Application Notification Display System with Centralized Management

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Solution Overview

Problem

Users face challenges in navigating and accessing information across numerous applications on computing devices due to the abundance of installed applications, leading to increased time spent searching for desired information.

Innovation Solution

Implementing application notification display techniques that manage notifications, including replacement, queuing, prioritization, and cycling of notifications based on execution states and application manifests, allowing developers to control how notifications are displayed without executing the corresponding applications, thus conserving battery life and improving performance.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If users install a large number of applications to access diverse functionality, then application availability and ease of access are improved, but navigation time and difficulty in locating desired information increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveapplication availabilityVSAvoidnavigation time
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a notification manager as an intermediary component that sits between applications and the user interface. This manager consolidates notifications from multiple applications into a unified display, allowing users to access information from various applications without navigating through each application individually. The notification manager mediates the interaction between the diverse application ecosystem and the user, reducing navigation time while preserving application availability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The notification system provides a universal interface that aggregates information from multiple different applications through a single access point. Instead of requiring separate interfaces for each application, the system creates a multi-functional notification display that can show weather, news, messages, and other application information in one location, thereby reducing the time needed to locate desired information across numerous applications.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Loss of information

If notifications are displayed for multiple applications simultaneously, then information availability is improved, but device resource consumption and battery life deteriorate

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation availabilityVSAvoidbattery life
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the notification management functionality from individual applications and centralizes it in a separate notification manager component. This extraction allows the system to display information from multiple applications without requiring each application to run continuously. The notification manager selectively retrieves and displays notification data, reducing the energy consumption associated with maintaining multiple application instances while preserving information availability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-fetching and caching notification data from multiple applications in advance. The notification manager can retrieve notification information asynchronously and store it locally, allowing the display to show up-to-date information without requiring continuous application execution. This preliminary data preparation reduces real-time processing requirements and conserves battery life while maintaining information availability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

3Adaptability or versatility

If developers implement custom notification display logic in each application, then notification customization is improved, but system complexity and difficulty of management increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenotification customizationVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the notification system into distinct modular components: application-specific notification generators, a central notification manager, and a unified display interface. Each component has a specific responsibility - applications generate notification data according to their own logic, the manager handles aggregation, filtering, and scheduling, and the display presents the consolidated information. This segmentation allows customization at the application level while maintaining systematic management through the central manager, reducing overall system complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The notification manager serves as an intermediary layer that standardizes the interface between diverse applications and the unified display. Applications can implement custom notification logic independently, communicating with the manager through a standardized protocol. The manager handles the complexity of aggregation, prioritization, and display coordination, shielding applications from system-level complexity while preserving their customization capabilities.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentEP2715530B1Application notification display
Publication Date: 2019.01.23 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC
  • EP2715530B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2715530B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2715530B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Application notification display techniques are described. Implementations are described in which a representation of an application may include notifications that pertain to the application. Techniques are further described which may be used to manage the notifications, including replacement of notifications, use of queues, overrides, selection of notifications based on execution state of an application, cycling a display of a plurality of notifications, cycling a display of different subsets of notifications, examination of a manifest of an application to determine criteria to be used to display the notifications, display priority of the notifications, and so on.