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. 30, 2014
Filed:
May. 13, 2004
Randall B. Smith, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Randall B. Smith, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Oracle America, Inc., Redwood City, CA (US);
Abstract
In a method for interacting with a system that includes physical devices that are interfaced with computer software, a graphical representation of a physical device that can be graphically interconnected with a graphical representation of a software module is generated. The graphical representation of the physical device is capable of being represented as either a graphical copy mode representation or a graphical ghost mode representation. On-screen interaction with functionality of the physical device is enabled when the graphical representation of the physical device is in the graphical copy mode representation. A true physical state of the physical device is tracked when the graphical representation of the physical device is in the graphical ghost mode representation. The tracking of the true physical state of the physical device disables on-screen interaction with functionality of the physical device. A dual-mode graphical user interface element for interfacing with a physical device also is described.