Assisting a user with efficient navigation between a selection of entries with elements of interest to the user within a stream of entries

• US 10,444,973 B2
• Filed: 02/16/2016
• Issued: 10/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cox, Susan M., Janakiraman, Janani, Liu, Su, Lu, Fang
• Primary Examiner(s): To, Jennifer N
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoang, Amy P
• Application Number:
  US15/045,018
• Publication Number:
  US 20170153772A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,337 Days
• Field of Search: 715745
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Activity by a particular user accessing content within an interface is monitored to identify points of interest within the one or more interfaces. Each of the points of interest identified within interface is mapped to a separate content element displayed within the interface to form a model correlating each separate content element with a user interest of the particular user. Based on the model, within a stream accessed for review by the particular user, a flow of a selection of entries of interest that meet the user interest is identified from among multiple entries in the stream. A separate selectable navigation breakpoint is selectively displayed with each of the selection of entries of interest within the stream, wherein selection of each separate selectable navigation breakpoint steps through the flow of the selection of entries of interest only.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

monitoring, by a computer system, activity by a particular user accessing content within one or more interfaces to identify a plurality of points of interest within the one or more interfaces;

mapping, by the computer system, each of the plurality of points of interest to a separate content element displayed within the one or more interfaces to form a model correlating each separate content element with a user interest;

detecting, by the computer system, a stream of data comprising a plurality of entries received from a social networking service for the particular user for display in one or more interfaces;

identifying, by the computer system, based on the model, within the stream of data comprising the plurality of entries, a flow of a selection of entries of interest that meet the user interest from among a plurality of entries within the stream;

selectively displaying, by the computer system, within the one or more interfaces, the plurality of entries within the stream with a separate visible instance of a separate selectable navigation breakpoint with each of the selection of entries of interest within the stream, wherein selection of each separate selectable navigation breakpoint steps through the flow of the selection of entries of interest only;

activating, by the computer system, a breakpoint navigation mode supported by a navigation user interface controller for assisting the user to navigate through the plurality of entries displayed within the one or more interfaces within the stream by responding to a user input to step to each separate selectable navigation breakpoint; and

switching, by the computer system, from the breakpoint navigation mode supported by the navigation user interface controller to a regular scrolling navigation mode supported by an operating system, wherein the regular scrolling navigation mode supports scrolling through the plurality of entries independent of any particular content entry.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein monitoring, by the computer system, activity by a particular user accessing content within one or more interfaces to identify a plurality of points of interest within the one or more interfaces further comprises:

monitoring, by the computer system, an eye gaze of a user to identify the plurality of points of interest.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein identifying, by the computer system, based on the model, within the stream of data comprising the plurality of entries, a flow of a selection of entries of interest that meet the user interest from among a plurality of entries within the stream further comprises:

identifying, by the computer system, the flow of the selection of entries of interest that meet the user interest from among the plurality of entries comprising nested content entries each assigned to one of a plurality of levels.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein selectively displaying, by the computer system, within the one or more interfaces, the plurality of entries within the stream with a separate visible instance of a separate selectable navigation breakpoint with each of the selection of entries of interest within the stream, wherein selection of each separate selectable navigation breakpoint steps through the flow of the selection of entries of interest only further comprises:

selectively providing, by the computer system, the separate selectable navigation breakpoint with a selectable function to navigate into one or more lower tier entries, from among the plurality of entries, nested under a current entry associated with the separate selectable navigation breakpoint.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein selectively displaying, by the computer system, within the one or more interfaces, the plurality of entries within the stream with a separate visible instance of a separate selectable navigation breakpoint with each of the selection of entries of interest within the stream, wherein selection of each separate selectable navigation breakpoint steps through the flow of the selection of entries of interest only further comprises:

selectively providing, by the computer system, the separate selectable navigation breakpoint with a selectable function to navigate out of one or more lower tier entries, from among the plurality of entries, nested under a current entry associated with the separate selectable navigation breakpoint, and up to the current entry.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein selectively displaying, by the computer system, within the one or more interfaces, the plurality of entries within the stream with a separate visible instance of a separate selectable navigation breakpoint with each of the selection of entries of interest within the stream, wherein selection of each separate selectable navigation breakpoint steps through the flow of the selection of entries of interest only further comprises:

selectively providing, by the computer system, the separate selectable navigation breakpoint with a selectable function to navigate over one or more top level entries from among the plurality of entries to a next entry associated with a next selectable navigation breakpoint in the flow of the selection of entries of interest.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein identifying, by the computer system, based on the model, within the stream of data comprising the plurality of entries, a flow of a selection of entries of interest that meet the user interest from among a plurality of entries within the stream, further comprises:

receiving, by the computer system, the stream for review by the particular user from a social networking services selected from a group consisting of instant messaging, short message services, blog, website, community, news feed, email, voice over internet protocol, and software phones.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein selectively displaying, by the computer system, within the one or more interfaces, the plurality of entries within the stream with a separate visible instance of a separate selectable navigation breakpoint with each of the selection of entries of interest within the stream, wherein selection of each separate selectable navigation breakpoint steps through the flow of the selection of entries of interest only further comprises:

selectively providing, by the computer system, each separate selectable navigation breakpoint with each of the selection of entries within the user interface for reviewing the stream to support navigation by the particular user to step through the flow of the selection of entries of interest only from among the plurality of entries and automatically skipping over the other entries of the plurality of entries.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein detecting, by the computer system, a stream of data comprising a plurality of entries received from a social networking service for display in a user interface further comprises:

responsive to detecting the stream of data comprising the plurality of entries received from the social networking service, scanning through the content of the plurality of entries;

filtering the plurality of entries by removing a selection of entries with content that does not meet relevance criteria for the particular user, wherein the relevance criteria is different from the user interest, wherein the relevance criteria is specified by a user specifically selecting a type of content that is not relevant to the user, wherein the user interest is specified based on the model correlating each separate content element with the user interest, wherein the filtered plurality of entries comprises at least one entry with content that does not meet the user interest.