Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Xerox Corporation

Stuart Taylor

Stephen Edward Hodges

James William Scott

Nicolas Villar

John Franciscus Marie Helmes

Shahram Izadi

Nicholas Yen-Cherng Chen

Christopher R Dance

Tobias Alexander Grosse-Puppendahl

Mauritius Seeger

David Alexander Butler

John Helmes

Josh Fromm

Albrecht Schmidt

Pascal Knierim

Gavin Wood

William M Newman

Richard Malcolm Banks

Abigail Jane Sellen

Daniel Allen Rosenfeld

Alex S Taylor

Otmar Hilliges

David G Molyneaux

Dinan Srilal Gunawardena

Carsten Rother

Michael J Flynn

David Sweeney

Eno Thereska

Philip Charles Gosset

Ercan E Kuruoglu

Refael Zabdi Whyte

Timothy Regan

David Kirk

Alex Butler

Thomas Denney

William H De Boer

Guy J Ruddock

Thomas Robert Kubitza

Sergey Antonovich

Jonathan Hook

A set of reconfigurable clip-on modules for mobile computing devices includes two or more modules and at least one of the modules has an input button or other control and at least one of the modules can communicate with the computing device without needing to be connected to it via a wire. The input button is mapped to a user input in a program, such as a game, which is running or displayed on the computing device to which the modules are clipped. In an embodiment, user inputs via the buttons or other controls on the clip-on modules are mapped to user inputs in a game running on the device, which may be a touch-screen device, and the mapping between user inputs via the buttons and user inputs in the game may change dependent upon the game being played, user preference, or other criteria.

Reconfigurable clip-on modules for mobile computing devices

A device, which may be a peripheral device or a host computing device, comprises a communication interface, a memory and a processor. The processor is arranged to detect imminent disconnection of a communication link between the peripheral device and the host computing device and in response to detecting the imminent disconnection of the communication link, to trigger a data transfer from the host computing device to the peripheral device via the communication interface. The data transfer defines, at least in part, a fixed output data set which, after disconnection, is output via an output device in the peripheral device.

Data transfer between host and peripheral devices

A computing device comprises an electronic paper display, a processor and a memory. The memory is arranged to store platform software and application software for at least one application that is not adapted to work with an electronic paper display. The platform software comprises a UI conversion module comprising device-executable instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: access a UI element tree for the application; generate a modified UI element tree for the application by removing and/or re-styling at least one UI element; and render data from the application using the modified UI element tree for display on the electronic paper display.

Generation of a modified UI element tree

A system is described which comprises an electronic display device, an annotation capture module and a camera. The annotation capture module is configured to trigger a change in an image displayed on the electronic display device responsive to a capture trigger and the camera is configured to capture one or more images of the electronic display device in response to the capture trigger and/or a trigger received from the annotation capture module. The annotation capture module is further arranged to identify any manual annotations made by a user on the electronic display device by analyzing the images of the electronic display device captured by the camera, wherein at least one of the images was captured after the change in the image displayed.

Capturing annotations on an electronic display

A charging device for one or more input modules for a touch-screen device is described. The charging device comprises a charging mechanism and portions which are shaped to receive an input module. The charging mechanism comprises a power input and a power output. The power input is configured to receive power from an external power source and the power input is configured to provide power to one or more input modules which are attached to the charging device.

Charging device for removable input modules

A display device which includes an electronic paper display additionally comprises power harvesting hardware and display update hardware which is configured to control the updating of the electronic paper display based on a sensed power harvesting level which may, in various embodiments, be a current incoming power level as generated by the power harvesting hardware or a stored power level in a power storage device within the display device.

Persistent display device with power harvesting

A display device is described which can be updated by applying pressure with a passive object. The display device comprises a transparent top conductor layer, a middle conductor layer and a bottom conductor layer. The middle conductor layer is segmented into a plurality of independent areas and a pixel of the display device is defined based at least in part on the way that the middle conductor layer is segmented. The display device further comprises an electrophoretic ink layer between the top and middle conductor layers, a layer of piezo-electric material between the middle and bottom conductor layers, and an electrical connection between the bottom and top conductor layers.

Updating a display by applying pressure

A system is described which comprises an input arranged to receive attention tracking data from attention tracking hardware. The attention tracking data, along with parameters associated with each display change request, is then used to select a display change request from a plurality of stored display change requests received from a plurality of different applications and a change defined by the selected display change request is then rendered in a GUI on a display device.

Updating displays based on attention tracking data

Methods and apparatus for displaying dynamic status information on a plurality of devices and enabling interactions between these devices are described. In an embodiment, a trigger signal is sent to one or more computing devices to trigger the launch of an application client on the computing device. The trigger signal is generated on another device in response to a user interacting with the displayed status information. This other device may be an impoverished device which displays status information for an application but is not capable of running the application client. In various embodiments, the status information is displayed in the form of a GUI element called a tile and this status information may be pushed to the device by a proxy server. The trigger signal may be sent to multiple devices or in some embodiments, a computing device may be selected to receive the trigger signal.

Interaction between devices displaying application status information

A display device is described that comprises an electronic paper display but that does not include a power source that is capable of providing sufficient power to update the electronic paper display. Instead, the electronic paper display can only be updated when receiving external power via a digital data and power bus. The bus also provides pixel data for content to be displayed on the electronic paper display and at least one externally generated bias voltage level for the electronic paper display. The display device further comprises a processor that configured to drive the electronic paper display.

Electronic paper display device

A removable input/output module for a touch-screen device is described. The input/output module comprises a front plate, a rear plate and an edge plate. When attached to the touch-screen device, the front plate contacts with the front face of the touch-screen device, the rear plate contacts with the rear face of the touch-screen device and the edge plate contacts at least an upper part of an edge face of the touch-screen device. The input/output module further comprises a mechanism which provides a force to clamp the front and rear plates onto the touch-screen device and an adjustment mechanism which allows the relative position of the front plate and the edge plate to be adjusted.

Removable input/output module with adjustment mechanism

Growing community of inventors

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Stuart Taylor