Pop-up option palette

(54) POP-UP OPTION PALETTE

(75) Inventors: Alexandra Nsonwu, San Jose, CA

(US); Murthy Atmakuri, Sunnyvale,
CA (US); Hanchang Kuo, Fremont, CA
(US); Kim Mingo, Brooklyn, NY (US)

(73) Assignees: Sony Corporation, Tokyo (JP); Sony Electronics Inc., Park Ridge, NJ (US)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 373 days.

(21) Appl. No.: 09/697,964

(22) Filed: Oct. 27, 2000

(51) Int. C I. G06F 3/00

(52) U.S. CI 725/52; 725/39; 725/41;

725/43

(58) Field of Search 725/39, 40, 43,

725/52, 53, 86, 87, 88, 101, 102, 44, 41

(56) References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

A pop-up option palette for controlling electronic equipment such as a set top box. The pop-up option palette of the present invention is implemented as an overlay window enabled by HTML. The pop-up option palette appears anywhere on the system at the touch of a particular key on the remote control and disappears at the touch of the same key in the preferred embodiment. The pop-up option palette provides shortcut methods for jumping to other areas of the system, eliminating the need for actual toolbars or menus. When the pop-up key is activated, a window providing a palette of options appears overlaying the browser's main window. The content of the window can be determined based on the page being displayed so that appropriate information relevant to the page being displayed appears within the pop-up option palette window. Thus, the options available on the pop-up option palette are context sensitive. Additionally, help available through the help button is also context sensitive.

1 Claim, 12 Drawing Sheets