Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Other

Frank G Sanborn

Michael John Novak

Kipley J Olson

David M Nadalin

Kevin P Larkin

Michael I Hyman

Ramin L Halviatti

Ahmed M Azmy Hassan

Methods and systems for creating and rendering skins are described. In one described embodiment, a method of providing a skin model for use in rendering a skin comprises receiving a skin definition file that contains information associated with a skin, and one or more other files that are associated with the skin; providing at least some of the one or more other files directly into computer memory, without the files entering a computer file system; and processing the skin definition file to provide a hierarchical data structure that describes the skin.

Methods and systems for creating skins

Methods and systems for creating and rendering skins are described. In one described embodiment, a skin-organizing method comprises providing one or more file types that define different aspects of a skin; and organizing the files types using a hierarchical tag-based structure.

Methods and systems for creating and rendering skins are described. In one described embodiment skins can be defined as sets of script files, art files, media files, and text files. These files can be used to create new and different skin appearances, layouts and functionalities. The files are organized for use using a hierarchical tag-based data structure, an example of which is an XML data structure. The data structure is processed to provide an object model. The object model can be a scriptable object model that enables script to execute to provide an interactive, dynamic skin that can respond to internal and external events. In one embodiment, a computer architecture used for rendering the skin includes a layout manager that processes an intermediate representation of the XML data structure to provide the scriptable object model. Various components of the scriptable object model can include a script engine for receiving and executing script, and one or more rendering elements. Each rendering element represents a different skin element and can be individually configured to respond to script via the script engine. The inventive systems and techniques can provide a robust, dynamic skin that can be rendered and re-rendered at runtime.

Methods and systems for creating and rendering skins are described. In one described embodiment, a skin is defined using at least one skin definition that defines the skin in a hierarchical tag-based language.

Methods and systems for creating and rendering skins are described, whereby an XML data structure comprises multiple tag pairs, individual tag pairs being associated with and referencing information that can be utilized to render a skin.

A method of generating an image or a video stream is disclosed, in which a composition space within a standard display tool is utilized. In an embodiment, a video editor is configured to control a timer and a frame grabber of the standard display tool, which is configured to receive a document encoded in a standard display language. The video editor controls the timing according to quality requirements, the standard display tool composes an image from the document in the composition space, the frame grabber transmits the image to a destination, such as a video compressor, which may collect a series of images as frames and generate a video stream from the images.

System and method for using a standard composition environment as the composition space for video image editing

A method of supporting all raster-based image manipulations described in vector-based terms. The present invention has the benefits of providing clean transformation that vector-based manipulations yields, and providing a broad selection of all image transformation operations that raster-based manipulations yields. In one aspect of the invention a vector-defined shape is drawn on top of a raster-based image by replacing the contents of the vector image with the bits from the raster image. In another aspect of the present invention, a copy of the portion of the raster image that overlaps with the vector-defined portion is made, the transformation operation is performed on the copy, and then the portion of the raster image is replaced with the transformed copy. In yet another aspect of the present invention, a filter, such as a transformation operation, is attached to a textual vector instruction, the bits defined by the textual vector instruction are replaced with the corresponding bits in a raster image, and the transformation is applied. In still another aspect of the present invention, a browser receives a HTML page, in which the HTML page identifies a custom plug-in extension method to the browser, a background image, a vector shape, and a raster manipulation, the browser communicates the information in the HTML page to the custom plug-in extension component, and the component uses an input buffer, and an output buffer coupled to the browser to perform the raster manipulation on the vector shape and background image.

System and method for providing vector editing of bitmap images

A method of supporting all raster-based image manipulations described in vector-based terms. The present invention has the benefits of providing clean transformation that vector-based manipulations yields, and providing a broad selection of all image transformation operations that raster-based manipulations yield. In one aspect of the invention a vector-defined shape is drawn on top of a raster-based image by replacing the contents of the vector image with the bits from the raster image. In another aspect of the present invention, a copy of the portion of the raster image that overlaps with the vector-defined portion is made, the transformation operation is performed on the copy, and then the portion of the raster image is replaced with the transformed copy. In yet another aspect of the present invention, a filter, such as a transformation operation, is attached to a textual vector instruction, the bits defined by the textual vector instruction are replaced with the corresponding bits in a raster image, and the transformation is applied. In still another aspect of the present invention, a browser receives a HTML page, in which the HTML page identifies a custom plug-in extension method to the browser, a background image, a vector shape, and a raster manipulation, the browser communicates the information in the HTML page to the custom plug-in extension component, and the component uses an input buffer, and an output buffer coupled to the browser to perform the raster manipulation on the vector shape and background image.

A method of generating an image or a video stream in which the composition space in a standard display tool is used as the composition space. One example of a standard display tool is an HTML-compliant browser. In one embodiment, an image or a video editor gains control of the timer and the frame grabber of the standard display tool, a document encoded in a standard display language is received by the standard display tool, the editor controls the timing according to quality requirements, the standard display tool composes an image from the document in the compositor space of the standard display tool, the frame grabber transmits the image to a destination. Where the invention supports video streaming, the destination is a video compressor that collects a series of images as frames, and generates a video stream from the images. In another embodiment, an image or a video editor additionally gains control of the timer of the document and audio and video sources of the document, the editor controls the timing of the standard display tool, the document, the sources and the frame grabber according to the quality requirements.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Frank G Sanborn