Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Brendan McKeon

Robert E Sinclair, Ii

Patricia Mary Wagoner

Paul James Reid

Peter Kam-Ho Wong

Susan E Strom

Heather S Burns

Robert Sinclair

Nadim Y Abdo

Makarand V Patwardhan

Michael Allan Friedman

Michael Edward Dulac Winser

An improved graphics processing system and method are described for magnifying visual output information for printing, display, or other output. A graphics engine transforms display information so as to magnify one or more components or areas of an output image for display via output hardware such as a screen or printer. Magnification parameters are supplied to the graphics engine by one or more magnification applications. In an embodiment of the invention, the graphics engine performs compositing of magnified and unmagnified content for display. In an alternative embodiment, the graphics engine outputs corresponding scaled image material to the appropriate magnification application for rendering. In a further embodiment, the graphics engine may operate in both modes. The magnified output according to various embodiments of the invention enhances the accessibility of the computer system for visually handicapped or impaired users by providing high quality magnification and increased system and application stability.

Magnification engine

A method, apparatus, and medium are provided for providing a custom view of a set of user-interface elements (UI elements) to a requesting component. The method includes representing the UI elements as a raw tree structure composed of a set of nodes, which correspond to the UI elements; identifying a subset of the nodes that satisfy the condition(s); and communicating to the requesting component a representation of all or some of the identified nodes. The apparatus includes a request-transmission component for submitting to an interface component instructions and a transmission-reception component for receiving from the interface component the information associated with one or more UI elements that satisfy the one or more conditions.

Method and system for presenting user interface (UI) information

Identifier information is generated for a user interface element of interest within a user interface of a computer program based on a description of a hierarchical element path comprising, e.g., some combination of parent elements that the user interface element inherits from, class names of user interface elements, module names of application programs in the element path, and sibling order information. Process identifiers may also be added to distinguish between user interface elements of two different process instances of the same program. Unlike more fragile identifiers, such an element path identifier persists across instances of the computer program, across different computers, across different builds of the program, etc. Converting between a user-defined data type and a string type and vice versa also is provided.

Element persistent identification

Techniques relating to enabling accessibility functionality in remote terminal session scenarios are described. In one instance, a process detects a request from an accessibility functionality regarding a display element in a remote terminal session. The process sends a query relating to the request to a component located on a computing device which generated the display element. The process also receives a response to the query.

Techniques for providing accessibility options in remote terminal sessions

A method and system providing a client with user interface information are described. The method and system implement a set of application program interfaces for providing user interface information to a client through an accessibility system. The accessibility system includes a mechanism for transferring user interface information from a provider side to the client side and a logical tree for selectively revealing user interface information. The application program interface system includes client side application program interfaces for assisting the client in obtaining user interface information. The client side application program interfaces include an automation class, a logical element class, a raw element class, control pattern classes, and an input class. The provider side application program interfaces include a provider automation class, a provider automation interface, a raw element interface, and control pattern provider interfaces.

User interface automation framework classes and interfaces

Control patterns are used to describe functionality that may be exposed by one or more types of elements or controls. Functionality that is common among two or more types of elements is described by the same control pattern. Certain predefined methods, structures, properties, and/or events may be associated with a particular control pattern. Elements that support the control pattern, when queried, return an interface that describes those methods, structures, properties, and/or events. Control patterns are mutually exclusive in the functionality they represent, so they may be combined in arbitrary ways to expose the complete set of functionality offered by a particular control.

System and method for making user interface elements known to an application and user

A method and system providing a client with user interface information are described. An accessibility system for providing user interface information to a client. The accessibility system comprises an accessibility system core including user interface automation services and APIs. The user interface automation tools filter information based on whether the user interface information is interesting to the client. The accessibility system additionally comprises a client side interface including a logical tree for revealing user interface information that is interesting to the client and for hiding user interface information that is not interesting to the client. The accessibility system also comprises a server side interface for facilitating information transfer from a server side regardless of the server side technology.

Accessibility system and method

A query can request user interface information from a user interface element hierarchy. Calls from a client program seeking user interface information related target user interface can be handled by a broker module. The broker module can operate across process boundaries and assemble efficient high-level user interface information queries to reduce the number of cross-process calls needed to collect the user interface information. Reducing the number of cross-process calls can result in better performance through improved speed of response to queries seeking user interface information across process boundaries.

Hierarchical user interface query automation

A method, apparatus, and medium are provided for representing multiple programmatic hierarchal structures as a single hierarchal structure. The method includes identifying at least first and second datasets corresponding to first and second hierarchal structures. Referential links are provided between the first and second sets of data so that the first and second hierarchal structures appear as a single hierarchal structure to a software application. An application program interface enables user-interface elements to be manipulated and includes a set of instructions that can receive a request for information related to displaying one or more elements, a set of instructions that identify multiple hierarchal trees capable of satisfying the request, a set of instructions that represent the hierarchal trees as a single hierarchal tree, and a set of instructions that communicates the representation of the single hierarchal tree to a receiving component.

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Brendan McKeon