Apple proposes translucency to solve "window overlap" problem

[AppleInsider]

Window-based information systems like the Mac OS X Finder face a common problem called "window overlap." Apple in a new patent filing suggests solving this problem through the use of gradual and manipulative window transparency.

In the 16-page filing made this March, the Mac maker explains that when operating system windows overlap one another, they tend to hide valuable information such as other windows or icons.

"What results is that the particular information the user wants to obtain may be hidden behind several layers of windows and may be difficult to access; when an icon is hidden by another window it is temporarily not accessible," the company says. "This has been referred to in the industry as the 'window overlap' problem. There are several instances where window overlap problems routinely arise in the usage of conventional user interfaces."

For the purpose of the particular filing, Apple chose to focus on floating windows that provide feedback information to a user regarding a particular operation, which are often "a useful, yet sometimes annoying phenomenon." As such, it proposes to overcome this problem by providing such floating windows with varying visual and manipulative qualities.

"For example, a floating window that has not been updated with new information within a predetermined time period will become translucent so that the underlying window or windows are then visible to the user," the company said. "Other actions or omissions may also serve as a trigger for graduated translucency of windows [...] Moreover, as the floating window becomes translucent, the user can click-through to the underlying window(s) to interact with its contents. When information on the floating window is updated, it can return to being opaque until the predetermined time period has elapsed again without new information being presented."



More specifically, Apple explained that a floating window could become translucent via a series of steps. For example, the floating window may initially be displayed as completely opaque and then, after the predetermined time period expires, have its opacity reduced in steps of, for example, twenty-five percent.

The floating window could also have a lower limit of translucency as well. Each of those parameters could be set by the application which generates the floating window or be set by the system or the user.

"By applying graduated visual translucency, as well as manipulative translucency, a user is able to receive the benefits of an information-bearing floating window without having to move the floating window to reach underlying content," Apple added. "Moreover, the change in visual translucency provides a focus mechanism to the user who will readily associate a return to opacity with new information being presented on the floating window."

Separately, Apple also continues to strive for a patent on a version of its Mighty Mouse that would shed the traditional scroll ball for a completely optical scroll sensor build into the device's housing.



Apple originally filed for the patent back in December of 2006 and later followed it up with another filing that described a Mighty Mouse with an enclosure capable of sensing and distinguishing between multi-touch like gestures.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[hypoluxa]

Please for the love of all that is user friendly Apple, do not implement anymore transparent eye candy crap!!! Expose works fine for showing our open windows!

[merdhead]

People should give up on the notion that Apple patents things because they are going to use them. They patent every half baked idea they have because it gives them an advantage. Sadly a large patent portfolio, not matter how daft, is important in the days of patent trolls and East Texas patent juries.

In other words, it's totally meaningless and Apple will never implement such an idea.

[Richard Hallas]

I can see what they're driving at here, especially in the case of floating inspector palettes (the ones that tend to be semi-transparent anyway, such as those in iPhoto, DVD Player etc.). They're always getting in the way and having to be moved, but whether it'd be a good idea to fade them out and make them clickable through is another question entirely. I'd suspect not, but it's all in the implementation. I won't condemn the idea as being unworkable without trying it out and finding it to be unworkable first!

What really intrigues me, though, is the pictures drawn in the patent filing, as they show very clearly a Classic-style Mac OS desktop rather than Mac OS X. Old-style Finder menu bar with Special on it; Classic-style window gadgets and floating windows; it's very obviously not Mac OS X in the picture. I wonder why. Could this be an ancient idea resurfacing?

[stephend]

Surely there is loads of prior art for the translucency part? All my Growl notifications are semi-transparent. And what about the tool palettes in Office 2004 that become translucent if you don't use them for a while?

I do think it's useful but it shouldn't be patentable (as it's pretty obvious) and certainly not by Apple!

--> Stephen

[kim kap sol]

Originally Posted by merdhead

People should give up on the notion that Apple patents things because they are going to use them. They patent every half baked idea they have because it gives them an advantage. Sadly a large patent portfolio, not matter how daft, is important in the days of patent trolls and East Texas patent juries.

In other words, it's totally meaningless and Apple will never implement such an idea.

Exactly...

...and proof is that the sketch was done back in the OS 8/9 days. The menu bar and the window is indication that this is something that dates waaaay back. And more indication is that Apple fiddled with the idea of transparency in OS X's early days and abandoned the idea especially when Exposé + Spaces became the better solution.

[kim kap sol]

Originally Posted by Richard Hallas

I wonder why. Could this be an ancient idea resurfacing?

It most definitely is.

[emig647]

Perhaps because the windows used in the patent drawing are from os 8 or os 9?

[mciarlo]

How can an idea like this be patentable? I'm sure Apple wasn't the first to think of this. Heck, I could have patented this if I had a few thousand dollars just lying around.

[age234]

Originally Posted by mciarlo

How can an idea like this be patentable? I'm sure Apple wasn't the first to think of this. Heck, I could have patented this if I had a few thousand dollars just lying around.

Ah, but you didn't. That's the key.

[ascii]

Translucency might solve the overlap problem (sort of), but it also creates readability problems and makes the interface in general look more cluttered. For download/filecopy progress they could use a voice instead of a window.

[aegisdesign]

They're probably renewing a much earlier pre-OSX patent but AI haven't traced it further back.

[caliminius]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Separately, Apple also continues to strive for a patent on a version of its Mighty Mouse that would shed the traditional scroll ball for a completely optical scroll sensor build into the device's housing.

Apple originally filed for the patent back in December of 2006 and later followed it up with another filing that described a Mighty Mouse with an enclosure capable of sensing and distinguishing between multi-touch like gestures.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

This is the big news to me. Having a Mighty Mouse I no longer use since the scroll ball stopped working, I welcome a mouse that doesn't use it.

Now if they'd do away with the crappy, pressure sensitive, side, 2-buttons-that-only-like-one thing and maybe just put a button or two on the side in reach of the thumb and it could be a worthwhile mouse.

[icfireball]

Originally Posted by caliminius

This is the big news to me. Having a Mighty Mouse I no longer use since the scroll ball stopped working, I welcome a mouse that doesn't use it.

Now if they'd do away with the crappy, pressure sensitive, side, 2-buttons-that-only-like-one thing and maybe just put a button or two on the side in reach of the thumb and it could be a worthwhile mouse.

Try cleaning the scroll ball:

Vigorously rub the mouse's scroll ball on a piece of plain white paper (with the mouse upside-down).

[cibi3d]

Actually, the last beta version of Xcode implements something similar in the Interface Builder... If you control-click on an item of a NIB, you get one of the black windows (don't remember their name) for connections of outlets and actions... when you drag one connection onto an object behind that window, it gets a very high translucency... Well, sorry for my English.. here there is an image

[JakeTheRock]

Did anyone else notice how screwed up the hands in the mouse patent looked?

It always makes me laugh to look at how Apple patents depict fingers/hands...

[jpellino]

from 8.x IIRC?

[SuperMacGuy]

Unsanity has Windowshade which can make any window transparent, or windowshade it like OS9. totally not new.
Unsanity rocks.

[nagromme]

Originally Posted by JakeTheRock

Did anyone else notice how screwed up the hands in the mouse patent looked?

It always makes me laugh to look at how Apple patents depict fingers/hands...

Tree Frog Man is back!!!

[amcl]

Any patent claim here is dubious, with several examples of prior art. Then again the patent office allows stupid patents all the time so who knows...
compiz running on X windows has had similar effects for some time.

[bdkennedy1]

Sometimes it amazes me that I'm using a 1980's ball on my mouse and that it needs to make fake noises to satisfy me. So the optical sensor will be greatly appreciated.

And what's up with those ugly alien fingers Apple uses for its patent drawings?

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by Richard Hallas

What really intrigues me, though, is the pictures drawn in the patent filing, as they show very clearly a Classic-style Mac OS desktop rather than Mac OS X. Old-style Finder menu bar with Special on it; Classic-style window gadgets and floating windows; it's very obviously not Mac OS X in the picture. I wonder why. Could this be an ancient idea resurfacing?

Maybe, but this isn't the first time that Apple has patented a recent idea using an older style look to its SW and HW.

edit: They have a date of 1998 in the patent image and the text offers no column view, only icon, large icon and list.

Originally Posted by stephend

Surely there is loads of prior art for the translucency part? All my Growl notifications are semi-transparent. And what about the tool palettes in Office 2004 that become translucent if you don't use them for a while?

There is one main difference between other apps offering translucency. This isn't making the whole window translucent, it's only making the front window of the section that is over another part of the Finder window. The background does not appear to be coming through. Every other app or plugin that offers translucency is an all-or-nothing solution across that entire app or window. This has the added benefit and unique quality that your background or an different app does not show through but when a window of the same app crosses another it will lighten so both are seen. This could be very in Xcode.

edit: I thought the background image goes behind the lower window, but it clearly stops before it so it doesn't look like it's looking less selective in its translucency and I'm not going to read the 16 page report. Besides offering a selective translucency, having the items from both windows selectable while they are overlapping/merged would be handy at times.

[Galley]

Nice reference to Blue Swede's Hooked on a Feeling.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by icfireball

Try cleaning the scroll ball:

Vigorously rub the mouse's scroll ball on a piece of plain white paper (with the mouse upside-down).

It's a poor solution when it is the design that needs to be fixed. The mighty mouse scroll ball requires more maintenance than any mouse that I've ever owned, even the pre-optical mice required a lot less cleaning.

[TrevorD]

This isn't a simple matter of eye candy or a useless feature. I've seen the difference, and it's a huge usability boost.

On my Mac, I have Growl notifications. They're partially transparent, so I can see through them when they pop up, and they don't steal keyboard focus, so I can continue working without interruption. They give me the information I need, and that's it.

On my Windows computer for work, I get annoyed all the time by notifications. Popups in the system tray are completely opaque and often stay around way too long. If I need to see something under them, or use a control or icon underneath them, I have to close the notification first. It seems like a minor thing, but it's a pain.

Worse, I don't know how many times I'd be in the middle of typing when all of a sudden, a Lotus Notes reminder would pop up on my screen (my company insists on using Notes, by the way, it's not my choice). Not only is the reminder intrusive, but it steals keyboard focus! So I'm in the middle of typing, then all of a sudden this reminder pops up and before I have a chance to stop typing, I've hit either Return or Space. So that means I've dismissed the reminder before getting a chance to see it, and I have to go into Notes, open my Calendar, and check what the reminder was for. If I wanted to Snooze it, oh well, too late, it's been dismissed.

If you've never had the joy of working in an environment where notifications work properly and unintrusively, you probably think this is all whining. You're accustomed to it, and even if you find it annoying, you don't think too much about it. But once you've gotten used to something that's properly implemented, annoyances like this are infuriating. Transparency and proper use of keyboard focus are HUGE usability boosts.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by TrevorD

This isn't a simple matter of eye candy or a useless feature. I've seen the difference, and it's a huge usability boost.

...

If you've never had the joy of working in an environment where notifications work properly and unintrusively, you probably think this is all whining. You're accustomed to it, and even if you find it annoying, you don't think too much about it. But once you've gotten used to something that's properly implemented, annoyances like this are infuriating. Transparency and proper use of keyboard focus are HUGE usability boosts.

Something like this transparency would only help you if the OS forces this behavior on the applications. I think the real problem for you is that Windows UI conventions allows this more. With most of your examples, the problem is really the fault of some developers not understanding how their users use their software.

With Apple owning the patent, it's probably not going to help a Windows user except with Apple-made apps.

[bobertoq]

was this before the mighty mouse and os x? look at the pictures

also... those are some funny looking hands

[icfireball]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

It's a poor solution when it is the design that needs to be fixed. The mighty mouse scroll ball requires more maintenance than any mouse that I've ever owned, even the pre-optical mice required a lot less cleaning.

I was simply helping caliminius get the scroll ball work work again.

The Mighty Mouse is not the best mouse, but it's pretty good for the basic mouse. Sure cleaning it every once a while is a little annoying, but it only takes a few seconds at most.

Keep in mind that the Mighty Mouse is a primarily a bundled mouse. Find me a much better bundled mouse and I'd be very surprised. Most mouses that people say are so great (Logitech for example) are mouses that you have to buy separately anyways.

[pmjoe]

Apple trying to take credit for more things that were done and documented 10-20 years ago?

[Ireland]

Mighty Mouse!

[macinthe408]

Is there any truth to the rumor that Microsoft Mac apps will override this translucent behavior and keep its windows fully opaque 100% of the time, overriding any other non-Microsoft app windows?

[macinthe408]

Originally Posted by pmjoe

Apple trying to take credit for more things that were done and documented 10-20 years ago?

No, just taking credit for making something that was bad and making it good.

[TrevorD]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

Something like this transparency would only help you if the OS forces this behavior on the applications. I think the real problem for you is that Windows UI conventions allows this more. With most of your examples, the problem is really the fault of some developers not understanding how their users use their software.

With Apple owning the patent, it's probably not going to help a Windows user except with Apple-made apps.

I don't care if it doesn't help Windows users. I wouldn't expect an Apple patent to help Windows users, except for in Apple apps. I'm responding to people saying that this is pure eye candy and useless by saying that, if done properly, it's actually a really good thing and it's noticeable.

Besides, I'd expect that if Apple wanted to implement this, they wouldn't just use it in their own apps. They'd probably add it as a standard window type that developers can use, and have all of the translucency and keyboard focus behaviours done automatically. That way, even if developers don't think about how users actually use their software, the notifications will still work properly and consistently across the entire system, and it will be yet another small but significant usability advantage for the Mac. All those little things add up to make the experience a pleasure rather than a chore.

[Marvin]

Apple filed this Mighty Mouse design in late 2006 but that design was already posted before then:

http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=64535

Guess they were listening after all.

Sometimes I get the feeling that Apple may even backdate their patents. An organization should look into that.

I think the translucent window idea is kinda stupid. Since when do background windows update before windows in front of them? All that's going to happen is that background windows all become transparent, which is useless because they're in the background anyway.

Just give us a tabbed Finder and get rid of the horrendous drop shadows in Leopard.

Tabs aren't the only solution because you often need to compare two folders of images so the Finder could be a 3 panel design. Left is the drives and shortcuts as it is now. The right panel could have 2 sections like itunes where the top part is column view (though this doesn't change to coverflow). A second panel just below that would be the section for list view, icon view or coverflow. This panel would have the option to split in the middle to compare two folders.

The split panels would be selectable and on selection, the column view switches to that active folder location. I find myself comparing folders quite a lot but it's so hard to get two panels equally sized in icon view next to each other quickly. With this split panel view, you just maximize one Finder window - no overlap.

Also, say you had a whole collection of images and you wanted to pick the best. You could set the left panel of the split to be in icon or list view at some location called favorites and the right one to be in coverflow. Then you could browse through the image folder on the right and drag the best ones into the folder n the left of the split. The folder on the left can be changed at any point using column view all without leaving the single Finder window.

[Hal 9000]

So now I can´t hide what I am really doing when my boss comes over to my desk?.......

[TrevorD]

Originally Posted by Marvin

I think the translucent window idea is kinda stupid. Since when do background windows update before windows in front of them? All that's going to happen is that background windows all become transparent, which is useless because they're in the background anyway.

I think you misunderstand which windows are becoming translucent. It's not background windows that are going translucent, it's things like floating palettes and floating notification windows that stay on top of all other windows and block what's underneath them. This is very useful. If an application wants to tell me something, I want to know about it, but I don't want that notification to disrupt my workflow. I should still be able to continue with what I was doing, and I shouldn't have to manually clear that notification in order to see, click, or type in items underneath that notification. It might just be one extra click, but it's a pain.

[SpamSandwich]

I think it might be more helpful if translucency would come into play only if you hovered over a "corner" area in the window, as if you were about to flip a page, and could see through to the 'pages' behind the frontmost window. This would also be more helpful for multi-touch navigation in future Apple products. For example, your finger hovers over the corner, allowing you to see you have two open windows behind the main window, then you press down on it, and it "flips the pages" to the windows behind as you continue to hold on the active corner.

[NasserAE]

It seems that these days we we have to patent everything just in case. I am doing a research for the federal government and currently developing new methods and ideas for building a particular "thing". I really hope no one patent my designs before I publish them!!

[Marvin]

Originally Posted by TrevorD

I think you misunderstand which windows are becoming translucent. It's not background windows that are going translucent, it's things like floating palettes and floating notification windows that stay on top of all other windows and block what's underneath them. This is very useful. If an application wants to tell me something, I want to know about it, but I don't want that notification to disrupt my workflow. I should still be able to continue with what I was doing, and I shouldn't have to manually clear that notification in order to see, click, or type in items underneath that notification. It might just be one extra click, but it's a pain.

But doesn't a notification count as an update to that window in which case it wouldn't be transparent? Also, the point of a notification is that you notice it so if it is transparent, you might not notice it.

I don't really ever use these kind of apps that notify you of events. Some of the people I work with use Entourage and it has popups when you get an email but they appear and then go away - they aren't really disruptive. I use apps with floating palettes but if I need to say work on something behind the palette (e.g an image in Photoshop), I'm going to need to move the panel anyway so I can see the right colors.

I still don't see the problem this particular solution is supposed to solve. I can't really think of a real-world instance where I'd actually use it. Same deal with Spaces for me though. I just use command-h and click another app.

[mdriftmeyer]

How about the old NeXTSTEP Dock where the command-double-click autohides all other apps hidden but the application you're double clicking. The pasteboard is always there.

I never had Window Garbage with NeXTSTEP/Openstep.