Patent ID: 7630193

Claim:
A system comprising a computer and a monitor, the system further comprising: a mechanism that couples the monitor to a base, the mechanism including at least one arm having a set of at least two stops, the arm moveable between positions corresponding to each of the stops, and each stop corresponding to an operating mode within a set of modes, the set of modes comprising each of a workstation mode, a media consumption mode, a walk-up mode, a tablet mode, a maintenance mode, and a storage mode; one or more biometric sensors for identifying a user of the system; a position detection means for detecting the position of the monitor, the position detection means being coupled via a hardware to software interface to mode switch software on the computer, the mode switch software comprising a policy and user-configurable preference data indicating which shell interface and which software is to be operational in each detected position; the mode switch software being enabled to determine from the detected position of the monitor and the user-configurable preference data, a shell interface and software which should be operable; the mode switch software further being enabled to report the position-based determination of the shell interface and software to an operating system of the computer; and the system being enabled to switch to a particular mode based upon the identity of a user and an application being launched or run by the identified user.