Microsoft Granted Metro UI Patent

One of the most appealing features that the Windows Phone operating system was launched on the market with last year was its Metro UI, and Microsoft has just been granted a patent for it.

The company filed an application for receiving a patent for the Metro UI under the “Visual motion for user interface feedback,” and the USPTO has already approved it.

The Redmond-based company has filed the application back in early 2010, but it was only on August 18th, 2011, that it received the necessary approvals.

For the time being, the official patent number did not appear, but it usually takes several days to be generated, so we might still have a little longer to wait.

The interface that Windows Phone came on the market with was different from any other smartphone OS UIs we've seen.

It was only natural for Microsoft to patent it, especially in today's environment, when Apple sues other mobile phone makers alleging that the looks of their handsets resemble too much to the iPhone, or that the icons on their phone's screens are copied from the iOS.

At the same time, we should note that Microsoft is considering the use of its Metro UI on a wider series of devices, other than Windows Phones.

In the near future, the company is expected to use the interface on its Xbox devices too, as well as on the Windows 8 and on Windows Phone 8 platforms.

Here are some excerpts from the application filling (via WPCentral):

Aspects of a user interface that provides visual feedback in response to user input. For example, boundary effects are presented to provide visual cues to a user to indicate that a boundary in a movable user interface element (e.g., the end of a scrollable list) has been reached.

As another example, parallax effects are presented in which multiple parallel or substantially parallel layers in a multi-layer user interface move at different rates, in response to user input.

As another example, simulated inertia motion of UI elements is used to provide a more natural feel for touch input. Various combinations of features are described. For example, simulated inertia motion can be used in combination with parallax effects, boundary effects, or other types of visual feedback.