Patent ID: 8595642

Claim:
A computing system, comprising: a processor, random access memory, and nonvolatile storage; an operating system, stored in the non-volatile storage, executing on the processor, and employing the random access memory for operational tasks; a plurality of software shells executing within the operating system, each software shell communicating with the operating system; a plurality of facets, at least two facets executing within at least two different software shells; each facet supporting execution of a plurality of applications thereunder; a pointing input device providing a pointing device input to the operating system; a natural language speech input user interface device providing at least a natural language speech input comprising natural language speech input commands and data to the operating system; and wherein the operating system pipes the pointing device input to a first application under a first facet executing within a first shell having a pointing device focus; wherein the operating system pipes the natural language speech input to a second application under a second facet executing within a second shell having a speech focus; wherein speech focus is different from the pointing device focus, and the speech focus and the pointing device focus are concurrently available to a single user; the plurality of software shells being concurrently displayed to the single user through a user interface; wherein the speech input is analyzed in a context-sensitive manner for a defined action which selectively alters the speech focus from the second application to a respective third application under a third facet executing within a third software shell; wherein the plurality of software shells share a common focus, such that a single user natural language speech input is concurrently operated upon by a plurality of applications under different facets executing within different software shells; and wherein at least one application under at least one facet executing within at least one shell may communicate with a different application under a different facet executing in at least one other shell.