Unified notification bar between virtual mobile device and physical mobile device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9448825-B2
Application number	US-201213566423-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 3, 2012
Priority date	Aug 5, 2011
Publication date	Sep 20, 2016
Grant date	Sep 20, 2016

Abstract

One or more embodiments of the invention display alerts provided by applications of a guest environment in a notification bar controlled by a host operating system (OS) in a host environment of a mobile device, wherein the guest environment is running in a virtual machine supported by a hypervisor running within the host environment. A hypervisor-aware service in the virtual machine registers with a guest OS to be notified when applications request presentation of alerts in a notification bar controlled by the guest OS. Upon receipt of a notification by the guest OS of an application requesting presentation of an alert in the notification bar controlled by the guest OS, the hypervisor-aware service forwards the notification to the hypervisor and the hypervisor transmits a corresponding request to a notification management component of the host OS to present the alert on the notification bar controlled by the host OS.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method for displaying alerts provided by applications of a guest environment in a notification bar controlled by a host operating system (OS) in a host environment of a mobile device, wherein the guest environment is running in a virtual machine supported by a hypervisor running within the host environment, the method comprising:
registering, by a hypervisor-aware service running on a guest OS of the virtual machine, with the guest OS to be notified by the guest OS when applications of the guest environment request the guest OS to present alerts in a notification bar controlled by the guest OS, wherein the hypervisor-aware service is aware that it is running in the virtual machine on top of the hypervisor and can request or provide data and services to and from the hypervisor;
upon receipt by the hypervisor-aware service of a notification by the guest OS of an application requesting presentation of an alert in the notification bar controlled by the guest OS, forwarding the notification to the hypervisor, wherein the alert is one of an e-mail alert, a calendar alert, and a telephone call alert; and
transmitting, by the hypervisor, a corresponding request to a notification management component of the host OS to present the alert on the notification bar controlled by the host OS, the notification management component configured to present the alert on the notification bar controlled by the host OS concurrently with a notification from an application of the host OS and system information generated by the host OS;
wherein display of the notification bar controlled by the host OS persists when a user interface (UI) of the guest environment is displayed in place of a UI of the host environment and when the UI of the host environment is displayed in place of the UI of the guest environment, and
wherein, upon a swipe motion by a user on the notification bar controlled by the host OS, the host OS displays an expanded notification bar that comprises additional detailed information that differentiates alerts of applications of the guest OS from alerts of applications of the host OS.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein, when displaying the UI of the guest environment on the mobile device, the notification bar controlled by the host OS is displayed rather than displaying the notification bar controlled by the guest OS.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the corresponding request transmitted by the hypervisor to the host OS includes an identifier associating the alert with the application.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
receiving, at the hypervisor, the identifier from the host OS upon a selection by a user of the alert on the notification bar controlled by the host OS;
transmitting, by the hypervisor, the identifier to the hypervisor-aware service; and
requesting, by the hypervisor-aware service, the guest OS to launch the application by providing the identifier to the guest OS.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification bar controlled by the host OS displays a guest environment icon when the UI of the host environment is displayed on the mobile device, wherein a selection of the guest environment icon causes the mobile device to display the UI of the guest environment.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification bar controlled by the host OS displays additional UI elements to differentiate icons displayed in the notification bar relating to applications of the guest OS from icons displayed in the notification bar relating to applications of the host OS.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed on a processor in a mobile device, causes the processor to display alerts provided by applications of a guest environment in a notification bar controlled by a host operating system (OS) in a host environment of the mobile device, wherein the guest environment is running in a virtual machine supported by a hypervisor running within the host environment, by performing the steps of:
registering, by a hypervisor-aware service running on a guest OS of the virtual machine, with the guest OS to be notified by the guest OS when applications of the guest environment request the guest OS to present alerts in a notification bar controlled by the guest OS, wherein the hypervisor-aware service is aware that it is running in the virtual machine on top of the hypervisor and can request or provide data and services to and from the hypervisor;
upon receipt by the hypervisor-aware service of a notification by the guest OS of an application requesting presentation of an alert in the notification bar controlled by the guest OS, forwarding the notification to the hypervisor, wherein the alert is one of an e-mail alert, a calendar alert, and a telephone call alert; and
transmitting, by the hypervisor, a corresponding request to a notification management component of the host OS to present the alert on the notification bar controlled by the host, the notification management component configured to present the alert on the notification bar controlled by the host OS concurrently with a notification from an application of the host OS and system information generated by the host OS;
wherein display of the notification bar controlled by the host OS persists when a user interface (UI) of the guest environment is displayed in place of a UI of the host environment and when the UI of the host environment is displayed in place of the UI of the guest environment, and
wherein, upon a swipe motion by a user on the notification bar controlled by the host OS, the host OS displays an expanded notification bar that comprises additional detailed information that differentiates alerts of applications of the guest OS from alerts of applications of the host OS.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein, when displaying the UI of the guest environment on the mobile device, the notification bar controlled by the host OS is displayed rather than displaying the notification bar controlled by the guest OS.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the corresponding request transmitted by the hypervisor to the host OS includes an identifier associating the alert with the application.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform the steps of:
receiving, at the hypervisor, the identifier from the host OS upon a selection by a user of the alert on the notification bar controlled by the host OS;
transmitting, by the hypervisor, the identifier to the hypervisor-aware service; and
requesting, by the hypervisor-aware service, the guest OS to launch the application by providing the identifier to the guest OS.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the notification bar controlled by the host OS displays a guest environment icon when the UI of the host environment is displayed on the mobile device, wherein a selection of the guest environment icon causes the mobile device to display the UI of the guest environment.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the notification bar controlled by the host OS displays additional UI elements to differentiate icons displayed in the notification bar relating to applications of the guest OS from icons displayed in the notification bar relating to applications of the host OS.

13. A mobile device, comprising:
a host operating system (OS) providing a host environment;
a hypervisor running within the host environment supporting a virtual machine, the
virtual machi

Assignees

• Newell Craig
• Burton Mark M
• Razavi Hoofar
• Wisner Paul
• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Newell Craig
• Burton Mark M
• Razavi Hoofar
• Wisner Paul

Classifications

• G06F3/0482

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title

• G06F3/0484

  for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range · CPC title

• G06F9/4445

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F9/45545

  Guest-host, i.e. hypervisor is an application program itself, e.g. VirtualBox · CPC title

• G06F9/441

  Multiboot arrangements, i.e. selecting an operating system to be loaded · CPC title