Matthew R Calkins, 39Los Alamos, NM

7443401, Oct 28, 2008

Oct 23, 2003

10/693822

Leonardo E. Blanco - Redmond WA, US
Paul C. David - Kirkland WA, US
Matthew W. Calkins - Seattle WA, US
Andrei Baioura - Bellevue WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06T 15/70

345473, 345475

Described is a method and system in which timing intervals are generated from clock properties, and used to interpolate values for smooth animation. A high-level component maintains a set of clocks related to animated objects and/or linear media in a scene graphs. The clocks correspond to clock properties received from an application program. The clocks are processed into event lists at the higher level, from which timing interval data is generated and passed to a low-level component. The low-level component, which generally operates at a faster rate than the high-level component, uses the timing interval data to rapidly calculate current values for an animated object. Interaction, such as to pause an animation or resume a paused animation, causes the high-level component to re-compute the event list and regenerate new animation intervals for affected clocks. The new animation intervals are passed and used by the lower-level component.

7511718, Mar 31, 2009

Oct 23, 2003

10/693630

Sriram Subramanian - Kirkland WA, US
Leonardo E. Blanco - Redmond WA, US
Donald B. Curtis - Bellevue WA, US
Joseph S. Beda - Seattle WA, US
Gerhard A. Schneider - Seattle WA, US
Greg D. Schechter - Seattle WA, US
Adam M. Smith - Kirkland WA, US
Eric S. Vandenberg - Seattle WA, US
Matthew W. Calkins - Seattle WA, US
Kevin T. Gallo - Woodinville WA, US
Michael Stokes - Eagle ID, US
Rajat Goel - Seattle WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G09G 5/00

345619, 345622, 345630, 345473

A media integration layer including an application programming interface (API) and an object model allows program code developers to interface in a consistent manner with a scene graph data structure in order to output graphics. Via the interfaces, program code adds child visuals to other visuals to build up a hierarchical scene graph, writes Instruction Lists such as geometry data, image data, animation data and other data for output, and may specify transform, clipping and opacity properties on visuals. The media integration layer and API enable programmers to accomplish composition effects within their applications in a straightforward manner, while leveraging the graphics processing unit in a manner that does not adversely impact normal application performance. A multiple-level system includes the ability to combine different media types (such as 2D, 3D, Video, Audio, text and imaging) and animate them smoothly and seamlessly.

7548237, Jun 16, 2009

Aug 4, 2006

11/499257

Paul C. David - Kirkland WA, US
Gerhard A. Schneider - Seattle WA, US
Matthew W. Calkins - Seattle WA, US
Oreste Dorin Ungureanu - Duvall WA, US
Ashraf Michail - Redmond WA, US
Andrey E. Arsov - Sammamish WA, US
Leonardo E. Blanco - Redmond WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06T 17/00

345420, 345440, 345473, 345474, 345503, 345520, 700245, 709203, 709246, 715234

A visual tree structure as specified by a program is constructed and maintained by a visual system's user interface thread. As needed, the tree structure is traversed on the UI thread, with changes compiled into change queues. A secondary rendering thread that handles animation and graphical composition takes the content from the change queues, to construct and maintain a condensed visual tree. Static visual subtrees are collapsed, leaving a condensed tree with only animated attributes such as transforms as parent nodes, such that animation data is managed on the secondary thread, with references into the visual tree. When run, the rendering thread processes the change queues, applies changes to the condensed trees, and updates the structure of the animation list as necessary by resampling animated values at their new times. Content in the condensed visual tree is then rendered and composed. Animation and a composition communication protocol are also provided.

2004018, Sep 30, 2004

Mar 27, 2003

10/402322

Paul David - Kirkland WA, US
Gerhard Schneider - Seattle WA, US
Matthew Calkins - Seattle WA, US
Oreste Ungureanu - Duvall WA, US
Ashraf Michail - Redmond WA, US
Andrey Arsov - Sammamish WA, US
Leonardo Blanco - Redmond WA, US

G09G005/00
G06T013/00

345/619000, 345/473000, 345/949000

A visual tree structure as specified by a program is constructed and maintained by a visual system's user interface thread. As needed, the tree structure is traversed on the UI thread, with changes compiled into change queues. A secondary rendering thread that handles animation and graphical composition takes the content from the change queues, to construct and maintain a condensed visual tree. Static visual subtrees are collapsed, leaving a condensed tree with only animated attributes such as transforms as parent nodes, such that animation data is managed on the secondary thread, with references into the visual tree. When run, the rendering thread processes the change queues, applies changes to the condensed trees, and updates the structure of the animation list as necessary by resampling animated values at their new times. Content in the condensed visual tree is then rendered and composed. Animation and a composition communication protocol are also provided.

2005004, Mar 3, 2005

Aug 29, 2003

10/651896

Kurt Jacob - Redmond WA, US
Peter Faraday - Seattle WA, US
Sujal Parikh - Seattle WA, US
Leonardo Blanco - Redmond WA, US
Kenneth Young - Sammamish WA, US
Matthew Calkins - Seattle WA, US

G06T015/70

345475000, 345474000, 345473000

An transition information is created and stored for layout animations. This transition information is then applied to layout changes at runtime when a trigger event occurs to animate a change in a layout. In one embodiment, transition information is provided in a script. The script details how a layout transition will occur in a layout during runtime. When the transition does occur, the transition information specified is applied to the transition, thereby allowing the user experience to be enhanced. In this way, animation is integrated in providing a graphical display.