Method and apparatus for accessing information through a user friendly interface
First Claim
1. A system adapted to provide data exchange or access for a user, said system comprising:
- a data access device having a pointing device; and
a screen coupled to said data access device and arranged to display an image of a user familiar environment, said user familiar environment formed of a plurality of objects, each object being suggestive of a category of information, said image having image elements corresponding to said objects, said data access device being adapted to obtain information corresponding to one of said objects when said pointing device points to the image element corresponding said one object.
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Abstract
A system for accessing information either from a local data base or over the Internet includes a data access device adapted to display an image of a friendly environment, the image including image elements which suggest to a user certain types of information of interest. The image further includes display areas for displaying messages identifying the information associated with certain image elements. When an image element is selected, a second image is shown by the data access device. This second image includes indicia of several information categories. The indicia can be selected causing a web browser to download and display the corresponding information. This information may be generic or may be user-specific.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A system adapted to provide data exchange or access for a user, said system comprising:
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a data access device having a pointing device; and
a screen coupled to said data access device and arranged to display an image of a user familiar environment, said user familiar environment formed of a plurality of objects, each object being suggestive of a category of information, said image having image elements corresponding to said objects, said data access device being adapted to obtain information corresponding to one of said objects when said pointing device points to the image element corresponding said one object. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13)
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10. A method of providing information to a user on a data access device, said method comprising:
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generating an image on said data access device of a user familiar environment composed of image elements, said user familiar environment being composed of objects associated with information, each of said image elements corresponding to one of said objects to suggest to the user access to corresponding information;
selecting one of said image elements by the user;
retrieving information by said data access device;
providing information associated with the selected one image element. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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27. A user friendly Internet interface comprising:
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a web browser;
a software that generates for the user an image of a friendly environment formed of objects and composed of image elements, each image element corresponding to one of said objects, said image elements being selectable by the user to obtain information; and
a data base of URL addresses and accessible to said web browser in association with the selection of one of said image elements.
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Specification