Method of navigating a collection of interconnected nodes

• US 20020105552A1
• Filed: 01/23/2002
• Published: 08/08/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lane, Derek Graham
• Original Assignee: Lane, Derek Graham
• Inventors: Lane, Derek Graham
• Granted Patent: US 6,931,604 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/853
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

A method and apparatus for organizing and processing interconnected pieces of information (“nodes”) using a digital computer is disclosed. Each node has elements that may be text, images, audio, video, and other computer programs. A graph-based user interface presents the individual nodes in spatial arrangements that reflect the relationships among the nodes. User interaction indicating interest in a particular node results in an increase in the “activation” of that node. This leads to an increase in the size of the presentation of that node, as well as an increase in the size of the presentation of closely related nodes. The result is a unique user interaction paradigm that allows for intuitive traversal of complex collections of nodes.

Claims

1. A method for organizing and processing a plurality of nodes, comprising

(a) Storing said plurality of nodes,

(b) Tracking for each node a measure of interest held by the user in said node, said measure being referred to as the “

activation”

of said node,

(c) Presenting said plurality of nodes to said user using an output device, wherein each node is allocated a fraction of the output capacity of said output device, said fraction being substantially proportional to the activation of said node,

(d) Interpreting user input indicating interest in a node such that activation of said node is increased,

whereby more of the output capacity of said output device is allocated for the presentation of nodes that hold more interest to said user.

2. The method of claim 1, further including

(a) Storing with a first node a plurality of links, each link referring to a second node, and said link having a measure of relatedness of said first node to said second node, said measure being referred to as the “

weight”

of said link,

(b) Presenting to said user a plurality of nodes using said output device, wherein the proximity of the presentation of a first node to the presentation of a second node is substantially proportional to the weight of the link between said first node and said second node,

whereby nodes that are more related are presented to said user in closer proximity to each other than nodes that are less related.

3. The method of claim 2, further including

(a) Interpreting user input indicating interest in a first node such that activation of a second node is increased by an amount substantially proportional to the weight of the link between said first node and said second node,

whereby user interest in a first node will result in an increase in activation in a second node, said increase being substantially proportional to the relatedness of said second node to said first node.

4. The method of claim 3, further including

(a) Storing said plurality of nodes wherein each node includes one or more elements selected from the group consisting of descriptive text, images, audio, video, and computer programs,

(b) Presenting to said user a plurality of nodes on said output device, wherein said output device is capable of presenting the elements of a node within the fraction of the output capacity of said output device allocated to said node,

whereby said elements of said node are displayed in an amount of detail proportional to said user'"'"'s interest in said node.