Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Mark Jeffrey Weinberg

Tandy Woodson Trower, Ii

Tandy W Trower, Ii

Rodger William Benson

Jeffrey C Fong

Mark R Gibson

Kathryn L Parker

William T Flora

John Wickens Lamb Merrill

John W Merrill

Mark D Mackenzie

Christopher D Williams

Molly Scoville Rhoten

John E Elsbree

Darren Alexander Apfel

Brian C McDowell

Paolo V Malabuyo

David R Fulmer

Mark S Newell

Michelle Verena Niethammer

Colby D Boles

Charles H Shoemaker

Joseph Howard Matthews

Switching between an arm's length user interface and a distance user interface is provided. A first user interface optimized to operate a computer from an arm's-length distance is presented on a display. A command is received. It is determined whether the command is from a wired device or a wirelessly-connected device. When the command is from a wired device, then the first user interface continues to be presented. When the command is from a wirelessly-connected device, then the display is toggled from the first user interface to the distance user interface. The distance user interface is optimized for operating the computer from a television-viewing distance. The television-viewing distance measured in feet is approximately half of a diagonal measure of the image displayed on the display device measured in inches.

User interface for operating a computer from a distance

Streaming content customization techniques are described. In an implementation, metadata, that is associated with an element, is synchronized with a stream of content that includes the element. The element is configured to accept an input to access related content that provides context for a scene that includes the element. After the related content is output, playback of the stream of content is resumed from the point at which the input was accepted to access the related content.

Customizing streaming content presentation

A new user interface, a distance user interface, in a computer system for operating a computer from a television-viewing distance is provided. A centralized display is provided enabling a user to access streaming video and sound as well as music files, video files, and picture files from a single screen. Collaborative sharing of media content is provided by enabling a computer's operations and feedback to be collectively observed from a distance.

In a computer, a user interface allows users to input requests to various applications or software modules executing on the computer. During the input process, the invention presents to the user a grammar-based automatic completion of the user input so far, and/or a grammar-based suggestion list of one or more possible options for completing the user input.

Grammar-based automatic data completion and suggestion for user input

Upon authentication via a required multi-function hardware component, coupled to a computer system with one or more computer-readable media, having a software product embodied thereon, one implementation, described herein, conditionally blocks or grants access to the software functionality of that software product on that computer system.

Hardware-based software authenticator

A method, application interface, and medium is provided for presenting a variety of data representations in a screen-area inset. The inset(s) can be one or more bounded portions of a graphical user interface. The inset offers a picture-in-picture type of functionality to present videos, data, pictures, audio, and other data representations in a persistently viewable screen area that does not consume the entirety of a display device. The API includes instructions to allow software components to use the inset. The method includes receiving one or more event requests related to the inset, communicating them to a software application or operating system, receiving one or more data sets to satisfy the event requests, and communicating the data sets to the original software application to present a data representation in the inset.

Interface for presenting data representations in a screen-area inset

An animation system provides synchronization services to synchronize actions of two more interactive user interface characters that are displayed simultaneously. The animation services allow applications to make animation requests to control the actions of characters on the display. These actions include playing one of the character's animation sequences and generating speech output with lip-synched animation of the character's mouth. Accessible via script commands or an Application Programming Interface, the synchronization services allow an application to control interaction between two or more characters on the display. Applications can synchronize actions by invoking straightforward commands such as Wait, Interrupt, or Stop. In response to these commands, the animation server synchronizes scheduled actions by halting playback of a character until a specified action of another character completes or halting a specified action of one character after scheduled actions for another character are completed.

Method and system for synchronizing scripted animations

The animation of a speaking character is synchronized with recorded speech by creating and playing a linguistically enhanced sound file. A sound editing tool employs a speech recognition engine to create the linguistically enhanced sound file from recorded speech and a text of the speech. The speech recognition engine provides timing information related to word breaks and phonemes that is used by the sound editing tool to annotate the speech sound data when creating the linguistically enhanced sound file. When the linguistically enhanced sound file is played to produce sound output, the timing information is retrieved to control the animated character's mouth movement and word pacing in the character's word balloon. The sound editing tool additionally provides editing functions for manipulating the timing information. A text to speech engine can use the same programming interface as the linguistically enhanced sound file player to send notifications to the animation, providing prototyping without recorded speech. Since both use the same interface, recorded speech can be incorporated at a later time with minimal modifications.

Synchronizing the moveable mouths of animated characters with recorded speech

An animation method and system generates interactive animation in the foreground of the user interface of the computer. The system generates arbitrary shaped animation that is independent of the background image of the user interface by computing a bounding region for a current animation frame in real time and creating a non-rectangular window to match this bounding region. The system draws the animation to this non-rectangular window, which clips the frame to the bounding region of the graphical object. The system can be used to create interactive animation that is not confined to a rectangular window of a hosting application or a window of the application making the request to playback animation.

Method and system for generating arbitrary-shaped animation in the user

A client server animation system provides services to enable clients to play animation and lip-synched speech output for an interactive user interface character. Through the programming interface of the server, clients can specify both speech and cursor device input that an instance of an interactive user interface character will respond to when the clients are active. Clients can also request playback of animation and lip-synched speech output through this interface. Services can be invoked from application programs as well as web scripts embedded in web pages downloaded from the Internet.

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Carnation, WA, United States of America

Mark Jeffrey Weinberg