Adaptive user interface for multi-source systems
View Patent ↗A method for controlling configuration display screens within a client-host multi-source system, including transferring look & feel parameters from a host device to a client device, setting parameters of a configuration program for the client device, according to the look & feel parameters transferred by the transferring, generating, by the configuration program, a graphic image of a screen, the graphic image conforming to the look & feel parameters, and displaying the graphic image on a display screen of the host device. A system and a computer-readable storage medium are also described and claimed.
1. A bridge system for auxiliary display devices connected to a computer, comprising:
a main computer running a plurality of mini-programs, each mini-program sending items of information of a specific nature from the main computer to a corresponding auxiliary display device, for presentation to a user;
a plurality of auxiliary display devices, each auxiliary display device comprising an auxiliary screen and each auxiliary display device having user interface visual elements, for receiving items of information from the corresponding plurality of mini-programs, and for displaying the items of information on said auxiliary screens according to the corresponding user interface visual elements; and
at least one bridge device coupled to said main computer, each bridge device also coupled to at least two of said auxiliary display devices, each bridge device comprising a bridge screen, and each bridge device receiving a description of user interface visual elements from each of the auxiliary display devices coupled thereto and receiving items of information for display from each mini-program corresponding to an auxiliary display device coupled thereto, forwarding each received item of information to the corresponding auxiliary display device, and displaying each received item of information on said bridge screen according to the user interface visual elements of the corresponding auxiliary display device.
2. The bridge system of claim 1 further comprising a configuration manager running on said main computer, for setting up a configuration of which ones of said bridge devices are to display information from which ones of the mini-programs.
3. The bridge system of claim 1 further comprising at least one bridge configuration manager running on said at least one bridge device, each bridge configuration manager specifying which ones of said auxiliary display devices coupled to the bridge device are to display information from which ones of the mini-programs.
4. The bridge system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of auxiliary display devices includes an e-mail reader.
5. The bridge system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of auxiliary display devices includes a calendar scheduler.
6. The bridge system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of auxiliary display devices includes a GPS navigator.
7. The bridge system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of auxiliary display devices includes a weather reporter.
8. The bridge system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of auxiliary display devices includes a home entertainment system.
9. The bridge system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of auxiliary display devices includes a digital picture frame.
10. The bridge system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of auxiliary display devices includes a portable music player.
11. The bridge system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of auxiliary display devices includes a cellular telephone.
12. A computer-based method for managing auxiliary display devices connected to a computer, comprising:
receiving, by a bridge device that bridges a main computer with a plurality of auxiliary display devices, from the main computer, at least two extensible markup language (XML) documents comprising respective data of specific natures, generated by respective at least two mini-programs running on the main computer, and receiving descriptions of user interface visual elements from respective at least two of the auxiliary display devices that display information in a display format conforming to the user interface visual elements for presentation to a user;
transforming, by the bridge device, the XML documents to respective bitmap images conforming to the user interface visual elements of the respective auxiliary display devices;
transmitting, by the bridge device, the bitmap images to the respective auxiliary display devices for presentation to the user;
receiving, by the bridge device, indications of actions performed by the user on the auxiliary display devices in response to the user viewing the respective bitmap images presented thereon;
generating, by the bridge device, additional bitmap images, in response to and based on the respective received indications, conforming to the user interface visual elements of the respective auxiliary display devices; and
further transmitting, by the bridge device, the additional bitmap images to the respective auxiliary display devices for further presentation to the user.
13. A computer-based method for managing auxiliary display devices connected to a computer, comprising:
receiving, by a bridge device that bridges a main computer with a plurality of auxiliary display devices, from the computer, at least two extensible markup language (XML) documents comprising respective data of specific natures, generated by respective at least two mini-programs running on the main computer, and receiving descriptions of user interface visual elements from respective at least two of the auxiliary display devices that display information in a display format conforming to the user interface visual elements for presentation to a user;
transforming, by the bridge device, the XML documents to respective bitmap images conforming to the user interface visual elements of the respective auxiliary display devices;
transmitting, by the bridge device, the bitmap images to the respective auxiliary display devices for presentation to the user;
receiving, by the bridge device from the main computer, additional XML documents generated by the respective mini-programs;
generating, by the bridge device, additional bitmap images based on the respective additional XML documents, conforming to the user interface visual elements of the respective auxiliary display devices; and
further transmitting, by the bridge device, the additional bitmap images to the respective auxiliary display devices for further presentation to the user.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the XML data of specific natures comprise e-mail information.
15. The method of claim 13 wherein the XML data of specific natures comprise calendar schedule information.
16. The method of claim 13 wherein the XML data of specific natures comprise picture information.
17. The method of claim 13 wherein the XML data of specific natures comprise GPS navigational information.
18. The method of claim 13 wherein the XML data of specific natures comprise weather information.