Custom Application Icon Display System for Mobile Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current user interfaces on mobile devices lack the ability to efficiently display information about installed applications in a customizable and user-friendly manner, particularly when applications do not conform to the operating system's icon requirements, leading to incomplete or inaccessible game listings.
Innovation Solution
A system that retrieves unique identifiers of installed applications, compares them with a list of known applications from a service platform, and displays custom icons and information, allowing for a customizable user interface to present all installed applications regardless of their origin or packaging, including games, with the option to cache icons for offline use.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If applications are displayed using standard operating system icon requirements, then the user interface maintains consistency and ease of operation, but applications that do not conform to these requirements cannot be displayed, leading to incomplete application listings
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the icon display system into two distinct pathways: standard OS-compliant icons for traditional applications and custom alternative icons for non-conforming applications (particularly games). This segmentation allows each type of application to be displayed according to its specific requirements while maintaining overall system functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism (application information manager and service platform) that mediates between the operating system's display requirements and applications that cannot meet those requirements. This intermediary translates and adapts application information, enabling custom icon display for applications that would otherwise be incompatible with standard display protocols.
2Ease of operation
If a comprehensive list of all installed applications is displayed, then user accessibility and visibility are enhanced, but the device complexity and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by having applications pre-register their information (including custom icons and metadata) with the service platform before being installed on the device. This pre-processing allows the device to display comprehensive application information without performing complex real-time analysis, reducing processing complexity while maintaining accessibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The service platform acts as an intermediary that handles the complex tasks of application information management, icon compilation, and data synchronization. By offloading these complex processing tasks to the service platform rather than the mobile device, the system achieves comprehensive application display without significantly increasing device complexity.
3Loss of information
If custom icons and additional application information are transmitted from a service platform, then application visibility and user information are enhanced, but network dependency and data transmission requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the heavy lifting of application information management and custom icon storage from the mobile device and places it on the service platform. The device only needs to request and display pre-compiled information, significantly reducing network data transmission requirements and infrastructure complexity while maintaining information completeness.
Solution Approach 2:
The service platform creates and maintains master copies of application information and custom icons, which are then distributed to devices as needed. This copying mechanism allows multiple devices to access comprehensive application information without each device needing to store or process the complete dataset, reducing overall network infrastructure requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
An approach is provided for acquiring information regarding installed applications on a user equipment. A request for information is received regarding one or more applications installed on user equipment in a category of applications. The request includes a respective unique identifier for the one or more applications. And, a transmission of the information is initiated including an icon corresponding to the one or more applications compiled using the respective unique identifier for the one or more applications.