Weighted interactive grid presentation system and method for streaming a multimedia collage

• US 20010034740A1
• Filed: 02/14/2001
• Published: 10/25/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Andruid Kerne
• Original Assignee: Andruid Kerne
• Inventors: Kerne, Andruid
• Application Number:
  US09/784,369
• Publication Number:
  US 20010034740A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/500.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/466 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

A presentation grid for simultaneously visualizing elements from a large number of multimedia documents is disclosed. Each of these media elements is an image, a chunk of text, a digital video or multimedia. Media elements are gradually streamed onto the presentation grid, forming a collage. This streaming of media elements happens over time, presenting more and more elements. Eventually, the grid fills: when new elements are added, they must overlap ones which are already there. Placement of elements in the grid is based on a model of their importance to the user. This agent model is implemented through a directed graph of the elements, and weights which quantify their importance. It evolves through interaction. By dynamically prioritizing the allocation of screen space based on the user'"'"'s interests, the weighted grid presentation system makes the streaming collage a useful and engaging means of visualizing media elements and the documents they represent.

Claims

1. A system for visualizing digital media, comprising:

a presentation grid for displaying selected document components, each component representing a document;

an accessor to acquire documents from at least one source of documents;

a document parser to parse said acquired documents and to divide said acquired document into document components; and

an agent to store said document components and relationships between said document components forming a model of user preferences, and said agent to select document components to display on said presentation grid according to said model.

2. The system of

claim 1

wherein said agent alters said model in response to user input.

3. The system of

claim 2

wherein said agent further comprises:

a document component store for storing said document components and said relationships according to said model.

4. The system of

claim 3

wherein said agent further comprises:

a weight processor to assign initial weights to each document component generated by the document parser, and alter the weights of said document components, in response to user input; and

a document component selector to select document components for display on said presentation grid, said document components selected according to said model.

5. The system of

claim 4

wherein said at least one weight comprises a significance weight indicating the significance of said document component in said model.

6. The system of

claim 5

wherein said at least one weight further comprises a screen weight to be used in determining placement of said related document component in said presentation grid.

7. The system of

claim 4

wherein said at least one weight is a floating point number.

8. The system of

claim 1

wherein said accessor acquires HTML pages.

9. The system of

claim 1

wherein said accessor acquires multimedia documents.

10. The system of

claim 1

wherein said source is the Internet.

11. The system of

claim 6

wherein said presentation grid further comprises a doubly linked list for fast insertion and deletion operations in an order corresponding to the stacking of said selected document components in said presentation grid to store said selected document components on display in said presentation grid.

12. The system of

claim 6

wherein said presentation grid further comprises an array for storing said selected document components on display in said presentation grid, said array for rapid sorting of the document components in said presentation grid.

13. The system of

claim 6

wherein said presentation grid further comprises a placement grid, said placement grid defining candidate regions for document component placement on said presentation grid, whereby calculations needed for document component placement are reduced.

14. The system of

claim 13

wherein said placement grid further comprises a two dimensional array of grid cell objects wherein document components are placed by aligning the document component upper left corner on a grid cell object boundary.

15. The system of

claim 14

wherein a doubly linked list for fast inserts in response to interaction and an array for fast sorting are both maintained for each grid cell object.

16. A method for adaptively computing the size of a new element to be placed in a weighted presentation grid, said method comprising the steps of:

a) deciding via heuristics the range of possible sizes for the new element, and computing the mean thereof;

b) comparing the logarithm of the significance weight of the new element;

c) if said logarithm is less than the mean of the significance weights of elements already in the presentation grid, setting the size to equal a linear interpolation of the position of said logarithm between the logarithm of the minimum of the significance weights of elements already in the presentation grid and the mean of the logarithms thereof, as applied to the range between the minimum and mean possible sizes for the new element; and

d) otherwise, setting the size to equal a linear interpolation of the position of said logarithm between the mean of the logarithms of the significance weights of elements already in the presentation grid and the logarithm of the maximum thereof, as applied to the range between the mean and maximum possible sizes for the new element.