Patent hints at Spaces in Front Row, Apple TV

Apple has filed for a patent that could retrofit its Spaces feature for use with Front Row and Apple TV. The application, filed on January 7th, is the second patent revealed on February 7th relating to a potential future feature set for Apple TV. One block diagram shows an example of an architecture for generation and use of spaces in a display environment, interfacing with an operating system and Expose.

"The space management component 118 can have engines for handling tasks such as space management, preferences, presentation, identification animation and editing, as well as application deactivation. A space management engine 208 can manage the other engines in the component 118 or components thereof. A space presentation engine 210 can handle how spaces are presented on a computer display," the patent filing reads.

"A space identification engine 212 can handle identification of the application program(s) associated with each space. A space edit engine 214 can handle tasks which involve reordering, adding, or removing spaces within a space group or moving application windows within or among workgroups."

"A space animation engine 216 can be used, for example, to handle fade in/out transitions or movement of spaces and application windows. A space preferences engine 218 can handle information about user preferences for matters such as the assignment of programs to spaces, space editing, transition details, etc. An application deactivation engine 225 can handle deactivating applications; for example, the engine 225 can be used for turning off streaming video when the corresponding space is not active on the user interface."

Filed under: Apple
Other story tags: Apple TV, patent