The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 19, 2000
Filed:
May. 19, 1997
Tandy W Trower, II, Woodinville, WA (US);
Mark Jeffrey Weinberg, Carnation, WA (US);
John Wickens Merrill, Redmond, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
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.