Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Gregory W Riker

Nathan P Myhrvold

Adam Christopher Rauch

Edwin W Thorne, Iii

A computer method and system for providing a user with efficient selection of a television program to view or record. The method provides concurrent display of a television schedule with a graphic description and a textual description of the television program currently selected by the user from the displayed television schedule. The displayed television schedule comprises a schedule layout displayed to the user on a screen display. The schedule layout includes a number of program names arranged in an adaptively learned order based on the frequency of the user's previous selections. Each time a program name is selected by the user, the graphic description and the textual description of the television program represented by the selected program name are displayed concurrently with the adaptively ordered schedule layout. Thus, the user can select a television program perceptively and without delay.

Television scheduling system for displaying a grid representing

A computer method and system for providing a user with selectively interdependent control of devices. The devices include lamps, video cameras, motion detectors, and so forth. An identification of a first device and a second device is obtained from the user. A definition of a dependency relationship is then obtained from the user wherein the second device has a status which depends on a status of the first device. The status of the first device is continually monitored. When the status of the first device changes, the status of the second device is updated in accordance with the dependency relationship defined by the user. The second device is then activated or deactivated based on the updated status of the second device. Any number of devices are controlled in this fashion.

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Woodinville, WA, United States of America

Gregory W Riker