System and method for automatic advancement of navigation through a user interface

• US 10,642,915 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2017
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advanced Digital Broadcast SA (Advanced Digital Broadcast Holdings SA)
• Original Assignee: Advanced Digital Broadcast SA (Advanced Digital Broadcast Holdings SA)
• Inventors: Dabrowski, Bartosz
• Primary Examiner(s): Parker, Jeanette J
• Application Number:
  US15/793,994
• Publication Number:
  US 20180113948A1
• Time in Patent Office: 922 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0045 compensating for timing error by altering transmission time

Abstract

A method for automatic advancement of navigation through GUI, involving: (a) providing a graph representing GUI, comprising at least two states and at least one path allowing navigation from one of said states to a different one of said states; (b) clearing a current path; (c) receiving a request to navigate to a state of said states and outputting a suitable response; (d) adding the current state to the current path; (e) starting a timer; (f) receiving a request to navigate to another state of said states and outputting a suitable response; (g) stopping said timer and comparing its result with a threshold value wherein if said result is lower than said threshold, adding information on said another state to the current path; (h) storing the current path in a paths database; and (i) repeating steps (e)-(h) until said result is greater than said threshold.

Claims

1. A method for automatic advancement of navigation through a user interface, the method comprising:

(a) providing a graph being a representation of the user interface, comprising at least two states and at least one path allowing navigation from one of said at least two states to a different one of said at least two states;

(b) clearing a current path comprising a sequence of states;

(c) receiving a request to navigate to a state of said at least two states and outputting a response corresponding to said state;

(d) adding a current state to the current path;

(e) starting a timer;

(f) receiving a request to navigate to another state of said at least two states and outputting a response corresponding to said another state;

(g) stopping said timer and comparing a value of said timer with a threshold value, wherein in response to said value of said timer being lower than said threshold value, adding information regarding said another state to the current path;

(h) storing the current path in a paths database; and

(i) repeating (e)-(h) until said value of said timer is greater than said threshold value.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein prior to storing the current path in the paths database, executing a step of checking whether a modified path is longer than a certain path length threshold.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

navigating to a state of the at least two states;

retrieving all paths, for said navigated to state, from the paths database;

extracting endings of said all paths;

presenting to a user direct links to states represented by said endings.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein each path has an importance level assigned based on a number of times the path has been traversed.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the current path comprises a sequence of sub-nodes each containing a reference to only one state of the graph.

6. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed on a computer, perform steps for automatic advancement of navigation through a user interface, the steps comprising:

(a) providing a graph being a representation of the user interface, comprising at least two states and at least one path allowing navigation from one of said at least two states to a different one of said at least two states;

(b) clearing a current path comprising a sequence of states;

(c) receiving a request to navigate to a state of said at least two states and outputting a response corresponding to said state;

(d) adding a current state to the current path;

(e) starting a timer;

(f) receiving a request to navigate to another state of said at least two states and outputting a response corresponding to said another state;

(g) stopping said timer and comparing a value of said timer with a threshold value, wherein in response to said value of said timer being lower than said threshold value, adding information regarding said another state to the current path;

(h) storing the current path in a paths database; and

(i) repeating steps (e)-(h) until said value of said timer is greater than said threshold value.