Patent Application
20090249246
This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 97111017, filed on Mar. 27, 2008. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of specification.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method for transmitting an instant message, and more particularly, to a method for transmitting an instant message while computer working in a full-screen mode.
2. Description of Related Art
Nowadays, people are living with a fast pace, and most of them love to enjoy personal favourite activities in leisure. However, in such a busy and stressful environment, times and spaces suitable for leisure activities are highly restricted. Therefore, recreational PC games such as puzzle games within sounds and lights that are easily fetched have become more and more popular.
When a PC game is played, frames of the game are often displayed in a full-screen mode. However, in the full-screen mode, the user views only the window of the frames of the PC game, and is the windows of other application programs can not be viewed. For example, if the user has been using an instant messenger application before starting the PC game, then the full-screen mode displayed frames of the PC game will cover the frame of the instant messenger application after the PC game is started. In such a way, the user will not be alerted by a message newly received by the instant messenger application. Therefore, the user cannot play the game while keeping talk with others via the instant messenger application.
Most PC game includes message transmission functions, allowing players to exchange information and communicate online when playing the game. Unfortunately, such a function only allows the user to communicate with other online-players of the game. In other words, should the user desire to send a message to a party not playing the game, he has to quit the game first, and then send a message to the party by a selected instant messenger application, which is believed to be very inconvenient.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to provide a method for transmitting an instant message while a computer working in a full-screen mode. The method allows a user to instantly receive and transmit a message via an instant messenger module.
The present invention provides a method for transmitting an instant message while a computer working in a full-screen mode. In the method, the full-screen mode and a display control program are executed first, and then a message is fetched from an instant messenger module. The message is transmitted to the display control program, and the display control program embeds the message into a frame to be displayed next by the full-screen mode. Finally, the frame with the message is displayed in the screen.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes executing the instant messenger module and logging in a user account by the instant messenger module before executing the full-screen mode.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes periodically calling an message receiving function of the instant messenger module, for determining whether the instant messenger module receives the message or not. When it is determined that the instant messenger module receives the message, a contact account determining function is called to obtain a corresponding contact account, and a message fetching function is called to obtain content of the message. Further, the step of displaying the frame with the message includes embedding the message together with the corresponding contact account into the frame.
Viewing from another aspect, the present invention further provides a method for transmitting an instant message while a computer working in a full-screen mode. In the method, the full-screen mode and a display control program are executed, an instant message interface is embedded into a frame to be displayed next by the full-screen mode, and the frame with the instant message interface is displayed. Then, a message inputted by a user is received by a message input interface and transmitted to an instant messenger module. Finally, the instant messenger module sends out the message.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the step of displaying the frame with the instant message interface, a contact list fetching function of the instant messenger module is called to display a contact list including at least one contact, a contact selecting instruction is received to select one contact from the contact list, and an instant messenger interface corresponding to the selected contact is displayed.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes receiving an input message transmitted from the contact. The step of displaying the frame with the instant messenger interface includes displaying an instant messenger interface corresponding to the contact.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the step of transmitting the message to the instant messenger module includes calling a message transmitting function of the instant messenger module for transmitting content of the message to the instant messenger module.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the full-screen mode includes a game program, and the display control program is installed in a graphic card for adjusting a display setting of the graphic card. Further, the instant messenger module includes MSN messenger®, Yahoo messenger®, or SKYPE®, and the message includes text information or file transmission information.
The present invention fetches or transmits a message by calling functions of the instant messenger module, and thus is adapted for receiving and transmitting a message while a computer working in a full-screen mode. When the message is received, the present invention combines the message to a frame via the display control program, and then displays the frame. When transmitting the message, the present invention receives the message inputted by the user via the display control program, and then sends out the message via the instant messenger module.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.
The instant messenger application drastically improves the convenience for modern people to communicate with others. If a user is allowed to receive/transmit a message via an instant messenger application while computer working in a full-screen mode, the user can keep communicating with others instantly. Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for transmitting an instant message while executing a full-screen mode in view of the foregoing objects.
Referring to
Then, at step 120, a message received by the instant messenger module is fetched at a specific time point. The instant messenger module provides a plurality of different application programming interfaces (API). In the current embodiment, functions provided by the APIs can be used to communicate with the instant messenger module. For example, after every certain time, the current embodiment actively calls a message receiving function of the instant messenger module to determine whether the instant messenger module receives any message transmitted from a network or not. If it is determined that the instant messenger module receives a message, the current embodiment fetches content of the received message by calling a message fetching function of the instant messenger module, and obtains an account of a contact that transmits the message by calling a contact account determining function. The message received by the instant messenger module can be, but is not restricted to, text information or file transmission information.
Then, at step 130, the fetched content of the message and the contact account are transmitted to the display control program. The display control program is installed in the graphic card for adjusting a display setting of the graphic card.
Finally, at step 140, the display control program embeds the message into a frame to be displayed next by the full-screen mode. Further, the display control program may also embed the content of the message and the account of the contact that transmits the message into the frame to be displayed next. At step 150, the frame with the message is displayed. Specifically, the display control program embeds or attaches the message to the frame to be displayed next in a frame buffer. As such, when a previous frame has been displayed and the next frame is being displayed, the user can view the frame with the message.
By executing the foregoing steps, the user is capable of viewing the content of the message sent from his family, or friends, via the instant messenger module, while computer working in a full-screen mode. Further, in addition to instantly receiving the instant message, the present invention is also adapted for instantly transmitting an instant message as desired while computer working in a full-screen mode. Details of doing so are to be illustrated in the embodiment as discussed below.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the user desires to actively send a message to a contact listed in the contact list, he may initiate an instant messenger instruction by operating a keyboard (e.g., pressing a predetermined key).
Consequently, as shown in
In accordance with the steps as discussed above, the user is allowed to actively send an instant message via an instant messenger module (e.g., MSN messenger®, Yahoo messenger®, or SKYPE®) while playing a computer game, and is also allowed to instantly reply a message received from others via the instant messenger module, which brings convenience in operating the computer.
Although the present invention is illustrated by embodiments of receiving and transmitting a message, it should be noted that all functions of the instant messenger module should have been taught as applicable by calling the functions (e.g., fetching the contact list) provided by the instant messenger module.
In summary, according to the present invention, the user is allowed to receive the message transmitted from other contacts via the instant messenger module while computer working in a full-screen mode, and is further allowed to instantly send out a message via the instant messenger module. In such a way, the instant message communication between different users is not restricted by the executed full-screen mode any more, and the full-screen mode can be more conveniently and flexibly for use.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 97111017 | Mar 2008 | TW | national |
