
1074, and G 1076 that define corresponding application screen
components appropriate for different device configurations.
[0098] The active device configuration for console window 1084
includes a variety of device configuration qualifiers that may come
from several different sources that define properties of the
secondary terminal environment 1040, console window 1084, and/or
mobile computing device 110. For example, the active device
configuration for console window 1084 may include configuration
qualifiers for the active display size (e.g., small, medium, large,
etc.), active display orientation (e.g., portrait, landscape,
etc.), active display pixel density (e.g., dpi, etc.), and/or input
device configuration (e.g., touch-based, pointing device(s),
hardware keyboard present, etc.). The active pixel density
configuration qualifier may come from a hardware parameter
associated with the display 1044 (e.g., EDID data and the like) of
the secondary terminal environment. The configuration qualifiers
for the active device configuration associated with application
1054 may be generated by mobile OS 130 by determining the various
hardware components of secondary terminal environment 1040, various
parameters associated with console application 1080, and/or other
information provided by secondary terminal environment 1040 (e.g.,
sensor data, etc.).
[0099] As discussed above, resources of application 1054 are
selected for application screen 1064 based on the configuration
qualifiers according to a predefined process for matching resources
to various device configurations based on the configuration
qualifiers. In FIG. 10, application screen 1064 is built using
resource set E 1072. In this regard, resource set E 1072 may be the
best matching resource set according to the configuration
qualifiers associated with secondary terminal environment 1040
(e.g., pointing device style interface, display dpi, and the like)
and/or a particular size of console window 1084 on display 1044, as
discussed above.
[0100] Some device configuration parameters for the active device
configuration associated with application 1054 may change
dynamically during runtime of application 1054. As discussed above,
a mobile OS typically displays an application screen for a
particular application across the entire or substantially the
entire display 116 of the mobile computing device. However, a user
may resize console window 1084 according to how the user wishes to
interact with the application. Re-sizing the console window 1084
has the effect of dynamically changing the display device
configuration. In embodiments, mobile OS dynamically selects one or
more resources sets for building a new application screen in
response to console window change events.
[0101] FIG. 11 shows computing environment 700e that illustrates
aspects of dynamic cross-environment application configuration
based on console window resizing, according to various embodiments.
In computing environment 700e, a user resizes console window 1084
from a first display area indicated by position 1182 to a second,
larger display area indicated by position 1186. For example, the
user may resize the window using a drag motion on the corner of the
console window as indicated by drag arrow 1184. Upon detection by
console application 1080 of the window resize event, console
application 1080 notifies mobile OS 130 that parameters associated
with the active display size of console window 1084 have changed.
Mobile OS 130 updates the display configuration qualifiers
associated with console application 1080 (e.g., associated with a
display identifier through which mobile OS 130 displays application
1054). Mobile OS 130 then selects resources for the application
screen associated with application 1054 according to the updated
display configuration qualifiers. As illustrated in FIG. 11,
application screen 1166 may be built for the modified console
window 1084 using resource set F 1074. For example, resource set F
1074 may be appropriate for the modified console window 1084 on
display 1044 of the second user environment 1040 associated with
desktop OS 160.
[0102] FIG. 12 shows computing environment 700f that illustrates
other aspects of dynamic cross-environment application
configuration based on console window resizing, according to
various embodiments. In computing environment 700f, a user resizes
console window 1084 from a first display area indicated by position
1282 to a second, display area indicated by position 1286. For
example, the user may resize the window using a drag motion on the
corner of the console window as indicated by drag arrow 1284. In
this instance, the resizing of the console window 1084 may have the
effect of changing the aspect ratio of console window 1084. For
example, the window re-sizing event indicated by arrow 1284 may
transition console window 1084 from a generally portrait
orientation in position 1282 to a generally landscape orientation
indicated by position 1286. Mobile OS 130 updates the display
configuration qualifiers associated with console application 1080.
For example, mobile OS may update the orientation qualifier and/or
the display size qualifiers. Mobile OS 130 then selects resources
for the application screen associated with application 1054
according to the updated display configuration qualifiers. As
illustrated in FIG. 12, application screen 1266 may be built for
the modified console window 1084 using resource set G 1076. For
example, resource set G 1076 may be appropriate for the modified
console window 1084 as shown by position 1286 on display 1044 of
the second user environment 1040 associated with desktop OS
160.
[0103] In embodiments, the orientation configuration qualifier
associated with virtual display 1082 takes into account the
orientation of the secondary terminal environment and/or the
orientation of the mobile computing device 110. For example, the
orientation qualifier may take into account the aspect ratio of the
console window 1084 as well as an orientation of the display 1044.
Alternatively, the orientation qualifier may take into account the
aspect ratio of the console window 1084 as well as the orientation
of mobile computing device 110 and a fixed orientation offset
between the display 1044 and the mobile computing device 110.
[0104] In various embodiments, applications may be designed to
implement multiple concurrent application screens. For example, a
mobile computing device may have more than one built-in display
device. In one embodiment, mobile computing device 110 includes two
display devices 116. Applications may take advantage of the
presence of multiple display devices by presenting multiple
application screens concurrently for various activities of the
application. For example, an application may have a list view of
items on one application screen and a detail view of a selected
item on the second application screen.
[0105] FIG. 13 shows computing environment 700g that illustrates
aspects of dynamic cross-environment application configuration that
may take advantage of multiple concurrent application screens,
according to various embodiments. In computing environment 700g, a
user resizes console window 1084 from a first display area
indicated by position 1382 to a second, display area indicated by
position 1386. For example, the user may resize the window using a
drag motion on the corner of the console window as indicated by
drag arrow 1384. In this instance, the application 1054 may have a
user setting that indicates that the application should switch to a
multiple-screen mode when sufficient screen area is available. For
example, the user setting could indicate that when a display area
associated with the application has more than a certain display
area and is in generally a landscape orientation, the application
will enter the multiple-screen mode. In FIG. 13, the screen area
indicated by position 1386 of console window 1084 may be sufficient
for the multiple-screen mode of application 1054. In this instance,
application 1054 may build a first application screen 1366 using a
first resource set 1374, and a second application screen 1368 using
a second resource set 1376.
[0106] FIG. 14 illustrates a process flow 1400 for dynamically
configuring a cross-environment application according to aspects of
dynamic application configuration described above. Process flow
1400 begins at block 1402 where a first application is executed in
a first operating system of a mobile computing device. Typically,
the mobile computing device defines a first active user
environment. The mobile computing device may be docked with a
second user environment and may provide graphics information (e.g.,
application screens and/or desktop screens and the like) to the
second user environment through a graphics interface. The second
user environment may replace the first user environment as the
single active user environment, or, it may represent a second
active user environment which may be interacted with concurrently
with the first active user environment.
[0107] At block 1404, the mobile computing device receives a device
configuration change message related to the second active user
environment. The device configuration change message may be related
to properties of the second active user environment and/or
application presentation (e.g., application windows, etc.) within
the second active user environment. At block 1406, the mobile
computing device receives a display parameter associated with an
active display of the second active user environment. For example,
the display parameter may indicate the resolution, pixel density
(e.g., dpi, etc.), and/or aspect ratio of the active display. At
block 1408, the mobile OS determines a display qualifier associated
with the active display of the second active user environment based
on the display parameter. For example, the mobile OS may determine
a display size qualifier (e.g., medium, large, xlarge, etc.) from
display resolution parameters (e.g., width, height in pixels,
etc.).
[0108] At block 1410, the mobile OS selects an active resource set
from the available resource sets based at least in part on the
display qualifier. The mobile OS then disestablishes a first
application screen associate with the first application at block
1412. Using the active resource set selected at block 1410, the
mobile OS then builds and displays a second application screen at
block 1414 on the active display of the second active user
environment.
[0109] FIG. 15 illustrates a process flow 1500 for dynamically
configuring orientation of a cross-environment application
according to aspects of dynamic application configuration described
above. In process flow 1500, a first application and a second
application are in active concurrent execution in a first OS (e.g.,
mobile OS) of a mobile computing device associated with a first
active user environment, as indicated by block 1502. At block 1504,
the first OS receives a first orientation indicator from a first
orientation sensor associated with the first active user
environment. For example, the mobile computing device may include
the first orientation sensor. At block 1506, the first OS
determines a first orientation qualifier associated with an active
display of the first active user environment based on the first
orientation indicator. The first OS uses the first orientation
qualifier at block 1508 to select a first resource set for the
first application from the available resource sets of the first
application based on the orientation qualifier. The first OS then
displays a first application screen established with the first
resource set on a first display of the first active user
environment.
[0110] At block 1512, the first OS associates a second orientation
qualifier with a second active display of a second active user
environment. As such, orientation configuration of applications
displayed on the second active display of the second active user
environment is disassociated from the first orientation qualifier.
In embodiments, the second orientation qualifier may be determined
from parameters received from a second orientation sensor
associated with the second active user environment, or from default
settings associated with the second active user environment, or
from parameters associated with application windows displayed
within the second display. At block 1514, the first OS selects a
second resource set for the second application from the available
resource sets of the second application based on the second
orientation qualifier. A second application screen associated with
the second application is established using the second resource set
and displayed on the second display at block 1516. Using this
process flow, dynamic orientation of multiple applications is
maintained across multiple active user environments to provide a
more seamless computing experience.
[0111] The foregoing description has been presented for purposes of
illustration and description. Furthermore, the description is not
intended to limit embodiments of the invention to the form
disclosed herein. While a number of exemplary aspects and
embodiments have been discussed above, those of skill in the art
will recognize certain variations, modifications, permutations,
additions, and sub-combinations thereof.
[0112] The various operations of methods described above may be
performed by any suitable means capable of performing the
corresponding functions. The means may include various hardware
and/or software component(s) and/or module(s), including, but not
limited to a circuit, an application specific integrated circuit
(ASIC), or processor.
[0113] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and
circuits described may be implemented or performed with a general
purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an ASIC, a
field programmable gate array signal (FPGA), or other programmable
logic device (PLD), discrete gate, or transistor logic, discrete
hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform
the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be
a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any
commercially available processor, controller, microcontroller, or
state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination
of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a
microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more
microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such
configuration.
[0114] The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection
with the present disclosure, may be embodied directly in hardware,
in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination
of the two. A software module may reside in any form of tangible
storage medium. Some examples of storage media that may be used
include random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash
memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, a hard disk, a
removable disk, a CD-ROM and so forth. A storage medium may be
coupled to a processor such that the processor can read information
from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the
alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. A
software module may be a single instruction, or many instructions,
and may be distributed over several different code segments, among
different programs, and across multiple storage media.
[0115] The methods disclosed herein comprise one or more actions
for achieving the described method. The method and/or actions may
be interchanged with one another without departing from the scope
of the claims. In other words, unless a specific order of actions
is specified, the order and/or use of specific actions may be
modified without departing from the scope of the claims.
[0116] The functions described may be implemented in hardware,
software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in
software, the functions may be stored as one or more instructions
on a tangible computer-readable medium. A storage medium may be any
available tangible medium that can be accessed by a computer. By
way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media
can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM, or other optical disk
storage, magnetic disk storage, or other magnetic storage devices,
or any other tangible medium that can be used to carry or store
desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures
and that can be accessed by a computer. Disk and disc, as used
herein, include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc,
digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray.RTM. disc
where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs
reproduce data optically with lasers.
[0117] Thus, a computer program product may perform operations
presented herein. For example, such a computer program product may
be a computer readable tangible medium having instructions tangibly
stored (and/or encoded) thereon, the instructions being executable
by one or more processors to perform the operations described
herein. The computer program product may include packaging
material.
[0118] Software or instructions may also be transmitted over a
transmission medium. For example, software may be transmitted from
a website, server, or other remote source using a transmission
medium such as a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair,
digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technology such as
infrared, radio, or microwave.
[0119] Further, modules and/or other appropriate means for
performing the methods and techniques described herein can be
downloaded and/or otherwise obtained by a user terminal and/or base
station as applicable. For example, such a device can be coupled to
a server to facilitate the transfer of means for performing the
methods described herein. Alternatively, various methods described
herein can be provided via storage means (e.g., RAM, ROM, a
physical storage medium such as a CD or floppy disk, etc.), such
that a user terminal and/or base station can obtain the various
methods upon coupling or providing the storage means to the device.
Moreover, any other suitable technique for providing the methods
and techniques described herein to a device can be utilized.
[0120] Other examples and implementations are within the scope and
spirit of the disclosure and appended claims. For example, due to
the nature of software, functions described above can be
implemented using software executed by a processor, hardware,
firmware, hardwiring, or combinations of any of these. Features
implementing functions may also be physically located at various
positions, including being distributed such that portions of
functions are implemented at different physical locations. Also, as
used herein, including in the claims, "or" as used in a list of
items prefaced by "at least one of" indicates a disjunctive list
such that, for example, a list of "at least one of A, B, or C"
means A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C).
Further, the term "exemplary" does not mean that the described
example is preferred or better than other examples.
[0121] Various changes, substitutions, and alterations to the
techniques described herein can be made without departing from the
technology of the teachings as defined by the appended claims.
Moreover, the scope of the disclosure and claims is not limited to
the particular aspects of the process, machine, manufacture,
composition of matter, means, methods, and actions described above.
Processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means,
methods, or actions, presently existing or later to be developed,
that perform substantially the same function or achieve
substantially the same result as the corresponding aspects
described herein may be utilized. Accordingly, the appended claims
include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture,
compositions of matter, means, methods, or actions.
* * * * *