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:
Jun. 17, 2003
Filed:
Apr. 30, 1999
Kent R. Lowry, Seattle, WA (US);
Howard Wesley Cherry, Seattle, WA (US);
Willard Bruce Jones, Seattle, WA (US);
Tjeerd Hoek, Kirkland, WA (US);
Justin Maguire, III, Seattle, WA (US);
John A. Tholen, Monroe, WA (US);
Richard M. Banks, London, GB;
Terrence T. Huang, Issaquah, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A method for using an indicator, known as “See Through View,” that allows a user to select a region on the display device and still see the visual attributes of the contents as they will appear when the region is deselected. When the user selects a region on the display device, the invention “shades” the background of the selected region. The contents within the selected region are left unchanged. Shading is accomplished by combining each original background base color with a selection shading color to produce a corresponding blended color, or colors. If the corresponding blended color is similar to the background base color, the blended color is either lightened or darkened, as needed to produce an adjusted blended color. Each blended color, or the adjusted blended color (as required) replaces the corresponding base background color within the selected region. The effect is that the selected region and background items appear “shaded.” This allows the user to see the visual attributes of the contents of the selected region, as they would actually appear.