Visual characteristics of user interface elements in a unified interest layer

Abstract: A user-activatable dashboard (also referred to as a unified interest layer) contains any number of user interface elements, referred to herein as “widgets,” for quick access by a user. In response to a command from a user, the dashboard is invoked and the widgets are shown on the screen. The user can activate the dashboard at any time, causing the dashboard to temporarily replace the existing user interface display on the user's screen. Once the dashboard has been activated, the user can interact with any or all of the widgets, and can configure the dashboard by adding, deleting, moving, or configuring individual widgets as desired. When the user wishes to return to the normal user interface he or she was working with, the user issues a command causing the dashboard to be dismissed. Once the dashboard has been dismissed, the previous user interface state is restored, allowing the user to resume normal interactions with the operating system. (end of abstract)

Visual characteristics of user interface elements in a unified interest layer description/claims

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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional, under 35 U.S.C. § 121, of U.S. Application Ser. No. 11/370,743, entitled “Unified Interest Layer for User Interface,” filed Mar. 7, 2006, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/877,968, entitled “Unified Interest Layer for User Interface,” filed Jun. 25, 2004; and the subject matter of the invention is generally related to the following jointly owed and co-pending patent applications, each incorporated herein by reference in its entirety:

- U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 11/144,384, for “Procedurally Expressing Graphic Objects for Web Pages,” filed Jun. 25, 2004 (P3489);
- U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 10/874,829, for “User Interface for Assisting in the Installation of an Asset,” filed Jun. 22, 2004 (P3453US1);
- U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 10/877,358, for “Display-Wide Visual Effects for a Windowing System Using a Programmable Graphics Processing Unit,” filed Jun. 25, 2004 (P3351US1);
- U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 10/826,762, for “High-Level Program Interface for Graphics Operations,” filed Apr. 16, 2004 (P3352US1);
- U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 10/866,360, for “System and Method for Processing Graphics Operations with Graphics Processing Unit,” filed Jun. 11, 2004 (P3354USX1);
- U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 10/826,596, for “Improved Gaussian Blur,” filed Apr. 16, 2004 (P3355US1);
- U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 10/826,744, for “System for Emulating Graphics Operations,” filed Apr. 16, 2004 (P3356US1);
- U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 10/876,298, for “User-Interface Design,” filed Jun. 24, 2004 (P3318US1);
- U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 10/876,039, for “Gaussian Blur Approximation Suitable for GPU,” filed Jun. 24, 2004 (P3362US1);
- U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 10/825,694, for “System for Optimizing Graphics Operations,” filed Apr. 16, 2004 (P3353US1);
- U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 10/826,773, for “System for Reducing the Number of Programs Necessary to Render an Image,” filed Apr. 16, 2004 (P3357US1); and
- U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 10/875,483, for “Fast Approximation Functions for Image Processing Filters,” filed Jun. 24, 2004 (P3429US1).

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