Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Albert Peter Yih

Joseph Spencer King

Elizabeth Picchietti Salowitz

Peter Hammerquist

Christian Klein

Diego D Baca Del Rosario

Ryan Pendlay

Lee Dicks Clark

Christoffer Peter Hart Hansen

Lauren Edelmeier

Robert Disano

Hanna Mclaughlin

Hadley Meryl Griffin

Bret P Anderson

Richard Fang

John C Whytock

Sharath Viswanathan

Michael Paul Erich Von Hippel

Leo Tian Yue

Stacy Carson

Michael Neil Loholt

Nan Yang

MerryJane M Fosdick

Eric Alexander Papamarcos

Alisha Dilip Gala

Fernando Evelio Alvarez

Sankalp Gupta

Nina Emi Rothenhaus

Yilin Song

Gary De-Hong Liao

Sha Viswanathan

Aaron R Teetor

Selena Feng

Tomas Edward Morris

Howard Hughes

Benjamin B Stolovitz

Hanna McLaughlin

Charles Edward Taylor, Jr

Emilia Marie Nobrega

Ashley Nicole Ferguson

Jessica Leigh Douma

Benjamin J Schoepke

According to examples, an apparatus may include a processor that may, responsive to a determination that a secondary display is connected to the apparatus, cause a primary display of the apparatus to display a window including an option to be selected to proceed with a location detection operation of the secondary display. The processor may also cause an icon to be displayed on the secondary display, track a movement of a cursor from the primary display to the icon displayed on the secondary display, and determine a position of the secondary display with respect to the primary display based on the tracked movement of the cursor. The processor may further store the determined position of the secondary display with respect to the primary display.

Secondary display location determinations

Systems and methods for reconfiguring application windows in a display. An example method includes displaying a first application window and a second application window; receiving a drag input for moving the first application window; based on the drag input entering an invocation region, displaying a layout menu with a plurality of display layouts, each of the display layouts including one or more snap zones; receiving a hover of the first application window over a particular snap zone of a particular display layout of the plurality of display layouts; based on the hover of the first application window over the particular snap zone, displaying a zone-indicator pane corresponding to the particular snap zone; receiving a drop input of the first application window over the particular snap zone; and in response to the drop input, resizing and repositioning the first application window according the particular snap zone.

Just-in-time snap layouts

Technologies are disclosed for providing visual feedback during touch-based operations on user interface ('UI') elements. Through implementations of the disclosed technologies, visual feedback can be provided to users during certain touch-based operations on UI elements presented by virtual reality (“VR”) devices. The visual feedback can provide confirmation to users that certain operations on UI elements were performed successfully. The visual feedback provided by the disclosed technologies can make it easier for users to select a UI element, to understand that actions taken to select a UI element were successful, and to successfully perform operations on UI elements once they have been selected. These benefits can reduce the number of times users need to attempt certain operations on UI elements. This, in turn, can reduce the utilization of computing resources, such as memory and processor cycles, by devices implementing the disclosed technologies.

Providing visual feedback during touch-based operations on user interface elements

A foldable computing device can be configured to provide a user interface (UI) optimization that enables an application window to be presented in a predictable location when an application is launched, a UI optimization that enables an application window to be moved to an active display area, a UI optimization that enables a modal UI element to be presented in such a way that it does not overlap a seam on the device, a UI optimization that enables an image presented by the device to be adjusted to maintain a view of the focal point of the image across device posture or orientation changes, a UI optimization that enables the device to transition between UI modes optimized for front-facing and world-facing image capture, and/or a UI optimization that enables the device to provide a UI for instructing a user to flip the device when a biometric sensor is in use.

User interface transitions and optimizations for foldable computing devices

According to examples, an apparatus may include a processor that may, responsive to a secondary display being detected, cause a window including an option for a user to proceed with a location detection operation of the secondary display to be displayed on a primary display. The processor may also cause an icon to be displayed on the secondary display, track a movement of a cursor from the primary display to the icon displayed on the secondary display, and determine a position of the secondary display with respect to the primary display based on the tracked movement of the cursor. The processor may further store the determined position of the secondary display with respect to the primary display.

In non-limiting examples of the present disclosure, systems, methods and devices for executing gesture operations are provided. A touchpad gesture manager and a touchscreen gesture manager may be maintained. Both managers may comprise the identities of gesture operations and conditions for executing the gesture operations. The conditions for one or more touchscreen gesture operations may be the same as the conditions for one or more corresponding touchpad gesture operations. The gestures that have same conditions for the touchscreen and the touchpad may comprise application window operations and virtual desktop transition operations. In some examples, one or more display elements, animations, or intermediate operations may be different in executing the touchscreen operations than for executing the touchpad operations.

Coherent gestures on touchpads and touchscreens

Computerized systems and methods are provided for automatically generating an application overflow tool that is dynamically updated and arranged to provide improved access to popular or recently used applications. These systems and methods improve existing technologies by generating an overflow panel different from a task bar, such that the overflow panel provides access to most recently used applications that are not on the task bar. As such, ease of access to applications is improved to increase user efficiency. These systems also improve the way computers operate by leveraging existing GUI layouts to reduce computing resource consumption, such as memory, network latency, I/O, and the like, that would otherwise be required improve access to applications.

Overflow application tool for computing devices

Techniques for adjusting a posture of an operating system mode for a touch-enabled computing device based on combinations of user preferences and user input modality signals. Various adjustments to the posture of the operating system mode do not impact whether particular user interface elements are present but rather alter characteristics with which these particular user interface elements are rendered. Posture adjustments to an operating system mode occur based on combinations user input modality signals and user preferences not to enter another mode in which particular user interface elements are no longer displayed within a task bar along a peripheral edge. An object of designing an operating system mode to have multiple different postures with common user interface elements displayed in the task bar while adjusting the characteristics thereof is to preserve the user familiarity across postures while optimizing graphical layouts to accommodate for a current user input modality.

Adjusting operating system posture for a touch-enabled computing device based on user input modality signals

Technologies are disclosed for providing visual feedback during touch-based operations on user interface ('UI') elements. Through implementations of the disclosed technologies, visual feedback can be provided to users during certain touch-based operations on UI elements presented by touch-enabled computing devices. The visual feedback can provide confirmation to users that certain touch-based operations on UI elements were performed successfully. The visual feedback provided by the disclosed technologies can make it easier for users to select a UI element, to understand that actions taken to select a UI element were successful, and to successfully perform operations on UI elements once they have been selected. These benefits can reduce the number of times users need to attempt certain touch-based operations on UI elements. This, in turn, can reduce the utilization of computing resources, such as memory and processor cycles, by touch-enabled computing devices implementing the disclosed technologies.

A bendable computing device can operate in a single display region mode when the device is in an unbent posture and can operate in a multiple display region mode when the device is in a bent posture. The multiple display region mode subdivides the bendable screen of the bendable computing device into a first display region and a second display region. When operating in the multiple display region mode, the bendable computing device can display an artificial hardware seam between the first display region and the second display region. User input gestures originating at the artificial hardware seam or terminating at the artificial hardware seam can be utilized to provide various types of functionality. Various types of functionality can also be provided when the bendable computing device detects that it has transitioned from an unbent posture to a bent posture or from a bent posture to an unbent posture.

Dynamic screen modes on a bendable computing device

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Albert Peter Yih