Organising information
First Claim
1. An organising system for organising information items in a database, the information items having information content within a subject area;
- the system comprising;
geometric means for providing a three dimensional classification space having a co-ordinate origin and providing signals representative thereof to display means whereby the classification space is displayable as a three dimensional rotatable object;
input means for associating information items with co-ordinates in the three dimensional classification space;
navigating means for searching for information items in the three dimensional classification space; and
output means for retrieving at least one of said information items from the three dimensional classification space.
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Abstract
A system and method for organising information items in a database. The system and method use a three-dimensional classification space having a co-ordinate origin, which in a preferred embodiment may be displayed as a rotatable sphere 20. Subject topics are associated in the classification space with solid cones 22 having radii 21 of the sphere as their axes and information items are assigned co-ordinates 24 within the appropriate subject cone. The sphere may be further divided into shells 11,12,13 of different radii corresponding to different categories of information items within the same subject area. In retrieving information it is possible to display items of information assigned similar co-ordinates within the classification space and to rotate the sphere to show neighboring items having associated subject content. The invention has particular application to classifying and search for web sites or other information on the Internet.
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Citations
42 Claims
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1. An organising system for organising information items in a database, the information items having information content within a subject area;
- the system comprising;
geometric means for providing a three dimensional classification space having a co-ordinate origin and providing signals representative thereof to display means whereby the classification space is displayable as a three dimensional rotatable object;
input means for associating information items with co-ordinates in the three dimensional classification space;
navigating means for searching for information items in the three dimensional classification space; and
output means for retrieving at least one of said information items from the three dimensional classification space. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
- the system comprising;
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19. A method for organising information items in a database, the information items having information content within a subject area;
- the method comprising the steps of;
a) providing geometric means to provide a three dimensional classification space having a co-ordinate origin;
b) using the geometric means to provide signals representative of the classification space to display means whereby the classification space is displayed as a rotatable three dimensional object;
c) providing and using input means to associate information items with co-ordinates in the three dimensional classification space;
d) providing and using navigating means to search for information items in the classification space; and
e) providing and using output means to retrieve at least one of said information items from the classification space. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 42)
- the method comprising the steps of;
- 36. An input device for use in the above method, the input device having means for generating a signal for rotating the rotatable sphere.
- 40. A computer program comprising program code means for performing all the steps of the above method when the program is run on a computer.
Specification