Electronic product/service manual
First Claim
1. An electronic product manual comprising:
- a plurality of data structures holding data representing a product and having a hierarchical relationship as components and sub-components with each other;
a graphical user interface (GUI) configured to present data selected from the plurality of data structures to a user in the form of displayed objects, receive input from the user, and enable a user to select data from the plurality of data structures by selecting a displayed object;
a first view of the selected data structure displayed in the GUI upon selection, the first view comprising an image of the selected object;
a second view of the selected data structure displayed in the GUI upon selection, the second view including information indicating a hierarchical relationship of the selected data structure with respect to other data structures; and
a third view of the selected data structure displayed in the GUI upon selection, the third view including component-specific information.
3 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic product manual including a plurality of data structures having a hierarchical relationship as components and sub-components with each other. A graphical user interface (GUI) is configured to present the plurality of data structures to a user as displayed objects, receive input from the user, and enable a user to select a displayed object. A first view of the data structure is displayed in the GUI upon selection of the object, the first view comprising an image. A second view of the data structure displayed in the GUI upon selection of the object, the second view including information indicating the hierarchical relationship of the selected object with respect to other objects. A third view of the data structure displayed in the GUI upon selection of the object, the third view including object-specific information.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. An electronic product manual comprising:
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a plurality of data structures holding data representing a product and having a hierarchical relationship as components and sub-components with each other;
a graphical user interface (GUI) configured to present data selected from the plurality of data structures to a user in the form of displayed objects, receive input from the user, and enable a user to select data from the plurality of data structures by selecting a displayed object;
a first view of the selected data structure displayed in the GUI upon selection, the first view comprising an image of the selected object;
a second view of the selected data structure displayed in the GUI upon selection, the second view including information indicating a hierarchical relationship of the selected data structure with respect to other data structures; and
a third view of the selected data structure displayed in the GUI upon selection, the third view including component-specific information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A display object for a product manual having a graphical user interface, the display object corresponding to a real-world component of a system, the display object comprising:
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a link to a unit data structure;
first presentation methods initiated in response to selection of the displayed object and operable to retrieve an image of the display object from the unit data structure and display the image using the graphical user interface;
second presentation methods initiated in response to selection of the displayed object and operable to retrieve a hierarchical view from the unit data structure and display the hierarchical view using the graphical user interface; and
third presentation methods initiated in response to selection of the displayed object and operable to retrieve a information about the real-world component from the unit data structure and display the information using the graphical user interface. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method for displaying a product manual for a particular product, the product comprising a plurality of components and sub-components, in an interactive graphical user interface, the method comprising the acts of:
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gathering resources related to the product and its components and sub-components, the information including information of types selected from the group consisting essentially of documentation, ordering information, graphical display information, functionality, actions, error states and animation;
organizing the information into sets of information related to particular components and sub-components within the particular product;
defining a unit object data structure to hold data for related to a particular component irrespective of the data type; and
using data from the unit data structure of an initial component to generate a graphical user interface corresponding to the unit data structure and presenting user-selectable links to sub-component unit data structures. - View Dependent Claims (24)
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25. An appliance comprising:
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a plurality of subsystems cooperating to cause the appliance to perform one or more functions;
an electronic control system including a data processor and memory capable of executing program instructions to control operation of the subsystems;
an interface coupled to the data processor for accessing external data sources; and
computer code devices executing on the data processor to cause the processor to implement a graphical user interface displaying data obtained from the external data sources.
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Specification