|Publication number||US7421449 B2|
|Application number||US 11/033,684|
|Publication date||Sep 2, 2008|
|Filing date||Jan 12, 2005|
|Priority date||Jan 12, 2005|
|Also published as||US20060156245|
|Publication number||033684, 11033684, US 7421449 B2, US 7421449B2, US-B2-7421449, US7421449 B2, US7421449B2|
|Inventors||Shane F. Williams, Steven J. Ball|
|Original Assignee||Microsoft Corporation|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (7), Non-Patent Citations (3), Referenced by (18), Classifications (12), Legal Events (5)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
The subject invention relates generally to navigating through and viewing data and in particular to the visualization and dynamic manipulations of and interactions with data objects maintained and organized using a unique time-line based parameter or tool.
In the current computing environment, there are limited viewing, browsing, and file organization techniques available to users. For example, existing applications have largely adopted a tree structure folder format for organizing and displaying various types of files. Though some relationships between folders, subfolders, and files can be viewed, such relationships are limited in scope and are primarily dependent upon explicit user input. For example, files can be related according to their common folder or subfolder as denoted by the user.
Furthermore, viewing or navigating between multiple files within multiple folders or subfolders can be problematic and nearly impracticable due to screen space constraints. Thus, user interaction among multiple active documents is not feasible under current practices. Overall, conventional file and folder organization methods merely provide disparate views of individual files, thereby requiring more user time and resources to process and/or manage files, documents, and the like.
The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.
The subject invention relates to a system and/or methodology that facilitate navigating and managing of data through the employment of a unique user-interface. More specifically, the data (individually referred to as objects) can be represented in one or more definable categories or bands. Within each band or across multiple bands, objects can be viewed at a range of zoom depths, individually or in related clusters—depending on the zoom depth and the available screen space. Unlike conventional techniques, however, the objects can be arranged according to a time-based parameter which is unique or specific to each object. In addition, browsing of the objects can be accomplished in part by using a time-line based navigation tool. Thus, a user can more readily appreciate and extract the many possible relationships between various objects either within one band or across multiple bands. Users often make non-sensical associations between objects and time. Hence, by allowing users to view and organize objects based on a time element as well as by subject matter, a more rich and meaningful user experience can be had.
According to one aspect of the invention, multiple operations can be performed on one or more objects regardless of the type of object (e.g., picture, document, web page, scanned documents, message, etc.) while viewing the objects. In particular, objects can be viewed as thumbnails, thus the content of many objects can be made visible to the user. Many different types of thumbnails can be employed. One approach involves ASCII thumbnails. An ASCII thumbnail is essentially a text-based summary that defines the essence of the text represented in the larger object. Other possible types of thumbnails include image, audio, video, or other media thumbnails that represent proxy of actual objects. The ASCII (or any other type) thumbnail could also be scaled to show only as much text as can fit in the space available for the thumbnail. The text could scale intelligently as to maximize the meaning for the given display space.
The amount of visible content of each object may depend on the current zoom depth. For example, as a user zooms into a band or group(s) of objects, more content of each object or group can be more easily seen. As the user zooms out, a relatively abstract view and less detail of the object is visible. Moreover, the user can essentially peel back layers of content over any time period, and in doing so, can peel dense objects apart to view in greater detail—largely by employing various zoom buttons or zoom controls on a pointing device or on the display.
In addition to representing the actual object, the thumbnail of an object can also be operational or actionable such that the user can click on it to directly access and/or modify the content of the object. Therefore, a separate application controlling the content (e.g., email program, word processing program, etc.) does not need to be opened or accessed to make or save changes to the content. For example, if the thumbnail indicates a web page, the user could simply click on it and access the particular page. The thumbnails can also be dynamic, whereby as the content of the actual object changes, so does the thumbnail.
As objects are introduced, moved, or copied between bands, metadata according to the respective bands can be annotated to the particular object. Explicit and implicit metadata can be quickly annotated to the object depending on user preferences. For example, the user may provide a title or name to the object (e.g., explicit metadata); or the system, using some form of artificial intelligence, can find related objects and input the appropriate metadata for those related objects (e.g., implicit metadata). Objects or clusters of objects can be annotated with different types of metadata including text, pen, voice, or other audio.
According to another aspect of the invention, one or more objects can be selected and/or viewed in a separate window for use in any number of other applications to which the user may have access. For example, the one or more objects can be selected for modification or for a different type of viewing such as hyper-viewing. Hyper-viewing can allow a user to roll through a relatively large number of objects in a very rapid manner in order to converge on a particular object of interest. In practice, for instance, the user may be able to view as few as 10 or as many as 10,000 objects using this hyper-view technique. The user may also be able to readily flag or mark an object of interest or at a particular point of the hyper-view to focus in on a particular subset of objects at a later time.
As previously mentioned, the objects are organized within bands according to a time-based navigation tool. For instance, multiple bands can be created along a y-axis of the screen such as in a stack formation. The bands can also be arranged relative to the time-based navigation tool to facilitate a blogging environment, wherein a user's feedback or comments can represent an object and thus can be entered at the relevant time directly into the band.
In general, at least some content of all or at least a subset of the available bands can be viewed on the screen at the same time. For instance, the content may not be discernible objects or thumbnails but may instead be an indicator to inform the user that some objects are present at the site of the indicator. However, when the screen space does not permit all of the desired bands to be visible at once, the user can simply scroll (e.g., vertically) through them such that as a band falls off the bottom of the screen, it can reappear at the top of the screen. Bands can also be removed from the screen based on age or time it was last accessed as determined by user preferences.
Each band can be defined by a name and/or one or more properties (e.g., metadata) that are extracted from the metadata associated with the objects contained therein or identified by the user. Similar to common tree structure views, the bands can be collapsed or expanded. However, when fully collapsed, some information about the content of each band can still be obtained by making use of another axis (e.g., x-axis). This is accomplished in part by monitoring and tracking the presence and/or density of objects maintained in any band. To the user, this data can be represented as sinusoidal curves in each respective band, whereby the amplitude and/or color opaqueness can indicate a relative number of objects or a relative size of the objects located at a particular time or time period (e.g., year, month, week, day, hour, etc.). Alternatively, non-sinusoidal shapes can represent object density. For example, triangles, ellipsoidal curves, and icons that are may or may not be mathematically generated can be employed. Thus, even when the bands are collapsed or closed, the user can still abstract or extract information from them by taking advantage of the density indicators in combination with the time parameter.
According to another aspect of the subject invention, objects can be clustered particularly when they are closely related to one another. However, due to their potential large size (e.g., in terms of number of objects in the cluster), cluster visibility may be hindered depending on the zoom depth. To address this scenario, a user or the system can intelligently select one object from the cluster that is most representative of the cluster to represent the cluster. The other objects can be found “behind” the representative object and rolled through using a mouse-over and roll operation, for example. More important clusters of objects can be given specific labels which can remain on-screen and visible in the band regardless of the zoom depth. By simply clicking on the label, the cluster can be visualized and zoomed-in for a further detailed viewing. Less important clusters can also be labeled but their assigned level of importance will be lower and thus may be overlapped by clusters having a higher importance value and their respective labels.
Due to relatively high object densities at various times throughout a user's personal time line (e.g., holidays, work events, trips, etc), visibility of the objects at any zoom depth can be problematic. Thus, to optimize the visibility of objects, the user can prioritize objects and/or clusters of objects. For example, the existence of objects or clusters of objects with a lower importance value can be indicated by an icon (e.g., drop-down arrow) or other graphic to illustrate the number of objects collapsed at that particular time. Objects with a higher importance value can be immediately visible to the user when the appropriate zoom depth is reached. Overlapping objects or cluster labels can also be made somewhat transparent. Allowing some degree of transparency of or between objects and/or labels that partially overlap one another is particularly beneficial to the user. Instead of hiding potentially important information from the user, the information is still available to the user.
Various aspects of the subject invention as discussed above can support a variety of object types including but not limited to email, music, documents, pictures, video, television and/or cable programs, computing applications, scanned-in documents, web pages or URLs, hyperlinks, voice messages, contacts, address information, maps, receipts, transaction records, banking records, and/or any other type of data. Navigation of the bands such as within a band across periods of times or zooming in and out of objects, bands, or time frames can be accomplished in part by employing various audio commands, eye-tracking, or pointing devices. In addition, viewing of object(s) of greater interest via zooming can be further optimized by allowing surrounding objects of lesser interest to scale down and migrate to the edges of the screen) along the x-axis, for example. On-screen navigational buttons can also assist in the visualization of the desired content in one particular band or across a plurality of bands at the same time.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certain illustrative aspects of the invention are described herein in connection with the following description and the annexed drawings. These aspects are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed and the subject invention is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents. Other advantages and novel features of the invention may become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the drawings.
The patent or application file contains at least one drawing executed in color. Copies of this patent or patent application publication with color drawing(s) will be provided by the Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee.
The subject invention is now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the subject invention. It may be evident, however, that the subject invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing the subject invention.
As used in this application, the terms “component” and “system” are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a server and the server can be a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers.
In general, the subject invention can incorporate various inference schemes and/or techniques in connection with annotating objects as they are introduced into one or more bands. In addition, various inference schemes can be applied to or employed in connection with grouping or finding related objects based in part on any one of the following: similar metadata, similar images (e.g., via image recognition techniques), similar faces (e.g., via facial recognition techniques), similar handwriting (e.g., via handwriting recognition), similar text (e.g., via optical character recognition), similar watermarks, and/or similar audio patterns (e.g., via audio fingerprinting, audio-to-text, and/or audio-to-music score recognition algorithms). It should be understood that the previous list is not exhaustive and that other similarities may be considered.
As used herein, the term “inference” refers generally to the process of reasoning about or inferring states of the system, environment, and/or user from a set of observations as captured via events and/or data. Inference can be employed to identify a specific context or action, or can generate a probability distribution over states, for example. The inference can be probabilistic—that is, the computation of a probability distribution over states of interest based on a consideration of data and events. Inference can also refer to techniques employed for composing higher-level events from a set of events and/or data. Such inference results in the construction of new events or actions from a set of observed events and/or stored event data, whether or not the events are correlated in close temporal proximity, and whether the events and data come from one or several event and data sources.
Referring now to
Within each band, the visualization component 110 can organize or position the one or more objects in the respective bands according to a time-based parameter. The time-based parameter can correspond to an object's creation date or the date/time that an event represented in the object occurred. For example, pictures of a July 4th trip to the islands can be grouped in one band (e.g., named Trips) and localized around July 3-5, 2004—the dates of the trip. Similarly, the user's trip taken months later over the Thanksgiving holiday can be localized around the appropriate November dates.
The bands along with their corresponding objects can be viewed and/or manipulated on a display 130 by the user. As discussed below, the objects included in each band can be represented in a variety of ways to keep the user aware of their presence within the respective band while also optimizing the visibility of the user's objects of interest.
The system 100 can also include a browsing component 140 that allows a user to more readily browse through bands of objects to establish or discover additional relationships or associations between objects within any one band or across multiple bands. Any such associations resulting from the browsing component can also be shown on the display 130 in various ways as determined by the user.
Referring now to
In particular, the visualization component 210 can include a plurality of sub-components such as an annotation component 230. The annotation component 230 can annotate any objects newly introduced to a band or group of objects based on the metadata associated with the band or group as well as explicit user input. In general, an annotation can be a user or machine applied modification to an object that further gives it meaning, context, richness, or detail that enhances the intellectual, physical, or emotional value of the original object. For example, a user can specifically annotate the object by giving the object a name or title or by assigning a time or date to the object. Annotation can also be in the form of user comments relating to the object or to the band. Comments or other information annotated to a band can also be automatically annotated to each object or group of objects located in that band.
Also included in the visualization component 210 is an association component 240. The association component can associate objects with similar metadata or with a minimum threshold of similar metadata within a band, for example. As a result, such related objects can be identified by the particular band as a cluster of more closely related objects within the band. Associations can also be performed across multiple bands to find related objects stored in different bands.
The time-based navigation component 220 can further facilitate the visualization of objects on a display 250 to the user according to a time parameter. More specifically, the time-based navigation component 220 allows a user to navigate through objects within any one band or across more than one band at the same time according to any time parameter such as multiple years, one year, month, week, day, hour, decades, and/or other useful time divisions. Thus, by simply gesturing through any particular band across the visible time-line (such as with the use of a pointing device, scrolling mechanism or other gestural scrolling mechanism), the user can readily and rapidly view objects as they took place in the user's life. For example, imagine that a user were to employ the system 200 to maintain a journal or diary of his/her life's events over a 20 year period—beginning 10 years ago and ending 10 years from now. The user may desire to include photos, trip itineraries, maps, and tourist attractions for any vacations taken or planned, general family photos, pet information such as doctor receipts and exam results, general house information, songs, recordings, captured audio clips, contact information, addresses, GPS coordinates, documents, etc. The type of information is practically without end.
As objects such as photos, receipts, or any other type of document is added by the user, they can be annotated and associated into the appropriate bands. Of course, the bands can be named accordingly such as “pet”, “vacations”, “family”, “friends”, “work”, “home”, “school”, “hobbies”, “music”, “project”, etc. to properly identify the subject matter.
The following several figures provide further details with respect to the organization of objects into bands and their navigation based on time parameters. For instance,
It should be appreciated that new bands can be created, deleted, moved to different locations on the screen space, and re-ordered so that certain bands appear adjacent to one another (e.g., alphabetical order, chronological order by creation date or modification date, etc.) by dragging the bands. Similarly, objects can be readily moved or copied to different bands at the user's will by dragging, for example, or by employing other suitable commands or options to perform the desired operation.
Turning now to
The zooming component can have dual functionalities. In one aspect, the zooming component 520 can facilitate zooming along the x-axis. In particular, the zooming component 520 can zoom in or out of the x-axis parameter (e.g., time) at various zoom depths such as by using a mouse wheel on a wheel-enabled mouse. For example, a downward motion zooms out to a greater range of time showing on the screen and thus less visible detail of each band or object. Likewise, an upward motion of the wheel zooms (e.g., in) into a more specific time frame, thus allowing a greater detailed view of one or more bands or objects in that time frame. Zooming can also be accomplished by navigational buttons (e.g., D—Day, W—Week, M—Month, Y—Year, 3 year, etc.) that may be included in a tool bar or by “−” and “+” indicators located on each band (see
In another aspect, the zooming component 520 can facilitate zooming along the y-axis. More specifically, the zooming component 520 can zoom in or out of band to essentially expand or collapse the band. For example, opening the band in the vertical dimension to view any objects therein can be accomplished by clicking and dragging down in the lower half of the band or dragging up in the upper half of the band. Thus, it is possible to keep either an upper or lower portion of the band compressed to provide more screen space when viewing the other of the two portions (e.g., upper or lower) of the band. To expand the upper and lower portions at the same time, the time bar defining the upper and lower portions can be grabbed with an upward motion. To close both portions at the same time, the time bar can be grabbed with a downward motion (using a pointing device).
Furthermore, when viewing one band in particular (Band A), the y-axis dimension of other bands can be reduced automatically if the user resizes Band A with focus or by dragging. In general, as the bands are opened wider and wider, the corresponding objects can become larger such that more details of each object can be seen. Because screen space is finite, any other bands may become more compressed to make room for the expansion of the one band. Alternatively or in addition, all bands can be assigned to the same width by invoking a function key or auto-zoom key assigned to remember current zoom settings. To further conserve valuable screen space, bands can also be made to automatically hide or temporarily disappear from the screen to facilitate creating desktop space when any such band is not in use.
To provide further context to the space utilization and architectural layout of the system 500 on any display screen,
When navigating through the band at various levels of detail, the system 500 or user can determine which content to view using one or more selection algorithms. One version of the selection algorithm relies on the following: each band can be made up of a tree-type structure having a number of fixed nodes. The tree may be sparse meaning that not all nodes are or must be populated. Movement up and down the tree is also possible.
Each node up the tree contains a summarization of the node below it, which means that when the user zooms out of a band, the zooming component, for example, can walk through these nodes at a certain level without needing to process each node below. That is, rather than performing the more time-consuming task of processing each node below in its entirety, the summary of each node can be relied upon. When a set threshold for each node is crossed, the zooming component can move up or down a node depending on whether the threshold crossed belongs to a node below or above. Furthermore, each summary can indicate a level of importance and can include a set of properties. Importance can be based on explicitly-entered properties or in part by heuristic-based properties. For instance, the number of clicks detected can increase the importance for a particular item in the node. Moreover, the summary can be dynamic or static as determined by the user or system parameters.
Depending on the application in which the system 500 is employed, the axes can be changed. For example, in a blogging environment, the time parameter can be represented on the y-axis and annotations can be made by the user at particular times or dates, all of which can be scalable, browsable, and/or zoomable as previously discussed.
Referring again to
Moving on to
The events taking place in
The bands 1100 appear in a compressed state; however, the density and/or presence of objects within each band according to the time parameter (e.g., years: 1999-2003) is represented by the appropriate sinusoidal curves. For example, the more transparent a curve is can indicate that fewer objects are located there. Similarly, the more opaque curve can indicate a more densely populated area in the band at a particular time/date period.
Alternatively or in addition, the height of the curve can indicate how densely populated a section of the band is. For instance, a relatively shorter curve can indicate fewer objects and a relatively taller curve can indicate a greater number of objects. Finally, the upper 1120 and lower 1130 portions of each band can be seen as defined by a bar 1140 dividing each band along the x-axis. This bar 1140 can mirror the functionalities of the time-based navigation bar 1110 such as by serving as a time reference or by mirroring the time state of the navigation bar 1110. The bar can also be used to expand or compress the band. That is, when the bar is grabbed in an upward motion, the upper and lower portions of the band expand. The converse occurs when the bar is grabbed with a downward motion.
Turning now to
The object management system 1600 includes an annotation component 1620 having an identification component 1630 and a recognition component 1640 therein. The annotation component 1620 can annotate the objects according to their names or properties as identified by the identification component 1630. In addition, the annotation component 1620 can annotate objects according to any recognized characteristics by employing the recognition component 1640. For example, imagine that an object undergoing annotation is a photo of the user's sister, Mary. Without requiring explicit user input, the recognition component 1640 can employ a facial or pattern recognition sub-component (not shown) to accurately identify the person in the picture as Mary and annotate the picture object accordingly. The recognition component 1640 can also make use of optical character recognition and sound recognition.
Closely related objects can be clustered together by a clustering component 1650. The clustering component 1650 can also be used to identify one of the objects as being the most representative of the cluster. Thus, when screen or band space is limited or restricted, the representative object can be used to identify the cluster to the user. Alternatively, the metadata associated with the objects of a cluster can be analyzed and the most relevant or representative metadata to describe the cluster can be used to identify the cluster. For example, clusters of objects can be given a label by a cluster tagging component 1660. The cluster label can remain visible and legible even when the bands are compressed. To view or zoom in to the cluster to see the objects therein, the user can click the label at least once.
An artificial intelligence component 1670 can be employed in connection with the object management system 1600 to automatically and perhaps more efficiently annotate objects and/or cluster closely related objects. Proficient annotation and clustering of objects can assist in the browsing and locating of objects within and across multiple bands.
Now suppose the user would like to view the objects in cluster 1740 (labeled RAMROD 2003). To accomplish this, the user can click on the label 1740. This causes the respective Cycling band 1750 to open to make the objects in the cluster 1740 visible. The screen image of
Some objects within a particular cluster can be compressed by the user. Hence, when the cluster is opened, these few objects can remain closed but their existence is not forgotten as indicated by an icon 1820. The icon 1820 indicates that s objects (e.g., s=1) in this region could not be displayed because of space constraints given the current zoom level—due to the importance level assigned thereto, for example.
When the user zooms out from the cluster 1740, additional objects located around the cluster 1740 can be viewed as shown in
Referring now to
When multiple objects are selected for more detailed viewing or for use in another application or operation, a multiple object viewer 2130 can arrange the selected objects in a desired manner (e.g., chronologically by date) for viewing on a display 2140. One or more viewing parameters 2150 can be set or adjusted to customize the appearance of the objects on the display. For example, color tones and viewing size of the objects can be modified, titles can be turned on or off, speed at which to view the objects can be adjusted, the number of objects to view at a time can be changed, etc.
As mentioned above, the selection of objects for more in-depth viewing can be accomplished in part by a number of different selection techniques. For example,
Alternatively, the selection of objects can take place by selecting a time frame along either the time-based navigation bar within the band or above the stack of bands.
Turning now to
Moving on to
By contrast, the time-based band structure defines the major nodes into separate bands and any object contained within that major band (e.g., Pictures)—even if in a “sub-folder” (e.g., Pets)—can be viewed with respect to the other objects contained therein. In the time-based band structure 3310, objects can be organized by the time parameter as well as based on their close relationships to other objects in the same band (e.g., clusters). Not only can relationships or associations of objects within each band be recognized, but associations of objects across multiple bands can be realized or discovered as well. Unfortunately, the conventional tree-structure alone cannot provide such meaningful information. Therefore, the tree-view can be displayed simultaneously with the band-view to provide a “picture” of the same objects from two different perspectives. Any edit or change in one of the views can be instantly visible in the other view. The simultaneous (e.g., side by side) view of both can also be useful for visualizing actual storage paths while examining object context to related objects on or along the time line. Alternatively, the views can be toggled between one and the other particularly when one view is preferred over the other or both are not needed at the same time by the user.
A few other qualities to note include the fact that the bands can be color-customized according to the user's preferences. For example, the screen image of an exemplary user-interface represented in
Within each band and at each object, a menu can be raised or popped up on the screen that provides the user with several different options or actions to take with respect to the object or to the band—depending on where the menu was accessed (e.g., over an object or over band space).
Various methodologies in accordance with the subject invention will now be described via a series of acts, it is to be understood and appreciated that the subject invention is not limited by the order of acts, as some acts may, in accordance with the subject invention, occur in different orders and/or concurrently with other acts from that shown and described herein. For example, those skilled in the art will understand and appreciate that a methodology could alternatively be represented as a series of interrelated states or events, such as in a state diagram. Moreover, not all illustrated acts may be required to implement a methodology in accordance with the subject invention.
Referring now to
In addition, the user can modify the content of the respective files by selecting and/or clicking on the thumbnail. That is, the user can annotate or add text or comments directly to the file without actually having to open a separate application to do so. For example, a word processing document can be updated without opening the word processing program and then accessing the document therefrom. Rather, the user can simply move the cursor to the relevant line or field on the document and begin entering new data into the document. Furthermore, any modifications can be saved as well—mitigating the need to jump between several different applications and the bands. Thus, the user's efficiency and overall experience with managing and viewing files, documents, photos, web pages, etc. can be substantially increased.
The process 3600 involves populating one or more bands with the relevant objects at 3610. The objects can include such items as documents, reports, pictures, shows/programs, sound or audio, web pages, hyperlinks, music, etc. At 3620, the objects can be organized within the respective bands based on a time parameter such as a date or time of day associated with each object. The time parameter for each object can be extracted from the object's metadata or explicitly entered by the user.
At 3630, the objects and/or bands can be browsed using a time-based navigation bar. The time-based navigation bar facilitates which range of time is currently being viewed on the screen. The user can navigate to different time ranges by scrolling along the navigation bar using a pointing device to click, hold, and scroll, for instance. In addition, the user can navigate to different time ranges by moving the pointing device in the relevant direction (e.g., to the right or left) over any band. As the time range changes on the screen so too does the view of the bands to coordinate with the current time range. As can be imagined, the movements in and out of bands and through various time periods along the time line navigation bar are rather fluid and effortless in practice.
Referring now to
In addition, a value or level of importance can be set for each object at 3720. The importance level can be another form of metadata which is employed to indicate the degree of visibility of the object when screen space is limited and the object is in a densely populated region of the band. For example, imagine that the viewable space within a band is congested with dozens or hundreds of objects—perhaps due to the current zoom level or an only partially expanded band. Because the available viewing space is limited, the more important objects can be selected and thus made visible to the user. Objects deemed less important can be compressed, but not completely hidden from view. An icon or symbol can be used to indicate that Q objects (e.g., 1 or 5, etc.) exist at the relevant time or date in the band. To view these compressed objects, the user can simply zoom in further until enough space becomes available to show the objects (e.g., based on the objects' importance) or can click directly on the icon.
In some cases, some objects may be so closely related that the user may wish to cluster them into sub-groups within the band. The process can also be set to do this in an automated but smart fashion using artificial intelligence and/or any number of inference schemes. Hence, at 3730, closely related objects can be clustered and optionally labeled. Each cluster can also be assigned a level or a value of importance. With clusters, the cluster label can remain visible even when the band is compressed and no distinct objects can be seen. Because it is feasible that more than one labeled cluster can be found at a close or the same time, labels or clusters with higher priorities can overlap those with lesser priorities. The cluster labels can also overlap in a transparent manner other objects such that at least a portion of the object and the label are still recognizable and discernible. Finally, at 3740, the objects and/or bands can be browsed once again by using the time based navigation bar (e.g., time-line tool).
Turning now to
On the other hand, the user may wish to only expand the lower portion of the band. Thus, at 3830, only the lower portion can be expanded by clicking on any area of the lower portion and dragging down. Again, the upper portion remains as-is and unaffected. At 3840, some users may wish to use other navigational buttons or tools located on the display to expand or compress or otherwise navigate the bands (3840).
The bands can also be fixed to their location such that they are unaffected when the user scrolls through the bands (e.g., vertical scrolling such that a different band may appear at the top of the stack of bands). Alternatively, however, a user may want to move a band to a different location on the display—perhaps apart from any other bands. This can be accomplished in part by clicking, holding, and then dragging or throwing (gesturing) the band to its desired location (3850) and/or creating a new window to view and navigate the band.
Referring now to
At some time, the user may want to view one or more objects of interest in much greater detail or perform other operations on the objects. To select one or more objects, the user can highlight the desired objects and then click on the highlighted box surrounding the objects. As a result, the selected objects can be viewed in a separate window. Objects appearing in a separate window can also display additional information such other objects related to the particular object as well as the most relevant metadata associated with each selected object (e.g., name, file size, path name, etc.). The user may also be given the option to view the selected objects as a movie or slide show, in which the speed of the show can be adjusted by the user.
Though not depicted in the figure, other navigational techniques can be employed to enhance or optimize the visibility of the objects, especially the objects of interest to the user. For example, each band can make use of at least one filter. By using a determined set of keywords or metadata terms, the user can filter objects out of view by the type of object or by the subject matter of the object, for example. This can make more space available to view the objects of interest and mitigate congestion in or a cluttered view of the band. In some instances, objects of interest may be distributed or dispersed among several bands. A user can locate them by utilizing a find command. The corresponding results can be visualized in a new band. This band, like any other, can be saved, moved, and/or deleted.
Turning now to
Once a time parameter is selected, the user can view and browse the objects in the bands by expanding or compressing one or more bands and moving the navigation bar to the left or to the right to view different time ranges and different objects that fall within those time ranges (4020). Finally, to zoom between time ranges (e.g., from year to month or from year to week), the user can perform at least one of the following: using a wheel-enabled mouse, the mouse wheel can be moved up to zoom into a specific time range or down to zoom out of to see a greater time range on the screen; or the user make use of various zoom navigation buttons located on the screen to select a particular view (e.g., hour, day, week, month, year or years view) (4030).
In order to provide additional context for various aspects of the subject invention,
Generally, however, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular data types. The operating environment 4110 is only one example of a suitable operating environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the invention. Other well known computer systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the invention include but are not limited to, personal computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include the above systems or devices, and the like.
With reference to
The system bus 4118 can be any of several types of bus structure(s) including the memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus or external bus, and/or a local bus using any variety of available bus architectures including, but not limited to, 11-bit bus, Industrial Standard Architecture (ISA), Micro-Channel Architecture (MCA), Extended ISA (EISA), Intelligent Drive Electronics (IDE), VESA Local Bus (VLB), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Universal Serial Bus (USB), Advanced Graphics Port (AGP), Personal Computer Memory Card International Association bus (PCMCIA), and Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI).
The system memory 4116 includes volatile memory 4120 and nonvolatile memory 4122. The basic input/output system (BIOS), containing the basic routines to transfer information between elements within the computer 4112, such as during start-up, is stored in nonvolatile memory 4122. By way of illustration, and not limitation, nonvolatile memory 4122 can include read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable ROM (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memory 4120 includes random access memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of illustration and not limitation, RAM is available in many forms such as synchronous RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct Rambus RAM (DRRAM).
Computer 4112 also includes removable/nonremovable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media.
It is to be appreciated that
A user enters commands or information into the computer 4112 through input device(s) 4136. Input devices 4136 include, but are not limited to, a pointing device such as a mouse, trackball, stylus, touch pad, keyboard, microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, TV tuner card, digital camera, digital video camera, web camera, and the like. These and other input devices connect to the processing unit 4114 through the system bus 4118 via interface port(s) 4138. Interface port(s) 4138 include, for example, a serial port, a parallel port, a game port, and a universal serial bus (USB). Output device(s) 4140 use some of the same type of ports as input device(s) 4136. Thus, for example, a USB port may be used to provide input to computer 4112, and to output information from computer 4112 to an output device 4140. Output adapter 4142 is provided to illustrate that there are some output devices 4140 like monitors, speakers, and printers among other output devices 4140 that require special adapters. The output adapters 4142 include, by way of illustration and not limitation, video and sound cards that provide a means of connection between the output device 4140 and the system bus 4118. It should be noted that other devices and/or systems of devices provide both input and output capabilities such as remote computer(s) 4144.
Computer 4112 can operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as remote computer(s) 4144. The remote computer(s) 4144 can be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a workstation, a microprocessor based appliance, a peer device or other common network node and the like, and typically includes many or all of the elements described relative to computer 4112. For purposes of brevity, only a memory storage device 4146 is illustrated with remote computer(s) 4144. Remote computer(s) 4144 is logically connected to computer 4112 through a network interface 4148 and then physically connected via communication connection 4150. Network interface 4148 encompasses communication networks such as local-area networks (LAN) and wide-area networks (WAN). LAN technologies include Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Copper Distributed Data Interface (CDDI), Ethernet/IEEE 1102.3, Token Ring/IEEE 1102.5 and the like. WAN technologies include, but are not limited to, point-to-point links, circuit switching networks like Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN) and variations thereon, packet switching networks, and Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL).
Communication connection(s) 4150 refers to the hardware/software employed to connect the network interface 4148 to the bus 4118. While communication connection 4150 is shown for illustrative clarity inside computer 4112, it can also be external to computer 4112. The hardware/software necessary for connection to the network interface 4148 includes, for exemplary purposes only, internal and external technologies such as, modems including regular telephone grade modems, cable modems and DSL modems, ISDN adapters, and Ethernet cards.
What has been described above includes examples of the subject invention. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the subject invention, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations of the subject invention are possible. Accordingly, the subject invention is intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications, and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “includes” is used in either the detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as “comprising” is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim.
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|U.S. Classification||1/1, 707/E17.142, 707/999.102, 707/999.003|
|Cooperative Classification||G06F17/30994, Y10S707/99943, Y10S707/99933, G06F2203/04806, G06F3/0485|
|European Classification||G06F3/0485, G06F17/30Z5|
|Mar 31, 2005||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: MICROSOFT CORPORATION, WASHINGTON
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Effective date: 20050110
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Owner name: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC, WASHINGTON
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:MICROSOFT CORPORATION;REEL/FRAME:034543/0001
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