Software Interfaces for 2.5-D Graphics Plane Composition

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing 2.5-D interactive media environments, typically supported by specialized hardware, lack portability across various applications and environments due to their hardware-specific nature, limiting their flexibility and resource efficiency, especially in devices with constrained resources like mobile devices and set-top boxes.

Innovation Solution

Software interfaces, such as IPlanarMixer and IPlane, abstract the mixing of audio-visual content into 2.5-D graphics planes, enabling portable and resource-efficient composition and rendering of interactive experiences across diverse computing environments, including thin-clients and thick-clients, by allocating memory and applying business rules for correct stacking and rendering.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If specialized hardware is used to implement 2.5-D interactive media environments, then the rendering performance and visual quality are improved, but the portability across applications and environments deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverendering performanceVSAvoidportability

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces software interfaces (IPlanarMixer, IPlane) as intermediaries between the hardware mixing engine and applications. These interfaces abstract the hardware-specific details while maintaining a standardized API, allowing the same software to run across different hardware platforms without modification. The IPlanarMixer interface acts as a mediator that translates generic mixing requests into hardware-specific operations, resolving the contradiction between hardware optimization and software portability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent creates software abstractions that copy the essential functionality of hardware mixing engines into portable interface definitions. By implementing the mixing logic in software interfaces rather than being locked into specific hardware implementations, the system replicates hardware capabilities in a portable format that can be adapted to different environments while maintaining consistent behavior across platforms.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

2Reliability

If specialized hardware is used for 2.5-D mixing, then the visual quality and rendering capability are improved, but the resource efficiency on devices with constrained resources deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvevisual qualityVSAvoidresource efficiency

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements dynamic resource management where the mixing engine adapts its operation based on available resources. The software interfaces allow the system to dynamically adjust mixing operations, plane composition strategies, and rendering priorities according to the device's current resource state. This enables high-quality rendering when resources are abundant while automatically optimizing for resource-constrained environments, resolving the contradiction between visual quality and resource efficiency.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

3Productivity

If hardware-specific implementations are used, then the rendering performance is improved, but the flexibility and adaptability to different computing environments deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverendering performanceVSAvoidflexibility

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent designs the software interfaces to be universal and multi-functional, capable of operating across diverse computing environments from thin clients to thick clients. The IPlanarMixer and IPlane interfaces are designed to work with different operating systems, hardware configurations, and resource levels, making the mixing engine universally applicable while maintaining optimized performance characteristics across different platforms.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

4Adaptability or versatility

If software interfaces are used to abstract mixing hardware, then the portability across environments is improved, but the device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

ImproveportabilityVSAvoidsoftware complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the mixing engine functionality into distinct, well-defined software interfaces (IPlanarMixer for mixing operations, IPlane for plane management). This segmentation allows each interface to have a specific, manageable responsibility, reducing overall system complexity while improving portability. The clear separation of concerns between different interface components makes the system easier to implement, maintain, and adapt to different platforms without requiring complex monolithic software.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS8884983B2Time-synchronized graphics composition in a 2.5-dimensional user interface environment

Publication Date: 2014.11.11 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

AI summary

Software interfaces are configured to enable functionality that is commonly implemented in special-purpose hardware for mixing AV content into a set of 2.5-D graphics planes to be exposed to high level processes executing in a computing environment in a fully portable manner. Illustratively, the interfaces include a planar mixer (named “IPlanarMixer”) that abstracts the mixing hardware, and a graphics plane interface (named “IPlane”) that abstracts individual instances of planes that are retrieved from, and handed off to the planar mixer as the 2.5-D graphics planes are built up and rendered in a computing environment to support interactive graphic experiences for a user.